Financial Transparency Coalition

$360M lost to insurgents, criminals in Afghanistan Associated Press, August 17, 2011 Indonesia’s high-profile graft case widens Financial Times, August 16, 2011 Corruption watchdog urges FIFA to reform AFP, August 16, 2011 Migration of Banks From Former Tax Havens Begins Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2011 Tax dodgers thrive in Italy despite austerity plan Reuters,

As the Wall Street Journal notes this morning:

It’s time to move on to other shores for European banks serving wealthy clients: Switzerland will remain famous for its cheese but not for its banking secret anymore. Monday ABN Amro, the Netherlands’ third biggest bank, announced the decision to sell its private banking operations in Switzerland to local operator Union Bancaire Privee. The move can be seen as the start of a migration of smaller non-Swiss banks from a country which was the perfect place for tax evaders for decades.

Report estimates illicit financial outflows at $426 b Hindu Business Line, August 16, 2011 Australia’s wildlife blackmarket trade Australian Geographic, August 15, 2011 Deutsche Börse Unite Sued Over Alleged Iran Funds Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2011 US acts to curb Afghan contract corruption Washington Post, August 16, 2011 Committee moves ahead on draft legislation

This weekend, The Economist—building off information discovered by Task Force member Global Witness—released an extensive feature on the operations of the "Queensway syndicate," a corporate partnership centered around the trade of oil from Angola to China.  Through a series of shell companies, family relations, and personal ties dating back to the Cold War, a network of Chinese and Angolan business-people purportedly dominate many African resource markets, generally doing so through illicit means. In order to gain access to valuable mineral resources across the African continent, the syndicate allegedly promised developmental aid, generally in the form of infrastructure development,...