To listen to President Trump defend his telephone call to the President of the Ukraine is wants to fight corruption. In reality there is not one country without corruption, however it is usually not blatant as it was it South Africa. One of the methods the US has to fight corruption is to impose sanctions on individuals to limit their ability to move around money and around the world. In South Africa, the Gupta brothers befriended the son of the President of South Africa and managed to fit in a companies to act as a middle man between the government and the utility company.

In South Africa, the government owns the utility company and everyone pays their utility bills. The Gupta’s put in a company between the government and people paying their bills to pay the Guptas. It offered and did no extra value to the government, but it did enrich the company owned by the Guptas and the son of the former President Jacob Zuma.

The Guptas live in Dubai and want to have the freedom to roam the world, except if they do the South African police will arrest them, so they portray themselves as victims of false accusations.

The US sanctions deny the Gupta’s entry into the US and the family is prohibited from doing business with banks and companies than have US subsidiaries and can have any of their US funds or assets seized.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, politicians often talk about corruption in a foreign land when in reality it exists under their noses. In the case of the US sanctions of the Guptas, time has gone before the US acted for President Zuma left office in February 2018, the Guptas left South Africa and a trial in South Africa has only recently begun. Most followers of the affairs of the Guptas knew about their corruption years before. It is easy for politicians to talk about corruption, it is harder for them to do something about it. In the case of President Trump what sanctions did he impose on corruption in the Ukraine?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.