Financial Transparency Coalition

Corrupt dictators who take bribes and loot their treasuries are rightly condemned by governments and other observers in developed countries. But the extent to which this plundering is aided by lax and weakly enforced money laundering laws in the West has too often escaped notice. It is remarkably easy for these criminals to hide their identities behind anonymous shell companies and bank secrecy in order to bring their dirty money into the United States and Europe.

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.

Law enforcement must be able to impose appropriate penalties when companies bribe officials to win contracts or gain undue advantages. But calculating and confiscating the proceeds of this crime is difficult. To help governments meet this challenge, the OECD and the World Bank/UNODC Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) released today a new study on the Identification and Quantification of the Proceeds of Bribery. “Countries’ ability to seize and confiscate the gains from bribery is integral to the international fight against bribery and corruption, ” said Mark Pieth, Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery, made up of representatives from...

The time has come to act. Beyond shedding light on the devastating impact of grand corruption, the Arab spring has revealed major anti-money laundering deficiencies, and the huge difficulties of getting the money back even after the dictator has been pushed from power. Corrupt money transferred out of developing and transitional economies is conservatively estimated at US$20 to US$40 billion per year. Hundreds of billions in much needed funds for development have already been taken over the last few decades. While recovery of stolen funds could greatly contribute to development in those countries, prevention of such outflows through greater financial...