The Puppet Masters: How the Corrupt Use Legal Structures to Hide Stolen Assets and What to Do About It (StAR Initiative)

Billions in corrupt assets, complex money trails, strings of shell companies and other spurious
legal structures. These form the complex web of subterfuge in corruption cases, behind which
hides the benefi cial owner―the puppet master and benefi ciary of it all. Linking the benefi cial
owner to the proceeds of corruption is notoriously hard. With sizable wealth and resources
on their side, they exploit transnational constructions that are hard to penetrate and stay
aggressively ahead of the game.

Nearly all cases of grand corruption have one thing in common. They rely on corporate vehicles ―
legal structures such as companies, foundations, and trusts―to conceal ownership and control
of tainted assets.

The Puppet Masters: How the Corrupt Use Legal Structures to Hide Stolen Assets and What to
Do About It takes these corporate vehicles as its angle of investigation. It builds upon cases,
interviews with investigators, corporate registries and fi nancial institutions, as well as a “mystery
shopping” exercise that provide factual evidence of a criminal practice. This approach is used
to understand the nature of the problem and design policy recommendations to facilitate the
investigative process by unraveling the complex world of corporate vehicles.

This report is solidly built on step-by-step arguments and designed to deliver practical, applicable,
and well substantiated recommendations. It is intended for use by policy makers in developing
national legislation and regulation as well as international standard setters. It also provides
helpful information for practitioners engaged in investigating corrupt offi cials and academics
involved in the study of fi nancial crime.