Americans have little experience reclaiming stolen or swindled wealth from fallen authoritarian rulers, but a set of nations that have wrestled with kleptocracy — Nigeria, Peru and the Philippines — can offer a roadmap, former Republican speechwriter David Frum argued in The Atlantic. Those recoveries took decades and relied on specialized agencies and cross-border cooperation — a precedent with obvious implications for any U.S. effort, given that ill-gotten assets are typically parked abroad in jurisdictions with strong secrecy laws.

Frum wrote that the grift and self-enrichment of the Trump family has placed the United States in the same category as recovering, somewhat notorious democracies — a result, he said, of Americans electing a convicted felon and the Republican Party surrendering its congressional duties. Still, he noted, "done right, this work can deliver justice and strengthen democratic institutions for the long run. But cleaning up after a corrupt regime also comes with serious challenges and hazards."

According to Frum, President Donald Trump has abused his office to enrich himself and his family in ways that are unprecedented, "not only in the United States but also in the history of almost any peer democracy." The only comparable figure, he said, is Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi — who was sentenced to prison.

"Trump faces little danger of prison," Frum said, adding that the Republican-led U.S. Supreme Court has "bestowed substantial criminal impunity on him, even assuming that he leaves office in 2029 as required by the Constitution. … But an ex-president remains subject to civil liability, and the proceeds of bribery, extortion, insider trading, and market manipulation may be exposed to civil penalties. Other countries have shown the way."

Peru

Alberto Fujimori, elected president of Peru in 1990, dissolved the nation's Congress and Supreme Court and rewrote Peru's constitution to allow his own reelection in 1995. Then came the self-enrichment: his intelligence chief ran a system of embezzlement and kickbacks that "amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts." Shortly after Fujimori's 2000 reelection to a third term, he fled the country. Peru responded by setting up a special prosecutor's office and working closely with countries hosting Fujimori's contested assets.

"Peru has since recovered about $200 million of misappropriated wealth from accounts in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, the United States, and Luxembourg," said Frum.

The Philippines

Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos pillaged billions of dollars over two decades. "After his ouster, his democratically elected successor, Corazon Aquino, created a Presidential Commission on Good Government to recover this stolen wealth," said Frum. "As of 2022, the PCGG had returned $5 billion to the Philippines, according to reporting by the country's leading English-language newspaper." Even then, the commission's work was still ongoing decades after Marcos fell — an indication of how long such recoveries can stretch.

Nigeria

In Nigeria, leader Sani Abacha diverted roughly $4 billion into foreign accounts and shell companies. In 2002, the country established a specialized unit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to reclaim the money from Abacha's heirs.

"This work received considerable help from the Swiss government, which agreed to freeze Abacha-related accounts, and from the United States, which cracked down on Abacha-owned shell companies," said Frum. "Nigeria got back about $1.5 billion, according to the World Bank's tally."

The lesson for the U.S.

"The message to Americans? The recovery of corrupt assets from fallen leaders is not hopeless, but it is difficult and risky," said Frum. "This work demands permanent institutions specifically tasked to investigate and prosecute, and broad international cooperation to locate, identify, seize, and return dirty money."

The effort is nonetheless necessary, he insisted, because "if the Trump family can keep the money it has accumulated this term, the next generation of Trumps will be far richer than Donald Trump ever was." For readers tracking what comes next, the practical questions Frum's piece points to are institutional: whether Congress creates or empowers a dedicated recovery body, and whether U.S. authorities cooperate with the foreign jurisdictions where contested assets are held.