Financial Transparency Coalition

Transparency International signed a letter with prominent prosecutors and corruption hunters addressing G8 leaders on the urgency to curb money laundering.

The Obama Administration was an early backer of beneficial ownership legislation, which would collect information on the true owners of companies, and make that information available to law enforcement. However, since then, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has begun advocating for more thorough disclosure at the G8 level, including both law enforcement and the public at large.

A shell game is a well-known parlor game in which players try to follow the movement of a ball placed under one of three quickly shuffled shells or cups and then try to correctly guess the shell that covers the ball once they are brought to rest. When the operator of the game is especially skilled, correctly tracking the ball can prove quite difficult. If a skilled and dishonest operator uses sleight of hand to covertly move the ball to one of the shells not identified by a player, the game becomes impossible to win, a veritable “confidence trick used...

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops submitted a letter to the G8 Heads of State on Tuesday, urging them to fight poverty by addressing tax evasion and financial transparency. It reads, "The G8’s emphasis on transparency is critical. Human dignity demands truth, and democracy requires transparency. With more and better information, civil societies, including faith-based organizations, can hold their governments accountable and help insure that resources reduce poverty and improve the health of the whole society."