Financial Transparency Coalition

Last Sunday, 60 Minutes aired a jaw dropping segment on the role lawyers, banks and anonymous companies play in allowing dirty money to flow into the United States. The piece, based off of an undercover investigation by FTC member Global Witness, revealed just how willing a number of New York lawyers were to offer advice

Not that long ago, Credit Suisse AG (CSAG), the multinational financial services giant, pleaded guilty to felony criminal charges and paid fines of US$2.6 billion for aiding and assisting U.S. taxpayers “in filing false income tax returns and other documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)”. In other words, Credit Suisse helped Americans evade taxes and showed them how to take advantage of the international financial system’s inherent secrecy, even brining secret airports and elevators into the picture, according to a U.S. Senate report. But now that they’ve admitted to...

WASHINGTON, DC – In the wake of recent money laundering compliance failures at major U.S. and international banks, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is currently scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday, March 7, 2013 entitled, “Patterns of Abuse: Assessing Bank Secrecy Act Compliance and Enforcement.” Heather Lowe, Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization, issued the following statement in advance of the hearing.

Today is an important day for the tax justice movement in the United States. The U.S. Senate will consider an amendment (SA 1818, Levin-Conrad) that will allow the Department of Treasury to take action against foreign financial institutions that, "significantly impede U.S. tax enforcement." The Senate should pass this amendment.