Rosia Montana gold mine uses the gold cyanidation technique
UK Prime Minister Cameron told: stop Jersey-registered shell company suing Romania in ‘corporate court’
Rosia Montana gold mine uses the gold cyanidation technique
A bastion of opacity; the IOR in Rome – photo: John Christensen
The Vatican-based Istituto per le Opere di Religione (the Institute for Religious Works or IOR, a.k.a. the Vatican Bank) probably falls into the category of the world’s most controversial bank. Now, according to this long read article in today’s Guardian, the bank’s unaccountable bureaucracy and self-serving networks who have operated with impunity for decades, faces a vigourous shakedown led by Pope Francis himself.
Created in the late 19th century, prior to which the Vatican’s wealth was apparently stored in a coffer under Pope Leo’s bed – the bank has been implicated in numerous scandals, including handling Nazi assets, acting as a conduit for covert funding of Cold War counter-insurgency programmes, plus, of course, the infamous dealings with the Banco Ambrosiano, made famous by the third of the Godfather film trilogy.
With so many of its transactions conducted using cash, and with such a strong veil of secrecy surrounding its activities, the IOR became notorious for money-laundering, with many commentators (including this blogger) arguing that the Vatican was itself a tax haven. As Paul Vallely argues in the Guardian:
“The Vatican was a natural tax haven. It was an offshore bank in the middle of Rome that Italians could enter merely by waiting for the traffic lights to change from red to green. In line with the Roman Catholic church’s traditional aversion to transparency, the bank authorities adamantly refused to cooperate with the Bank of Italy’s investigation.”
Pope Francis’ mission is to radically break from that past. He has appointed Australian Cardinal George Pell to lead the transformation of the IOR into a modern, transparent financial management service that elevates the churches’ mission to help the poor to top priority. According to Vallely:
“Francis told his financier advisers at their first meeting in July 2013 that “sound financial management was a pillar of his greatest mission: aiding the poor and underprivileged”. What that meant, said Cardinal Pell, is that “the Pope wants to maximise the amount of money coming in so that it could be spent on the poor and the works of the church. Because we’re trying to help people is no reason why we should be inefficient, or not transparent, or open to being robbed.”
Bold sentiments, and who would not want Cardinal Pell to succeed with his task? And one way of checking his progress might be for the Vatican to agree to being assessed under TJN’s Financial Secrecy Index, which cuts through the fine words and perceptions looking instead at legal fact and published international assessments. If the Vatican can achieve a secrecy score better than forty it will compare favourably with most other countries. How about it, Cardinal Pell?
Read the full Guardian article here.
A man floats in a 57th-floor infinity pool above the skyline of Singapore’s financial district.
Photo: Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti
In his essay on what he termed ‘Conspicuous Leisure’, economist Thorstein Veblen observed that “In order to gain and hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put to evidence, for esteem is only awarded on evidence. And not only does the evidence of wealth serve to impress one’s importance on others and to keep their sense of his importance alive and alert, but it is scarcely less use in building up and preserving one’s self-complacency.” Continue reading “The Heavens: a photographic exploration of tax havens”
ma+raud verb. to search (a place) for plunder
On Monday this week the Guardian newspaper splashed a headline across its frontpage about a comment from UK minister of foreign affairs Philip Hammond accusing “marauding migrants” of threatening the standard of living of Europeans. Continue reading “Who are the real “marauders”?”
ISBN no. 978-1-906703-27-1
Published July 2015
Why did the vibrant social democratic traditions of Europe and North America collapse so swiftly in the face of the pervasive propaganda of the neoliberal project? Continue reading “The power of corporate propaganda: review of ‘The Mythology of Business’”
From the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development
Reaction to the Outcome Document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development: Addis Ababa Action Agenda
July 2015
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The Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development (WWG on FfD) expresses its strong disappointment with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda adopted at the conclusion of the Third Financing for Development Conference that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 13 to 16 July 2015. Continue reading “Women’s Working Group reaction to the Addis Ababa finance for development outcomes”
This guest blog by Jörg Wiegratz was originally published by The Conversation, and is re-published here with the author’s permission
The contemporary global economy is characterised by high levels of corruption and crime. Economic chicanery and fraud are rife in many business sectors Continue reading “No country for dirty money: behind Britain’s populist promise on corruption”
Academics Stand Against Poverty, the Yale Global Justice Program, and Global Financial Integrity invite submissions of original essays of ca. 7,000 to 9,000 words on the intelligent use of incentives toward curtailing corporations’ use of tax evasion and avoidance, abusive transfer pricing and all forms of illicit financial flows. All prizes are named in honor of Amartya Sen, whose work has shown how the rigor of economic thinking can be brought to bear on normative and practical questions of great human significance. For more details, please see the contest web page.
The best entries will be presented at an international conference in the fall of 2015 at Yale University and subsequently published in a special issue of a prominent journal. In addition, at least two of the winning essays will receive a monetary award: a first prize of $5,000 and a second prize of $3,000. Professor Sen joined us last year for the conference presentations and hopes to do so again this year.
Entries can be e-mailed to Chelsea Papa at [email protected] by September 11, 2015. We ask that entries be anonymized to facilitate blind refereeing. Winners will be selected by an expert jury, whose decisions are final.
Cross-posted from Finance: Uncovered
Today, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced that the UK will publish information on property owned by foreign companies.
In a speech in Singapore David Cameron said: “The UK must not become a safe haven for corrupt money from around the world”.
He has committed to starting a central register of land owned by overseas companies this autumn, and will be consulting on whether to introduce a register of beneficial ownership of land in the future.
Put simply London property is the currency of corruption. According to London’s police force, most grand corruption cases they investigate involve the purchase of UK property. Continue reading “Is it game over for money laundering in London’s property market?”
The Tax Justice Network and the Centre of Investigative Journalism are delighted to put out a call to journalists, campaigners and academics to attend our highly regarded five-day financial investigative journalism training course in London.
The dates for our next training will be: 16 November 2015 – 20 November 2015
Finance Uncovered (formerly known as the Illicit Finance Journalism Programme) equips journalists and researchers from all over the world with the skills to undertake tax abuse, money laundering and corruption investigations.
This course will also draw the links between tax justice and human rights. Continue reading “Finance: Uncovered – financial investigative journalism training course”
By Alex Cobham, our research director: first posted at Uncounted.
The UK has successfully defended the ‘patent box’ against the charge that it is a major avenue for multinational corporate tax abuse. Now everybody wants one, even though the evidence suggests that only multinationals will benefit.
Will countries take the last chance for productive cooperation offered by BEPS; or will the patent box end up as the paradigmatic case of rich countries ‘competing’ themselves down (and taking developing countries with them)? Continue reading “Will the patent box break BEPS?”
In the July 2015 Taxcast: in a special extended programme we look at the crisis in Greece and ask whatever happened to European unity? Also: we discuss the European Parliament’s vote for multinational corporations to report their activities on a public, country by country basis: the push to give poorer nations a say in international tax rule-making fails after three days of three days of bullying in Addis Ababa BUT Tax Inspectors Without Borders gets the green light. Plus more scandal and unique analysis.
“They don’t care about the conditions in the country, they don’t care about people, they don’t care about macro economic data you bring them, they don’t care about all these things. All they want is…to get money back, and they can get the money back only if they lend more money. So Greece pays. Greece cannot even get caught up with the interest rates. It’s usury what’s happening, it’s total usury.”
Professor of International Politics and Economics from the University of East London, Vassilis Fouskas, co-author of the book Greece, Financialization and the EU: The Political Economy of Debt and Destruction
Produced and presented by @Naomi_Fowler for the @TaxJusticeNet and featuring John Christensen on the Tax Justice Network, Professor of International Politics and Economics from the University of East London, Vassilis Fouskas, @VassilisKFouska, investigative journalist, economist, lawyer and Tax Justice Network senior advisor James Henry @submergingmkt
Listen to the mp3 here:
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What a global tax body would look like
The Third International Conference on Financing for Development just held in Addis Ababa has held negotiations for an internationally agreed position to support the post-2015 development agenda. One of the key areas of dispute this year was international tax. More specifically, TJN and others have pushing for years for international tax rule-making to be removed from the clutches of the world’s rich countries, and developing countries being given more of a say. More precisely, we were pushing for a global tax body to help give developing countries more say.
Continue reading “Global tax body: “After 3 days of bullying, developing countries were run over””
TJN-Africa’s Alvin Mosioma
Here’s our quote of the day, via the Financial Transparency Coalition:
“African nations are at the epicenter of the crisis of illicit financial flows, yet they are not even in the room when decisions are being made,” said Alvin Mosioma, Executive Director of the Tax Justice Network Africa. “A global tax body is one important step in fixing this global problem.”
Continue reading “Quote of the day – Africa hit by global tax intrigues”
More precisely, what is known as an Early Day Motion, so far signed by 20 UK MPs:
“That this House notes the recent screening of From Russia with Cash on Channel 4; expresses its concern that the proceeds of corruption are being laundered through the London property market via the use of anonymous offshore companies; and recommends that corporate transparency become a Land Registry requirement so that any foreign company intending to hold a property title in the UK is held to the same standards of transparency required of UK registered companies, so preventing London or other locations from becoming a safe haven for the corrupt.”
Continue reading “UK parliament: stop money laundering through UK property”
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Alex Cobham, our research director: first posted at Uncounted.
A draft paper by Maya Forstater, circulated by the Center for Global Development in time for the Financing for Development conference in Addis, attacks the integrity of many people and NGOs working on tax justice and illicit financial flows. The claims include: Continue reading “Did NGOs invent a pot of gold? (No.)”
FemLaw [a collaborative research network of the Law and Society Association (LSA)] is seeking expressions of interest in presenting papers in its program at two interdisciplinary international conferences being sponsored by the Law and Society Association: the New Orleans LSA conference (June 2-5, 2016) and the Mexico City International Conference on Law and Society (June 20-23, 2017).
Continue reading “Call for papers on Gender, Development, and Fiscal/Economic Equality”
TJN recently held its annual research workshop in conjunction with the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs and City University at City University London. You can download the presentations given at that workshop from the links below.
Matthew Watson – ‘Following in John Methuen’s Early Eighteenth-Century Footsteps: Ricardo’s Comparative Advantage Theory and the False Foundations of the Competitiveness of Nations’ Download the presentation here
Atul Shah – Systemic Regulatory Arbitrage: the Role of KPMG. Download the presentation here.
Filomeno III Sta Ana – Questioning Fiscal Incentives as a Policy Instrument for Competitiveness: The Case of Southeast Asia. Download the presentation here
Darian Heim – Justice, Migration, and the Competition for Talent. Download the presentation here
Jakob Engel – Regulating the Commodity Trading Industry: Comparing firm strategies to evade stricter regulation at three levels of governance. Download the presentation here
Linda Arch – Competition amongst the London Clearing Banks, 1946 to 1979. Download the presentation here
Michael Tyrala – The Changing Role of the USA in the Regulation of the Offshore Economy. Download the presentation here
John Christensen, Nick Shaxson, Duncan Wigan – The Finance Curse and Competition through Finance. Download the presentation here
Hagai Kalai – Back to Source: From international corporate tax neutrality to efficient investment policy and its implication for a desirable international tax policy. Download the presentation here
Matti Ylönen – Politics of Intra-Firm Trade: Corporate Price Planning and the Double Role of the Arm’s Length Principle. Download the presentation here
Fresh from our brief discussion of the explosive documentary From Russia with Cash, we have a quote of the day from Roberto Saviano, an expert on the Italian crime organisation Camorra, via The Indendent:
“The British treat it as not their problem because there aren’t corpses on the street.”
Continue reading “Quote of the day: City of London and the drugs trade”
From Britain’s Channel 4, a superb exposé of Britain’s high-end property circus market and the willingness of sellers to accept money from all sources, no matter how dubious. It is hilarious and ghastly, at the same time.
This is money stolen from some of the world’s poorest people, going into luxury property in London (and, by the way, also squeezing many of Britain’s poorest people out of the housing market.) Overall, a loss for unequal Britain, and a loss for other countries looted by wealthy crooks.
Continue reading “From Russia with cash: the London laundry exposed”
Dubai: the race-to-the-bottom specialists
The OECD’s Common Reporting Standards (CRS) is the big game in town for curbing cross-border financial transparency. As we’ve often noted, it is a good project, with global reach, but with loopholes.
One of the biggest of these loopholes, perhaps — after Loophole USA — is the problem of ‘fake residency’, where countries allow wealthy people from elsewhere to “buy” their way into being residents of that jurisdiction, perhaps in exchange for their investing a certain amount there, or paying a flat fee.
How does this enable people to escape the CRS?
Continue reading “Fake residency: the yawning loophole the OECD must close”
Tax haven USA, seen from space: where financial information disappears from view
From Agence France Presse:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday that the United States was moving too slowly to prevent the use of shell and front companies to hide ownership.
Continue reading “IMF: US isn’t doing enough to curb financial secrecy”