Washington, D.C. – Kleptocrats seek to amass vast amounts of wealth for personal gain and to consolidate political influence in their home countries and abroad. Kleptocratic tactics—combined into strategies—enable these corrupt elites to target and capture public finances, natural resources, development and security assistance, the private sector, and other strategic assets.
In order to provide an evidence-based understanding of global kleptocratic strategies, the International Republican Institute (IRI) has developed The Kleptocrat’s Playbook: A Taxonomy of Localized and Transnational Tactics. This Playbook catalogues the full gamut of tactics kleptocrats use to enrich themselves and evade accountability, using case studies to contextualize kleptocracy through real-world examples. Activists, journalists, civil society organizations, and policymakers can use this Playbook to better anticipate, identify, and counter kleptocrats at home and abroad.