Global Financial Integrity

GFI header image
 
SHARE

Raymond Baker

Founding President

Raymond Baker

Founding President

Raymond Baker is the Founding President of Global Financial Integrity and the author of Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, published by John Wiley & Sons and cited by the Financial Times as one of the “best business books of 2005.” He has for many years been an internationally respected authority on corruption, money laundering, growth, and foreign policy issues, particularly as they concern emerging market and developing countries and impact western economic and foreign interests. He has written and spoken extensively, testified often before legislative committees in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, been quoted worldwide, and has commented frequently on television and radio in the the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia on legislative matters and policy questions, including appearances on ABC News’ Nightline, Al Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg TV, the CBS Evening News, CNN, NPR, PBS, and Four Corners (ABC1 in Australia), among others.

Mr. Baker founded Global Financial Integrity in 2006, and the GFI team has produced more than 25 economic analyses of resource transfers affecting countries, regions, and the world. GFI has led in securing the terminology and the reality of illicit financial flows onto the global political-economy agenda. He also serves on the Policy Advisory Board of Transparency International-USA and on the Advisory Board of the Ethical Research Institute.

In 1996 he received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for a project entitled, “Flight Capital, Poverty and Free-Market Economics.” He serves on the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on the Illicit Economy. He traveled to 23 countries to interview 335 central bankers, commercial bankers, government officials, economists, lawyers, tax collectors, security officers, and sociologists on the relationships between bribery, commercial tax evasion, money laundering, and economic growth. From 1985 to 1996 Mr. Baker provided confidential economic advisory services at the presidential level for developing country governments. Activities focused principally on issues surrounding anti-corruption strategies, international terms of trade, and developing country debt. Research was conducted with 550 business owners and managers in eleven countries, concerning import and export mispricing and movement of tax-evading capital, and money laundering.

From 1976 to 1985 Mr. Baker conducted extensive trading activities throughout Latin America and in ten Asian countries including the People’s Republic of China. An affiliated company in London handled transactions in Europe. From 1961 to 1976 he lived in Nigeria and established and managed an investment company which set up and acquired manufacturing and financing ventures, the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies. Educated at Harvard Business School and Georgia Institute of Technology, Mr. Baker is the author of “The Biggest Loophole in the Free-Market System,” “Illegal Flight Capital; Dangers for Global Stability,” “How Dirty Money Binds the Poor,” and other works published in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

articles by Raymond Baker

Pan African Lawyers Union Keynote Address

Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation

Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation

Magnitudes versus Methodologies?

Financing for development: Enabling developing countries to tackle illicit flows

A Conversation with Raymond Baker on Illicit Financial Flows in Africa

From Foreign Aid to Legitimate Trade: How to Finance Development

Joint Letter Re: Prosecution of Rafael Marques de Morais

The Hunt for Black Money

Happy Holidays from Global Financial Integrity

Orders of Magnitude and the Human Cost of Illicit Financial Flows

Open Letter to G20 Leaders on Beneficial Ownership and Country-by-Country Reporting

Raymond Baker’s Remarks at World Bank Forum on Illicit Financial Flows and Sustainable Development

Financial Transparency: Moving Towards Systemic Solutions

Want Sustainable Development? Mobilize Domestic Resources, Curtail Illicit Capital Flows

Following the Money: Tracking Illicit Cash Flows from Developing Countries

Raymond Baker at the “Human Rights and Economic Justice: Essential Elements of the Post-MDG Agenda” Conference

Curtailing Illicit Financial Flows a Human Rights Imperative

Bravo for Tunisia: Hope Springs Eternal

Tax Haven Menace Must Be Addressed by Congress

Video: Raymond Baker Testifies before European Parliament Hearing

Video: Raymond Baker at Wilson Center Event on Illicit Financial Flows from Russia

Illicit Financial Flows: The Scourge of the Developing World

Plundering a Continent

China: $4 Trillion in Dirty Money Should Worry Us All

Raymond Baker Addresses Illicit Financial Flows at ASAP-Canada’s Launch

It’s Time to Seriously Tackle the Money Behind the Drug Cartels

Outflows, Not Aid, Must Be Curtailed to Fight Poverty

Make Tax Evasion Criminal Offence, Push for Other Reforms to Combat Black Money

The Brightest Beacon: Reflections on the Tragedy in Norway

Drugs, Guns, and Gold: The Criminal Scourge of the Developing World

Keeping Commitments

The Rut in India’s Economic Highway

UN Panel Discussion: “Innovative Development Financing Initiatives Under Development”

Understanding and Combating Corruption in Africa

Financial Integrity Meets Human Rights

Illicit Money: Can It Be Stopped?

Updating Incorporation Transparency Laws

La Política Tributaria Estadounidense en un Sistema Financiero Globalizado

India Shows Us the Curse of ‘Black Money’

For the G20 to Achieve Success, Transparency Must Triumph

The Ugliest Chapter in Global Economic Affairs Since Slavery

Illicit Financial Flows and their Impact on Development

Take Dirty Money off the Table

How Dirty Money Thwarts Capitalism’s True Course

How Dirty Money Binds the Poor