Financial Transparency Coalition

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.

LONDON - Global Witness welcomes news that the British regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has fined Coutts bank for failing to do enough to prevent corrupt funds from flowing through its accounts.

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today joined several other civil society organizations encouraging U.S. Senators to support the offshore tax evasion amendment (S.A. 1818) to the highway reauthorization bill. The amendment, sponsored by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), is expected to come up for a vote this evening.

When the G20 signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in November 2011, amid great fanfare, the OECD, a club of wealthy countries, set out to promote it as the 'gold standard' of international tax cooperation. As is often the case (see here or here), the OECD's viewpoint is not quite the full story. While the Convention definitely provides various positive things -- most importantly a tacit assertion that automatic information exchange must be part of effective information exchange -- it also includes clear downsides.