Stealing money… and getting away with it?
Are you game? Willing to play a game in which players must launder their ill-gotten riches without getting caught?
Imagine you’re the leader of one of the hundred and ninety-five countries in the world. Never mind how you landed that job (free election? rigged election? dynastic inheritance? super-super-high I.Q.?), it comes with a jumbo helping of entitlement. Being human, before long you start to take the perks for granted, until one day up pops this thought: I need more. Conveniently, you’ve discovered a back door to your country’s treasury, or a slick method for friction-less bribery, and the money flows.
It’s there for the taking, which is nice, but also the source of an ancillary urgency: where to hide it. Opulent homes on many continents, each with a private zoo? Patek Philippe watches for every day of the month?
Sounds good? Can you see yourself in that role? To guide you through the do’s and don’ts, ask the Integrity Initiative, Inc. or me??
Or better ask Jim Mintz and Irwin Chenwho have created Kleptocrat, a new free game available in the Apple App Store. Kleptocrat operates on the premise that the Player is a bad guy trying to launder ill-gotten riches while evading the Investigator, a relentless exemplar of all the anti-corruption killjoys out there.
Each game begins with a bribe (keeping a casino open in exchange for free chips; arranging a government contract “for the mobile phone company that just hired your 16-yearold daughter as a ‘consultant’ ”; a kickback on a contract to deliver defibrillators to Army hospitals). Hiding and laundering the money often requires a network of devious offshore lawyers (“expert in exotic island banks, sleazy accountants, pirate tax-havens, fake charities, back-dated registrations”), corrupt military officers, well-connected mistresses, oblivious front men, or the occasional Liechtenstein foundation.
Eventually, the money is meant to be enjoyed—a private fleet of jets and helicopters; a Hong Kong shopping spree with sequentially numbered credit cards for each of your in-laws; a rare-game safari; Elvis Presley’s starburst jumpsuit. The fun lasts as long as you can evade the Investigator—that is, until your buddy’s coked-up girlfriend flips on you, or your wife’s gym-rat cousins get clipped moving suitcases of cash through customs. You win if you accumulate a certain amount of swag before getting busted. In the event of the latter, it’s game over and you, a prisoner of your ravenous avarice, tap Play and try again.
Are you game? Willing to play a game in which players must launder their ill-gotten riches without getting caught?
Get the App…at the Apps Store for free. I thank The NEW YORKER for alerting me to this new game:)
Comments are more than welcome – email Schumacher@integrityinitiative.com