From Corporate Observatory Europe, the basic background for our guest blog: "The proposed EU legislation on “Trade Secrets Protection”, which the European Parliament will vote next April 14, creates excessive rights to secrecy for businesses: it is a direct threat to the work of journalists and … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
Links Mar 31
Unfamiliar with irony, Swiss bankers are complaining of a “lack of transparency” Quartz New Zealand Foreign Trusts and the Unaoil Scandal: More Chickens Coming Home to Roost, and They’re Big naked capitalism See also: Mainstream Media Ignores Blockbuster Expose of Massive Bribery in Iraq by … [Read more...]
Links Mar 30
There’s A Huge New Corporate Corruption Scandal. Here’s Why Everyone Should Care HuffPost See also: The Bribe Factory The Age / HuffPost - "An extraordinary case of bribery and corruption in the oil industry, centred on Monaco-based company Unaoil". Canada Joins 21st Century Fight against Tax … [Read more...]
Panama: the making of a tax haven and rogue state
Panama is attracting much media attention at the moment, and for good reason. Earlier this month we blogged on a BBC Hard Talk interview with Panama's Vice President which referred to our comment that Panama gives "the middle finger" to the rest of the world when it comes to tackling financial … [Read more...]
Take action to back corporate transparency in Europe
Update: see the report in The Guardian here; see Alex Cobham's mode detailed analysis of the failures of what's being proposed, here. We've been campaigning on so-called country by country reporting since 2003, and now world leaders, and many others, are beginning to introduce changes to bring … [Read more...]
Links Mar 29
The gnomes of Zurich are silent no longer Financial Times "Past actions are catching up with some Swiss banking clients". On links between Brazil's Petrobras, Malaysia's 1MDB, Fifa, and Spanish political slush fund scandals... Swiss banks to cooperate in probe of Venezuela’s state oil and gas … [Read more...]
Links Mar 24
Financial Transparency Coalition Newsletter January - March 2016 Credit Suisse, the Jailed Banker and an Oligarch's Millions Bloomberg Swiss Banks Land in Middle of Money-Laundering Probe -- Again Bloomberg "U.S. said to seek banking records in widening Venezuela probe" OECD warns that … [Read more...]
The Tax Justice Network March 2016 Podcast
In this month's podcast: Is the US president really serious about tackling corruption in the finance sector? Are the presidential candidates? Now they can prove it. William Black of Bank Whistleblowers United tells us how they can restore the rule of law to Wall Street and avoid the next financial … [Read more...]
Edmond Tavernier, Swiss tax lawyer, reveals how a little learning is still a dangerous thing
This blogger has just been reading an article about tax competition in the Swiss Bilan magazine citing tax laywer Edmond Tavernier (who, BTW, has the dubious distinction of representing Lillian Bettencourt and Jérôme Cazuhac in their respective cases). … [Read more...]
Links Mar 23
How Much International Tax Evasion is There? naked capitalism $181 billion Indian black money in tax havens? The Times of India Head of joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative appointed – James Karanja, of the Kenya Revenue Authority OECD For background, read our August … [Read more...]
The inexorable approach of public country-by-country reporting
The full publication of multinational companies' country-by-country reporting took a step closer today. A begrudging step, which as it stands would negate most of the benefits; but an important one nonetheless, because of the direction of travel. A long road travelled A little background. Public … [Read more...]
Does Trump belong to an offshore company?
Good question. … [Read more...]
Links Mar 21
HSBC’s Money Laundering Nightmare (2): Mossack Fonseca, a Year in Words and Pictures, March 2015-March 2016 naked capitalism Story involves Panama, Brazil, Moldova, Malta, New Zealand, Azerbaijan, Germany, Luxembourg, USA, Hong Kong ... Global tax enforcement puts Cayman in the crosshairs The … [Read more...]
Why is the CEO of IKEA Switzerland head of a UN panel on gender?
On March the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment held their inaugural meeting. The panel: “intends to put women’s economic empowerment at the top of the international agenda, including by defining actions to speed up progress under the 2030 Agenda for … [Read more...]
Scottish Government announces historic law to end secrecy of land ownership
This topic has been building slowly in some countries, whose economies are blighted by the fact that large tracts of real estate are owned by anonymous entities and arrangements, typically linked to tax havens. We'd highlight Private Eye's searchable database of offshore-owned properties in the … [Read more...]
