Financial Transparency Coalition

Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed a bill, unanimously passed by the Senate, today aiming to crack down on money laundering that according to experts may account for at least $10 billion every year in Mexico, or as high as $50 billion, according to estimates from Global Financial Integrity. The bill prohibits the giving or accepting of cash payments greater than half a million pesos ($38,750) for real estate purchases, as well as forbidding cash transactions of more than 200,000 pesos ($15,500) for items such as cars, jewelry or lottery tickets.

Iran's currency is in free-fall. After a slow slide throughout 2012, the Iranian Rial all of the sudden took a dive this week, according to CNN:

No one knows better than law enforcement officials on the ground about how dangerous anonymous shell companies are. They allow criminals and criminal organizations to secretly access the financial system, which in turn enables them to commit more crime. New York City District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, in an op-ed at Reuters, argues that anonymous

Last week, Global Financial Integrity hosted the first official book launch for Waging War on Corruption by Frank Vogl, co-founder of Transparency International. Mr. Vogl began the panel discussion by telling the story of what inspired him to write the book, then joined a panel discussion on illicit financial flows, corruption, and global security.