Tag Archives | money laundering

Money laundering – are BVI leaks a game changer?

Reposted from Transparency International UK The recent leaks of information about who actually owns the companies registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) offer a first glimpse for many people into this very murky world. For years, small amounts of information have trickled out – often through court cases – that indicate these so-called secrecy [...]

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The banks of Cyprus and the pursuit of integrity

The bail out of the troubled banking sector in Cyprus has taken on serious political overtones as the crisis deepens. During the past few weeks Cyprus has been accused of failing to combat money laundering and fraud and that Russian oligarchs seek refuge for their money in this “tax haven” country. Now the strongest members [...]

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One Thing We Learned from the U.S. Senate’s Too Big To Jail Hearing

Reposted from the blog of the Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development Last week, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee held a hearing titled, “Patterns of Abuse: Assessing Bank Secrecy Act Compliance and Enforcement.” The committee called three regulators to testify: David Cohen, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, United States Department of the [...]

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HSBC, Panama: “Exit, stage right”

The moral relativism that traditionally infects multinationals in hot, corrupt countries is going out of style.”  This is according to Jonathan Guthrie of the Financial Times, in discussing the decision of HSBC to close down its operations in Panama (Corruption Perceptions Index score in 2012: 38 out of 100).  The decision was  purportedly to increase [...]

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Cyprus: a chance to strengthen its fight against money laundering

The issue of whether or not to bail out the troubled banking sector in Cyprus has taken on serious political overtones as the crisis deepens. During the past few weeks Cyprus has been accused of failing to combat money laundering and fraud and that Russian oligarchs seek refuge for their money in this “tax haven” [...]

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New Report: Developing Countries Lost $5.86 Trillion from 2001-2010

Reposted from the blog of the Task Force for Financial Integrity & Economic Development. Task Force member Global Financial Integrity released their newest report on illicit financial flows from the developing world last night. The report found that $5.86 trillion left the developing world due to crime, corruption, and tax evasion from 2001-2010, $859 billion [...]

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Can we restore integrity to the financial sector?

Integrity, trust and culture can seem like the most intangible and abstract of concepts in a hard-edged business environment – until they disappear. As the finance industry has discovered in recent years, failing to tend to a culture of integrity can cost you dearly. There are the record fines of course – such as those [...]

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G20: Tackling tax evasion?

This week the heads of state from the G20 are meeting in Mexico, where we hope they will take action to meet their 2009 promise to end bank secrecy. One step already taken is making tax evasion a predicate offence for money laundering. What does that mean? Money laundering is defined as taking the proceeds [...]

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Looking to a new Libya

As Transparency International asks the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group to prioritise anti-bribery laws, asset recovery and money laundering ahead of the Cannes G20 Summit, Transparency International’s Group Director for Research & Knowledge Robin Hodess reflects on relevance of the disastrous and destabilising impacts the failure to address corruption has had in Arab Spring countries such [...]

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Recovery of stolen assets: time for action

As many of our readers might be aware, the French chapter of Transparency International has recently filed an anti-corruption case against the presidents of Gabon, Congo and Equitorial Guinea regarding the millions of dollars in embezzled funds they have allegedly stashed in the form of property and other goods in France. This case broke new [...]

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