第一人称：我是独裁者猎手First Person: Enrico Monfrini

Enrico Monfrini has so far tracked down $1.3bn looted from Nigeria – and is looking for more

恩里科?蒙弗里尼(Enrico Monfrini)迄今已追回了13亿美元从尼日利亚流出的赃款——他还在继续追查。

I specialise in tracing money that has been embezzled or received through corrupt deals by heads of state, their entourages and ministers or other publicly exposed persons. I’ve heard that some people call me “the dictator hunter”.

恩里科?蒙弗里尼：我专门追查政府高官和他们的亲信、部长或其他公职人员侵吞或通过腐败交易取得的资金。我听说有人把我叫做“独裁者猎手”。

I began this work in 1999, when the Nigerian government asked me to pursue the wealth taken from the country by its former dictator, General Sani Abacha, who had died the previous year. I am a lawyer based in Geneva but I have been close to Africans all my life; my father was a diplomat in Gabon, and then in Ivory Coast. I wanted to be a farmer and grow crops, but my father said, “No way.” So I became a lawyer, and eventually it happened that I represented several people who opposed Abacha during his reign. When they took power and wanted someone they could trust to pursue the money, they asked me.

我从1999年开始干这项工作，当时尼日利亚政府请我追查前一年去世的该国前独裁者萨 尼?阿巴查(Sani Abacha)将军卷走的财富。我是日内瓦的一名律师，但毕生和非洲很有渊源；我父亲先后在加蓬和科特迪瓦当过外交官。我希望当农民，种庄稼，可父亲说 “没门”。于是我当了律师。机缘巧合之下，我给几位在阿巴查执政期反对他的人当过代理律师。这些人掌权后，想找个信得过的人追查那些资金，就找到了我。

I began with very few details, and only found empty bank accounts, until I lodged a criminal complaint. The authorities in Geneva decided to uphold my request and freeze – overnight – accounts belonging to the Abachas. The money involved amounted to about $650m. That was the beginning. From there, the work consisted of stripping the accounts, understanding where the money was coming from and where it went. A launderer will systematically split a large sum into irregular amounts – $7.23m say – and send these to other banks, before regathering everything in final places. You need to be able to act both as a lawyer and an accountant.

开始时我没什么线索，只发现了一些空的银行账户。后来我提起了一项刑事指控，日内瓦当 局决定支持我的请求，冻结——一夜之间——阿巴查家族的账户。涉及的资金总计约为6.5亿美元。这只是开始。之后的工作包括剥离账户、查清资金的来龙去 脉。洗钱者会系统性地把一大笔钱分成多笔不规则的数目，比如723万美元，转到其他银行，最后再汇拢在一处。你必须兼具律师和会计师的才能。

We worked day and night, for months, and even now I am still working every day on this case, as well as others. It is one thing to find and freeze the money, but the next step is to confiscate the funds and repatriate them. This is the hardest part. Nobody disputes the cause, but some countries refuse to help, or do not have laws that allow it. To give you a practical example, more than $400m connected with the Abacha case has been sleeping in the Channel Islands for years, because Jersey is unable – through a lack of laws – to confiscate the money by itself.

我们夜以继日地干活，好几个月连轴转，就是现在我也还每天都盯着这个案子，同时手头忙 着其他案子。查找并冻结资金是一回事，但接下来还要把资金充公和汇回原国。这是最困难的环节。没有人对这项行动有争议，但有些国家拒绝帮忙，或是不具备可 以这么做的法律。讲个实际的例子。与阿巴查案子有关的4亿多美元在海峡群岛(Channel Islands)沉睡了好多年，因为泽西岛自己无法把这些资金充公——由于缺乏相应的法律。

However, so far I have restituted – or helped to restitute – $1.3bn to the Central Bank of Nigeria. There is another $1bn to go. It is frozen – some of it is in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and the Bahamas, and some is in France and Jersey.

Most of the restitution has been monitored by the World Bank, to make sure the money goes to national funds and not into people’s pockets. I am also working on behalf of Brazil and Haiti, and others I cannot talk about.

Threats have been made to me, but always indirectly. I might get a phone call or a visit from a lawyer from Paris or London, who would say: “Oh, well, you know, Enrico, you should be more careful, because that person didn’t at all like what you did to him. He is known to be a rather violent person, with contacts ...” But if you are afraid, you can’t do this job. You also need to have a network of friends, which I have built up through the Abacha case. I’m talking of journalists, politicians, policemen, prosecutors and bankers. I am 66 years old now, but I travel constantly. If you want to get sexy information, you can only get it from people you trust, and who trust you.

我遇到过威胁，但都是间接的。比如说，巴黎或伦敦的某个律师可能会给我打电话，或者上 门拜访。他们会说：“呃，恩里科，你要多加小心，因为那个人一点都不喜欢你对他做的事情。大家都知道他是个相当残暴的人，还与某某有关系……”如果你害 怕，就干不了这样的活儿。你还必须建立广泛的人脉，我就通过阿巴查案件建立起了自己的朋友圈子。我和记者、政治家、警察、检察官、银行家等交谈。我今年 66岁，但我经常旅行。如果你想得到“猛料”，你只能从彼此信任的人那里得到。

I know lawyers who launder money and they make more than I do. I meet a lot of strange and crooked people, but I also meet a lot of straightforward and important people who want the world to change. The Abacha case opened up a road that will become a motorway. Give the world another 10 years and you will see the end of all these old thieves, the uneducated dictators with no idea of the poverty in which their people live. Those countries where you can still hide money will realise that it is in their best interests not to give safe haven to corrupt funds.

我认识一些洗钱的律师，他们挣得比我多。我见过形形色色的坏人，但也遇到过许多正直、 有份量的人，他们希望世界会改变。阿巴查案子打开了一条路，这将变成一条高速路。再过10年，所有这些坏蛋都将见鬼去。这些愚昧的独裁者，对本国人民的贫 困一无所知的独裁者将统统完蛋。现在依然能够让你藏匿资金的那些国家将会认识到，不为腐败资金提供庇护所最符合他们的利益。

We are seeing many dictators fall now, but it is becoming harder for them to steal fortunes – because people like me will hunt them down.