How strongmen abuse tools for fighting financial crime

Their ordeal is an example of how strongmen are weaponising rules intended to stop dirty-money flows, both at home and abroad. LexisNexis, a data firm, lists 130,000 entities alleged, either by governments or media, to have laundered money. Some 30,000 have had their assets frozen, up from 24,000 last year—the biggest rise in at least nine years. Although some of this increase reflects genuine crime-fighting, international directives create opportunities for large-scale abuse. And evidence suggests that strongmen are becoming increasingly creative in how they wield their tools of financial suppression.