E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
Former UN Secretary-General Calls for Public Disclosure of Corporate Ownership Information
2013 Africa Progress Report Features GFI Research, Highlights Devastating Impact of Tax Haven Secrecy, Phantom Firms on Development
Forthcoming Joint Report from AfDB and GFI Released May 29th to Examine Economic Toll of IFFs on Africa
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) lauded former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Africa Progress Panel (APP), which he chairs, for highlighting the devastating impact that illicit financial outflows have on economic development and poverty alleviation across the continent in the 2013 Africa Progress Report published today. The APP report cites GFI’s research on illicit financial flows and calls upon the G8 to require full, public disclosure of the beneficial ownership information of all corporate entities within the next year.
Senate Ratification of Treaties Crucial to Stopping Tax Evaders, Continuing International Momentum for Automatic Exchange of Tax Information
International Business Groups Have Also Called on Paul to Resolve the Legal Uncertainty Caused by Delay
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization, urged Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) today to allow the U.S. Senate to vote on treaties negotiated by the U.S. with Switzerland, Luxembourg, Hungary, and other countries to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), ferreting out U.S. tax evaders. Senate rules allow any Senator to place a “hold” on legislation removing it from consideration, and Sen. Paul has placed holds on bills to implement every tax treaty negotiated since his election in 2010.
Tom Cardamone
As the saying goes—when things seem too good to be true, they often are. And so it is with tax haven secrecy.
For decades, government officials in Washington, London, and other Western nations were in agreement: Tax havens and anonymous shell companies were beneficial, or so the logic went. Regulators at the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of London saw trillions of “foreign” dollars flowing into American and British markets from offshore tax havens. Surely, that was a good thing. If a bunch of anonymous shell companies and disguised bank accounts want to funnel enormous wealth into the American and British economies, why ask questions? What’s the worst that could happen?
Illicit financial flows are a key issue impacting economic justice and human rights. They stifle domestic resource mobilisation, undermine government accountability and stability, and fuel economic inequality. For many decades, the human rights movement focused its programs and campaigns on civil and political rights. Experts and policymakers are now working to include issues of economic justice. This is the lens through which we in the development community should view the issue of illicit flows. While 1.2 billion people struggle to survive on $1.25 per day, we estimate that $859 billion drained illicitly out of developing countries in 2010.
Bipartisan Study Features GFI Research, Endorses Eliminating Phantom Firms
Senate Drug Caucus Report Quotes GFI’s Heather Lowe, Highlight’s GFI’s Research on Trade-Based Money Laundering
WASHINGTON, DC / LONDON – A bipartisan Congressional report published Thursday by the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control (Senate Drug Caucus) emphasizes cracking down on money laundering as key to curtailing the illicit drug trade. Quoting heavily from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) experts and research, the study endorses eliminating anonymous U.S. shell companies through the passage of the bipartisan Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act, bolstering enforcement of existing anti-money laundering (AML) policies, and strengthening anti-money laundering laws through passage of the bipartisan Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Counterfeiting Act.
British PM Endorses Public Registries of Company Ownership to “Break through the Walls of Corporate Secrecy”
France, Germany Also Call for Meaningful End to Anonymous Shell Companies
GFI Urges G8, U.S., EU to Follow Suit
WASHINGTON, DC / LONDON – In a major victory for transparency advocates, British Prime Minister David Cameron called on members of the G8 and the European Union Wednesday to “break through the walls of corporate secrecy” that facilitates tax dodging, money laundering, and corruption—endorsing the disclosure of beneficial ownership information in central public registries. Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization, lauded the statements by Mr. Cameron—included in a letter sent Wednesday to Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council—and the organization encouraged the United States, EU, and G8 to follow suit.
Fraudulent Trade Misinvoicing Drained US$9.54 Billion in Illicit Money from Argentina from 2001-2010
Trade-Based Money Laundering Technique Siphoned US$4.69 Trillion from Poor Countries between 2001-2010; Facilitates Sex Slavery, Terrorism, Tax Evasion
WASHINGTON, DC – As the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that Ralph Lauren Corporation (Ralph Lauren) utilized fraudulent misinvoicing tactics to funnel bribes to Argentinean customs officials over the course of five years, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) noted that trade misinvoicing drained US$9.54 billion from the Argentinean economy between 2001 and 2010. The deliberate misinvoicing of trade documents is used to launder all types of illicit money, and it costs the developing world roughly US$4.69 trillion in illicit financial outflows from 2001 through 2010, according research by GFI, a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization.
Amid the ongoing turmoil in Syria and the turbulent transition to democracy in Egypt, the optimism we all felt about the Arab Spring in the early months of 2011 seems rather far away.
That’s why it was so encouraging last week to learn that $28.8 million of the former Tunisian dictator’s stolen assets were returned to the people of Tunisia. Recovered from a Lebanese bank account belonging to Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s wife, the repatriated riches are the first stolen assets returned to the North African country since the overthrow of Mr. Ben Ali more than two years ago.
