Financial Transparency Coalition

Two prominent advocacy groups have released major reports last week exposing unsettling truths about bribery and tax dodging schemes among large corporations in the United States and around the world. Berlin-based Transparency International published its annual Bribe Payers Index on Tuesday, ranking 28 countries on the perceived likelihood of bribery within their companies, followed only days later by the Corporate Tax Payers & Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008-2010 report by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The reason why places like Jersey became tax havens was to raise tax revenue from third parties. The tax revenues raised were, in effect, export earnings that kept their economies afloat.