Financial Transparency Coalition

The list of four-letter words in frequent use by policy makers in Washington, Brussels, and other government capitals dealing with potential fiscal insolvency has no doubt grown steadfastly in recent months. And perhaps the dirtiest, most toxic of those words is also the most innocuous: debt. Indeed, talks of an American default earlier last month and the real danger of a Greek withdrawal from the Euro zone have called for strong reevaluation of the balance between government spending habits and revenue sources on both sides of the Atlantic. On the latter point, the issue has brought long-deserved attention...

Anti-Corruption Views – Canada steps out of the shadows Trust Law, September 27, 2011 SEC, DOJ Probing Motorola Solutions Over European Transactions Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2011 Fighting against dirty money slow-paced The Himalayan, September 26, 2011 Costa Rica Tops List of Money Laundering in Central America Insight Crime, September 26, 2011 Momentum Builds

Last May, President Obama delivered his widely viewed “Arab Spring” speech, in which the President made a clear link between combating corruption, the stability of nations and human dignity. Unfortunately, proposed amendments to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, go against the current global trend, and threaten to undermine America’s role as a global leader against corruption. I attended a FCPA briefing on Capitol Hill on September 16th for a new report, “Busting Bribery: Sustaining the Global Momentum of the Foreign Corrupt Practices...

International oil companies such as the U.S. giant Chevron are beginning exploration off of Liberia’s coastline. However, this new research by Global Witness and Liberian Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI)¹ suggests that while Liberia has come a long way from the devastating set of resource-financed civil wars that claimed the lives of 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003, serious governance problems persist, and the warning signs for the emerging oil sector are stark. Curse or Cure? How oil can boost or break Liberia’s post-war recovery shows that even before a discovery is made, there are deep-seated problems in Liberia’s oil sector: government officials and at least one company...