Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development » Video

It’s Time To Tackle Tax Havens

Tax Justice Network — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:18:46 +0000

Half of the world’s trade passes through tax havens. Right now, they are hiding billions of dollars on behalf of criminals, dictators, wealthy individuals, and corporations.

Watch this video, then find out what tax havens are, why they’re so damaging and what we can do about it.

Task Force Conference 2011: Session 1 – Beneficial Ownership

EJ Fagan — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:57:25 +0000

Each week, the Task Force blog will feature a video relating to the global fight against corruption, tax evasion, and poverty.

This week, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act. The bill would require all U.S. corporations to disclose a real human being as the beneficial owner of the corporation. Ann Hollingshead wrote a great blog post about the bill earlier this week.

This week’s featured video shows an excellent discussion about beneficial ownership from the Task Force 2011 Conference in Paris, France. They discuss how a lack of disclosed beneficial ownership protects corrupt dictators and tax dodgers from law enforcement scrutiny, why legitimate businesses will not be hurt by the requirement, and implications for international development.

The panel is chaired by Anthea Lawson of Global Witness, and includes Raymond Baker, Director of the Task Force and Global Financial Integrity and Jean Pesme, Coordinator of the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) at the World Bank.

The video is a valuable tool for anyone who wants or needs to know more about how illicit money is moved around the globe. It runs for 1 hour.

You can both access our library of videos and at the Task Force’s Youtube page.

The Legal Basis to Reject Odious Debt

EJ Fagan — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:03:28 +0000

James K. Boyce and Léonce Ndikumana are the authors of Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent, published by Zed Books in association with the Royal African Society, the International African Institute and the Social Science Research Council.

This video is the third of three parts. Part one, “Should Africa Repay Its Odious Debts?” is available here and part two, “The Human Cost of Africa’s Odious Debts” is available here.

You can also read their blog post, “How Capital Flight Drains Africa: Stolen Money And Lost Lives” on the Financial Task Force blog here.

Dr. Boyce and Dr. Ndikumana are members of the Task Force’s Economist Advisory Panel.

The Human Cost of Africa’s Odious Debt

EJ Fagan — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:03:19 +0000

This video is the second of three parts. Part one, “Should Africa Repay Its Odious Debts?” is available here and part three, “The Legal Basis to Reject Africa’s Odious Debts” is available here.

You can also read their blog post, “How Capital Flight Drains Africa: Stolen Money And Lost Lives” on the Financial Task Force blog here.

Dr. Boyce and Dr. Ndikumana are members of the Task Force’s Economist Advisory Panel.

Should Africa Repay It’s Odious Debts?

EJ Fagan — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:59:06 +0000

This video is the first of three parts. Part two, “The Human Cost of Africa’s Odious Debts” is available here and Part three, “The Legal Basis to Reject Africa’s Odious Debts” is available here.

You can also read their blog post, “How Capital Flight Drains Africa: Stolen Money And Lost Lives” on the Financial Task Force blog here.

Dr. Boyce and Dr. Ndikumana are members of the Task Force’s Economist Advisory Panel.

UK Channel 4 News Report On Jersey Tax Haven

EJ Fagan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:33:49 +0000

Thanks to ActionAid’s report Addicted to Tax Havens, we know that 98 of the top 100 companies on the FTSE have money parked away in offshore tax havens, in 9892 separate offshore subsidiaries. 1649 of those belong to just four banks.

The UK’s Channel 4 News decided to go to the Channel Island of Jersey, where over 600 of these subsidiaries are registered, to investigate the problem further. Its a great summary of the issues facing the United Kingdom, and how companies use jurisdictions like Jersey to brazenly avoid taxation.

New End Tax Haven Secrecy Video Out – Take Action

EJ Fagan — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:20:39 +0000

Christian Aid just released their new video for the End Tax Haven Secrecy campaign.

Watch the (excellent) video, then visit EndTaxHavenSecrecy.org to take action today. Join us in calling to demand tax justice at the G20 summit in France in November 2011.

Tax dodging by multi-national corporations costs developing countries hundreds of billions of dollars every year, much more than the global foreign aid budget. You can read their position paper here.

Bearing Witness: Raymond Baker

Global Financial Integrity — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:54:02 +0000

Task Force and Global Financial Integrity Director Raymond Baker speaks at an event sponsored by Christian Aid in Manchester. He explains how the shadow financial system works, and how it causes tremendous human tragedy. He defends both the moral and economic cases for fixing the global financial system, and then follows by charting a course toward that end.

The speech lasts 16 minutes.

End Tax Haven Secrecy!

Task Force — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:55:23 +0000

While over 100 million children never get the opportunity to go to school, developing countries lose more money through tax dodging than they receive in aid.

Visit www.endtaxhavensecrecy.org to take action now to end tax haven secrecy. Join us in calling to demand tax justice at the G20 summit in France in November 2011.

Use the “CC” button to choose your language in the video.

(Credits: Matt Patton, Animation / Frank Chi, Script / Andrew Logan, Music)

Raymond Baker Speaks To Publish What You Pay

Task Force — Mon, 23 May 2011 20:44:02 +0000

GFI and Task Force Director Raymond Baker speaks in Norway in an event sponsored by Publish What You Pay. He speaks about how the global shadow financial system creates tremendous human tragedy through $1.2 trillion per year of illicit financial flows, and how extractive industries transparency can help fix the system.

Baker says that Norway should “Move forward with what it thinks is right, and what it thinks the standards should be for the whole world. In a word, lead. On this issue of transparency in extractive industries, lead, and the whole world will follow.”

The video lasts 15 minutes.