March 4, 2013
Raymond Baker, the President of Global Financial Integrity, presents the findings of GFI’s February 2013 study, “Russia: Illicit Financial Flows and the Underground Economy,” during a discussion sponsored by the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. The presentation is moderated by William Pomeranz of the Kennan Institute.
February 28, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) praised European Union leaders today for their commitment to requiring banks to disclose profits-made, taxes-paid, subsidiaries, and staff levels on a country-by-country basis, and the Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization called upon the United States to follow Europe’s lead and adopt similar rules.
February 21, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – According to media reports, the Governor of the Central Bank of Russia stated Wednesday that roughly $50 billion was illegally siphoned out of Russia in 2012, echoing research published last week by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization, which estimated that an annual average of $62 billion was illicitly smuggled out of Russia in recent years.
February 14, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – A 10-article exposé accompanied by a cover-page editorial in this week’s edition of The Economist highlights the damaging role of anonymous shell companies, banking secrecy, and lax money laundering regulations and enforcement in places like the United States, Great Britain, and offshore tax havens. The influential British magazine—which hits newsstands tomorrow—calls on developed western economies like the United States, Great Britain, and Europe to “focus… on cleaning up their own back yards and reforming their tax systems.”
February 13, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – The Russian economy hemorrhaged US$211.5 billion in illicit financial outflows from 1994—the earliest year for which data is available following the dissolution of the Soviet Union—through 2011, according to a new report released Wednesday by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization. The study, titled “Russia: Illicit Financial Flows and the Role of the Underground Economy,” [HTML | PDF] also measures massive illicit inflows to the Russian economy of $552.9 billion over the 18-year time-span, raising serious questions about the economic and political stability of the nation currently chairing the G20.
February 11, 2013
WASHINGTON DC – In the midst of a Congressional and White House showdown over the impending sequestration, and growing calls for corporate tax reform, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) put forth the Cut Unjustified Tax Loopholes Act (S. 268, CUT Loopholes Act). This bill, which closes loopholes and strengthens enforcement measures against offshore tax haven abuse, could raise nearly $200 billion over ten years.
January 10, 2013
The details of the HSBC money laundering case are simultaneously enraging and sickening, as the comedian Jon Stewart reminded us all on The Daily Show this week. HSBC agreed last month to pay the U.S. government $1.9 billion to settle a probe into widespread money laundering facilitation by the New York branch of Europe’s largest bank. But, this is not mere money we are talking about; it is the daily gang violence on the streets of our cities and towns, it is the increased likelihood that your children will be offered drugs in their schools, it is the abduction of children and selling them into the sex trade. Authorities estimate that the average annual income generated from a trafficked child is $200,000 per year. That money has to be laundered somewhere, by someone.
January 8, 2013
For most of my professional life, I owned and operated a number of businesses in Nigeria. My partners and I would find a failing company, buy it out, and rebuild it as an efficient, well-run enterprise that turned a profit. We paid our taxes, refused to participate in bribery or corruption, and created jobs.
I am sad to say that when Nigerians look into the future, they do not see the optimism that I experienced back in the 1960s and ’70s. Their country has been torn apart not just by civil war, but also by the terrible forces of crime, corruption, and tax evasion. After years of seeing the quality of life for so many people in Nigeria decrease, I decided that I was obligated to do something about it. I founded Global Financial integrity, an organization dedicated to curtailing illicit money leaving countries like Nigeria around the world.