Video from the annual Task Force conference is now becoming available on our YouTube channel at the following playlist:
On Sunday (Oct 4), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs are sponsoring a side-event titled “Tax Evasion and Revenue Policy in Development Finance” at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Istanbul, Turkey.
The seminar, which features GFI Director Raymond Baker among others, will take place between 10:00am and 12:00pm in Room Taxim at the Istanbul Convention Centre.
For more information on the event and to view an agenda, click here…
Task Force member Global Witness has released the following statement lauding the G20′s action on AML standards at last week’s summit in Pittsburgh:
G20 takes welcome step to stop banks fuelling corruption
Summit communiqué calls for stronger anti-money laundering standards to help curb illicit flows of looted state funds from developing countries
The G20 has urged an international watchdog on anti-money laundering laws to prioritise the fight against corrupt funds, a move warmly welcomed by anti-corruption group Global Witness today.
Richard Murphy notes that HMRC has launched a new web-form which allows you to report tax evasion online. Strangely, though, the form times out if you haven’t finished within 15 minutes – a relatively short amount of time given the length of the form. I understand the logic of timing out a webpage after a certain amount of time – perhaps an hour or so – but 15 minutes is a little ridiculous.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to see HMRC taking a proactive approach.
Tax Justice Network International and Tax Justice Network USA released the following reaction to Pittsburgh’s G20 communique:
Reactions by Tax Justice Network USA / Tax Justice Network International
We are heartened by the G-20’s renewed commitment to cleaning up tax havens, building on the progress that it made at the London summit last April. However, we are concerned that the G-20 needs to do much more to translate this commitment into reform.
While the G-20 communiqué states (para. 15) that its “commitment to fight non-cooperative jurisdictions has produced impressive results,” in our view, it relies excessively on the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information. That program, while helpful, has so far been limited to requiring tax havens to agree to provide information “upon-request.” As experience has shown, this approach is costly, time-consuming, and a very poor deterrent.
Global Financial Integrity just put out a statement lauding the G20′s commitment to end banking secrecy, increase transparency in global finance and curtail illicit financial flows from developing economies. Check out the full text of the speech below:
Washington, DC — The G-20 reaffirmed its commitment to pressing uncooperative secrecy jurisdictions to adopt more rigorous reporting standards, tackle banking secrecy, and increase overall transparency in global finance in a communiqué released at the conclusion of today’s summit in Pittsburgh.
“Transparency and accountability in global finance are the cornerstones of a strong and robust world economy,” said Global Financial Integrity (GFI) director Raymond Baker. “The critical next step will be defining the rules of play with respect to improving the standards of information exchange and best practices for financial institutions.”
So far, these are the really significant pieces that I’ve pulled from the statement while skimming through it.
In the Preamble section:
22. To take new steps to increase access to food, fuel and finance among the world’s poorest while clamping down on illicit outflows. Steps to reduce the development gap can be a potent driver of global growth.
In the “A Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth” section:
14. We call on our international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve a single set of high quality, global accounting standards within the context of their independent standard setting process, and complete their convergence project by June 2011. The International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) institutional framework should further enhance the involvement of various stakeholders.
Still reading through it, but in the meantime, check it out here…
President Barack Obama is holding the G20 news conference. Here’s the video:
Watching President Obama, President Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Brown discuss the existence of a new Iranian nuclear facility this morning, I was eerily reminded of the briefing by NY District Attorney Robert Morgenthau that Global Financial Integrity and the American Interest sponsored a couple of weeks ago. Mr. Morgenthau warned of a growing relationship between Iran and Venezuela – a relationship that is fueling Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons and which he believes poses a major threat to the United States.
In his remarks, Mr. Morgenthau details how Iran is setting up shell corporations and bank accounts in Venezuela so as to gain access to the US financial system. The news from this morning serves only to highlight the dangers that we face from a nuclear Iran. But the fact of the matter is that Iran cannot finance its nuclear ambitions without access to the international financial system. Not until we have abolished shell corporations and brought transparency to the global financial system will we be able to effectively contain Iran.
The New York Times is reporting that another US private banking client (Juergen Homann) of UBS has pleaded guilty in a tax evasion case. According to the NY Times:
In court filings, federal prosecutors accused Mr. Homann of deliberately failing to submit a form known as an F-bar in 2007 disclosing his UBS accounts and of using a foundation in Liechtenstein, a noted tax haven, to conceal the trail. The filings said that Mr. Homann concealed $5 million from United States tax authorities by shifting that amount from his UBS account to a sham corporation, ELM Finance, set up in Hong Kong in 2005.
The court papers did not identify Mr. Homann’s private banker at UBS.
According to a leaked draft communique, the G20 will be proposing more sanctions on tax havens. According to the Times of London:
The G20 summit in Pittsburgh is expected to announce a further clamp down on tax havens, according to a draft of the group’s communiqué.
Keep your fingers crossed!
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