Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Olga Bielkova: How to help Ukraine
A waitress wearing Ukrainian traditional clothes reads a newspaper in the traditional restaurant in the absence of clients during a warm sunny day in the southern port of Odessa on 7 May, 2014. AFP PHOTO/ DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV
On June 29, 2009, Bernie Madoff, who came to symbolize the vices of the 1 percenters in America, was sentenced to 150 years in prison. He defrauded his clients of $18 billion and got what he deserved when justice finally caught up with him. But imagine a different scenario where there are many Madoffs running various elaborate schemes defrauding the American public, breeding a culture of corruption, embezzling billions of federal or state funds, and then hiding their money in a prosperous distant nation. Imagine too that this faraway land is slow and ineffective in investigating financial criminals. Would this be acceptable to the American people?
