Dodd-Frank Sec. 1504 a Historic Measure for Stability, Accountability, Transparency
Vote will Enable Provision to Take Effect
WASHINGTON, DC – More than two years after the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is scheduled to vote tomorrow morning, August 22, 2012, on implementing regulations for Section 1504 of the bill, which requires companies operating in the oil, gas, and mining sectors to publicly report on the payments they make to foreign governments on a project-by-project basis. The release of the regulations will enable Section 1504 to take effect, and the effected companies will shortly need to begin reporting as required by law.
WASHINGTON, DC – A letter published yesterday by two influential U.S. Congressmen suggests that Wal-Mart de Mexico (Walmex), the Mexican subsidiary of U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which recently came under fire for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, may have been engaged in money laundering and tax evasion in Mexico.
WASHINGTON, DC – In response to news today that British bank Standard Chartered PLC settled money laundering allegations with New York regulators by agreeing to pay $340 million in fines and submitting to monitoring, Heather Lowe, legal counsel and director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity, released the following statement:
Bankers Should Be Held Responsible for their Actions –GFI
WASHINGTON, DC – The allegations levied yesterday by the New York State Department of Financial Services against British banking giant Standard Chartered demonstrate a systemic, widespread pattern of disregard for anti-money laundering policies at one of the world’s biggest banks, according to Global Financial Integrity, a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization.
Corporate America, in part through the now-dissolved WIN America Campaign, has spent a good portion of the last few years lobbying for a tax holiday. They asked Congress to allow them to repatriate deferred tax dollars that are sitting offshore and pay a very low tax rate, instead of the 35 percent that they owe. U.S. companies are allowed to wait to pay taxes on “foreign” income until they bring the money back into the United States. I put the word foreign in quotes because we know that “foreign” income is often just the result of abusive transfer pricing, not real income, as evidenced by a story in the New York Times this spring. Billions and billions of dollars from corporate profits sit in offshore bank accounts, often completely untaxed.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity applauded the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today on this week’s hearing, “U.S. Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering, Drugs, and Terrorist Financing: HSBC Case History.” The hearing painted a picture of a bank that chose profit over protection, failing to apply legally mandated anti-money laundering protections to many of its accounts.
Rafael Espada
Global Financial Integrity
Several Latin American leaders have proposed legalizing aspects of the drug trade in recent months, clearly acknowledging that the current strategy in the war on drugs is not working. They are correct in highlighting the flaws in the traditional approach to battling illicit narcotics, but do we really need to wave the white flag? Or do alternative approaches still exist to curtail the illicit drug trade?
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
WASHINGTON, DC – The FACT Coalition will host a joint press conference on Tuesday, July 17th following the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation’s hearing “U.S. Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering, Drugs, and Terrorist Financing: HSBC Case History.”
Three anti-money laundering experts representing Global Financial Integrity, Global Witness, and special guest Dennis M. Lormel, former Chief of the FBI’s Terrorist Financing Operations Section, Counterterrorism Division, will answer questions that arise from the hearing.
