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.
GFI Praises G20 Renewal of Anti-Corruption Working Group, Disappointed in Failure to Tackle Anonymous Shell Companies
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) praised G20 leaders today for prominently focusing on the issue of illicit financial flows, committing to move toward the automatic exchange of tax information, and renewing the mandate of the Anti-Corruption Working Group for another two years, but expressed disappointment in the leaders’ failure to address the issue of anonymous shell companies.
Greece Lost US$160 Billion to Illicit Financial Outflows over Past Decade
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today called upon G20 leaders meeting this week in Los Cabos, Mexico to tackle the issue of tax haven secrecy and the illicit financial flows it facilitates as a necessary means to ensuring stability in the international financial system.
The United States has a strong national interest in economic, political and civil stability in Mexico. Its war against transnational drug cartels has dramatically highlighted Mexico’s problems, but the truth is that the nation has had deep, unsolved, structural problems in its economy and an opaque international financial system for decades.
Global Financial Integrity’s report on Mexico found that $872 billion in illicit finances left the country from 1970 through 2010. Although some laundered drug money may be included in that figure, it overwhelmingly represents tax evasion by both domestic and multinational corporations doing business in Mexico, as well as corruption, kickbacks and bribery from wealthy Mexican public officials and business leaders.
Why Not Address the Practical Difficulties of Retrieving the Illicit Assets Held Abroad by Indian Citizens
In his forward to the government’s white paper released on May 16, the finance minister acknowledged that black money has a “debilitating effect” on governance and the conduct of public policy in India. The paper’s review of the work done at Global Financial Integrity (GFI) on illicit financial flows from the country is clear and comprehensive and we commend the government’s efforts to develop policy measures to curtail the generation and cross-border transmission of these flows. Ongoing discussions among and between various stakeholders in the world’s largest democracy can in time coalesce public opinion on the required policy measures.
