Financial Transparency Coalition

Thursday's Top News Stories from Global Financial Integrity.

Corruption is notoriously difficult to measure. It’s not just because it is an illicit activity. In part it’s because the concept itself is undefined and relative. Transparency International found a (brilliant) way around this when they began surveying each nation’s public perception of corruption, rather than trying to define a concrete set of corrupt activities. So what is corruption? Transparency International uses the following working definition of corruption: “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” I imagine that's vague on purpose. So how do we define specific corrupt activities? Corruption isn’t just bribe paying, although that’s often it. It’s not just...

China Economic Weekly Releases Report on Officials Escaping Overseas The Epoch Times, June 11, 2012 Civil society groups call on EU to require firms to disclose true ownership Trust Law, June 11, 2012 A Drug Family in the Winner’s Circle The New York Times, June 12, 2012 Philippines risks joining money-laundering blacklist Reuters, June 7,

Senator Lugar (R.-IN) helped insert Section 1504, a provision requires oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose all payments to governments in each jurisdiction in which they operate, into the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He delivered the keynote speech at Georgetown University for the annual USAID conference, "Frontiers of Development," this week.