The Sixth Circuit has remanded a whistleblower’s asylum claim where the agency indicated that the corrupt government officials targeted the asylum seeker because he interfered with their business arrangements, and not because of his political opinions. “In cases such as those cited above, where a petitioner seeks asylum after refusing to take part in a corrupt government scheme, the corrupt officials will almost always be motivated, at least in part, by their own pecuniary interest. But where, as in Skripkov’s case, a petitioner’s anticorruption activities manifest themselves through acts of public protest, the government officials’ pecuniary interest and their desire to quell the petitioner’s political activities typically become inseparable.”
The full text of Skripkov v. Barr can be found here:
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/20a0223p-06.pdf