The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development is spearheading an initiative to band together a group of Allied Organizations based primarily in countries most severely affected by illicit financial flows (IFFs). Each year poor countries receive some $100 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA). At the same time, close to $1 trillion in illicit money exits those very same economies. Funds that could otherwise be captured for community, social, and economic development are misappropriated and funneled from poor countries into developed country banks. This massive outflow of capital, which fuels systems of crime and corruption, severely undermines poverty alleviation and development efforts of governments and grassroots organizations.
As part of the Allied Organizations initiative, interested organizations are publicly lending their names in support of the Task Force goals of improved transparency in the global financial system. Organizations from the Kathmandu, Nepal to New York City, USA are allying with the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development to raise awareness about the ways in which financial opacity undermines development efforts. If you or your organization is interested in becoming an Allied Organization of the Task Force, please send an email to allies@financialtaskforce.org.
Get to know some of our current allied organizations below:
Emily Crowley discusses the disturbing link between petroleum and the drug war in Mexico.
Stolen oil may play a role in arming cartels involved in Mexico’s worsening drug war. A recent article in Oil & Gas Journal reveals that in Mexico, nearly $1 billion worth of oil is siphoned off annually from Mexico’s nationally owned Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). PEMEX is the world’s tenth largest oil company, with its profits contributing to nearly one third of the Mexican government’s budget. Oil is obtained illicitly by tapping in to pipelines using high-tech drills and siphoning techniques to avoid pressure drops which would register as leaks and lead to investigation.
Oil theft is employed as a source of income by the cartel known as Los Zetas and fits in well with that organization’s money laundering techniques. Drug sales operate on a cash-based system which requires drug dealers to find ways of laundering money so as not to raise suspicion. What better way to launder money than open a chain of gas stations which operate on cash-only transactions? Simply combine your drug profits with your gas station profits in your daily deposit and—no questions asked—your money comes out clean on the other side!
Does anyone remember “Angolagate?”
The scandal involved a ring of French government officials that were complicit in illegal arms trading in order to secure French oil interests with the Angolan government. The trading took place between 1993 and 1998 during Angola’s civil war, which re-kindled after the country’s first round of democratic elections in 1992 and lasted until 2002. The scandal, which was picked up by the European media, was highly covered as it involved several public and popular figures. However, the broader implications of Angolagate were overlooked; while the media focused on corrupt public figures, the systems that facilitate corruption were overlooked. Given the current discussion concerning global transparency, the case of Angolagate deserves another look.
A report by Global Witness offers in depth coverage of the details and extent of the Angolagate scandal. At the beginning of the 1990s, France and the U.S. were jockeying to secure interests amongst Angola’s major oil producers. In 1993, President Clinton ended U.S. support for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which put the U.S. in a favorable position with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the regime in power. Concerned it might lose access to Angola’s oil markets, members in the French government sought to secure the MPLA’s good graces by supplying the regime with the weapons it sorely needed in its struggle against UNITA. In brief, members of the French government illegally traded weapons to the MPLA to secure French oil interests in Angola.
What do medieval moats and iron curtains have to do with 21st century security policy in Israel? The answer is everything.
The 1979 Israel Egypt Peace Treaty may have ended war between Egypt and Israel, but it created a land port for terrorist infiltration, weapons smuggling, and a haven for illicit financial funds. The point of weakness in the treaty was a “controlled” boarder drawn through (and not around) the city of Rafah, which created an Egyptian-side of the city and a Gaza-side. This demarcation had the unhappy consequence of dividing extended family networks, but not for long.
If the movie “Heavyweights” has taught its viewers anything, it should be that people, when divided from something they love, (be it candy, Kalashnikovs, or cash) can muster incredible resourcefulness to get around any obstacle put in their path. In the case of Rafah, this path went underground in the form of tunnels, effectively making the controlled border obsolete. In fact, there are literally hundreds of tunnels running beneath the Sinai Peninsula.
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