Financial Transparency Coalition

Sunlight Foundation--When President Barack Obama promised in May to raise an additional $210 billion in taxes a year by closing corporate loopholes and cracking down on individual tax cheats, he pointed to an address in the Cayman Islands listed by 12,000 corporations as the kind of abuse his proposals would shut down. "Either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world," the President said.

Wednesday’s agreement by Swiss bank UBS to divulge details of 4,450 accounts to the US Internal Revenue Service has put a crowbar into the door of Switzerland’s long tradition of bank secrecy. But it’s just a small opening. The amount of global wealth stashed in tax-haven nations is staggering and largely uncontrolled, financial experts say. Here’s a brief backgrounder:

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said in Abuja on Wednesday that the nation has lost over ?250 billion to frauds perpetrated by former governors, senior government officials and other Nigerians since the commission was established in 2003.

LOS ANGELES — Trial has been delayed for at least a week for a filmmaking couple accused of bribing Thai officials to run the Bangkok International Film Festival.