Financial Transparency Coalition

Following Several, Recent, High-Profile Cases Against International Banks for Violating U.S. Sanctions Against Iran, the Iranian Rial Lost 60% of its Value against the U.S. Dollar Last Week. Could There Be A Connection?

Iran's currency is in free-fall. After a slow slide throughout 2012, the Iranian Rial all of the sudden took a dive this week, according to CNN:

A couple of days ago I highlighted a report from Cayman about a meeting of offshore lawyers where it seemed there was widespread agreement that the system of tax information exchange agreements that the OECD, UK government and tax haven authorities say delivers secrecy in the murky world of secrecy jurisdictions really does not such thing.

Global Financial Integrity Managing Director Tom Cardamone has written a blog post for the TrustLaw website examining the shortfalls of anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance efforts at companies around the world. A study showed that a third of firms saw anti-bribery programs as “an example of the governments imposing costly and excessive requirements”, demonstrating a lack of motivation in reducing unethical business practices. Referencing the effectiveness of penalties for corrupt practices, Cardamone writes:

An even closer read of the stories behind these fines shows that seldom do they make a significant dent in the profits of the firms involved and rarely...