Money Laundering

Fear of a Triumph by Keiko Fujimori, the Key to Peru’s Elections

Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets of Lima and other cities to protest the likely triumph in the Sunday Jun. 5 runoff election of Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, who is serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity.

Tackling Corruption at its Root in Papua New Guinea

Corruption, the single largest obstacle to socioeconomic development worldwide, has had a grave impact on the southwest Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea. While mineral resource wealth drove high gross domestic product (GDP) growth of eight percent in 2012, the country is today ranked 157th out of 187 countries in terms of human development.

Global Summit Urged to Focus on Trillion-Dollar Corruption

New analysis suggests that developing countries are losing a trillion dollars or more each year to tax evasion and corruption facilitated by lax laws in Western countries, raising pressure on global leaders to agree to broad new reforms at an international summit later this year.

Tajikistan, Where Iranian Money Takes a Bath?

An Iranian entrepreneur who is the subject of U.S. and EU sanctions for laundering oil money on behalf of Tehran is operating a successful family of businesses in Tajikistan.

Uphill Struggle for Caribbean Financial Services Sector

In the 1980's, Caribbean countries wanted to shore up their prospects of social and economic development in the coming decades, so they looked to the financial services sector to spur employment and development. They managed to develop a robust industry, particularly in the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.

Alvin Mosioma, coordinator of the Tax Justice Network Africa, which advocates fair tax regimes to promote economic and social development. Credit: Tax Justice Network Africa

AFRICA: Emerging Trend Towards Establishing Offshore Tax Havens

As several African governments examine the possibility of setting up their own "offshore" financial centres, the trade name for tax havens, campaigners are calling for transparency and fair tax regimes.

Middle East Fast Bleeding Money

Middle East countries have seen the largest increase of illicit outflows of funds to richer nations, depriving the developing nations of much needed development money, a new international report shows.

A big screen in a Bogotá plaza shows the 2010 football World Cup. Credit: Helda Martínez/IPS

COLOMBIA: Drug Trade’s Hold on Football Persists

Football, the most popular sport in Colombia, has been subject to heavy pressures from drug trafficking since the mid-1970s. A new study shows that the illicit trade continues to tarnish the upper echelons of this sport.

FINANCE: Ecuador Wants Off the Money-Laundering List

"It sounds incredible, but it's just a matter of a letter that wasn't turned in on time," Ecuador's attorney general said in regards to the Financial Action Task Force decision to qualify the country as "posing a risk to the international financial system."

POLITICS: Not Quite Cricket – India’s Most Popular Sport on Trial

Allegations that India’s junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor had swung outsize ‘sweat equity’ for a female friend in a newly floated professional cricket league franchise may have cost him his job, but it may also expose the multi- million dollar India Premium League (IPL) as a massive money-laundering enterprise.

EUROPE: Tax Evasion Rampant Despite Treaties With Tax Havens

New cases of tax evasion in several European countries are showing the limits of the informal agreements reached between the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and tax havens such as Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

ECONOMY: Government Failures Feeding Next Financial Bubble

Numerous failures by industrialised countries’ governments and central banks in managing the financial crisis are feeding the next bubble, which most likely will again provoke economic woes such as recession, unemployment, and poverty, according to economists and analysts.

Raymond Baker: The poor are the hardest hit by illegal capital flight. Credit:

Q&A: "Political Elites Ensure Continuing Flight of Dirty Money"

Illegal capital flight in the form of corrupt, criminal and illicit commercial proceeds out of developing economies could be as high as one trillion dollars a year.

LATIN AMERICA: Investigative Journalists Show Their Mettle

"One way of ensuring the future of journalism is to improve content quality, and this means investigating what is deliberately hidden, like corruption," said Gerardo Reyes, a reporter for the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald, on a visit to the Peruvian capital.

VENEZUELA: Drug Trafficking Getting Worse, Says U.S. Report

Governmental corruption and the refusal to cooperate with U.S. counter-drug efforts are worsening a ballooning drug trafficking problem in Venezuela, according to a new report by the investigative office of the U.S. Congress.

Bob Roach Credit: Lucy Komisar/IPS

Q&A: Tax Havens, Bank Secrecy, and Tricks

At a recent conference in Miami organised by Offshore Alert, a specialised media organisation focused on financial crime, IPS correspondent Lucy Komisar sat down with veteran investigator Bob Roach to discuss the hurdles facing regulators trying to crack down on tax havens, which cost the U.S. alone an estimated 100 billion dollars annually.

SPAIN-EQUATORIAL GUINEA: More Trade, Little Pressure

Trade between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is flourishing, amidst calls by activists for the government of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to push for democracy in this tiny country on the Atlantic coast of Africa, still under the yoke of dictatorship.

COLOMBIA: All the President’s Spies

Colombian journalist Hollman Morris phoned an international news agency and said in an agitated voice: "I am being followed by the police."

EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood on the Mat

Several leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement stand accused of plans to form an "international network of organisational cells." Its leaders say the charges are blatant fabrications.

ECONOMY-INDIA: Tax Haven Loot Turns Election Issue*

General elections currently being contested in India have brought an unusual issue to the fore - the repatriation of more than a trillion dollars believed to have been stashed away in Swiss and other tax havens.

CHINA: Macau Gaming Boom at a Cost

Beijing’s decade-old flirt with lucrative gambling in the booming casino town of Macau has gone decidedly sour.

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