Financial Transparency Coalition

Following Dr. François Valérian’s excellent article about stolen assets and the financial system, it is timely to re-publish an article that we wrote in July 2009, which reinforces Valérian’s crucial point about the importance of identifying the warm-blooded human beings who are ultimately the beneficiaries of trusts. It involves a long explanation of trusts: where

There are moments in history when fate wavers between the best and the worst possible outcome. Moments when all that has been achieved could be lost or, conversely, lead to lasting progress. We are at one of these moments now.

The issue of stolen assets and their management, or lack of adequate management, by the global financial system is a component of the broader issue of illicit money and how it flows through the financial system to be transformed into licit, “usable” money. This physical process, often referred to as money laundering – a sort of modern alchemy, it is important for anyone to understand who is genuinely concerned with the fight against political or business corruption. In order to be successful at fighting corrupt practices, we need to know what these practices are and which ones work and which...

At the age of 15 I moved away from home to live at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York, where I lived and trained year-round for the sport of sprint kayaking. Surrounded by some of the country’s finest athletes through most of my formidable years taught me a lot about who athletes are and how they think. Honor was paramount to (almost) everyone of them—whether they were bobsledders or speed skaters, ski jumpers or rhythmic gymnasts. Everyone wanted to achieve their best performance, everyone wanted to make the team or win the race,...