Financial Transparency Coalition

In June, Reuters released the first article in "Shell Games," their ongoing series of investigations into corporate secrecy. The piece, "A little house of secrets on the Great Plains," exposed Wyoming's lax incorporation laws. Featured prominently in the story was a house in Cheyenne that was the official headquarters of over 2,000 corporations, including some suspected of helping corrupt foreign leaders and dodging online gambling laws. Wyoming has some of the most relaxed business incorporation rules in the country (along with Nevada and Delaware), which has made it a haven for those looking to establish shell companies, or...

Anna Hazare: One-Sixth of India’s GDP Lost to Corruption International Business Times, August 17, 2011 India’s Singh on the wrong side of history over graft The Australian, August 19, 2011 Africa looking to set up tax havens IOL Business Report, August 18, 2011 Looking for a tax haven? You can still find one. Die Welt,

AFRODAD (African Forum and Network on Debt and Development) has released two reports entitled “What has tax got to do with Development: A Critical look at Mozambique’s and Zimbabwe’s tax systems” The link between development and taxation has come up in various fora, as development practitioners and activists discussed methods of mobilizing domestic resources to finance development, and attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Tax revenues are, on average, lower in developing countries than in rich countries; the average tax revenue in African countries was approximately 15% of GDP in 2008. Hence the argument is that if developing countries...

Yesterday anti-corruption leaders in India called on citizens to turn off their lights in the evening to protest the detention of more than 1200 anti-corruption campaigners in New Delhi, The New York Times reported. The campaigners were detained following the arrest of well-known activist and Transparency International Integrity Award winner Anna Hazare early yesterday morning. Local police arrested Hazare at his home, according to the BBC after he vowed to go ahead with a hunger strike in a public park against corruption despite local police denying him a permit to hold the demonstration. The New York Times said that the likelihood...