Financial Transparency Coalition

When the son of the president of a desperately poor country starts buying mansions and sportscars on an official monthly salary of $7,000, Charmian Gooch suggests, corruption is probably somewhere in the picture. In a blistering, eye-opening talk (and through several specific examples), she details how global corruption trackers follow the money -- to some surprisingly familiar faces.

Phantom Firms are what enabled Teodorin Obiang, the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea, to launder more than $100 million into the USA. This financed a playboy lifestyle of fast cars, a $30 million mansion, a $38.5 million gulfstream jet, and various pieces of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including a diamond-encrusted glove from the Bad Tour. Meanwhile, back home in the oil-rich west African state, more than 1 in 7 children under the age of five were dying from a preventable disease.

Shruti Shah of Transparency International-USA wrote a great op-ed on Devex last week. Ms. Shah connects the dots between the crimes committed at HSBC, the influx of money to the United States from kleptocrats like Teodorin Obiang, and the hundreds of thousands of anonymous shell corporations created every year in the United States. The result? Individuals are able to use the United States and its institutions to, "export, launder and conceal ill-gotten gains" derived from corruption.

Last week I wrote about a post, inspired by TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year, about who I would pick for a “Transparency Person of the Year.” Keeping with TIME’s definition, this would be someone who influenced the news, for better or worse, on issues related to financial transparency. I got so many great suggestions for additions to the list that I’m following up this week. Without further ado, here’s some (additional) picks: SHELDON ADELSON The billionaire casino mogul has dominated headlines this year. He made TIME Magazine’s nominations for “what critics cast as trying to buy the election,” through...