Tag Archives | Switzerland

Switzerland’s changing role in the future of sport

  When the Swiss authorities arrested seven FIFA officials on 27 May 2015 in Zurich to face extradition on charges of racketeering and fraud, people were surprised not only that it was happening but where it was happening. But that was not all – almost immediately Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber disclosed that their own […]

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Three steps to (start) recovering stolen assets

It takes a long time and great deal of good will, legal procedures and paper work to return stolen assets to the countries where they belong. In April 2014, Switzerland commenced the return of US$40 million of Tunisian assets linked to the former Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime, which had been frozen in the […]

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Swiss vote to regulate CEO pay

This Sunday the Swiss voted in favor of a constitutional initiative entitled “Initiative against abusive remunerations”. This follows the proposal of similar measure in the European Parliament, which we blogged about on Friday. The initiative, which applies to all quoted companies, squarely prohibits welcome packages and golden parachutes as well as bonuses in relation with […]

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Image: Creative Commons, Flickr / Brian Hefele

FIFA’s uncertain future

The good news to come out of the 17 July press conference  of FIFA, world football’s governing body, was the announcement that there is now an opportunity for a serious investigation into past allegations of corruption. This must include the activities of Joseph Blatter, the president of FIFA, who has been under fire again this […]

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The northern roots of southern Europe’s revenue problem

Reading about the Eurozone crisis in the newspapers, your natural response would be to think that Southern Europe has a problem of overspending. But it also has a revenue problem. The Southern European financial crisis and the envisaged tax Swiss-German law that would essentially launder illegal assets are two sides of the same coin. South […]

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What lies beneath: Switzerland’s opaque politicial donations

Reto Locher is a Scientific Researcher at Transparency International Switzerland. Following a new TI-Switzerland policy paper, he highlights the worrying opacity that surrounds Swiss political finance. On the face of it, Swiss voters get a pretty good deal. With referendums held as often as four times a year, Swiss citizens don’t just elect their politicians, […]

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Should banks profit from dictators’ money?

As Libya prepares for the future, what are financial centres doing to stop the flow of stolen assets from dictators? The following is adapted from a speech made by Transparency International’s vice-chair, Akere Muna, at the UN public service forum in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania.   If corruption, especially money laundering and […]

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Corruption: a crime against society

The following is an excerpt from the collected papers of the Rencontres Economiques d’Aix-en-Provence 2011. Read the full article here. Corruption is often thought of as an economic or “white collar crime”. That ignores the greater implications of corruption, the abuse of power at the expense of the many, which perpetuates social injustice and the […]

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Corruption in Europe: Taking the pulse, prescribing reform

Paul Zoubkov and Helen Turek talk about Transparency International’s Europe wide initiative to improve national anti-corruption systems. Good governance, accountability and rule of law are among the key hallmarks of a healthy society, and yet right across Europe, there is a deep sense of frustration that key national institutions and actors are not living up […]

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