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GFI Urges G7 Leaders to Push for an Illicit Financial Flows Goal in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda

GFI Calls for Implementation Assessments on Beneficial Ownership Commitment to Be Published by End of 2014

WASHINGTON, DC – G7 leaders meeting in Brussels reiterated their commitment to curtailing illicit financial flows stemming from crime, corruption, and tax evasion in a communiqué released today, as Global Financial Integrity (GFI) called on world leaders to push for an explicit illicit financial flows commitment in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The communiqué states that “We will continue to work to tackle tax evasion and illicit flows of finance, including by supporting developing countries to strengthen their tax base and help create stable and sustainable states.”

Heather Lowe, GFI’s legal counsel and director of government affairs, said “While this is not a ground-breaking communiqué, this statement demonstrates that the G7 is willing to put in the sustained effort necessary to tackle illicit financial flows. They got the ball rolling on this issue at Lough Erne, and while we appreciate the continued momentum, we need them to ensure that the effort truly engages and encompasses developing countries. We continue to have significant concerns that developing countries are being excluded from these critical developments.”

Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda

Today’s communiqué states that the G7 countries “commit to work with all partners to agree an ambitious and universal post-2015 agenda, anchored in a single set of clear and measurable goals.” They go on to say that the post-2015 development agenda “should be centered on people and focused… on balancing the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainable development….”

GFI research finds that illicit financial flows drain roughly US$1 trillion per year from developing countries—stifling economic growth and fueling crime, corruption, and tax evasion.

“Illicit financial flows are the single biggest impediment to sustainable economic development in poor countries. As G7 leaders are clearly committed to curtailing illicit financial flows as well as to truly sustainable development commitments, it only makes sense that they push to make the curtailment of illicit flows a stand-alone commitment within the forthcoming UN Sustainable Development Goals,” noted Ms. Lowe.

Corporate Ownership Transparency Key

Illicit financial flows are facilitated by opacity in the global financial system, with anonymous shell companies being a favored tool of money launderers. The G7 leaders reiterated their Lough Erne commitment to addressing the abuse of anonymous companies and trusts today, saying:

“We remain committed to prevent the misuse of companies and other legal arrangements such as trusts to hide financial flows stemming from corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, and other crimes, ensuring that beneficial ownership information is available in a timely fashion to financial intelligence units, tax collection and law enforcement agencies, for example through central registries or other appropriate mechanisms, leading by example in implementing the Financial Action Task Force and other relevant international standards and our national action plans in line with the principles we agreed at Lough Erne.”

However, GFI expressed concern that certain G7 members may be falling short of their Lough Erne National Action Plans on beneficial ownership.

“Anonymous shell companies are the number one tool for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion,” noted Ms. Lowe. “Creating central registries of the true, human, ‘beneficial’ owners of each company—available to law enforcement, if not to the public—is a common sense approach to curbing financial crime and the tremendous flow of illegal money worldwide.

“While certain G7 members—notably the United Kingdom—are clearly making progress in implementing their national action plans on beneficial ownership, we are concerned that the solutions currently being debated within the G20 and OECD initiatives relate solely to identifying beneficial ownership information of companies for tax purposes. The use of anonymous companies to facilitate illicit finance is much bigger than just tax evasion. We therefore call on all G7 members to publish assessments on how they are complying with their National Action Plans by the end of 2014.”

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Notes to Editors:

Click here to read an HTML version of this press release on GFI’s website.

Click here to download and read the full G7 communiqué (PDF). More information on the Summit is available here.

Click here to read an overview of illicit financial flows from Global Financial Integrity.

Click here to read an op-ed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, titled “The Corruption Cure: Transparency, Taxes, Trade: G-7 Leaders Should Address the Crony Capitalism Eating Away at Economic and Political Systems,” in the June 5, 2014 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Click here to read an op-ed by Mo Ibrahim, titled “The G7 Must Act on Transparency and Corruption,” published by the Financial Times on June 4, 2014.

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