Financial Transparency Coalition

Taxation News & Information—Worldwide tax changes and transparency measures need to be implemented soon in order to fight capital flight from poverty-stricken nations and worldwide tax evasion.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. upped its economic sanctions on North Korea, trying to block the rampant illegal activities taken by, or on behalf of, the political elite of the state. Kim Jon Il manages his regime, in part, by using government resources to funnel exotic, luxury goods – jewelry, cars, yachts – to his large ring of cronies. This abuse falls directly under the broad definition of illicit financial flows (IFFs) as unrecorded funds and goods promoting illegal activity. Serious corruption and continued illicit activity within North Korea is becoming a larger threat to global security. These...

New York Times columnist and prize-winning author Tom Friedman is perhaps best known for his arguments for infrastructure—green or otherwise. His columns and books often, perhaps even ad nauseam, compare U.S. infrastructure to China’s, where “a bullet train to Tianjin…takes just 25 minutes to make a 75-mile trip.” Friedman also loves to deride U.S. terminals, like the “faded, cramped” LAX and NYC’s Pennsylvania station where the escalators don’t work. Though I’m not sure rebuilding LAX would solve our problems, I agree with Friedman on principal. I also believe in the vital importance of infrastructure—whether...

The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the attached outcome document for the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit by consensus on September 22, 2010. The document puts forth an action agenda for achieving the MDGs by 2015; the agenda includes tackling the issue of illicit financial flows as one of the action items.