By Michele Fletcher, June 20, 2014
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership seeks to unite U.S. and EU markets: a gigantic trade deal uniting over 800 million consumers across the United States and the European Union, and yet all its important documents remain shielded...
At the end of January, the Kenya Sugar Board, acting on a tip off, seized and impounded over 1,800 bags of illegally imported sugar. Arrests were made and the board vowed to begin a country-wide crackdown on other cartels who smuggle tons of sugar into the country each year.
WASHINGTON, DC – Crime, corruption, and tax evasion drained US$946.7 billion from the developing world in 2011, up more than 13.7 percent from 2010—when illicit financial outflows totaled US$832.4 billion. The findings—which peg cumulative illicit financial outflows from developing countries at US$5.9 trillion between 2002 and 2011—are part of a new study published today by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization.
This December 2013 report from Global Financial Integrity, “Illicit Financial Flows from the Developing World: 2002-2011,” finds that the developing world lost US$5.9 trillion in illicit financial flows from 2002-2011, with illicit outflows alarmingly increasing at an average rate of more than 10 percent per year.
Last week, an op-ed that I wrote for The Baltimore Sun prompted a lot of very strong reactions, both positive and negative. I argued that efforts to make Bitcoins functionally anonymous are very dangerous, because money laundering is inherently very dangerous.
To summarize my argument: transnational crime is a global business valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and criminals need a way to easily launder, move, and invest that money to make it worth the risk. I brought up two examples—rhino poaching and human trafficking—in the op-ed, but there are dozens more crimes (including drug trafficking and weapons smuggling) to which you can refer.
U.S. law enforcement officials have been shutting down giant illegal marketplaces that do business in “bitcoin” and are beginning to lay out plans to regulate such digital currencies — like we do any other kind of money — by requiring that money laundering controls be applied to the transactions.
The virtual bitcoin currency is not backed by any central bank or government and can be transferred “peer to peer” between any two people anywhere. It is created through a complex computer mining process that allows people to earn new bitcoins by solving certain mathematical problems.
In March 2010, facing high unemployment in the wake of the largest financial crisis since the 1930s, the US Congress passed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (Hire), hoping to stimulate the American job market. While the Hire act dominated news headlines at the time, a lesser-known provision of the legislation, known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), was included in the bill as a means of paying for the stimulus measure. Few people remember the Hire act; Fatca was a real game changer.
WASHINGTON, DC – As world leaders prepare to meet in Moscow this week to discuss stagnating economic growth, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) urged G20 leaders to take strong action to curtail illicit financial flows, the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion. The Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization called on world leaders to expand efforts to crackdown on abusive tax dodging and the anonymity surrounding anonymous shell companies.