One of the first uses of the phrase "reputation laundering" was in 1996, in the book The United Nations and Transnational Organized Crime, which defined it as "the process of acquiring respectability in a new environment".
[1][2] An early use of the phrase in mass media was in 2010, in a Guardian article headlined "PR firms make London world capital of reputation laundering", a report which focused on the use of public relations (PR) firms by heads of state (including Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Kazakhstan, and Sri Lanka) to obscure human rights abuses and corruption.
[3] The phrase was in common use by 2016 when it was used by Transparency International in their report "Paradise Lost: Ending the UK's role as a safe haven for corrupt individuals, their allies and assets".
[6] The British public relations firm Bell Pottinger is noted for using PR techniques for reputation laundering, supporting clients such as Alexander Lukashenko, Bahrain, and the Pinochet Foundation.
[7] Public relations firms Havas, Publicis, and Qorvis were hired by Saudi Arabia to perform reputation laundering after 9/11 and the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
[22] Prior to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried did not have known wrong doing to launder, but is alleged to have used (among other means) "a value system of utilitarian idealism ... not orientated toward money"[23]—for example promising to give away 99 percent of his fortune[24]—which led to investors letting "down their due diligence guard.
[28] The report states that the oligarchs had been "extending patronage and building influence across a wide sphere of the British establishment" and had employed public relations firms that were "willing beneficiaries, contributing to a ‘reputation laundering' process".
[29] A notable example of Russian oligarchs participating in reputation laundering is Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, who donated £9 million to King Edward VII's Hospital, a facility used by the UK royal family and patronized by the queen.
[35] One example of the latter is a Newsweek article in which the Saudi foreign minister claims that, far from "supporting violent extremism", his country has actually shown "leadership in combating terrorism".