Financial Transparency Coalition

Lord of War, a 2005 film starring Nicolas Cage, tells the story of Yuri Orlov, a man born in Soviet Ukraine, but raised in America, who sells illicit weapons to terrorist groups, corrupt African leaders, and criminal organizations. He describes himself as an “equal opportunity merchant of death,” selling to whoever and whatever side that is willing to pay. Orlov becomes tangled up with several criminal men, including a Colombian drug lord who insists on paying him in cocaine and a West African Dictator, who compensates Orlov with blood diamonds. Through a voice-over, Orlov describes one method he...

Harrington Investments Inc., a socially responsible investment advisory firm, joined the ranks of activist investors calling for an adoption of principles to prevent illicit financial transactions by filing a set of shareholder resolutions at key banks.

I reported yesterday that the zero / 10 tax regimes adopted by all three of the Crown Dependencies have failed the test set by the European Commission for compliance with the EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation (Guernsey has failed by default). There are those who do, of course, wish to ignore the news and that is their prerogative. I admit that this is a leak, but one which I’m entirely confident is right. Failure on three out of five counts is a dramatic rejection of the deliberately abusive structure of zero...

Global Financial Integrity Applauds Shareholder Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC--Global Financial Integrity (GFI) applauds Harrington Investments, Inc.’s decision to file shareholder resolutions with Citigroup, Bank of American and JPMorgan Chase, calling for the adoption of a policy position addressing the systemic use of the U.S. financial system to both shelter illicit funds and transfer them internationally. The shareholder resolution follows a difficult year in which we saw Wachovia Bank sanctioned for laundering millions of dollars for South American drug cartels, HSBC agreeing to sanctions from the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency for failure to maintain adequate anti-money laundering programs, and the...