Washington, DC — Developing country treasuries are losing approximately $100 billion dollars every year due to trade mispricing, according to a new report available today from Global Financial Integrity (GFI).
“Every year crime, corruption, and tax evasion drain $1 trillion out of developing countries,” said GFI director Raymond Baker. “This report more closely examines one particular form of financial outflow and shows how illicit financial practices—in this case trade mispricing—deprive developing country governments of tax revenue.”
Report findings include:
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) launched its “G20 Transparency” campaign today, an international grassroots sign-on drive to collect 100,000 signatures on a petition calling for greater transparency in the global financial system. The petition will be delivered to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper prior to the G20 meeting in Toronto at the end of June.
The campaign kicked off with the debut of www.G20transparency.com, a Web site devoted to the campaign where supporters may read and sign the petition, which will be available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. The Web site will also allow supporters to share the petition with others via peer-to-peer and social networking tools.
WASHINGTON, DC — The European Network on Debt and Development (EURODAD), comprised of 59 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 18 European countries working on debt, development finance, and poverty reduction, has joined the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) announced today.
A new Global Witness report, ‘The Secret Life of a Shopaholic: How an African dictator’s playboy son went on a multi-million dollar shopping spree in the US’, strongly suggests that Teodorin Obiang, son of the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, purchased a $33 million private jet, a $35 million Malibu mansion, speedboats and a fleet of fast cars using corruptly acquired funds. The report goes on to explain how, despite the ample evidence against him, the investigation is going nowhere and Teodorin continues to be allowed into the U.S.
Full text of the Criteria for Granting Assistance Pursuant to the Treaty Request in the August 2009 Agreement Between the United States of America and the Swiss Confederation on the request for information from the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of America regarding UBS AG, a corporation established under the laws of the Swiss Confederation.
“Economic Transparency: Curtailing the Shadow Financial System” provides an overview of the work that the Task Force is doing. From laying out the framework of our mission, to detailing the specifics of each priority, this document is an excellent all in one resource.
Join us for an exclusive first-look at the Financial Secrecy Index. The Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) is a first-of-its-kind ranking of the most secretive and uncooperative jurisdictions—tax havens– in the world. Based on intensive research and analysis the index ranks 60 jurisdictions according to their degree of opacity and the scale of their cross-border financial services activity.
Today the Tax Justice Network launches a major new project called Mapping the Faultlines, backed by research funding from the Ford Foundation. This has been the biggest and most elaborate research effort ever undertaken to look at how secrecy operates through global financial markets.
As the project brief notes, it is intended to complement work by Global Financial Integrity in Washington, D.C., looking at the magnitudes of these problems.
While putting together this material, which would run to more than 1,800 pages if printed, we have felt like explorers charting territory previously mapped in only the scantiest detail. Before we set off on this trip there was only a fragmented collection of partial studies conducted by various organisations, public and private, which, like the old Victorian explorers’ maps, showed only distorted parts of a larger reality. Mapping the Faultlines brings all this information, and more, together into a coherent whole for the first time.
A new briefing paper, titled “The Links Between Tax Evasion and Corruption: How the G20 Should Tackle Illicit Financial Flows,” sent to the G20 from Christian Aid, Global Financial Integrity, Global Witness, and Tax Justice Network highlights what the G20 should do to address illicit financial flows.
Today, following the conclusion of a two day conference titled “Increasing Transparency in Global Finance: A Development Imperative,” the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development issued the following statement to the members of the G-20:
Today the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development concluded a two-day conference which provided an opportunity to examine in-depth the linkage between global illicit financial flows and their adverse impact on development.
The massive flow of illicit money out of developing nations, estimated at some $1 trillion per year, outpaces current levels of foreign aid by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1. Consisting of tax evasion, tax avoidance, and criminal and corrupt funds, this phenomenon is the most damaging economic condition hurting the global poor.
Therefore, the Task Force calls on the G-20 nations to recognize publicly that the flow of illicit money out of poor countries, facilitated by the global shadow financial system, cripples the ability of these countries to work their way out of poverty. Recognizing this linkage is a vital first step in creating the conditions to eradicate poverty in developing countries. The second step is taking action to stop these flows.
Washington, DC – “We have the means to end offshore tax abuse if we have the political will to act,” was the message delivered by Carl Levin in his keynote speech for given before dinner guests at the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development’s conference, Increasing Transparency in Global Finance: A Development Imperative.
The 2009 conference of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development commenced this morning at the Hilton Embassy Row in Washington, DC. After hearing from Poul Engberg-Pedersen, the Director General of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, and Raymond Baker, Director of Global Financial Integrity, we heard from a panel of leading experts on the issue of transfer mispricing. The panel featured Alex Cobham from Christian Aid, Jack Blum from Tax Justice Network USA, Krishen Mehta from Asia Initiatives and Raymond Baker from Global Financial Integrity.
To view the complete conference agenda, click here.
I’ll be posting materials throughout the day as they become available, but for now check out some of the pictures from this morning:
The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development is scheduled to convene in Washington, DC from September 16-17, 2009.
As the G20 meeting in September nears, the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development has sent a letter to the G20 asking them to address the issue of transparency in the global financial system in Pittsburgh. From the letter:
The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development urges the G20 to focus on substantially improving transparency in the global financial system. Thus far in communiqués, discussions, and commentaries, greater emphasis has been given to strengthening regulation within the existing structure. While regulatory improvements are clearly needed, we believe that such steps alone are incomplete. If “the era of bank secrecy is over,” then more effective progress toward this goal can be accomplished by significantly curtailing the shadow financial system.
Accordingly, we ask that the G20 give careful consideration to the following steps:
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the landmark settlement in the UBS legal battle will require the Swiss banking giant to disclose information on 4450 individuals resulting in the disclosure of information on 10,000 of the 52,000 American accounts held by the bank. It is additionally being reported that UBS will not be paying a fine. From the WSJ:
UBS AG will hand over some 4,450 names of U.S. account holders as part of a U.S.-Swiss tax-evasion settlement and investigation that could produce in total 10,000 account identities, according to people familiar with the situation.
…
UBS is not expected to pay a monetary fine as part of the settlement, which was negotiated between U.S. and Swiss officials in recent weeks. The U.S. inquiry was led by the Justice Department and IRS.
Aside from the account identities being turned over by UBS, some 5,000 names are expected to be produced through a special IRS amnesty program where UBS clients acknowledge unpaid income tax.
The Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development
1319 18th Street, NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20036
Email: info@financialtaskforce.org
Telephone: +1 (202) 293-0740 Fax: +1 (202) 293-1720
