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.
G20 Says Automatic Tax Information Exchange “Expected to Be the Standard”
Finance Ministers Fail to Adequately Address Anonymous Shell Companies
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) lauded G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Friday for prominently focusing on the issue of tax haven secrecy and strongly declaring that automatic exchange of tax information is “expected to be the standard” moving forward, but GFI expressed disappointment in the leaders’ failure to sufficiently address the issue of anonymous shell companies. The leaders released their communiqué Friday afternoon after two days of meetings in Washington ahead of the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
SIR:
As a research and advocacy group that has for years called attention to the murky world of tax havens, we welcome your report (Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore, 4 April). But you should also have dispelled the myth advocated by some proponents that tax havens promote greater tax efficiency through competition; the evidence in economic literature is scanty at best. What is clear is that this benefit has not been enough to prevent tax havens from going bankrupt.
This month’s leak of data on the use of offshore tax havens and anonymous shell companies from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists emphasizes how massive and truly global the tax haven menace really is.
The files released by the ICIJ, analyzed in collaboration with nearly forty news outlets around the globe, implicate the families of foreign dictators in Nigeria and the Philippines, embroil international arms dealers, entangle conduits of the Iranian nuclear program, incriminate close associates of the current French President, and expose scores of other tax evaders and swindlers in the U.S. and around the world.
On U.S. Tax Day, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) Introduces Legislation to Close Offshore Tax Loopholes and Foster Transparency
5 More European Nations Join Compact to Automatically Exchange Tax Information Multilaterally
WASHINGTON, DC – As the deadline arrived Monday for Americans to file their tax returns, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (STHA) to initiate transparency measures and close several offshore tax loopholes that cost the United States Treasury an estimated $150 billion every year. Beyond boosting tax revenue in the U.S., Global Financial Integrity (GFI) praised the legislation for its impact on developing nations, which lose an estimated $1 trillion per year in illicit outflows of money due to tax haven secrecy.
