July 10th, 2009
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released its digest of the weeks top news stories - two of which are financially related. From the
release:
4. San Diego: Indictment Charges Civilian Navy Employees and Contractors with Fraud and Bribery
A 25-count indictment was unsealed on 07/07/09, charging six individuals with corruption and fraud charges related to defense contracting at Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), a government organization based in San Diego that is responsible for the development of technology to collect, process, display and manage information essential...
July 9th, 2009
Nick Shaxson has written a great
post on the TJN blog which tears apart the notion that information exchange would somehow hurt people in developing countries. From the post:
Certain think tanks have attacked TJN for proposing transparency and tax compliance, with one group of them arguing that we are putting at risk millions of people including “Jews in France, or homosexuals in Saudi Arabia" by threatening their privacy. Really? We are not aware of a single transparency campaigner, street protestor, anti-corruption campaigner, trade union official, investigative journalist, or dissident of any...
July 8th, 2009
The Washington Post published a fantastic
article today which finally addresses the fact that TIEA agreements, as stipulated by the OECD standards, do very little to crackdown on tax evasion. From the Post:
In an interview this week, a top Swiss official cited the recently negotiated treaty amendment as evidence that Switzerland is moving toward greater openness. Doris Leuthard, Switzerland's vice president and economic minister, emphasized that in the future the treaty amendment now awaiting ratification would give the United States access to information in cases of tax evasion, which are not covered by...
July 7th, 2009
Our good friend and Task Force member, Richard Murphy, has gotten ahold of the UK/France Summit Communiqué and
points out some very exciting language. 1st - both countries acknowledge that 12 TIEA agreements to do not a clean jurisdiction make. And 2nd - both countries call on the OECD to look at the benefits of country-by-country reporting. From the communiqué (emphasis added by Richard Murphy):
France and the United Kingdom will also address the task of implementing the decision of the G20 concerning uncooperative jurisdictions and remain vigilant in ensuring that the...
