WASHINGTON, DC – Amidst speculation over details of a possible tax agreement between Switzerland and Britain, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) reiterated the message that a broader, global solution to illicit financial practices and banking secrecy is needed.
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity’s Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs, Heather Lowe, will deliver remarks at the Brazilian Council of Economic and Social Development’s International Seminar on Fiscal Justice on Wednesday, August 10, 2011. Ms. Lowe’s remarks will be part of the seminar’s fiscal policy, productivity and competitiveness panel.
WASHINGTON, DC – Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced bi-partisan legislation today, which would require companies to disclose the names of the beneficial owners of corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) when formed. Anti-money laundering proponents, law enforcement groups, and financial transparency organizations consider the legislation, known as the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 2011, a crucial step toward strengthening law enforcement and keeping criminal and tax evading money out of the U.S.
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Witness applauds Senators Levin (MI-D) and Grassley (IA-R) for introducing legislation that would make it harder for corrupt politicians, tax dodgers, drug traffickers, terrorists and other criminals to form and hide behind anonymous U.S. shell companies. The Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act would require those who set up companies in the U.S. to provide information about the beneficial, or ultimate, owner of the company to the state.
LONDON – The recent publication by the Democratic Republic of Congo of dozens of its oil and mining contracts online shows promising commitment to its recent transparency pledges said Global Witness today. Particularly welcome is the publication in the past fortnight of one of the country’s most controversial deals – the attribution of previously confiscated oil blocks to two previously unknown companies. These are positive signs, but there is a long way to go – the government has still not published several key contracts, and Global Witness is today publishing the major amendment to a multi-billion dollar Chinese deal.
LONDON – WWF’s flagship scheme to promote sustainable timber – the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) – is allowing companies to reap the benefits of association with WWF and its iconic panda brand, while they continue to destroy forests and trade in illegally sourced timber, a new briefing by Global Witness reveals. While GFTN is intended to reduce and eliminate such practices over the first 5 years of membership, systemic failures blight the scheme’s ability to deliver for forests.
WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Treasury Department is finalizing a regulation (REG-146097-09) that would require that the interest earned on the U.S. bank accounts of non-resident aliens be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as is currently required for U.S. citizens. The proposed IRS regulation has been touted as an important tool in the fight against international tax evasion, money laundering, drug trafficking, corruption, and terrorist financing. However, a small group of legislators have introduced a bill (H.R. 2568) that would prevent the Treasury from taking such action.
LONDON – Christian Aid has welcomed a new from the World Bank for countries to exchange information about who really owns companies, bank accounts and other financial assets within their borders, in a bid to help recover the billions currently stolen from poor countries each year.
LONDON – Christian Aid today welcomed Prime Minister David Cameron’s backing for legislation that will force companies to reveal the taxes and fees paid to governments in every country where they operate. Speaking in Lagos, the Prime Minister said the EU should follow the example of the US, which has introduced a new law to force mining [...]
WASHINGTON, DC – News that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. donated $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) months before the Chamber issued a proposal to relax elements of the nation’s flagship anti-corruption legislation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), highlights the need to fully understand the ties between the Chamber and companies charged under the FCPA.
WASHINGTON, DC – One year out from passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and three months after it was supposed to come into effect, a key anti-corruption and transparency measure—the Cardin-Lugar provision (Section 1504)—is still sitting on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) drafting board. The provision to require oil, gas, and mineral companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments is considered an historic move towards shedding light on the operations of a multi-billion dollar industry.
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity’s Director of Government Affairs and Legal Counsel, Heather Lowe, will participate in a high-level meeting of governments and civil society at the U.S. Department of State on Tuesday, July 12, at which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota will launch the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The Open Government Partnership is a new, multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNf2tv_aXNQ[/youtube]
Explaining the 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International
In this video, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime follows individual Euro bills as they are used illicitly, ultimately showing the annual $870 billion proceeds from criminal networks. The filmed transactions highlight profits by counterfeiting, illicit drug trafficking, human trafficking, and trading illegal arms. The UNODC also captures the impact of this underground economy on human peace and security.
Attiyah Waris, Tax Law Professor at Nairobi University, argues that tax evasion strategies used by ...
WASHINGTON, DC / LONDON – A bipartisan Congressional report published Thursday by the U.S. Senate ...
May 20, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) lauded former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the ...
May 10, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC / LONDON – In a major victory for transparency advocates, British Prime Minister ...
April 25, 2013
The solutions to problems are often implicit in the way they are framed. If I ...
May 15, 2013
Below the jump: a fantastic infographic on how money is hidden by large U.S. corporations ...
May 13, 2013
Things have been busy here at Task Force Blog central over the past few weeks. ...
May 10, 2013
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