U.S. President Urged to Join David Cameron’s Call for Public Registries of Beneficial Ownership Information at G8 Summit Next Week
Multilateral Automatic Exchange of Tax Information Should Be Global Norm, Expanded to Developing Countries
Country-by-Country Reporting by Multinational Companies Essential to Deter & Expose Abusive Tax Dodging
WASHINGTON, DC – As G8 leaders prepare to meet Monday and Tuesday in Northern Ireland, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) called on U.S. President Barack Obama to take aggressive action to curtail illicit financial flows and support public disclosure of corporate ownership information as essential to reducing crime, corruption, tax evasion, and terrorist financing. Under the leadership of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the G8 Summit is expected to focus on curbing abusive tax dodging and corruption.
European Parliament Passes Landmark Transparency Provisions for Oil, Gas, Mining, and Logging Companies
Canadian PM Harper Announces Intent to Adopt Similar Policies for Canadian Firms
G8 Urged to Make Disclosure Global Norm at Next Week’s Summit; Expand Country-by-Country Reporting to Firms in All Sectors
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) lauded the European Parliament today for adopting new transparency rules for all EU listed extractive industries companies as well as all large, privately held extractive industries companies incorporated in the EU. Announced informally by European leaders in April, the rules were officially adopted by the Parliament Wednesday in what GFI referred to as a major victory for anti-corruption proponents. Also on Wednesday, the Canadian government announced that it intended to move forward to enact similar rules, a move lauded by GFI, a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization.
Tom Cardamone
The French, it has oft been said, have a wonderful way with language. What sounds rather bland in English, rolls off the French tongue with a touch of elegance and élan. And so it is with the rather clumsy term the English-speaking world uses when referring to where many people hide their wealth from prying eyes: tax haven. The French have a far more pleasant term for these places: they call it a paradis fiscal, a fiscal paradise.
Fiscal paradise, doesn’t that sound much better? No references to unseemly topics like taxes, or worse, worrying about whether to pay them. By using the French term, all the tawdry dealings of the rich and powerful get a makeover that would make any Caribbean hotel spa proud. All that might be sinister or criminal about what is hiding behind the veil of a nominee trust or an anonymous shell company seems somehow rather innocuous when it happens in ‘paradise.’
UN High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda Makes Reducing Illicit Financial Flows and Tax Evasion an Explicit Anti-Poverty Goal
GFI Calls on G8 Leaders to Now Take Action at Northern Ireland Summit
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today praised the United Nations High-Level Panel (HLP) of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda for making the curtailment of illicit financial flows and tax evasion an explicit goal of the global anti-poverty agenda following the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. The report from the HLP, published late last week, follows the release of a new joint study by GFI and the African Development Bank which found illicit financial outflows drained roughly $1.3 trillion from Africa over the past thirty years, making the continent a net creditor to the rest of the world of up to $1.4 trillion.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
Net Resource Transfers Out of Africa Range from US$597 Billion to US$1.4 Trillion from 1980 through 2009
Unrecorded Illicit Financial Outflows from The Continent Ranged from US$1.22-1.35 Trillion from 1980-2009, Swamping Recorded Financial Transactions
Net Resource Deficit, Illicit Outflows Seriously Undermine Development
MARRAKECH, MOROCCO / WASHINGTON, DC – A new joint report by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Global Financial Integrity (GFI), launched Wednesday at the 48th AfDB Annual Meetings in Marrakech, Morocco, reveals that the African continent has been a long-term net creditor to the rest of the world. The report [ HTML | PDF – 4.2 MB ], finds that Africa suffered between US$597 billion and US$1.4 trillion in net outflows between 1980 and 2009 after adjusting net recorded transfers for illicit financial outflows.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
Entre 1980 et 2009, les transferts nets de ressources hors d’Afrique sont de l’ordre de 597 milliards de dollars EU à 1 400 milliards.
Les flux financiers illicites et non enregistrés ont été de l’ordre de 1 220 à 1 350 milliards de dollars EU entre 1980 et 2009, éclipsant les transactions financières enregistrées.
Le déficit net de ressources et les fuites illégales de capitaux compromettent gravement le développement.
MARRAKECH, Maroc / WASHINGTON DC – Lancé officiellement le mercredi 29 mai 2013, à l’occasion des 48e Assemblées annuelles de la Banque africaine de développement (BAD) à Marrakech, au Maroc, un nouveau rapport conjoint de la BAD et de Global Financial Integrity (GFI) révèle que le continent africain est depuis de longues années un créancier net vis-à-vis du reste du monde. Le rapport [ HTML (en anglais) | PDF – 4,2 Mo (en anglais) ] conclut que l’Afrique a pâti de sorties nettes de fonds de l’ordre de 597 milliards de dollars EU à 1 400 milliards de dollars, entre 1980 et 2009, après ajustement des transferts nets enregistrés pour les flux financiers sortants frauduleux.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
GFI Urges Them to Include Developing Countries for Truly Global Policies
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) commended the European Council—the group of heads of government for all twenty-seven countries in the European Union— for the leadership it demonstrated in its May 22nd meeting on critical issues of financial transparency. The minutes of that meeting (PDF) show the following commitments, commitments that take us a significant step closer to achieving GFI’s goals of curtailing illicit financial flows:
Christine Clough, PMP
When the G8 Foreign Ministers met in London last month, they reaffirmed their commitment to supporting economic and political reforms in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Libya and Yemen under the Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition. The Deauville Finance Ministers and international financial institutions made a similar declaration at their meeting in Washington a week later. A key part of this effort has focused on corruption and asset recovery. The six Arab countries are supposed to improve rule of law and reform their economies and political systems to fight corruption and be more transparent. The G8 governments have agreed to help with these domestic reforms, including building greater institutional capacity and championing recovery of assets stolen under the previous regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. But their statements seem to reveal a flawed premise: that corruption and capital flight are the fault of those countries over there, and the only role for Western governments to play is helping them to clean up the mess. The money that Mubarak, Ben Ali and Gaddafi allegedly stole went to banks in the UK, the U.S., France, and a number of other countries. If the G8 sincerely wants Deauville to be an “effective and pragmatic partnership,” member countries should work to make their own financial sectors more open and law-abiding.
