Britain Targets 22 People in First Use of Its Anti-corruption Law

Britain froze assets, imposed sanctions and enacted travel bans on nearly two dozen people accused of bribery, kickbacks and fraud on Monday, marking the first time the nation employed its own sanctioning powers to combat international corruption. 

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told lawmakers that the sanctions would prevent the United Kingdom from being used as "a haven for dirty money," according to The Associated Press.  "Corruption has a corrosive effect as it slows development, drains the wealth of poorer nations and keeps their people trapped in poverty. It poisons the well of democracy," Raab said, according to Reuters.  The list includes 14 Russians implicated in a $230 million tax fraud case, as well as Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, members of the Gupta business family at the center of a South African corruption scandal. The Guptas deny wrongdoing.