Thirty years ago, it was widely believed that corruption in our society had reached unimaginable heights. The series of scandals that came to light were shocking, each seemingly worse than the last. Two of the most notorious were the Swiftgate and Yomagate scandals.
The Swiftgate scandal involved a U.S.-based food giant, Swift, which claimed it had been asked for a bribe in order to establish operations in our country. The case was so serious that it even involved the U.S. ambassador, Terence Todman.
But the Yomagate scandal was, if anything, even more unsettling. The president’s own family was implicated when his sister-in-law, Amira Yoma, and her husband, Ibrahim al-Ibrahim, were linked to international weapons dealer Monzer al-Kassar. Al-Ibrahim, remarkably, held a senior position at Ezeiza customs. The allegation? Trafficking cocaine and money laundering. It doesn’t get much more brazen than that.
