Financial Transparency Coalition

This excellent report (cross posted and prepared by FTC Coordinating Committee member Global Witness) reinforces the necessity for transparency about the ultimate beneficial owners of companies involved in extractive deals – and NOT just the proxies or other companies in obscure ownership chains – but the real beneficial owners of companies! Findings pose a challenge for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Click here to download this report. Azerbaijan Anonymous, a new report released today by Global Witness, reveals a shadowy figure in the oil industry of Azerbaijan, a key EU energy supplier. A little-known businessman, Anar Aliyev, has gained ownership stakes, some...

This post is the second in a three-part series on policy solutions to confront trade mispricing from Mexico and the War on Drugs. It is adapted, with permission, from this feature article originally published by Policy Matters Journal. You can read the first post here. In the United States, the War on Drugs has focused mainly on stemming the demand in the North and stifling the supply from the South. This effort has largely failed because the demand for illegal drugs is so large that narcotics dealers are willing to take significant risks to enter the North American drug market....

Cross posted from Transparency International's website. December 9 is International Anti-Corruption Day. It is a day when people around the world raise their voice against the abuse of power for private gain. The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013, in which two-thirds of countries score less than 50, offers a warning that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world. They will continue to do so as long as corruption pays off for the corrupt. From the business executive who helps a corrupt official hide a bribe in an offshore bank out of authorities' reach, to the...

This post is the first in a three-part series on policy solutions to confront trade mispricing from Mexico and the War on Drugs. It is adapted, with permission, from this feature article originally published by Policy Matters Journal. In July of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice discovered that the banking giant HSBC “willfully failed” to apply money laundering controls to $881 million in drug trafficking proceeds, including those from two major Mexican drug cartels. Specifically, HSBC’s policies allowed high risk and suspicious account holders to open HSBC bank accounts in Mexico. A Senate Subcommittee on Investigations report condemns...