WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity today called for regulators to follow-through with prosecutions for any illegal anti-money laundering lapses at HSBC Holdings Plc.
BRUSSELS – International development agency Oxfam and the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) welcome the European Commission’s initiative to step up action against tax fraud and tax evasion, which cost billions in tax revenues in Europe but also in developing countries.
BERLIN – A growing outcry over corrupt governments forced several leaders from office last year, but as the dust has cleared it has become apparent that the levels of bribery, abuse of power and secret dealings are still very high in many countries. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 shows corruption continues to ravage societies around the world.
LONDON – Christian Aid today welcomed Chancellor George Osborne’s pledge to commit 0.7 per cent of gross national income next year to overseas aid, but called for a coherent tax strategy to benefit poorer countries.
LONDON – Bloomberg and Reuters news agencies have reported that the International Monetary Fund has halted its loan programme with the Democratic Republic of Congo because of concerns over transparency in the country’s mining sector. While Congo is clearly in desperate need of funds, Global Witness believes that concerns over possible corruption in the country’s mining sector were so serious that the IMF was justified in stopping its lending.
LONDON – Christian Aid today welcomed a House of Commons committee’s report on tax dodging by multinationals, which puts morality at the heart of the tax debate, and said the harm the practice causes to developing countries should be seen in the same light.
LONDON – The first official analysis of the “Kabul Bank Crisis” of 2010 reveals an urgent need for reform in the international banking system, said Global Witness today. The “Report of the Public Inquiry into the Kabul Bank Crisis”, published today by Afghanistan’s Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) shows how the perpetrators behind the fraud were able to repeatedly bypass the checks and balances of regulators, donors, auditors and international banks, and steal enough money to incur a bailout costing approximately 6 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP.
LONDON – The Prime Minister’s backing for tax justice throughout the world won a delighted welcome today from Christian Aid, which has a longstanding campaign against multinationals’ tax dodging.
WASHINGTON, DC – Civil society organizations welcomed today’s release of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new guidance for businesses on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the U.S. law that makes it illegal to bribe foreign officials. The FCPA creates a strong and effective mechanism to fight financial fraud and corruption, which impede economic growth and raise the costs of doing business internationally.
WASHINGTON, DC – The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition welcomed news that the U.S. Department of the Treasury will be leading a government task force to review the nation’s antiquated anti-money laundering regulations. The FACT Coalition—an alliance of more than 60 prominent anti-corruption, transparency, small business, and global development groups—originally called on the Treasury Department in September 2011 to undertake such a review.
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity today applauded the U.S. Department of the Treasury for working with over fifty jurisdictions to establish agreements enabling the bilateral automatic exchange of tax information as part of the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
LONDON – New information suggests that the US$1.1 billion paid by Shell and the Italian energy company ENI for a Nigerian oil block could fall foul of anti-corruption legislation and highlights the urgent need for strong disclosure laws across the EU. A directive being discussed by the EU Council and Parliament must require full “project-by-project” disclosure to ensure such payments are publicly reported.
[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
This morning I have published a short new book entitled The Finance Curse: how oversized ...
May 23, 2013
When I lived in Argentina in the mid 1990s, most of our friends still acutely ...
May 22, 2013
Do you care about stamping out corruption, money laundering and tax dodging? The Financial Transparency ...
May 21, 2013
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