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.
Tom Cardamone
Offshore Financial Centres Can Help Curb Illicit Flows by Exchanging Tax Information and Providing Transparent Beneficial Ownership Information
In its recent op-ed, Jersey Finance provides a defence of the offshore financial centre’s legal code and regulatory framework against charges by “pressure groups” of alleged financial improprieties. The author also promotes Jersey’s financial services to current and potential clients that intend to invest in Africa.
However the article’s logic is flawed. It suggests that since Jersey is an international finance centre with allegedly tough anti-money laundering laws to help prevent wrongdoing, other IFCs are also proper places to facilitate investments in the developing world. One need only search “Swiss leaks” or “Lux leaks” to understand more clearly how taxes are dodged, money laundered, and financial secrets kept around the globe. Secret bank accounts, anonymous corporations, fraudulent foundations, nominee trust accounts and other opaque structures are the calling cards of many IFCs and are utilised by any firm or person who wants to move, hide or launder money.
World Leaders Urged to Target Illicit Flows, Trade Misinvoicing at Addis Summit
The outlook was promising. In the outrage over the unfolding FIFA corruption scandal, UK Prime Minister David Cameron vowed Saturday to put corruption on the agenda of this week’s G7 Summit in Germany.
G7 Communiqué Ignores Illicit Flows in the Context of the Post-2015 Development Agenda
World Leaders Urged to Target Illicit Flows, Trade Misinvoicing at FfD Conference
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) expressed disappointment in world leaders Monday for failing to advance efforts to curtail illicit financial flows—particularly in the context of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The G7 failure comes despite a new GFI study released on Wednesday showing the outsized-impact that illicit financial flows (IFFs) have on the poorest countries in the world, and notwithstanding a Friday pledge by UK Prime Minister David Cameron to put corruption on the agenda of the G7 Summit, which concluded today in Germany.
Illicit Financial Flows Have “Outsized Impact on Poorest Countries”
FfD Negotiators Urged to Target Illicit Financial Flows and Trade Misinvoicing
WASHINGTON, DC – Illicit financial flows (IFFs), stemming from crime, corruption, and tax evasion, have an outsized impact on the world’s poorest countries, according to a new study released today by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advisory organization. Titled “Illicit Financial Flows and Development Indices: 2008–2012,” the report also finds strong correlations between higher illicit outflows and higher levels of poverty and economic inequality.
In a joint letter, GFI President Raymond Baker joined 49 other distinguished individuals in calling on the Angolan government to drop charges against journalist Rafael Marques de Morais. The full letter can be read below or downloaded as a PDF here.
GFI would like to thank Human Rights Watch for organizing the letter.
GFI’s Heather Lowe appeared on a panel at the Newseum on May 26, 2015, discussing the impact of the LuxLeaks and SwissLeaks investigations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The panel was sponsored by the Washington Foreign Law Society.
