Financial Transparency Coalition

Teodoro Nguema Obiang has controlled Equatorial Guineasince he executed his uncle in a bloody coup d’état in 1979. Equatorial Guinea is a country in Middle Africa on the coast. It is one of the smallest and wealthiest countries in the continent, in large part because it holds Africa’s largest oil reserves. Yet the wealth is extremely concentrated in the hands of the government and the ruling elite. As a result over 75% of the population lives below $2 per day, 35% of its citizens do not live past the age of 40, and nearly 60%...

Tom Cardamone, Managing Director at Global Financial Integrity, continues his biweekly op-ed series with TrustLaw.  In today's column, he announced a forthcoming petition calling on legislators to help defend the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bans the bribery of foreign public officials. Explaining the purpose of the petition, Mr. Cardamone writes:

"The petition, which is expected to be released in the next few days, is targeted at Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, who has said he will craft a bill that brings the law 'up to date.'  Sensenbrenner chairs a subcommittee of the powerful House Judiciary Committee which convened a...

Tom Cardamone, Managing Director of Global Financial Integrity, continues his biweekly series of blog posts with TrustLaw, on efforts to repatriate government funds illicitly transferred overseas by corrupt government officials.  Based on new World Bank and United Nations Office on Drug and Crime data, as well as experiences with past repatriation attempts, he notes “This means, shockingly, that

Global Financial Integrity Managing Director Tom Cardamone has written a blog post for the TrustLaw website examining the shortfalls of anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance efforts at companies around the world. A study showed that a third of firms saw anti-bribery programs as “an example of the governments imposing costly and excessive requirements”, demonstrating a lack of motivation in reducing unethical business practices. Referencing the effectiveness of penalties for corrupt practices, Cardamone writes:

An even closer read of the stories behind these fines shows that seldom do they make a significant dent in the profits of the firms involved and rarely...