Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON, DC – Two recent articles published in The New York Timesexpose how criminals, terrorists, corrupt foreign politicians, and tax evaders abuse anonymous U.S. shell companies to launder their profits and impede law enforcement investigators, highlighting the need—says Global Financial Integrity (GFI)—for Congress to enact legislation requiring disclosure of the true (human) beneficial owners of corporations, trusts and foundations.

This is the current message that the EU’s current anti-money laundering rules send to those in a position to launder the proceeds of tax evasion. It is a crime to launder the proceeds of tax evasion if the tax evader you help, gets caught and goes to prison for more than a year, 11months and its fine. For those considering whether or not tax evasion is a serious crime, it is worth pointing out that a Christian Aid study found that even with a very conservative estimate the money lost by developing countries to tax evasion by multinational companies...

Transparency International Chair Huguette Labelle wrote a great article in The Huffington Post today. As the G20 meets in Los Cabos, Mexico today, world leaders will try and solve global issues. Financial transparency has always been on the agenda, but world leaders have at times struggled to act.

Task Force coordinating committee member Global Witness released Grave Secrecy today, a report telling the story of companies which were used to launder the proceeds of corruption, tax evasion and other crimes. The report shows how shell companies based the UK, Bulgaria, and New Zealand were used to launder corrupt money originating from Kyrgyzstan's AsiaUniversialBank.