Welcome back to the podcast.

I'm Alexandra Rogge, and today we're talking about one of the U.S. government's stealthier tools to reduce financial crime.

My guest is Rob Leventhal with the U.S. State Department.

Rob has responsibility for teams addressing crimes as varied as corruption, terror financing,

cybercrime, and trafficking in wildlife.

But today we're going to focus on Proclamation 775.

It's a dreary name for a fairly powerful tool.

The business community often complains that the burden of anti-bribery enforcement falls on them,

while little pressure is put on the bribe-taking government officials with their hands outstretched.

Proclamation 7750 is one pressure point on those kleptocratic government officials. It's well

known in corrupt countries, but less well known in the United States.

It's the tool that enables the U.S. State Department to deny a visa if there is a determination that that government official, and in some cases, family members and private sector citizens, have engaged in corruption.

Rob, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you so much for having me on your podcast.

For a little bit of context, you have a team with wildly varied responsibilities.

Can you describe your anti-corruption team a little bit at the State Department?

Most people think of the Department of Justice when they think of anti-corruption,

but the state's been busy on this front too.

I'll start by just pointing out that the importance of addressing corruption was highlighted recently by the president in his executive order on combating transnational criminal organizations, signaling one of the many interests the U.S. has in terms of foreign policy

interests and national security interests in addressing this issue, among others, for example,

creating a level playing field for U.S. business and positive market conditions in the countries

where U.S. business works. I also want to mention that, as you say, this is really a whole of

...