Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON, DC – As details surfaced today connecting the illicit outflow of assets from China in the suspicious death of British businessman Neil Heywood last November, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) highlighted China’s place as the largest victim of illicit financial outflows. The latest research from GFI estimates that the Asian nation suffered US$2.74 trillion in illicit financial outflows over the decade ending in 2009, more than quintupling the outflows from the next largest victim of illegal capital flight.

Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, a rising star in the Chinese Communist Party, has been arrested by Chinese police on suspicion of ordering or arranging the murder of Neil Heywood. Heywood was poisoned this past November. Until now no clear motive for the crime had surfaced.

LONDON - Global Witness calls for a thorough investigation into HSBC, Citibank and Abbey National (now owned by Santander) for their roles in the laundering of millions of pounds by James Ibori, former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State. Ibori pleaded guilty to ten counts of money laundering and fraud in relation to an estimated $250 million of stolen state assets on 27 February; today was the first day of his sentencing hearing.