This chapter explores the geopolitical implications of systemic corruption by way of state capture. No longer a mere byproduct of weak governance, illicit gains from state capture have become an instrument of geopolitical leverage that large authoritarian states such as Russia and China use to project power and influence. State capture characterises a system where private interests collude to shape laws, policies, and regulations for their personal benefit by subverting public institutions. State capture endures due to systemic failures in domestic and international legal regimes and is exacerbated by economic globalisation, which enables transnational illicit financial flows associated with state capture. Case studies of South Africa under Jacob Zuma and the Eastern European Laundromat illustrate how financial institutions, corporate service providers, and public relations firms broker illicit influence. These professional enablers exploit legal asymmetries and regulatory gaps to launder wealth, obscure ownership, and legitimise corrupt regimes. The chapter reframes state capture as a political modality: a dynamic, transnational instrument of geopolitical competition that capitalises on an architecture of global finance and governance whose inadequate and inconsistent regulatory frameworks, notably FATF’s gatekeeper model, foster rampant non-compliance.