Financial Transparency Coalition

For many developing countries, natural resource wealth offers a potential way out of persistant poverty. There are few places in the world where this is as true as Niger, a landlocked country with a per-capita GDP of just US$400. The country has substantial mining exports and potential oil reserves, but an opaque financial system empowers a corrupt and increasingly autocratic regime, and little wealth from natural resources has reached the people on the ground. Niger ranks 186th out of 187 countries on the UN Human Development Index.

WASHINGTON DC - Global Financial Integrity (GFI) applauded the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today for denying the request (PDF) of industry groups to stay key oil, gas, and mining transparency rules pending a lawsuit.

Did you know that it can take more information to obtain a driver’s license than to start your very own anonymous shell company with which you can use and abuse the U.S. financial system? In a matter of minutes, and with minimal documentation, you can own a company without disclosing that you are, in fact, the owner. These opaque entities are a favorite tool of terrorists, drug traffickers, arms dealers, corrupt government leaders, tax evaders and other criminals to launder money into the U.S.

WASHINGTON DC—Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advocacy organization, urged the Securities and Exchange Commission today to deny the suspension request made by the American Petroleum Institute for recently finalized rules implementing Dodd-Frank Section 1504 transparency requirements for oil, gas, and mining companies.