Council of the European Union Approves Text and Timetable for Directive, Including Crucial Measures on Beneficial Ownership Transparency.
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) praised the Council of the European Union for continuing today the EU’s movement towards cracking down on anonymous companies, a major conduit for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion.
The Council, which is composed of government ministers from each EU member country, agreed on a revised text of changes to the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD), which will now return to the Parliament for a second reading and negotiations with the Council on final wording. The Council text retains the requirement, which the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved in March, that companies and trusts formed in every EU country disclose their “beneficial owners,” or the natural persons who ultimately own or control them, to a central authority.
“We strongly praise the Council for its movement to crack down on anonymous companies,” said GFI President Raymond Baker, a longtime authority on financial crime. “As our research notes, nearly $70 billion flowed illegally into or out of emerging EU economies in 2011. Anonymous companies are the number one tool for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion. Creating registries of the true, human, ‘beneficial’ owner of each company—as the Council endorsed today—is a common sense approach to curbing financial crime and the tremendous flow of illegal money.”
Tom Cardamone
Global Financial Integrity (GFI) joined several prominent civil society organizations on June 16, 2014 in signing an open letter to the UN’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals urging them to make Goal 16 a priority.
Ineffective governance and institutions hinder sustainable development goals. Furthermore, poor governance and leadership systems are often the root of sustainable development issues. Thus, the groups argue, progress with Goal 16 would reinforce all sustainable development goals.
Civil Society Experts Call on Delaware to Create Public Registry of Beneficial Ownership Information
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) and Global Witness expressed disappointment that the Delaware House of Representatives passed two bills this evening that do little to stop criminals from using Delaware companies to launder their illicit proceeds.
The two pieces of legislation are House Bill 327 and House Bill 328, which would establish a chain of people that need to be consulted, in turn, in order to identify a person at a limited liability company or limited partnership who has a list of the entity’s legal owners. Legal owners may be other companies with hidden ownership or nominees, which are essentially front people for the real owner. The bills will now proceed to the State Senate for consideration.
“These bills are little more than window-dressing,” stated Stefanie Ostfeld, Senior Policy Advisor at Global Witness. “Anonymous companies lie at the heart of many of the world’s worst problems, and this legislation will do nothing to pull back the curtain on who owns and controls Delaware companies.”
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
GFI Urges G7 Leaders to Push for an Illicit Financial Flows Goal in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
GFI Calls for Implementation Assessments on Beneficial Ownership Commitment to Be Published by End of 2014
WASHINGTON, DC – G7 leaders meeting in Brussels reiterated their commitment to curtailing illicit financial flows stemming from crime, corruption, and tax evasion in a communiqué released today, as Global Financial Integrity (GFI) called on world leaders to push for an explicit illicit financial flows commitment in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Contributing to a Safer and More Secure World Demands That Financial Intelligence Units Work to Change the System from Within
GFI President Raymond Baker delivered the keynote address before the 22nd Plenary of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units in Lima, Peru.
Political scientists Mike Findley and Daniel Nielson discuss the findings of their new book: Global Shell Games: Experiments in Transnational Relations, Crime, and Terrorism, and the issue of anonymous shell companies. They are joined by Global Financial Integrity’s Heather Lowe, who moderates the event, as well as by Tax Justice Network-USA’s Jack Blum.
Christine Clough, PMP
Photos from the launch events for our May 2014 report, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Trade Misinvoicing and the Impact of Revenue Loss in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda: 2002-2011,” which was funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
These photos were taken from the launch events in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in Accra, Ghana.
While the precise magnitude and consequences of illicit financial flows in African countries — and throughout the developing world — deserve further analysis, it is clear that such flows are wreaking havoc on the continent. Any sustainable approach to global development has to curtail illicit flows and the mechanisms facilitating them. Only then will we be able to mobilize domestic resources for long-term development.
