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INTERNATIONAL EDITION | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 The carnage In Ukraine, racking the unwitting Cameroons ‘directors’

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in tax fraud

KIEV, UKRAINE

OPINION Manafort case reveals how When our friend Theo first met his Chinese wife, Libby, in Shandong Prov- high-dollar schemes used ince, her parents, protective of their ordinary people as pawns only daughter and wary of Africans, finally gave their blessing with the BY ANDREW E. KRAMER words, “at least he’s not a bad looking black.” Theo tells this story with wry At first glance, what happened to amusement, as though he would parse Yevgeny G. Kaseyev hardly seems like it more if he were not already so bur- misfortune. dened. He is a pleasant and gentle Without his knowledge, he says, un- man, respectful, trustworthy, the kind known individuals set up multiple com- of man who in West Africa would be panies in his name and deposited tens of said to have had “good home training.” millions of dollars into those companies’ But for the past year, a dark sighing bank accounts. heaviness has blanketed him. “Sometimes it seems fun,” Mr. He is an Anglophone Cameroonian, Kaseyev, a 34-year-old hairdresser, said and his home is in peril. News reports, with a shrug during an interview. “I’m a sparse as they are, refer to what is secret millionaire.” going on in the western region of Cam- Until the authorities came calling, eroon as the “Anglophone crisis,” and it that is, seeking $30 million in back taxes. gives a somewhat One of the people who did business This is a benign linguistic tint with a company opened under Mr. story about to what is in fact a Kaseyev’s stolen identity didn’t mean blistering devasta- anything to him. But the name certainly an African tion. Hundreds have caught the eye of investigators in the nation’s fatal died. Villages emp- United States: Paul J. Manafort. disregard of tied, homes and Mr. Manafort, who worked for a dec- its minority shops reduced to ade as a political consultant in Ukraine population. blackened debris. before becoming chairman of the Trump The carnage is not PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW RENNEISEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES campaign in 2016, made a deal worth so much about lan- Elina Mukagasigwa said goodbye to a neighbor before heading to the hospital for heart-valve surgery. “I’m now enjoying the life that I almost missed,” she said after the operation. hundreds of thousands of dollars with guage as it is about the shell company under the hair- yet another African nation’s fatal disre- dresser’s name. It was called Neocom gard of its minority population. It is Systems Limited, according to a Ukrain- also about the muddled sludge of Eu- ian lawmaker. rope’s colonial legacy. This was just one example of the kind Cameroon was a German colony of complex financial arrangements that until the First World War, when British Where sore throats are deadly caught the attention of the special coun- and French forces captured and divid- sel, Robert S. Mueller III, and led to Mr. ed it. The French took the much larger KIGALI, RWANDA ten goes undiagnosed and can become a Manafort pleading guilty to criminal slice, and the British a small sliver that long, slow death sentence. Without charges on Friday in Federal District bordered their colony in Nigeria. treatment, it can lead to rheumatic fever Court in Washington. (Some Nigerians moved there; my and rheumatic heart disease, in which Looking into tax evasion by Mr. Man- Nigerian mother was born in 1942 to Streptococcal infections, the immune system attacks the heart afort, Mr. Mueller’s investigators found parents who had recently started a valves — intricate flaps of tissue that a web of offshore companies, some of business in the British Cameroons.) untreated, foster disease must open and shut properly 100,000 which had directors who, like Mr. In 1960, Nigeria and French Camer- affecting Rwandans’ hearts times a day for the heart to work nor- Kaseyev, did not even know their identi- oon became independent, but inde- mally. ties were being used. pendence was not an option for the BY DENISE GRADY As the valves deteriorate, the heart Mr. Manafort was convicted in August British Cameroons. Instead, its citizens struggles and gradually wears out. Pa- on eight counts of financial fraud and were asked to vote on two choices: join Neighbors whisper that she is pregnant, tients become weak, short of breath and evading taxes on millions of dollars he French Cameroon or become a part of a disgrace for a young, unmarried wom- unable to attend school or work. Many earned as a consultant for pro-Russia Nigeria. Those in the northern British an. The rumors mortify her. She hates die before they reach 30. Women with political forces in Ukraine. He avoided a Cameroons chose to join Nigeria, and her swollen belly. the illness who become pregnant can second federal trial by pleading guilty those in the south chose French Cam- But Florence Ndimubakunzi is not suffer severe and sometimes fatal com- on Friday to conspiracy to defraud the eroon. pregnant. Her heart is failing. It pumps plications. United States, largely through the use of So was born a single bilingual coun- so poorly that blood backs up in her Worldwide, 33.4 million people had offshore companies, and conspiracy to try, the Federal Republic of Cameroon, veins, bloating her liver and spleen and rheumatic heart disease in 2015, and at obstruct justice. with two autonomous regions. On the filling her abdomen with fluid. She is least 319,400 died from it, according to There is nothing new about Mr. Man- national flag were two stars, symboliz- only 18. estimates published last year — a public afort’s use of shell companies to hide ing this union of the Anglophone and For millions like her in poorer parts of health disaster caused by a preventable and launder money. Nor is it surprising Francophone. Africa, Asia and other regions, this dev- disease that has been largely wiped out that Mr. Manafort should seek to use the It was, constitutionally, an equal astating heart disease began insid- in the United States and Western Eu- Florence Ndimubakunzi during screening for rheumatic heart disease. Her heart scheme of fake directors, say analysts of union. It was, in reality, an unequal iously. During childhood, they con- rope. pumps so poorly that blood backs up in her veins, bloating her liver and spleen. Ukrainian corruption. It is a common union, as the Francophone region was tracted strep throat — an infection Earlier this year, hoping to beat the form of subterfuge in former Soviet much larger in size and population. caused by streptococcal bacteria. odds, Florence and her mother con- states, though hardly unique to them. ADICHIE, PAGE 14 In the United States and other rich sulted doctors from a humanitarian The team could operate on only 16. 78 pounds. Five were fluid. But the role — and sometimes the countries, children with sore throats are group, Team Heart, that flies in from the Lying on an examining table, eyes Dr. Pat Come, a Harvard cardiologist, plight — of the people whose identities The New York Times publishes opinion routinely tested for strep and quickly United States and Canada once a year to huge in her gaunt face, Florence looked pressed a stethoscope to Florence’s were used has gone mostly unnoticed. from a wide range of perspectives in cured with penicillin or other cheap an- perform valve-replacement surgery. impossibly fragile, her arms thin as chest, back and neck, and palpated her “It’s a frequent problem,” Daria hopes of promoting constructive debate tibiotics. About 100 people showed up to be broomsticks, her shoulders jutting up belly. A sonographer, Marilyn Riley, Kalenyuk, chief of the Anticorruption about consequential questions. But in poor countries, strep throat of- screened for the lifesaving operation. like a skeleton’s. She had wasted away to RWANDA, PAGE 7 UKRAINE, PAGE 8

An artist’s evolution from Christine to Chris OCTOBER 9–11, 2018 onstage anointing by Madonna, per- edly? Or would that make people un- INTERCONTINENTAL LONDON PARK LANE For French pop singer, formed on “The Daily Show With Trevor comfortable? If she were a man, would Noah” and even figured into the plot of there be any question? OILANDMONEY.COM gender ‘incarnation’ the FX comedy “Better Things,” which She started writing a new album — a is a timely breakthrough featured an extensive dance sequence new chapter in the life of Christine — to her song “Tilted.” about a woman she described as “horny, BY REGGIE UGWU During that time, the artist, the hungry and ambitious,” with a mascu- daughter of two professors in Nantes, a line mien, now going by the name Chris. In the spring of 2017, the French pop midsize city in France’s northwest, was The album, also called “Chris,” is to be singer, songwriter, producer and chor- evolving. Nonstop touring had physi- released on Sept. 21. eographer Hélöise Letissier felt ready to cally changed her — her body was more “When I compared my situation with reintroduce herself. muscular, toned, athletic. some male rock stars, I was really inter- THE NEW ENERGY MAP It had been three years since the And she felt more powerful in other ested in how different the feeling was,” French release of her debut album, ways, too. For the first time, she had real Ms. Letissier, 30, said in an interview in “Chaleur Humaine” (“Human money — some of which she spent on a English this summer in a New York City Warmth”), announced the persona secluded house in Paris that made her hotel, while she was visiting for an in- Christine and the Queens, an androgy- parents’ eyes widen — and near-total dustry showcase and to perform the nous, hip-hop-enamored outsider with creative and professional autonomy. new album’s lead single, “Girlfriend,” on flickers of Michael Jackson and David The last time Ms. Letissier’s life had “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fal- Bowie. taken such a dramatic turn, after a trau- lon.” “For men, with success comes After the record sold over 850,000 matic breakup and sudden expulsion power, admiration and respect. But units in France alone, its mostly Eng- from her college drama program (for in- when you’re a woman and you succeed, lish-language reissue, which arrived in subordination), she created Christine, a people either question your authorship 2015, propelled Ms. Letissier into even suit of armor for conquering self-doubt. immediately, or you get accused of being more rarefied terrain for an interna- RYAN PFLUGER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Now it was due for an upgrade. bossy, bitchy or capricious.” tional artist: the American pop music Hélöise Letissier, who recorded as Chris- She wondered how she should wield In April of last year, she sat for her buzz machine. tine and the Queens, has a slightly re- her new powers. As a queer woman, first photo session as Chris, for a spread Ms. Letissier was summoned for an vised persona, Chris, for her new album. could she lean into them wholeheart- CHRIS, PAGE 2

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