Matt Taibbi on Russia, Wall Street and Prosecuting Corporate Crime

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/09-7

As a kid, Matt Taibbi’s favorite writer was Nikolai Gogol.

So, straight out of college, Taibbi headed to Russia, where he spent ten years playing baseball in the Russian baseball leagues, playing basketball in Mongolia, and writing about corporate crime.

Of course, in Russia, corporate crime was more underworld.

Like the mob, right?

“It is kind of hard to define what the mob is in Russia,” Taibbi told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. “The mob in Russia encompasses the federal government as well.”

“When Russia had its financial collapse in 1998, the Russians got an enormous quantity of bailout monies from the IMF and the World Bank – something like $18 billion or $19 billion.”

More at the link --