Anthea Lawson of Global Witness, speaking at TEDx in the British Houses of Parliament. Enjoy. For more on the British role, see here or here or here. … [Read more...]
Corruption
A Law Unto Themselves – Eva Joly discusses her fight against high level corrupt practices
In this half-hour BBC interview with renowned lawyer Helena Kennedy, investigative judge Eva Joly (a great friend of TJN) talks about her life fighting corrupt activities at the highest echelons of business and politics. … [Read more...]
Delaware corporate secrecy and crime: a long-awaited debate begins
A fascinating blog from Global Witness: "Last November, a former special agent for the Treasury Department, John Cassara, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times with the headline “Delaware, Den of Thieves?” Cassara described how the state of Delaware (along with Wyoming and Nevada) has become … [Read more...]
Honest Accounts? The true story of Africa’s billion dollar losses
For decades Western countries have peddled a fairy tale about Africa's plight. The tale spins a homely story of how the West provides development aid to assist African nations overcome their own shortcomings. The tale is, of course, a vicious and mendacious nonsense. As this new report from … [Read more...]
Jean-Claude Juncker and the rise of extremism
We have previously blogged about the role played by the former Luxembourg prime minister in shaping the rise of tax haven Luxembourg. Europe now faces the prospect that he will be elected the next president of the European Commission this coming week. If this happens, those politicians who vote … [Read more...]
How developing countries can take control over their tax destinies
Krishen Mehta, a Senior Adviser to TJN, has written a short document with ten pointers offering ways that developing countries can take control over their tax destinies. We reproduce the introduction of his article below: please click on the full article for the ten points. We hope to produce more … [Read more...]
The Swiss commodity black hole: a bizarre new government proposal
From the Berne Declaration and Swissaid: "The Federal Council today announced its wish to close the Swiss gaps in transparency for the global commodity industry. But the entire commodities trading business may well be excluded from any future regulation." … [Read more...]
The Impacts of Illicit Financial Flows on Peace and Security in Africa
From Alex Cobham of the Center for Global Development, a paper for the Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa 2014. It's called, as our title suggests, The Impacts of Illicit Financial Flows on Peace and Security in Africa. Published in April, it's an important contribution to the … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
Forever in your debt Last week saw news of a major decision from the US Supreme Court on the long running feud between the Government of Argentina and vulture fund, NML Capital. … [Read more...]
Big Bills: how our central banks nurture money launderers and kleptocrats
A question for our European readers. How many of you have ever spent or even seen a 500 Euro note? No, neither have we. Which is may seem odd, given that there are some 300 billion Euros' worth of these things out there, in circulation. Which raises the question: where are they all? … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Football: a game of two halves - corruption and scandal The World Cup of scandal and corruption rolls on. This week Global Witness has exposed the role of the Brazilian Development Bank, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social, in … [Read more...]
Cambridge University: the Chinese government connection
In March we wrote a post entitled Ukraine’s dirty money: the Cambridge University connection, which highlighted the fact that a Ukrainian oligarch who had showered money on Cambridge university to promote a "Cambridge Ukrainian Studies" department had just been arrested in Vienna on an international … [Read more...]
FIFA’s “obscene” tax abuses – part 2: the John Oliver version
We recently wrote a post entitled Brazilians will pay heavily for FIFA’s “obscene” tax abuses, which gained a fair bit of attention and once more put the spotlight once more on the monopolistic, rent-seeking world football governing body based in Zurich, Switzerland. Now U.S.-based TV funnyman … [Read more...]
How Seychelles became a paradise for dirty money and corruption
In 2012 Al Jazeera published a remarkable undercover television investigation into the Seychelles, where two African journalists posing as wealthy Zimbabweans were brazenly offered the sleaziest secrecy services. It's a classic of offshore undercover investigation, and we at TJN have referenced it … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner The Togo triangle: where stolen Nigerian oil disappears Nigeria: the land of lost opportunity. Billions of dollars from oil revenue has literally been siphoned out of the country. The story – and corruption - has run for decades. … [Read more...]
