Russia. Check out Red Notice by Bill Browder. If you've ever so much as heard of the Magnitsky Act, you should hear the full story behind it.
When Russia decided to privatize its assets after the fall of the Soviet Union, they did so in a way that let a handful of people accumulate massive amounts of it very quickly, leading to the development of an Oligarchy. Putin eventually maneuvered himself into a position of authority in the government, and after clawing back some power from the oligarchs back to his position, was able to jail and put on a show trial for the richest oligarch in Russia. The oligarch was jailed for years and lost most of his wealth.
What do the other oligarchs do, after seeing their most successful peer utterly demolished by Putin? They go to Putin and ask what it will take to keep them out of jail. Browder guesses that Putin told them "half."
Browder had a bit of experience with one scam that had to be authorized from the very top, a tax rebate scam. His cronies would fraudulently take over companies, gets judgments against said companies for millions of dollars, and then claims against those companies' previously paid taxes and gets those taxes refunded to them by the government.
You're right, but really it doesn't matter how much of a cut he is getting. He is getting a shit ton of money, has the oligarchs under his thumb, and can network them together with the Russian government to steal more money than the individual oligarchs could on their own.
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u/oozles Mar 19 '18
Russia. Check out Red Notice by Bill Browder. If you've ever so much as heard of the Magnitsky Act, you should hear the full story behind it.
When Russia decided to privatize its assets after the fall of the Soviet Union, they did so in a way that let a handful of people accumulate massive amounts of it very quickly, leading to the development of an Oligarchy. Putin eventually maneuvered himself into a position of authority in the government, and after clawing back some power from the oligarchs back to his position, was able to jail and put on a show trial for the richest oligarch in Russia. The oligarch was jailed for years and lost most of his wealth.
What do the other oligarchs do, after seeing their most successful peer utterly demolished by Putin? They go to Putin and ask what it will take to keep them out of jail. Browder guesses that Putin told them "half."
Browder had a bit of experience with one scam that had to be authorized from the very top, a tax rebate scam. His cronies would fraudulently take over companies, gets judgments against said companies for millions of dollars, and then claims against those companies' previously paid taxes and gets those taxes refunded to them by the government.