[T]he Bush administration['s]...National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy [is]...an initiative aimed at preventing public graft worldwide by, among other things, denying corrupt leaders access to the United States financial system. "Kleptocracy is an obstacle to democratic progress...and steals prosperity from the people," President Bush said...In February, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan is scheduled to go to trial in the largest foreign bribery case brought against an American citizen...James H. Giffen...is accused...of overseeing a tangled bribery network in the 1990s designed to buy access and influence in Kazakhstan for oil giants like Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco (now BP) and Phillips Petroleum (now ConocoPhillips)...None of the oil companies have been accused of any wrongdoing..."Corruption is at the heart of what causes poverty in third world countries," said Mr. Blum,...former Congressional investigator. "We tell ourselves that in the short term, we can buy these guys who will serve the national interest, but in the long run it always turns into a disaster."