Repeal of FATCA Would Cripple U.S. Crackdown on Tax Havens & Financial Secrecy, Cost the U.S. Taxpayer Billions
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) urged the Republican National Committee (RNC) to reject a proposed resolution calling for the repeal of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)—the cornerstone of the U.S. effort to fight offshore tax evasion. The law, which was passed in 2010 as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, requires foreign banks to report deposit information on their U.S. accountholders for U.S. tax compliance, as is required of domestic U.S. banks.
A Year after HSBC, Is the U.S. Doing Enough to Fight Money Laundering?
Writing in the current New York Review of Books, Jed S. Rakoff castigates the U.S. government for failing to prosecute any executives of financial institutions responsible for the recent, world-shaking financial crisis. As a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rakoff has witnessed firsthand much of the legal denouement of the crisis, and his disappointment with the government’s inadequate response carries a great deal of weight. Rakoff questions the government’s reasoning in generally not even threatening criminal charges for executives, despite overwhelming evidence that knowledge and responsibility for the mortgage-backed asset bubble predicating the financial crisis rose to the highest levels in many banks.
Fraudulent Trade Misinvoicing Fueling Currency and Housing Speculation within the Country
WASHINGTON, DC – As the Chinese government recently announced moves to crackdown on illicit capital inflows through trade misinvoicing, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) finds that US$400 billion flowed illicitly into China from Hong Kong via trade misinvoicing between 2006 and the first quarter of 2013. The estimates by Global Financial Integrity were released today in an article by GFI Junior Economist Brian LeBlanc on the website of the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
US$400 Billion Smuggled into China from Hong Kong through Trade Misinvoicing Since 2006
China’s regulatory body responsible for managing the country’s foreign exchange reserves (SAFE) announced last month that it was planning to increase enforcement and penalties associated with the abuse of trade payments to mask illicit inflows of foreign exchange. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese authorities have uncovered 1,076 instances of false reporting of export invoices by 112 companies, adding up to approximately $2.5 billion. Still, SAFE has not disclosed the severity of the problem nor how it would clamp down on such practices—leaving many questions to be answered. Allusions to “fishy” trade with Hong Kong were given, but specifics were lacking.
Tom Cardamone
Australia’s Complicity in Money Laundering Hurts the World’s Poor
When you hear the words ”global development” what comes to mind? Foreign aid? Malaria prevention? Humanitarian assistance?
These are all worthy causes, but the most damaging economic problem facing the world’s poor today is the flow of illicit money leaving developing economies as a result of crime, corruption, and tax evasion. Two recent studies drive this point home.
OECD Member Countries Not Compliant with International Standards for Fighting Money Laundering, Tax Evasion, and Corruption
Report from Intergovernmental Body Published 1 Week after GFI Study Found Developing World Lost Nearly $1 Trillion in Illicit Outflows in 2011
WASHINGTON, DC – A landmark report published today by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) takes its members—some of the richest countries in the world—to task for failing to implement policies to curtail illicit financial flows in the developing world. The OECD study—which was quietly posted on the multilateral institution’s website this morning—comes just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI) released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world, finding that the world’s poorest countries lost nearly US$946.7 billion in illegal capital flight in 2011, a 13.7 percent rise from the year before.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
Illicit Financial Outflows from Developing World Up 13.7% from 2010
Nearly $6 Trillion Stolen from Developing Countries in Decade between 2002 and 2011
China, Russia, Mexico, Malaysia, India—in Declining Order—are Biggest Exporters of Illicit Capital over Decade; Sub-Saharan Africa Suffers Biggest Illicit Outflows as Percent of GDP
Study Is First GFI Analysis to Incorporate Re-Exporting Data from Hong Kong and First GFI Report to Utilize Disaggregated Trade Data in Methodology
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.
Monday was International Anti-Corruption Day, an occasion for those who work to fight bribery, money laundering, and illicit capital flight to reflect on the past year and set goals for the next. We have many reasons to celebrate 2013, but also plenty of work still to do in 2014. At Global Financial Integrity, our research shows that nearly $1 trillion leaves developing countries each year (many times the amount such countries receive in official development assistance) through illicit financial outflows, a devastating loss of capital facilitated by a shadow financial system more than happy to accommodate corrupt assets. Gains in tax information exchange and other areas this year will surely help curtail some of this moving forward, but there are many more policy changes needed before this economic scourge can be effectively addressed.
