Financial Transparency Coalition

Officials in Switzerland have opened criminal proceedings against Libyan and Syrian citizens suspected of holding ill-gotten funds in Swiss bank accounts. Suspicious deposits in Swiss banks from the MENA region increased to record levels during the Arab Spring events of 2011, when wealthy citizens hoped to protect assets abroad. However, according to an anti-money laundering agency’s report, much of the laundered money came from top officials. Although the involved Swiss banks have frozen assets that allegedly belong to these officials, neither the agency nor the Swiss government is certain of the laundered money’s origin or sum.

In many ways their request was simple. Bread. Freedom. Social Justice. Those are things most of us can agree are human rights. And in January of 2011 when protestors took to the streets in Egypt, and chanted “Aish, Horreya, Adala Egtema’eya” (“bread, freedom, and social justice”) they were calling not just for political reform, but for economic and social reform, as well. And while their slogan reflects the complex interdependence of those forces, none of them can be attained with chanting alone. The advantage of political uprisings is that they provide quick headlines. They may focus attention on a singular,...

LONDON - Global Witness welcomes today's successful recovery by Libya of a £10 million London house, previously belonging to Colonel Gaddafi’s son, Saadi Gaddafi. The High Court in London ruled that the property, in the up-market London suburb of Hampstead, rightfully belongs to the Libyan state as it had been purchased with diverted Libyan state funds.

The Task Force's Nick Mathiason, writing for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, reported on the asset seizure claim by Libya against the son of the former Libyan dictator.