The story of Abraaj that Arif wanted people to hear was the triumph of capitalism over poverty, of the future over the past, of a global vision regaled from Washington to Davos, Dubai, and Beijing. The only problem, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, was that Arif was a liar and a thief motivated by criminal ambition.
Abraaj 投資集團編造的故事，就是要大家相信，資本主義最棒的地方是不只可以賺錢，還可以兼而照顧到貧窮的人，帶來充滿希望的未來，這是從華府、達沃斯、杜拜到北京，大家都希望看到的一個全球視野。問題是，從美國司法部門看來，Arif是一位不折不扣的騙子，一個竊賊，充滿犯罪野心者。
After years in which Arif took the world by storm, as Bill Gates entrusted him with money and Warren Buffett and other billionaires welcomed him into their exclusive club of rich philanthropists, he stood accused of swindling investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, breaking laws and offering bribes, all to keep his billionaire lifestyle afloat.
Bill Gates將資金信託給他，Warren Buffett及其他億萬富豪歡迎他參加有錢人專屬的的慈善俱樂部，但在幾年之後，Arif 卻站在法庭，被指控詐騙投資者數百萬美金、犯法並且從事賄賂，而他做這些，只是為了維持奢華的生活型態。
The dark side of globalization— a shadowy hinterland of political intrigue and illicit offshore money flows-lurked behind the bright vision of the future Arif championed in public.
Arif 在公開場合鼓吹世界光明未來的背後，隱藏著全球化的黑暗面：政治陰謀的灰色地帶、非法的跨境金流。
His investments, in truth, were too good to be true, and his firm had been insolvent for years. Stolen cash propped up Abraaj in what the famed Bernard Madoff investigator Harry Markopolos described to us as a Ponzi scheme with leverage. Abraaj had become one of the largest corporate frauds in history, and Arif, accused of wrongfully holding on to $385 million of the funds he had taken, faced 291 years in a high-security jail.
他的投資，表現得太好所以並不真實，其實他的公司早就已經破產多年了。偷竊Abraaj投資公司的資金，正如龐氏騙局的調查者說的，那是龐氏騙局加上(倍數的)槓桿。Abraaj 出現了有史以來最大的公司詐欺案。Arif 被控將3億8千5百萬美金據為己有，面臨要被關在守備森嚴的監獄中長達291年的徒刑。
Arif’s rise from childhood in Pakistan, a former British colony, to trusted insider of the elite embodied the burst of globalization that began after the Cold War ended. As new forces brought people closer together around the world-from the internet to terrorism-Arif convinced Western investors that he was their expert partner in exploring distant lands.
Arif生於巴基斯坦，前英國殖民地，在冷戰之後的全球化風潮中成為菁英份子中被信任的(地緣政治)圈內人。當網際網路和恐怖主義把全球人類的命運拉得更緊密的時候，Arif 說服了西方投資者他是開發偏遠地區投資機會的專家夥伴。
As it becomes ever more fashionable for billionaires and CEOs to pledge to do good and start foundations, join Interpol and United Nations boards and team up with governments, universities, and schools to fulfill grand plans, it’s worth remembering that there’s already a system in place to fairly and justly manage human affairs in a way that values everyone equally, regardless of how much money they have.
目前蔚為世界風潮的是，億萬富豪和公司的執行長，信誓旦旦為了做好事而開始成立基金，參加世界警察和聯合國的董監事會，和世界各地的政府、大學和學校進行重大專案。但是大家不要忘了，這個世界早就有這種管理眾人之事的系統存在，視人人生而平等，不因貧富而有貴賤之別。
It’s called democracy.
那個系統，就是民主。
Democratically elected governments are supposed to raise revenue by taxing companies and individuals and to spend that money on providing public services such as schools and hospitals. If people don’t like the decisions a government makes about spending that revenue they can elect a new government at the next election.
民選的政府，運用公司及個人的稅收，提供諸如教育及醫療等等的公共服務。如果人們不滿意那些安排，他們大可以在下次選舉中成立新的政府。
Billionaires and CEOs who say they can do a better job than governments should surely be heard but they shouldn’t have the right to silence those who question them or disagree with them with threats from expensive lawyers.
那些聲稱比政府做得更好的億萬富豪和公司執行長，有權那麼說，但是他們也必須面對外界對他們的質疑和反對意見，及其中可能必須花付出的巨額律師諮詢費用的批評。
Billionaires and CEOs usually have their own agendas. They have successfully lobbied governments to reduce taxes, and claiming that they can do a better job than governments is in part an argument to keep taxes low. The U.S. corporate tax rate has halved since the 1950s, and some countries struggle to raise much tax at all less than
2 percent of Pakistan’s 216 million citizens paid income tax in 2019.
億萬富豪和公司的執行長有他們自己的目的。他們成功遊說政府減低稅賦，其中一個減稅的理由，就是錢在他們手中比繳給政府，能更有效利用(在為人民做好事上)。從1950年代開始至今，美國的公司稅已經減半，而在世界各地的有些政府，則苦於無法收到足夠的稅收。以巴基斯坦為例，於2019年，在2億1千6百萬的人口中，只有不到2%的人有繳納所得稅。
Accounting firms like KPMG—which are supposed to monitor the integrity of financial statements—also advise companies and the wealthy on how to minimize their tax bills…
像KPMG這種大型會計公司，本應該監督公司財務報表的正確性的，但他們也為這些公司及有錢人兼做避稅的規劃……
Our private pensions and state pensions are flowing into the $4 trillion private equity industry, where the money is used to buy companies all around the world, from New York and London to Istanbul, Accra, and Karachi. Private equity is an industry that enjoys more secrecy than it deserves. If accountants and regulators can’t keep private equity firms on the right track then more people are going to have to take an interest in how they operate and whether they stick to their promises….
個人及政府的退休基金競相持有私募基金。總值高達4兆美金的私募基金，投資於全世界各地的公司。私募基金的私密性得到過度的保護。如果會計師和執法者不能讓私募基金走在正軌上，那麼將會有更多人想從中謀利，不管當時𠄘諾的初衷為何……
Abraaj’s healthcare fund was taken over by TPG. The American private equity firm also hired John Kerry as an adviser. But TPG has encountered problems of its own. Like Arif, Bill McGlashan, who cofounded TPG’s Rise impact-investing fund with U2’s Bono and Jeff Skoll, was a star of the finance industry. And like Kito, Bill picked London’s Connaught Hotel for a meeting with us in January 2019 to talk about his work assisting poor people who lived far from the luxurious Mayfair venue. Bill was briefly in London when he met us, on his way to Davos, where he gave a talk with Bono. A few weeks later, Bill was arrested in the U.S. college admissions scandal. The Department of Justice accused him of bribing officials to get his son into the University of Southern California, forcing him to leave TPG. Another impact-investing star was in trouble with the law.
Abraaj 的醫療服務基金由TPG接收。這家美國私募基金也雇用John Kerry 為顧問。但是TPG它有自己的問題。一如Arif，Bill McGlashan是金融業的新星，他和U2合唱團主唱Bono 和(創業家)Jeff Skoll 共同成立了TPG的Rise impact-investing fund。就像(致力於幫助肯亞青年脫貧的)Kito一樣，Bill 於2019年元月假倫敦的Connaught酒店跟我們相會，說明他如何協助那些住在距離富裕的Mayfair街區很遙遠的貧民們。倫敦短暫停留之後，Bill即前往達沃斯，在那裡和Bono交換意見。才幾星期之後，Bill就因為美國大學入學的醜聞案被逮捕。美國司法單位控告他，為了讓他的兒子就讀南加太，他賄賂了學校的人員。Bill 因此被迫離開TPG。成為另一位影響力投資基金的新星，因為司法的問題而殞落。
How to build and fund a fair and just world isn’t only a question for the key men and key women who work in business and finance and dine with prime ministers in Davos.
Most important, it’s a question for you.
怎麽成立基金而且挹注金錢並保證能促進更公平正義的世界，這個問題，不只是這些企業和金融主事者，那些和各國政要在達沃斯把酒言歡的人的問題。最重要的是，這是一個我們每一個人都要好好思索的問題。
*：Simon Clark and William Louch, “The key man, the true story of how he global elite was duped by a capitalist fairy tale,” 2021, HarperCollinsPublishers books
2023/12/22 The key man, the true story of how the global elite was duped by a capitalist fairy tale Damakey
