Financial Transparency Coalition

Will Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain see regime change as neighboring Tunisia and Egypt have? Historic unrest and political upheaval are reshaping the landscape and defying the best guesses of external observers as to what will happen in the Arab world next. What is clear is the role corruption and illicit financial practices have played in bringing these countries to the brink of revolution – and in some cases beyond. The magnitude of these illicit practices is staggering—Global Financial Integrity (GFI) estimates that corruption and crime removed a cumulative $49.5 billion from Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen from 2000-2008. Put into context,...

NEW YORK – Several top military officials have split from Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh in the wake of a violent government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. In announcing their support for the demonstrators on Monday, the generals dealt a blow to Saleh’s power base, but will their influence be a boon for the protesters’ cause?

LONDON – The governments that have frozen funds controlled by Gaddafi, Mubarak, Ben Ali and their cronies should name the banks holding their assets, anti-corruption group Global Witness demanded today. A clear message must be sent to banks that doing business with corrupt dictators is unacceptable: first, those banks holding dirty money should be publicly named and then regulators need to devise a new system which stops banks from taking suspect funds in the first place.

LONDON – An international financial-crime watchdog was urged not to relax its stance on monitoring political officials in light of the desperate scramble to freeze the assets of recently deposed leaders in the Middle East and North Africa.