Financial Transparency Coalition

Wednesday's daily news updates from Global Financial Integrity

Officials in Switzerland have opened criminal proceedings against Libyan and Syrian citizens suspected of holding ill-gotten funds in Swiss bank accounts. Suspicious deposits in Swiss banks from the MENA region increased to record levels during the Arab Spring events of 2011, when wealthy citizens hoped to protect assets abroad. However, according to an anti-money laundering agency’s report, much of the laundered money came from top officials. Although the involved Swiss banks have frozen assets that allegedly belong to these officials, neither the agency nor the Swiss government is certain of the laundered money’s origin or sum.

BRUSSELS - Tax is joining high pay as an issue at FTSE100 companies’ AGMs this year, with Boards facing tough questions about their use of tax havens, financial secrecy and whether – with complex chains of subsidiaries stretching across the globe - they know what is really going on.