G-8 Countries Must Cooperate to Bring Kleptocrats to Justice

Zambia's former president, Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba, is famous for his clothes. In a raid, 349 designer shirts, 206 jackets and suits, and 72 pairs of shoes, many of them bearing Chiluba's personalized FJT monogram, were seized as part of an investigation into corruption and graft. In May, he was found guilty of siphoning millions from state coffers while in power, and his clothes were cited as "the most telling example of corruption" by the London high court judge presiding over the case.

The story of Frederick Chiluba and his monogrammed designer clothes, in a country where the majority of citizens live on less than one dollar a day, has played out as a lively scandal in the media. After he refused Zambian President Mwanawasa's offer of a pardon in exchange for a guilty plea and the return of most of the money, the Zambian government initiated a civil case against him in the United Kingdom, on the basis that the money he stole had passed through banks in London on its way offshore.

The case led prosecutors through Belgium, the U.K., the United States, South Africa and the Caribbean. Upwards of $40 million was discovered to have been diverted from the Ministry of Finance into an account at the London branch of the Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco). The U.K. court found Chiluba guilty and ordered him to repay $39 million to the Zambian state.