Financial Transparency Coalition

Germany Tackles Tax Evasion Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2010 UBS Client Files Complaint, German Prosecutor Says Bloomberg News, February 10, 2010 Iraq on road to stamping out oil graft Upstream Online, February 11, 2010 Former anti-graft chief murder case raises corruption woes CNN, February 12, 2010 Senate Agrees To Relax Some Tax Shelter Penalties CQ Politics, Feb. 10, 2010 U.S. sends a message by stepping up crackdown on foreign business bribes Washington Post, February 8, 2010 Is al Qaeda Bankrupt? Forbes Magazine, February 11, 2010

The Senate subcommittee on investigations held their hearing today to highlight the problem of US law and money laundering activities from foreign officials. They also released a report, which can be downloaded here. I wrote about the hearing yesterday, so I'd like to make a general comment about the report. Reading through each of the case studies, a theme emerges. At various points in each study, certain public and private individuals and institutions identified the unlawful or suspect nature of the financial transactions taking place in front of them. Often, they acted to close a bank account, notify authorities,...

Senate report: 'Dirty money' still entering US The Associated Press, February 3, 2010 Switzerland Freezes Freed Duvalier Assets The Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2010 Stolen Data Prompts Wave of Remorse: German Authorities Expect Tax Evaders to Fess Up Spiegel, February 3, 2010 Bank Data May Unveil German Tax Evaders, Finance Official Says The New York Times, February 3, 2010 U.S. Banks Abetting Corrupt Regimes, Probe Finds IPS, February 3, 2010 Government to close tax avoidance loophole The Irish Times, February 4, 2010

Time magazine recently published an article on how the US legal system often helps to enable international crime. Its definitely worth a read. Time's point is very interesting: the race to the bottom among 50 states competing for businesses to call their state home has created a system where corporations can easily serve as masks for nefarious activities. Furthermore, the process is allowing domestic and foreign shell corporations to own other shell corporations creates an impossible situations for law enforcement who hope to crack down on all sorts of illicit financial flaws. Who knew that Iran owned a...