Financial Transparency Coalition

The Wyly Brothers (spelled w-y-l-y, though it might as well be spelled w-i-l-y), have broken their long silence. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the recent suit brought against Samuel and Charles Wyly by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC believes the brothers have reaped $550 million in undisclosed gains, and hid the money in a series of channels through the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands, two of the world’s most infamous tax havens. I theorized these men had a bad case of the egos. This is an especially dangerous trait when it’s coupled with...

As far as international tax cooperation goes, the OECD is the organization that holds the cards. Or at least it does when it comes to the standards by which countries exchange information for tax purposes. According to OECD guidelines, countries which have negotiated bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) exchange of information for tax purposes on request when it is "foreseeably relevant." The OECD also maintains a gray list of so-called “tax havens;” jurisdictions with a lack of transparency that have signed fewer than twelve TIEAs. The jurisdictions which reach that threshold are removed from...

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal requires countries to cooperate to achieve environmentally sound management of hazardous waste and builds a framework for controlling cross-border movements of waste. According to Convention requirements “every company or broker wishing to export hazardous wastes to ask the Government of the exporting State to provide prior written notification” to authorities in the importing State. The importing country must then give written consent before the export can take place. In addition, each approved shipment must be accompanied by a “movement document” that...

HP and its current and former executives are embroiled in allegations over sexual assault, tax fraud, bribery and kickback schemes. This raises philosophical questions of morality. Do corporations have a social responsibility beyond their legal requirements? And do they have a moral obligation to follow the law?