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The Illegal Wildlife Trade: Sample Retail Market Prices

In the illegal wildlife trade, like all transnational crime, the majority of participants are involved for financial gain. Retailers generally face little enforcement risk while realizing strong profits, as the value of a particular commodity, be it a wild African grey parrot or grams of bear bile, increases dramatically as it makes its way from source to market country.

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The Business of Transnational Crime

The groups engaged in transnational organized crime—from criminal networks to insurgent groups to terrorist organizations—are united by a common thread: money. All of the crimes covered in Global Financial Integrity’s new report Transnational Crime and the Developing World are overwhelmingly profit-motivated. Globally, transnational crime has an average annual retail value of $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion, based on 11 “industries”: counterfeiting and piracy, drug trafficking, illegal logging, human trafficking, illegal mining, illegal fishing, the illegal wildlife trade, crude oil theft, the trafficking of small arms and light weapons, the illegal organ trade, and the trafficking of cultural property.

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Panama Papers Anniversary Is Opportunity to Underscore Severity of the Problem

Believe it or not, the Panama Papers scandal has an upside: it shed light on the dark corners of the international financial system. Prior to the revelation that one law firm helped establish over 200,000 anonymous companies, the casual observer knew tax evasion, corruption, and money laundering occur in the world but they didn’t know quite how it works. Now the term “anonymous shell company” has some resonance and it is in the general lexicon — even if most people still can’t explain how they work.

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GFI Database Helps Countries Boost Domestic Resource Mobilization

Today, GFI is pleased to announce the launch of GFTrade, a proprietary trade risk assessment application that enables customs officials to determine if goods are priced outside typical ranges for comparable products. A cloud-based system developed over the past year, GFTrade provides officials with real-time price analyses for goods in the port using price ranges for the same product based on global trade information. This information can help to determine if further investigation into potential misinvoicing is warranted, and it has the potential to substantially increase domestic revenue mobilization.

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Magnitudes versus Methodologies?

Global Financial Integrity is pleased to note growing interest in the estimation of illicit financial flows and their effect on emerging market and developing countries. We are writing to offer a series of thoughts surrounding the reality of this concern and its political significance.

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Illicit Financial Flows, Corruption, and Sustainable Economic Development in Tunisia

By Sami Dabbegh Since the outbreak of the so-called “Jasmine Revolution” five years ago, leading to the ouster of former president Ben Ali, Tunisia’s key economic and social problems have not been tackled in a way that...

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Stop the Bleeding — Curbing Illicit Financial Flows Video Recap

By Tim Hirschel-Burns “A global human society, characterised by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable.” This quote from Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, concludes the recently released video “Stop...

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Implications of a Brexit: A U-turn in tackling global tax avoidance?

With just days remaining until Britain decides on its EU membership, the UK is at a crossroads. It has a historical choice to make, with various consequences attached to the decision on the 23rd of June on whether it becomes the first ever country to leave the EU. Those consequences could include undermining the leading role that Britain has taken in the global fight against corruption and transforming Britain into an even greater tax haven for multinationals.

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