What happens to dictators' loot?

As the populations of the Middle East and north Africa rise up against kleptocratic dictators, Western governments are racing to freeze the despots' assets before they are spirited away for ever. But what does this actually involve? Simon Wilson looks at who has frozen what, and what is likely to happen to it.

Western governments are racing to freeze the assets of Middle Eastern despots. But what does this actually involve? Simon Wilson reports.

Who has frozen what?

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.