Dekleptocracy Alliance

Dekleptocracy Alliance We are a 501(c)(4) nonprofit dedicated to putting anticorruption atop the national political agenda.

We investigate corruption, track kleptocratic money flows, and organize
state-level enforcement of the rule of law.

Four for four.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth consolidated the Pentagon's drone and autonomous weapons programs, with $53...
08/03/2026

Four for four.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth consolidated the Pentagon's drone and autonomous weapons programs, with $53.6 billion budgeted for those systems.

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have backed or advised at least four drone manufacturers. All four secured federal business in 2025 and 2026.

Across the wider portfolio, the Washington Post counted at least $3.2 billion in federal awards already paid, another $3.1 billion in future contract options, and preapproved shortlists putting several of these companies in line for nearly $200 billion in future work.

A meme coin collapses loudly and takes retail investors with it. A defense contract runs quietly for twenty years and bills the taxpayer the entire time. The second one is worse and it gets a fraction of the attention.

Senators Warren, Blumenthal and Kim flagged the risk in January. The awards kept coming.

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$3.2 billion in federal awards. Plus $3.1 billion in future options. Plus shortlists for nearly $200 billion more.That i...
08/02/2026

$3.2 billion in federal awards. Plus $3.1 billion in future options. Plus shortlists for nearly $200 billion more.

That is what the Washington Post found after building a federal contracting database and cross-referencing it against PitchBook investment records. The question they asked was simple. What happens to a company once Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump invests in it?

Trump Jr. joined 1789 Capital shortly after the 2024 election. Eric invests through American Ventures and through Dominari, which keeps its offices in Trump Tower. Neither man was a defense investor before their father took office again.

A White House spokeswoman says there is no conflict of interest. Senator Cory Booker says the Pentagon should not be a Trump family ATM.

One of those statements has a database behind it.

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The United States just recorded the worst corruption score in its history.Transparency International's Corruption Percep...
08/02/2026

The United States just recorded the worst corruption score in its history.

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index put the country 29th out of 182, scoring 64 on a scale where 100 is clean. It is the lowest placing since the index was rebuilt in 2012. The United States is now tied with the Bahamas and sits behind Lithuania, Barbados and Uruguay.

Here is what makes it worse. The survey data behind that number does not yet cover most of 2025. It does not include the $2.2 billion the President reported earning last year, the $1.4 billion of it that came from crypto, or the $636 million in royalties off a meme coin with his name on it.

Transparency International's chief executive said the decline may continue.

Reputations are slow to build and fast to burn. Ours is burning ahead of the paperwork.

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$2.2 billion in income. About six million dollars a day.That is what the President of the United States reported for 202...
08/02/2026

$2.2 billion in income. About six million dollars a day.

That is what the President of the United States reported for 2025. One point four billion of it came from crypto, including $636 million in royalties on a single meme coin carrying his name.

Now look at the same coin from the buyer's side. Close to a million people put money into it and lost $3.8 billion between them. It trades 97.7 percent below its high.

He made $636 million. They lost $3.8 billion. Same asset. The difference was who was selling.

For scale, Doral reported $121.8 million last year and Mar-a-Lago $77.4 million. The meme coin beat both of them combined, three times over.

The disclosure runs 927 pages. Everyone still saying the presidency cost him money has read none of them.

We read them every week. Free to read, funded entirely by subscribers. Subscribe at https://dekleptocracy.substack.com

Marco Rubio’s State Department failed a geography quiz it wrote.At AIDS 2026 in Rio, a U.S. government slide mislabeled ...
07/31/2026

Marco Rubio’s State Department failed a geography quiz it wrote.

At AIDS 2026 in Rio, a U.S. government slide mislabeled every African country it highlighted. Nigeria became landlocked in the Sahara. Mozambique moved to the Horn of Africa. Côte d’Ivoire crossed the continent. Uganda and Malawi got the wrong borders. Cameroon’s label simply gave up.

Reuters found an OpenAI watermark. State took “full responsibility” and blamed a hurried slide change.

Rubio was not identified as the maker, reviewer or presenter. He runs the department that displayed it to African partners during a presentation about U.S. health agreements.

The atlas was available. The humiliation was optional.

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Russia’s weapons sector still depends on materials from the outside world.A 2025 Russian procurement record reportedly c...
07/31/2026

Russia’s weapons sector still depends on materials from the outside world.

A 2025 Russian procurement record reportedly called for French cellulose acetate to help make solid rocket propellant. There was a catch. The French plant had closed in 2020.

DKP followed the supply route through Tennessee and then China. The records reveal a Russian industrial weakness and the limits of what we can prove.

Read the full analysis at DKP

www.dekleptocracy.org/blog/cellulose-acetate-russian-rocket-fuel

We’re eagerly awaiting states’ rights advocates to complain.One day after a federal judge ruled that “preemption require...
07/29/2026

We’re eagerly awaiting states’ rights advocates to complain.

One day after a federal judge ruled that “preemption requires Congressional intent, not a contract,” ICE posted draft terms for 5,500 detention beds saying certain state and local laws “shall not apply,” despite states’ traditional power to regulate health, safety and private businesses within their borders.

Washington says it took three years of litigation, 10 refused inspections and 3,500 detainee complaints just to get an order opening GEO Group’s Tacoma facility to state health inspectors.

That is the play: write the claim into contracts, block inspectors and make every state pay to fight for oversight.

To fight back, states should examine whether contractors that defy valid state health and safety laws remain eligible to do business within their borders.

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Juan Orlando Hernández is back in Honduras.Reuters reported that on July 26 the former president arrived on a private fl...
07/28/2026

Juan Orlando Hernández is back in Honduras.

Reuters reported that on July 26 the former president arrived on a private flight after an arrest warrant in the Pandora II fraud and money-laundering case was suspended. He says he will seek dismissal—and has not ruled out returning to politics.

He was free to return because Donald Trump pardoned him and ended his federal prison sentence.

A U.S. jury convicted Hernández in a state-enabled conspiracy that trafficked more than 400 tons of co***ne. DOJ said drug money financed his rise while police, soldiers and other public institutions protected traffickers and shipments. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernández used presidential power to support “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”

He received 45 years in June 2024. Trump pardoned him in December 2025—about 17 months after sentencing and less than four years after his arrest.

The pardon followed a campaign by Trump allies.

Axios reported that Roger Stone repeatedly called for Hernández’s release, carried his praise-filled clemency letter to Trump and pressed the case again in November. Hours later, Trump announced the pardon. The Wall Street Journal also identified Matt Gaetz among the advocates. Stone and Gaetz said they were unpaid.

Stone argued clemency could preserve crypto-friendly Próspera. ICSID filings show its case opened at $10.775 billion; the current alternative compensation demand is $1.63 billion. Reported investors include Trump-aligned Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen.

Did Próspera or crypto interests influence the pardon?

Stone linked the issues and later reached Trump for Hernández. No public evidence reviewed ties Próspera or its investors to the pardon decision. ProPublica reported that Andreessen disavowed involvement and Thiel had previously denied it.

Hernández now seeks dismissal of Honduran charges and has left a return to politics open.

Hondurans lived with institutions weakened by corruption, public resources diverted and criminal networks protected by the state. Trump’s pardon delivered a brutal message: political access can outrun a jury’s verdict.

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Russia’s announced AI chips will not catch NVIDIA. The supply chain is the more important story.Baikal Electronics says ...
07/28/2026

Russia’s announced AI chips will not catch NVIDIA. The supply chain is the more important story.

Baikal Electronics says it plans two CUDA-compatible chips in 2029–2030. The NVIDIA products it is targeting were released in 2023.

Then comes the factory problem. Baikal designs chips but does not manufacture them. Taiwan cut Russian chipmakers off from TSMC, and Russia’s own fabrication capacity is far behind the process nodes.

The post identifies China—and SMIC in particular—as the plausible manufacturing route. That is an inference, not a confirmed SMIC–Baikal production deal.

Why it matters: NVIDIA Jetson Orin chips have already been recovered from Russian Shahed wreckage. A chip can be years behind the commercial frontier and still be capable enough to guide a weapon.

The risk is not Russian parity with NVIDIA. It is a technology loop in which Russian demand may support Chinese fabrication while the war supplies battlefield lessons.

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