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G20 dragging feet on beneficial ownership

Source: Transparency International The corrupt don’t like paper trails, they like secrecy. What better way to hide corrupt activity than with a secret company or trust as a front? You can anonymously open bank accounts, make transfers and launder dirty money. If the company is not registered in your name, it can’t always be traced 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 >

Money laundering and related crimes – info centre

Money laundering and illicit financial flows are two related, but distinct types of corruption that pose a huge threat to development and political and economic stability around the world. Developing countries are especially hard hit. The two are closely linked to the concept of beneficial ownership, which is a term referring to the true owner Read more >

Sanction individuals too: global fraud survey

Unethical conduct condoned in the workplace, lack of consequences and prosecution for bribery and corruption, and inadequate government commitment to secure convictions – these factors cropped up repeatedly in the findings of the 2016 global fraud survey, published by EY. Conducted between October 2015 and January 2016, the consulting firm’s biennial survey provides powerful insights Read more >

SA launches third OGP national action plan

The Open Government Partnership was launched in 2011 to provide an international platform that will enable domestic reformers to make their governments more open, accountable, responsive to citizens, and corruption-free. Since then, OGP has grown from the eight founding countries of Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, the UK and the US, to 69 countries. In Read more >

SA commits to tackling beneficial ownership

As part of this week’s meeting of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Cape Town, South Africa today launched its third national action plan (NAP) which includes a high-level commitment to creating a public register of beneficial ownership information. Corruption Watch, as a participant in Transparency International’s (TI) Unmask the Corrupt campaign, has been calling Read more >

TI calls for immediate action against secret companies

A global investigation, involving some 400 journalists from 80 countries, into the use of secret companies by the rich, powerful and corrupt has shown how a network of lawyers, bankers and others around the world hide illicit wealth. Transparency International (TI) calls on the international community to act immediately to adopt transparency laws to outlaw secret Read more >

SA falls short of measures to curb corrupt financial flows

In its report released to coincide with the upcoming G20 meeting in Turkey, Transparency International (TI) has highlighted how G20 countries, including South Africa, have failed to honour their undertaking to fight corruption through implementing more transparent business practices that would make it difficult for the corrupt to hide or move money across borders. This Read more >

G20 drops ball on beneficial ownership

The G20 has not delivered on promises to tackle issues of beneficial ownership – this is revealed in a report released on Thursday by Transparency International. In November 2014 the G20 countries – of which South Africa is one – met in Brisbane. Among the topics up for discussion was the question of beneficial ownership. Read more >