Financial Transparency Coalition

Task Force member Global Witness today revealed that HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale, JPMorgan Chase and many other western financial institutions appear to have held and managed billions in Libyan state oil money under the rule of Col. Muammar al Gaddafi. A release to the media from Global Witness early this morning began:

LONDON and WASHINGTON, DC – HSBC and Goldman Sachs are among the key western bankers for Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, a 2010 document leaked to Global Witness appears to show. The...

LONDON and WASHINGTON, DC – HSBC and Goldman Sachs are among the key western bankers for Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, a 2010 document leaked to Global Witness appears to show. The document details the whereabouts of state oil revenues. However the Libyan people could not know where it was invested or how much it was, because banks have no obligation to disclose state assets they hold. Global Witness is now calling for new laws requiring banks and investment funds to disclose all state funds that they manage.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking records about American clients of HSBC in India who might be evading taxes, broadening the government's probe of banks suspected of helping tax dodgers.

The watchdog organization Global Witness released a report this week exposing ties between a number of British High Street bankers and corrupt Nigerian officials. The report detailed the reprehensible actions of Barclays, NatWest, RBS, HSBC and UBS, which for years took money from Nigerian officials. As we are all acutely aware, such corruption fuels poverty, entrenches dishonest politicians, and exacerbates obstructions to development for many countries. I want to be surprised. Really, I do. They just make it so hard for me. Each of those banks has been embroiled in scandal at one point or another in the...