Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON – Members of the Financial and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition support three amendments that take aim at abuse of corporate offshore tax havens that have been offered in the Senate Budget Resolution debate.

LONDON - Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget today, Christian Aid Director Loretta Minghella said: ‘Today, a 40 year-old promise to the world’s poorest was finally delivered. We congratulate the Government for ensuring that - even in challenging economic times – this country has done the right thing by the hundreds of millions of women and men around the world living in poverty.

LONDON - A new investigation by Global Witness today reveals the systemic corruption and illegality at the heart of government in Sarawak, Malaysia’s largest state. A film, shot undercover during the investigation, reveals for the first time the instruments used by members of the ruling Taib family and its local lawyers to skirt Malaysia’s laws and taxes, creaming off huge profits at the expense of indigenous people and hiding their dirty money in Singapore.

WASHINGTON, DC – In the wake of recent money laundering compliance failures at major U.S. and international banks, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is currently scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday, March 7, 2013 entitled, “Patterns of Abuse: Assessing Bank Secrecy Act Compliance and Enforcement.” Heather Lowe, Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization, issued the following statement in advance of the hearing.