I wouldn't be too surprised. Peter Ajak [0] (the Belfer Center fellow indicted by the DoJ for attempting the coup) is a fairly slick and well spoken guy.
Westerners seem to underestimate how mercenary and brass knuckled politics in the developing world is (no, politics in insert_OECD_country_here is not to the same degree), and assume every bleeding heart activist will become the next Gandhi. Ironically this is how Orban's political career got started as well as an pro-Democracy campaigner in the 1980s and 1990s.
This isn't to undermine activists and NGOs working in these countries, but the default assumption in due dilligence should be that everyone is a crook and then validate.
That said, I definetly saw plenty of glazing of questionable developing country politicians during my time when I was much more HKS adjacent, but this is common for just about every pmajor policy program - it's the only way you can attract big names, and non-Westerners know how to take advantage of that Western naivete (I've definitely used it on occasion despite being raised in North America).
Pretty wild story. And not going to lie, as someone who did an economics degree myself (never worked as an "economist" though) I have a bit of sympathy. No one listens to economists, then blames them for not being able to fix things (since no one listens to them), it's a cycle that makes you cynical enough to want to simply overthrow everyone else and become a dictator lol...
"I was lied to" — Jane Street Boss.
This sounds very suspicious.
So Jane Street, a large commodity derivatives trader has no interest in an oil rich South Sudan?
They just wanted to finance the "human rights"
Aren't they supposed to be the smartest of all quant firms?
Jane Street was caught manipulating the India derivates market recently.
This sort of behaviour is okay if it's the CIA, but if a private citizen tries the same, direct to prison!
" Harvard Fellow and another activist allegedly wanted to buy AK-47s, Stinger missiles and grenades to topple South Sudan’s government."
Reminds me of:
"In every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it."
I find it strange that one would come to the US to buy AK-47s. There’s only one party in the US that has those in quantity. I think these guys knew they were buying from the US government, they just thought they were buying with permission.
Happens to the best of us.
paywall: https://archive.is/lowX3
These are cheap and arent really known for being accurate. Pretty much spray and pray.
so, the rich guy version of a nigerian prince scam?
Based
Ah yes the journo definition of "AK-47": It has wood furniture.
Pretty sure they are the biggest Ocaml company.
A Jane Street article on HN not mentioning OCaml. A true miracle!