Syria Lost US$23.6 Billion in Illicit Financial Outflows from 2000-2009, Says Forthcoming Report from Global Financial Integrity

WASHINGTON, DC – A forthcoming report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) finds Syria lost US$23.6 billion to corruption, crime and tax evasion from 2000-2009, writes GFI Economist Sarah Freitas in a new blog post on the website of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development (financialtaskforce.org).

Transparency International: 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index Released

BERLIN – Corruption continues to plague too many countries around the world, according to Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index released today. It shows some governments failing to protect citizens from corruption, be it abuse of public resources, bribery or secretive decision-making.

Transparency International warned that protests around the world, often fuelled by corruption and economic instability, clearly show citizens feel their leaders and public institutions are neither transparent nor accountable enough.

Reactive Statement: Outcome of High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness

WASHINGTON D.C. / BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA – The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development applauds donor-groups who met at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea this week for recognizing the role illicit financial flows play in diminishing aid effectiveness and for taking steps to prevent corruption and create stronger aid governance framework.

“We applaud all measure that help ensure funds stay where they are needed instead of being syphoned off via corrupt means,” said Raymond Baker, director of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development. “Aid can mean the difference between education and illiteracy, between freedom and slavery, even between life and death yet we estimate that for every one dollar of aid that goes into the developing world, 10 dollars leave via illicit means. Clearly this is unacceptable.”

Huge Cost of Tax Evasion Revealed as Campaign to Tackle Tax Havens Launches

LONDON – The issue of tax collection is rising fast up the political and social agenda, as countries across the world make deep cuts in public spending and increase taxes in ways that hurt the poor and the middle classes the most.

This new research demonstrates how important it is to tackle tax evasion and the tax havens that help wealthy individuals and organisations escape from contributing to the services that directly benefit them – from the health and education systems that support their workforces, to the roads that ship their goods to markets, to the courts of law that enforce their contracts or to the police who protect their property.

Eurodad: Report urges EU to get tough on multinational tax avoidance

BRUSSELS – Pressure has mounted on the EU to crack down on tax avoidance by multinational companies with the release of a report that reveals in detail and with examples how dodgy accounting deprives some of the world’s poorest nations of billions of dollars in revenue.

Multinational tax dodges are estimated to account for over half of all illicit capital flight from developing countries, thwarting poor nations’ efforts to build up their own economies. Despite commitments by OECD and G20 leaders, the problem is getting worse.

Task Force: Proposed U.S. Legislation Could Help Quash Money Laundering

WASHINGTON DC – At a time of international financial crisis, where good news is hard to come by, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced legislation that could go a long way in stopping money laundering in the world’s largest economy. This comes as the European Union begins to prepare its fourth anti-money laundering directive and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gets ready to issue a revised set of recommendations early next year.

House Bill Introduced to Crack Down on Abusive American Shell Companies

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA) introduced legislation, which would require that the beneficial owners of corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) be disclosed at the time companies are formed. Anti-corruption watchdogs, law enforcement groups, and human rights organizations consider the legislation, known as the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act, a crucial tool in aiding law enforcement and keeping criminal and tax evading money out of the United States.

Global Witness welcomes moves to stop corrupt politicians and criminals from hiding behind anonymous U.S. shell companies

LONDON – Global Witness applauds Representatives Maloney (D-NY), Frank (D-MA) and Lynch (D-MA) for introducing legislation that would tackle corporate secrecy. If passed into law, the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (H.R. 3416), a companion bill to the Senate’s bipartisan S. 1483, would require companies to disclose their ultimate owners when the company is set up. This would make it much harder for corrupt politicians, tax dodgers, drug traffickers, terrorists and other criminals to form and hide behind anonymous U.S. shell companies.

Christian Aid: G20 Renews Fight Against Tax Haven Secrecy

LONDON – Significant international pressure from an increasing number of policy makers is steadily mounting against the secrecy offered by tax havens, says Christian Aid following the G20 in Cannes.

While the Eurocrisis took centre stage at the summit, a series of important developments in the campaign for tax justice that emerged at the same time went largely unremarked.

Task Force Reaction to G20 Communiqué

WASHINGTON DC – As international financial turmoil intensifies, G20 leaders of the world’s largest economies meeting in Cannes produced a final document that offers some limited hope for international financial transparency and meaningful action on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.

“Governments around the globe are missing the funds necessary for promoting growth and combating poverty. But these funds haven’t vanished off the face of the Earth. They’ve simply been rerouted from public coffers to private pockets via aggressive tax dodging and grand corruption,” Raymond Baker, director of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development commented today.

Global Financial Integrity: G20 Commits to Addressing Illicit Financial Flows, Links Tax Haven Secrecy to Poverty

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) praised the G20 today for its commitment to tackle the issue of illicit financial flows and crack down on tax haven secrecy. In the final declaration and its appendices published at the conclusion of a two-day summit in Cannes, the 20 largest economies committed to “deal effectively with tax havens and non cooperative jurisdictions including the fight against illicit capital flows considering their impact on development.”

Global Financial Integrity Urges G20 to End Tax Haven Secrecy in Cannes

CANNES / WASHINGTON – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today joined over 40,000 people from around the world calling on G20 leaders to end tax haven secrecy when they meet this week in Cannes, France.