Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity's Director of Government Affairs and Legal Counsel, Heather Lowe, will participate in a high-level meeting of governments and civil society at the U.S. Department of State on Tuesday, July 12, at which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota will launch the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The Open Government Partnership is a new, multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

WASHINGTON, DC – The House Judiciary Committee will convene a hearing tomorrow to consider whether to amend the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the nation’s flagship anti-corruption legislation. Among other things, the hearing will specifically consider amendments proposed to the act by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which FCPA-proponents charge will significantly weaken the anti-corruption legislation and undermine efforts to tackle corruption and illicit financial practices abroad.

Global Financial Integrity has been warning about illicit financial flows (IFFs) out of The People's Republic of China for years. These outflows have ranged from an annual US$169 billion in 2000 to US$344 billion in 2008. Dev Kar, Lead Economist for GFI, notes trade mispricing, which is the practice of underpricing exports or overpricing imports in order to shift illegally capital abroad, is “the major channel for the transfer of illicit capital from China.” The country is also, by far, the largest transmitter of illicit financial flows...

ISTANBUL, Turkey – A United Nations Development Program (UNDP) commissioned report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) on illicit financial flows from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) was presented for discussion yesterday at the United Nations IV Conference on Least Developed Countries hosted by the Republic of Turkey.