You arrive in a new city on a rainy day and check into your top floor hotel room, only to find the roof is leaking. When the receptionist comes to check, he looks up and says, “I don’t see what the problem is, madam. There is clearly more roof than holes on average.” This has […]
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Stiglitz and Pieth Panama Papers report: a roadmap for global transparency in the 21st century
After resigning from Panama’s official effort to clean up its financial sector, Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and transparency expert Mark Pieth have come out with their own independent report. And it’s a good one. Overcoming the Shadow Economy moves the focus away from Panama itself, to tackle the global problem of secrecy and its […]
A growing call from business for company ownership transparency
With the release of its latest Economic Contribution and Payments to Governments Report today, BHP Billiton becomes the latest in a growing list of companies and business leaders highlighting the importance of company ownership transparency, and starting to walk the talk by being transparent about elements of their own company structures, entities and ownership. The […]
SPEAK UP, South Africa: the impact of the Nkandla ruling
In March this year South Africa’s highest court upheld a landmark investigation by the courageous Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that showed how taxpayers’ money had been used to upgrade President Jacob Zuma’s personal residence. This underscored the importance of the role of the Public Protector in holding those in power to account. It is the […]
Yes, there are legitimate uses of shell companies They still shouldn’t be secret
Thanks to an anonymous provider of data and the incredible work done by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), over the last days the world has gained an unprecedented peek into the global system of secret shell companies. The Panama Papers revelations have forced governments to respond, one national leader to step down, and […]
Public pressure forces Iceland’s prime minister to step down over Panama Papers
Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson resigned on Tuesday just one day after thousands of people marched in the streets protesting his use of secret bank accounts facilitated by Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm which had as clients Gunnlaugsson and his wife. Iceland was the only country that jailed top financial executives behind bars in […]
Secret company ownership: a global solution for a global challenge
The way the rich and powerful hide their ill-gotten gains is headline news around the world today. The Panama Papers show everyone how easy it is to set up secret companies that let people avoid taxes and launder money. Kings do it, business tycoons do it, footballers do it, presidents and prime ministers do it. […]
What makes big investors blacklist companies: gross corruption
After Norway’s massive public pension fund recently decided to blacklist the Chinese telecoms equipment company ZTE for “gross corruption”, anti-corruption activists are keen to know why they did this and who is next. Investors and regulators who, are sensitive about corruption, want to know more about how corruption impacts companies. They also want to […]
The real reason banks aren’t stopping dirty money
Last week, Barclays bank was fined £72 million (US$110 million) by the UK authorities for failing to use anti-money laundering checks on a prominent customer, the bank’s seventh financial penalty in the last six years. This time Barclays did not carry out the proper background checks on unidentified senior foreign political figures or their family […]
Football needs tough anti-money laundering rules
With the summer ending, football all over Europe is in full swing. The highest player transfer dealings in history have closed and this week the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, one of the world’s richest football competitions, has just kicked off. Yet transparency remains weak in this increasingly rich sector and as a result, […]
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What’s next for Ukraine?
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Cleaning up sport: conflicts of interest at the top
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OGP: France must do more to tackle corruption
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Pharma companies in Slovakia: Uncovering conflicts of interest
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