Corrupt cartel losing capital after a while (5)
I believe the answer is:
later
'after a while' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'corrupt cartel losing capital' is the wordplay.
'corrupt' indicates anagramming the letters (a corrupted form).
'losing capital' means to remove the first letter.
'cartel' with its first letter removed is 'artel'.
'artel' is an anagram of 'LATER'.
(Other definitions for later that I've seen before include "at a subsequent point" , "Alert (anag.)" , "At a subsequent time" , "more modern" , "after an interval" .)