It is encouraging to see the zealous enthusiasm that has surfaced in India over the past few years on eliminating black money or illicit financial flows. While many other countries are taking modest steps to curtail illicit flows, India has gone ahead to make the issue one of pressing national importance. Applause is due to the nation, while more work remains tobe done.
India has acted strongly to pressurise foreign banks into accounting for and in the future returning illicitly-acquired assets to the country. This is a worthwhile goal. But any asset recovery will be a long-drawn process and is likely to result only in a fraction of illicit dollars being returned. A more productive outcome can be to focus on stemming future illicit financial flows, both domestically through mechanisms such as anti- corruption legislation and by applying pressure on the international community.
Over US$900 Billion Illicitly Drained from Developing Countries in 2009, Says Annual GFI Study
Report Finds Developing World Lost US$8.44 Trillion over the Decade 2000-2009
WASHINGTON, DC – Developing countries lost US$903 billion in illicit financial outflows in 2009 despite the massive slowdown in economic activity which rocked world markets in late 2008, finds a new study by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organization.
Senator to Accept Award Tonight at Gala Dinner in Washington, DC
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) will tonight present Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) with the organization’s 2011 annual Award for Exemplary Leadership in acknowledgement of his untiring efforts on behalf of financial integrity in the U.S. and abroad. Sen. Levin will accept the award this evening at a gala dinner hosted by GFI in his honor at The Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC.
Trade Mispricing Fuels Massive Outflows from Southeast Asian Nation, Finds Annual GFI Study to Be Released Thursday
WASHINGTON, DC – The illicit mispricing of trade cost the Philippines US$114 billion from 2000-2009 with total illicit outflows over the decade due to crime, corruption and tax evasion amounting to US$142 billion, finds a forthcoming report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI)—a Washington-based research and advocacy organization. The study,Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries over the Decade Ending 2009, which is embargoed for publication until Thursday, places the Southeast Asian nation in the top fifteen victims of illegal capital flight world-wide.
On December 14, 2011, Global Financial Integrity hosted its yearly award gala and presented its 2011 annual Award for Exemplary Leadership to U.S. Senator Carl Levin.
Equatorial Guinea is a tiny nation of just 700,000 people, but it is rich in oil and other natural resources. President Teodoro Obiang, Teodorin’s father, has ruled the country since 1979. During that time, he has amassed a massive fortune, including over $700 million that Fortune Magazine estimated Obiang and his government stashed in one U.S. bank as recently as 2006.
They are using the state’s natural resource wealth to enrich the regime and the Obiang family. For example, the U.S. Government has alleged that in his position as Minister of Agriculture, Teodorin imposed a “revolutionary tax” on timber and insisted that the tax be paid in either cash or by check, made out to a company owned by Teodorin.
Nation Was Third Largest Hemorrhager of Illicit Flows Worldwide According to Forthcoming Global Financial Integrity Report
WASHINGTON, DC – Russia hemorrhaged over US$501 billion in illicit financial outflows in the ten years following Vladimir Putin’s rise to power according to a forthcoming report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy organization. The study, Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries over the Decade Ending 2009, finds the nation lost more than US$50 billion per year from 2000 through 2009—making it the third largest victim of illegal capital flight.
African Nation Lost US$11.7 Billion in Illegal Capital Flight from 2000 through 2009, Writes GFI Economist
WASHINGTON, DC – Corruption, kickbacks and bribery are on the rise in Ethiopia, according to a forthcoming report from Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization. According to the study, illicit financial flows out of the African nation nearly doubled to US$3.26 Billion in 2009 over the previous year, with corruption, kickbacks and bribery accounting for the vast majority of that increase.
