Posts

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 financial secrecy revealed in the 2018 FSI

The 2018 Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), an initiative of the Tax Justice Network (TJN), was launched recently. The FSI ranks jurisdictions according to their secrecy and the scale of their offshore financial activities. It shies away from being political, positioning itself instead as a tool for understanding global financial secrecy, tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions, Read more >

How does money laundering work?

Money launderers make use of numerous twists and turns in their efforts to hide their trails, but how does the process really happen? Here’s how. Money laundering is exactly what the words describe – washing the ill-gotten gains of their illegal origins so that what is left cannot easily be traced back to the original Read more >

The effect of illicit financial flows on Africa

The problem with illicit financial flows is not just that they are illicit, but that their effect spreads far beyond their immediate area of occurrence. Millions of people are affected, economies are weakened, and development is halted, while a shady few accumulate wealth and influence. A high level conference, held on 14 July at Pretoria Read more >

Public reporting would curb illicit outflows from SA

They come, they see and – due to relaxed tax and finance laws, or legal firms that have perfected the art of tax avoidance – they conquer a lot more than they invest in Africa. These are multinational companies that find loopholes in the legislation of the continent’s poorest countries and are able to dodge Read more >

Panama Papers and offshore tax havens

With Hanna Ziady First published on Moneyweb Image by Mark Lewis Corruption Watch’s executive director David Lewis spoke to financial journalist Hanna Ziady of Moneyweb on Monday, regarding the implications of the leaked Panama Papers, a story that had broken over the weekend. Read the transcript below: Hanna Ziady (HZ):  It has been described as Read more >

How corruption drives illicit financial flows

By Khalil Goga At the recent Pan-African Parliament session in South Africa, former South African president Thabo Mbeki presented the African Union high-level report on illicit financial flows (IFFs). The parliament accepted the report and its recommendations, showing an increased urgency in limiting IFFs on the continent. The Mbeki report refers to IFFs as funds Read more >

Africa’s bleeding stops here!

Africa has been bleeding for decades, losing trillions of dollars to tax dodgers through illicit financial flows. This phenomenon, a common practice by multinational corporations, is also known as “illicit financial flight”. This is money that could have gone towards development interests for millions of Africans. To help remedy the state of affairs, a new Read more >

Reveal beneficial owners of firms to stem graft

By David Lewis There is a head of steam building behind what must sound like an arcane, technical proposal – that companies be obliged to reveal their beneficial owners and that this information be placed on a public register. After intense lobbying by Transparency International and other nongovernmental organisations, this proposal was adopted by the Read more >