Financial Transparency Coalition

LONDON - This Valentines Day, Global Witness is publishing a report raising concerns that diamond purchases may help fund the Zimbabwean military. The report, Diamonds: A Good Deal for Zimbabwe? reveals that several directors of one of the largest mining companies operating in Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange diamond fields are drawn from the Zimbabwean military and police, and highlights the risk that off-budget funding of the security sector could be used to finance violence in any future election.

LONDON - Forest dependent communities are still in the dark about how their forests are being managed, despite additional commitments from governments to publish information about their policies and practice, says a report published by Global Witness today.

LONDON - Global Witness applauds Representatives Maloney (D-NY), Frank (D-MA) and Lynch (D-MA) for introducing legislation that would tackle corporate secrecy. If passed into law, the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (H.R. 3416), a companion bill to the Senate’s bipartisan S. 1483, would require companies to disclose their ultimate owners when the company is set up. This would make it much harder for corrupt politicians, tax dodgers, drug traffickers, terrorists and other criminals to form and hide behind anonymous U.S. shell companies.

WASHINGTON, DC - Today the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) unsealed an asset forfeiture claim against a $30m Malibu house, a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet and other assets owned by the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea, claiming that they were bought with the proceeds of corruption. Global Witness, which in 2006 first revealed that Teodorin Obiang owned the Malibu mansion, welcomes this action after several years of investigations.