Financial Transparency Coalition

$1 trillion in illicit financial flows leaves the developing world every year, ten times the amount of foreign aid that flows in. This amounts to a tremendous loss for the developing world, and directly contributes to untold amounts of poverty and lost opportunity. Exactly what illicit financial flows are and how they affect the developing world can often be abstract and difficult to understand. Task Force blogger and former Global Financial Integrity economist Ann Hollingshead, using Prezi, attempted to explain these concepts in an easy-to-understand, graphical format.

A six month joint investigation published this week in British papers revealed that the country’s authorities have not been proactive in seizing key assets by the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal.

In a fiery speech to the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Mayor of Newark Cory Booker bellowed: “Being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare. It's patriotism.” It’s a sentiment that’s been often repeated on the campaign trail in the last few weeks. Vice President Joe Biden made the same suggestion in a campaign speech in New Hampshire. “Wealthy people are just as patriotic as middle-class people, as poor people, and they know they should be doing more,” said Vice President Biden. “We’re not supposed to have a system with one set of rules for the wealthy and...

This week, the influential German magazine Der Speigel published a report based on research from Global Financial Integrity, which found that $261 billion in illicit money flowed out of the country from 2003-2011. The summary (in German) is available here.