Arvind Ganesan
Thomas Pogge
Global Financial Integrity
In early December of last year, an unusual group of 40 organizations and individuals met at Yale University to discuss illicit capital flows out of developing countries, lack of transparency in the global financial system, and the impact these conditions have on human rights around the world. The meeting brought together experts from the fields of human rights and financial transparency to explore similarities in their work and develop a common agenda.
WASHINGTON, DC — Global Financial Integrity (GFI) released today a statement-dubbed the New Haven Declaration-which debuts a new partnership between humans rights and financial transparency advocacy groups. Today’s announcement follows a meeting of prominent human rights and financial transparency organizations at Yale University in early December, 2009. The groups discussed the link between illicit financial practices, secrecy in global finance and their adverse impact on human rights.
WASHINGTON, DC — A new audit program developed by Chile’s tax authority to detect “differences in inter-company transactions” of Chilean multinational corporations is a crucial step towards more effective regulation of a practice often utilized by multinationals to evade taxes, said Global Financial Integrity (GFI) Wednesday.
Global Financial Integrity
WASHINGTON, DC — Global Financial Integrity joined leading civil society groups in calling for swift passage of H.R. 4213, the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, expected to go to the House floor today for a vote. Multiple groups, ranging from the AFL-CIO to U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), signed a letter voicing support for the bill which includes language that would tackle banking secrecy and tax evasion.
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, as countries around the world observe International Anti-Corruption Day, Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization Global Financial Integrity (GFI) notes the following victories and defeats from the past year in the fight against international corruption:
Eva Joly
Global Financial Integrity
On May 4, the Obama administration announced a plan to crack down on offshore tax havens, which it said are costing the United States tens of billions of dollars each year. The President’s proposals were primarily aimed at finding ways to increase revenue from wealthy companies and investors who use loopholes in the law and offshore subsidiaries to reduce their US taxes. But the administration is largely missing a far more devastating problem related to offshore finance: money gained from criminal and other illicit sources. With the use of tax havens and other elements of an increasingly complex “shadow” financial network, vast sums of illegal money are being shifted throughout the global economy virtually undetected.
The United States Justice Department recently announced the arrest of 1,200 individuals on narcotics charges as part of the four-year, multi-agency law enforcement investigation targeting Mexian drug cartel La Familia known as “Project Coronado.” In addition to arrests, law enforcement agents confiscated $3.4 million in U.S. currency, 729 pounds of methamphetamine, 62 kilograms of cocaine, and 967 pounds of marijuana.
WASHINGTON, DC — Global Financial Integrity (GFI) applauds the on-going work of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service towards bringing wealthy tax evading citizens to justice. Following the release today of the previously confidential “annex” of criteria UBS will use to choose which accounts it remits information on, GFI urges consideration of further comprehensive reform of global financial protocols as significant shortcomings remain in the diplomatic and regulatory landscape.
