Financial Transparency Coalition

Thank you for coming to this launch of my new book. Most particular thanks to Raymond Baker and his colleagues at Global Financial Integrity for organizing and hosting this event. Raymond is one of the heroes of this book. His vision, his skill and his dynamism have made and continue to make an enormous contribution to public understanding of illicit financial flows. From that understanding springs action to reduce those flows – an absolutely vital requirement to curb corruption.

The G8 have just released an ambitious and comprehensive asset recovery action plan as part of the Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition. It is timely and necessary to reinforce the momentum behind stolen asset recovery processes. The first step by G8 countries was to freeze the accounts of the authoritarian leaders Mubarak, Ben Aliand Gaddafi after their fall from power last year, based on the allegation that the assets held had been illicitly acquired from state coffers. However, there has been too little progress made in returning those assets.

In many ways their request was simple. Bread. Freedom. Social Justice. Those are things most of us can agree are human rights. And in January of 2011 when protestors took to the streets in Egypt, and chanted “Aish, Horreya, Adala Egtema’eya” (“bread, freedom, and social justice”) they were calling not just for political reform, but for economic and social reform, as well. And while their slogan reflects the complex interdependence of those forces, none of them can be attained with chanting alone. The advantage of political uprisings is that they provide quick headlines. They may focus attention on a singular,...

In many ways, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contains one of the most unique styles of government and political culture in the world. The central institution of the government is the monarchy—headed by King Abdullah. The Holy Qur'an is the constitution of the country and the nation is governed on the basis of Islamic law or Shari’a. The reaches of the king’s power are essentially limited only by Saudi tradition, Shari’a, and consensus among the royal family and religious leaders. Saudi Arabia holds a tight grip on the nation's government, politics, and culture in large part because the country has...