New York Times Investigation Exposes McKinsey's Work Raising Stature of Authoritarian Governments

The New York Times publishes a major investigation by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe titled ‘How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments’ based on interviews with 40 current and former McKinsey employees and dozens of clients. The investigation reveals that at a time when democracies and their basic values are increasingly under attack, the iconic American consulting firm has helped raise the stature of authoritarian and corrupt governments across the globe, sometimes in ways that counter American interests. The exposé documents McKinsey’s extensive client list including Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy, Turkey under autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, corruption-plagued governments in South Africa, and Kremlin-linked Russian companies under Western sanctions. In China, McKinsey advised at least 22 of the 100 biggest state-owned companies carrying out the government’s most strategic and divisive initiatives, including China Communications which built man-made islands in the South China Sea. In Ukraine, McKinsey worked alongside Paul Manafort (later Trump’s convicted campaign chairman) for the same oligarch to help burnish disgraced presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych as a reformer; Yanukovych later rebuffed the West, sided with Russia, and fled after 80+ protesters were killed. McKinsey defends its work by claiming it will not accept jobs at odds with company values and that ‘change is best achieved from the inside’ - the same rationale other companies cite for working with corrupt or authoritarian nations. The investigation establishes a pattern of McKinsey providing legitimacy and strategic guidance to regimes actively undermining democratic values while simultaneously holding hundreds of millions in U.S. government contracts.