Financial Transparency Coalition

If you only read one thing today, this article should be it. Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands and member of Task Force member Task Justice Network, published his stirring, mammoth article on the City of London in Vanity Fair today. London is not only a major nexus of global finance, but also one of the central points in the global shadow financial system, where criminals, corrupt public officials, and tax evaders eventually plant their hidden wealth.

according to Jonathan Guthrie of the Financial Times, in discussing the decision of HSBC to close down its operations in Panama (Corruption Perceptions Index score in 2012: 38 out of 100). The decision was purportedly to increase profits – but maybe not in the way one would expect.

Last week, Task Force and Global Financial Integrity Director Raymond Baker spoke at the Wilson Center in Washington DC, on the topic of Global Financial Integrity's new report, Russia: Illicit Financial Flows and the Role of the Underground Economy, and its implications for Russia's political and economic future. He also took questions from the audience.

Senator Carl Levin has been the greatest champion of financial transparency in the United States Senate for over two decades. As Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, he led efforts to investigate offshore abuse in the collapse of Enron, exposed rampant money-laundering facilitation on behalf of foreign dictators like Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang at Riggs National Bank, and more recently, held hearings revealing how companies like UBS helped foreign tax evaders hide money from the IRS and companies like Microsoft and HP abused tax havens to lower their tax bill. He has introduced key pieces of legislation to...