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TI: time for FATF to review standards, guidance docs

Transparency International (TI) says that public registers of beneficial ownership should be the norm. In a new report titled Who is behind the wheel? Fixing the global standards on company ownership the organisation says that uncovering the identities of the real owners of companies is a crucial step in the fight against corruption. “For instance, Read more >

Zuma stay of prosecution application dismissed

By Thato Mahlangu Former president Jacob Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution in his corruption-related case was dismissed with costs, in a judgment handed down by the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) High Court in Pietermaritzburg this Friday. BREAKING: the order thar dismisses Fmr President Jacob Zuma application for a permanent stay of his corruption prosecution Read more >

Combating trade-based money laundering

By Jason Kohn First published on the Global AntiCorruption Blog Global trade has quadrupled in the last 25 years, and with this growth has come the increased risk of trade-based money laundering. Criminals often use the legitimate flow of goods across borders—and the accompanying movement of funds—to relocate value from one jurisdiction to another without Read more >

Passports for sale: the risks of golden visa programmes

By Natalie Ritchie    First published on the Global Anticorruption Blog In 1984, the government of the small Caribbean island state of Saint Kitts and Nevis had a bright idea for attracting foreign capital: the country would grant permanent resident status to any foreign national who invested a sufficient amount in the country. The idea caught Read more >

Poor ‘golden visa’ due diligence a gift to the corrupt

By Daniel GayneFirst published on Global Witness Yesterday, 11 March, was Commonwealth Day, and this year’s theme was A Connected Commonwealth. How appropriate – it is after all, the Commonwealth’s incredible connectedness that has made its members such successful players in the fast-expanding US$3-billion ‘Golden Visa’ market. Golden visas – or citizenship-by-investment programmes for those Read more >

Global clean-up of money laundering

By Rhoda Weeks-Brown First published on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Al Capone had a problem: he needed a way to disguise the enormous amounts of cash generated by his criminal empire as legitimate income. His solution was to buy all-cash laundromats, mix dirty money in with clean, and then claim that washing ordinary Americans’ Read more >

Namibia removed from list of tax havens

Original source: Reuters European Union (EU) finance ministers removed Namibia from the bloc’s blacklist of tax havens on Tuesday after it committed itself to changing its tax rules and practices, the EU said. The Economic and Financial Affairs Council established the list in December 2017, with the overall goal of improving tax good governance globally Read more >

Foreign bribery largely unchecked in SA, OECD obligations not fulfilled

Yesterday Transparency International (TI) released the 2018 edition of its Exporting Corruption report, following on the previous edition published back in 2015. For South Africa, not much has changed for the better. Exporting Corruption 2018 rates countries on their enforcement against foreign bribery under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention. The Read more >

South Africa fails to punish foreign bribery, TI report reveals

Transparency International (TI) has today released the 2018 edition of its Exporting Corruption report, rating countries based on their enforcement against foreign bribery under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. The OECD convention requires signatory countries to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials and introduce related measures. TI examined the enforcement of 40 signatory countries and four Read more >