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By Raymond Baker
The Economic Times (India)
January 7, 2012 It is encouraging to see the zealous enthusiasm that has surfaced in India over the past few years on eliminating black money or illicit financial flows. While many other countries are taking modest steps to curtail illicit flows, India has gone ahead to make the issue one of pressing national importance. Applause is due to the nation, while more work remains tobe done. India has acted strongly to pressurise foreign banks into accounting for and in the future returning illicitly-acquired assets to the country. This is a worthwhile goal. But any asset recovery will be a long-drawn process and is likely to result only in a fraction of illicit dollars being returned. A more productive outcome can be to focus on stemming future illicit financial flows, both domestically through mechanisms such as anti- corruption legislation and by applying pressure on the international community. Read More... |
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By Heather Lowe
The Hill
December 9, 2011 Last week, Reuters reported that Teodorin Obiang, son of the autocratic leader of Equatorial Guinea, will challenge the U.S. Department of Justice’s asset forfeiture claim against his $30 million Malibu estate, $38.5 million Gulfstream jet, millions of dollars in Michael Jackson memorabilia, and other property. The Department of Justice alleges that the assets were bought with the proceeds of corruption. The United Nations has dedicated today, December 9th, to be International Anti-Corruption Day. Teodorin Obiang, who officially makes just $60,000 in his job as the Equatorial Guinea Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, was in possession of over $70 million dollars of property in the U.S. alone. He had plans also, reportedly, to build a $380 million yacht. Read More... |
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By Raymond Baker
The Huffington Post
December 9, 2010 This year's International Anti-Corruption Day is marred by a U.S. Chamber of Commerce attempt to weaken the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), our nation's flagship anti-corruption legislation. Passed in 1977, the FCPA was a response to eroded public trust in government following the Watergate scandal and the admission by Lockheed and some 400 other American companies that bribery to foreign officials was a commonplace practice in international commerce. The U.S. FCPA stood virtually alone on the global stage in the fight against corruption until the late 1990s, when other nations began adopting similar prohibitions. Today, the FCPA is buttressed by the UN Convention Against Corruption, a similar document binding members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, regional commitments, and a significant focus on the issue by the G20. Read more... |
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By Tom Cardamone, Guest Contributor Diplomatic Courier June 23, 2010 Last December an ageing Russian Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane flying from Pyongyang, was detained during a scheduled refueling stop in Bangkok. When the belly of the plane was inspected security personnel found 35 tons of illicit military equipment that, it was later discovered, was on its way to Iran. While it is a positive development that the $18 million cargo of rockets, surface-to-air missile launchers and rocket-propelled grenades was detected before reaching its intended destination, the arms shipment was anything but a rare occurrence. Worse, the shadowy world of shell companies, nominee directors and multi-jurisdictional layering of corporate entities, which are at the heart of this affair, was left completely intact. Fortunately, the G20 nations can play a hugely positive role in ameliorating this growing problem. Read more... |
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By Raymond Baker & Eva Joly
New York Review of Books December 3, 2009
On May 4, the Obama administration announced a plan to crack down on offshore tax havens, which it said are costing the United States tens of billions of dollars each year. The President’s proposals were primarily aimed at finding ways to increase revenue from wealthy companies and investors who use loopholes in the law and offshore subsidiaries to reduce their US taxes. But the administration is largely missing a far more devastating problem related to offshore finance: money gained from criminal and other illicit sources. With the use of tax havens and other elements of an increasingly complex “shadow” financial network, vast sums of illegal money are being shifted throughout the global economy virtually undetected. Illicit money is usually generated by one of three kinds of activities: bribery and theft; organized crime; and corporate dealings such as tax evasion and false commercial transactions. Because they are largely invisible, flows of illicit money across borders are difficult to measure. The World Bank estimates that they range from $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion annually, of which about half—$500 billion to $800 billion—comes out of developing countries ranging from Equatorial Guinea to Kazakhstan to Peru.
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What Can Be Done about This Major Source of Poverty? By Krishen Mehta, GFI Advisor Japan Spotlight Magazine November / December 2009 What are some examples of major global issues that are still unresolved today? One can say that they are the environment and the effect of climate change, the arms race and resultant proliferation of nuclear weapons, the pressure on the earth’s resources in terms of food and water, and the challenges that societies face with respect to education and healthcare. But there is one very important issue the public is not generally aware of. It has the effect of increasing poverty in developing countries, and making it more difficult for them to invest in infrastructure, healthcare, education, and other priorities. And that is the outflow of capital from developing countries through corruption, business mispricing, money laundering, and other means. |
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Por Raymond Baker y Monique Perry Danziger
Economía Exterior Nº49, Verano 2009
Estudios de Politica Exterior Estados Unidos afronta una grave crisis económica interna y un entorno mundial cambiante para la banca y las prácticas comerciales. La manera en que la nación aborde estos dos cambios influirá en la forma en que se manejen las finanzas y los negocios en el país y en el extranjero en años venideros. |
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