Financial Transparency Coalition

A new report in The Economist goes to great lengths to detail the corrupt regime of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, as well as the broader systematic corruption that has plagued the country since the end of the Soviet era. 

WASHINGTON, DC – The latest issue of The Economist profiles the problem of trade-based money laundering, which drains hundreds of billions of dollars from developing economies each year, according to Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization.  The prestigious financial news magazine cites heavily from GFI’s research and experts, while warning that efforts to tackle trade misinvoicing are “the weakest link” in the international effort to fight illicit financial flows.

Since the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy, the OECD, and European leaders of the G8 have all committed to tackling tax havens, with a mixed record of successful reform. However, leading up to this week's meeting of the G8, David Cameron is calling for the organization's leaders to commit to addressing the global shadow financial system that has allowed illicit financial flows to stream into tax havens.

In 1862 Victor Hugo, widely considered one of France’s greatest poets, published Les Misérables, literally translated to The Miserable Ones. The story, which has been adapted into dozens of versions in film, television, radio, and most famously as a musical—follows the story of a man who survives persecution amidst social and political upheavals in 19th century Paris. While the story traverses countless themes and motifs, one of the central ideas of the novel is social injustice and Hugo uses the novel as a platform to condemn the unjust class-based structure of the times. Today Action Aid released data on the...