July 11, 2015
Christine Clough, PMP
GFI Spokespersons Available for Comment and Updates on Financing for Development (FfD), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Illicit Financial Flows, Trade Misinvoicing
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia / WASHINGTON, DC – The third Financing for Development Conference (FfD) will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 13-16, and Global Financial Integrity will be on the ground advocating for specific, measurable and achievable targets to significantly reduce illicit financial flows.
This process marks a momentous opportunity to create a sustained path for helping developing countries address the nearly US$1 trillion that flows out of their economies illicitly each year. Of that amount approximately $730 billion is moved offshore through trade misinvoicing (i.e. trade fraud). The related tax loss, coupled with the potential investment resources that are lost, represent significant costs to governance and development efforts in poor countries.
In the months leading up to the FfD conference, GFI has been urging governments to set a target for addressing trade misinvoicing as a concrete, practical, and lucrative approach to reducing illicit money leaving developing economies. Specifically, GFI is calling for “halving trade misinvoicing at the country level by 2030” as a recipe for sustainable development.
Global Financial Integrity spokespeople are available to comment on:
- the devastating impact of illicit financial flows as they rob developing countries of the means for their own improvement;
- how the third International Financing for Development conference provides a crucial opportunity for the self-improvement of developing countries;
- how decisions made at the financing for development conference will affect the Sustainable Development Goals process; and,
- how developing countries stand to lose if the provision concerning Illicit Financial Flows is excluded from the final document.
To request an interview with GFI Managing Director Tom Cardamone in Addis Ababa or other GFI experts in Washington, DC, contact Christine Clough at [email protected] or +1 202 510 1548.
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Notes to Editors:
- Click here for more information about the GFI report “Illicit Financial Flows and Development Indices: 2008–2012.”
- Click here for more information about the GFI report “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2003-2012.”
- Global Financial Integrity (GFI) is a Washington, DC-based research and advisory organization, which promotes transparency in the international financial system as a means to global development.
Contact:
Tom Cardamone
[email protected]
+1 571 277 7310 (mobile)
Christine Clough
[email protected]
+1 202 510 1548 (mobile)
+1 202 293 0740 x231 (office)