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.
Criminals, Terrorists, Kleptocrats, and Tax Evaders Currently Abusing Anonymous American Corporations to Launder Money, Shield Themselves from Law Enforcement
WASHINGTON, DC – Two recent articles published in The New York Times expose how criminals, terrorists, corrupt foreign politicians, and tax evaders abuse anonymous U.S. shell companies to launder their profits and impede law enforcement investigators, highlighting the need—says Global Financial Integrity (GFI)—for Congress to enact legislation requiring disclosure of the true (human) beneficial owners of corporations, trusts and foundations.
Disingenuous Reporting Distracts from Curtailing Illicit Financial Outflows from the World’s Largest Democracy
GFI ‘Disappointed’ in Indian Newspaper
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today denounced an article published by The Economic Times (ET) late Monday, explaining that the story represented sloppy journalism and was riddled with factual inaccuracies. Titled “GFI okay with govt’s black money fight despite white paper censure,” the article was authored by Binoy Prabhakar, the publication’s news editor.
Money does not move on its own. It has to be moved by a person. And if the money is illicit, efforts have to be made to disguise the source, movement and destination of the funds. Attorneys, bankers, hawaladars, governments that permit the creation of anonymous shell companies and bearer share companies, couriers, title and real estate companies, escrow agents, and others must be involved.
All of these people can be classified as facilitators for their different roles, but this panel must not end without everybody in this room understanding that every facilitator who has some level of knowledge that the money they are handling may come from some sort of crime is a criminal in their own right. These facilitators are money launderers.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
Illicit Financial Flows, Corruption Included in Sustainable Development Agenda for the First Time
WASHINGTON D.C. – Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organization, praised the commitments made to address illicit financial flows by leaders in government and business at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as the Rio+20, Conference this week.
