A Johns Hopkins professor’s efforts to develop an untraceable digital currency are dangerous
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.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
New UK Public Registries to Become the Gold Standard to Combat Illicit Financial Flows
President Obama Ought Follow Cameron’s Leadership
WASHINGTON DC – Prime Minister David Cameron announced today that the United Kingdom plans to create a central public registry of corporate beneficial ownership information, and called on other countries to join the United Kingdom by establishing their own public registries.
Heather Lowe, Director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity, praised the historic move, “David Cameron is proving to be the true global leader on tackling the kind of financial opacity that has stymied growth in developed and developing nations alike. Today’s announcement that the United Kingdom will not only be the first nation to collect information on who owns and controls the companies created in the UK, but that the information will be available to the public is truly groundbreaking.”
Holding Individuals Accountable and Deterring Money Laundering Act Would Address Anti-Money Laundering Deficiencies and “Too Big To Jail” Problem at American Banks; Bring U.S. in Line with International Standards
Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act Would Tackle Anonymous U.S. “Phantom Firms”
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) welcomed the introduction late Wednesday night in the U.S. House of Representatives of two pieces of legislation aimed at stemming the flow of trillions of dollars in dirty money through the U.S. financial system. The Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization noted that the two bills would bring the United States in line with certain international anti-money laundering (AML) standards, target individuals responsible for laundering money, and bring an end to the abuse of anonymous U.S. shell companies.
The US is the second easiest country to open a money laundering firm in. And despite tax reforms, the government is perilously behind in the movement for corporate transparency
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.
GFI President Raymond Baker delivers remarks at the “Human Rights and Economic Justice: Essential Elements of the Post-MDG Agenda” conference at Yale University on October 18, 2013. Mr. Baker’s remarks provide an overview of the issue of illicit financial flows, and he explains how it plays into the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Criminals make a tremendous amount of money, but what happens to it? The Wire, Breaking Bad, Lethal Weapon, and more explain. Too often, our financial system makes it easy for criminals to hide from law enforcement. Learn...
One of the biggest advancements in curtailing illicit financial flows to date is the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) signed into law in March 2010. The law required foreign financial institutions to report to the US government information on all of their US clients. Almost immediately, foreign governments demanded the same from the United States, leading to a flurry of intergovernmental agreements between the US and foreign nations — many of them developing countries — establishing a system of automatic exchange of tax information.
In order for the law to work effectively, and in order for developing nations to benefit from it, each of these intergovernmental agreements needs to be negotiated and signed both by US treasury department officials and by their foreign counterparts. Unfortunately, with the US government shutdown for more than two weeks, those treasury department officials are unable to do their jobs.
Tom Cardamone
Six years ago, when the effort to promote greater transparency in the global financial system began to gain traction, it was well understood that at some point private sector support would be a key factor in achieving progress. Last week at the International Bar Association’s (IBA) annual meeting in Boston, an IBA task force released a report that takes a major step in that direction. The study examined the issue of tax evasion from the “perspective of international human right law” and found that there is a linkage between human rights and the use of secrecy jurisdictions and other measures used to avoid or evade taxation.
