Charlotte Denny – Mohammed Soeharto, Ferdinand Marcos and Mobutu Sese Seko ripped off up to $US50 billion from the people of Indonesia, the Philippines and Zaire, equivalent to the West's entire annual aid budget, anti-bribery campaigners say.
Releasing a list of the top 10 most corrupt politicians of the past two decades, headed by the former Indonesian dictator, Transparency International warned that the scale of political corruption was undermining hopes for prosperity in the developing world and damaging the global economy.
No country was immune from corruption, Transparency said, citing lax controls over political financing in Greece, the close connection between companies and the US's Bush Administration and the unchallenged power of Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, over his country's media. But the most egregious examples of wholesale looting had occurred in the developing world.
"The abuse of political power for private gain deprives the most needy of vital public services, creating a level of despair that breeds conflict and violence," said TI chairman Peter Eigen.
Most of the names on the list were protected by Western governments, which turned a blind eye in exchange for support during the Cold War.
Soeharto, regarded as a bulwark against communism in Asia, stole as much as $35 billion from his impoverished country during his three decades in power. He was charged with looting up to $500 million, but found to be too ill to stand trial.
Marcos, whose wife's 3000-piece shoe collection became a byword for the corrupt excesses of his regime, was backed by successive US administrations. He embezzled an estimated $10 billion during his 20 years in power.
Mobutu used the threat of an invasion from the then Marxist government of Angola to quiet concerns in the West about his looting from one of Africa's most resource-rich countries.
By the time he was overthrown in 1997, Mobutu had stolen almost half of the $12 billion in aid money that Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of Congo – received from the International Monetary Fund during his 32-year reign. Western multinationals must take responsibility for allowing corruption to flourish, TI said.
Bribery of local officials by Western businesses is still widespread, despite global initiatives to stamp it out. Companies from Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Canada topped TI's list of bribe-payers last year. Oil, a curse more often than a blessing for poor countries, is a significant factor in corruption.
"The flow of oil money is so vast it can distort decision-making in poor producer countries and the rich world alike," the report said.