Naturalist and comedian Bill Oddie has been filmed being evicted from HSBC’s London headquarters while protesting against the bank’s business ties to companies that are illegally destroying rainforests and abusing human... read more
News and reports
14.05.2013 | Bill Oddie evicted from HSBC HQ while protesting against bank’s role in Malaysian rainforest destruction
10.05.2013 | Anonymous companies: A Global Witness briefing
Money launderers, corrupt politicians, terrorists, arms traffickers, drug smugglers, and tax evaders all rely on two things to move their dirty money: company structures that allow them to hide their identity, and banks... read more
There have been two cost/benefit analyses carried out looking at the costs of a beneficial ownership registry: one done by the UK in 2002 and one done by the European Commission in 2007. Both concluded that public... read more
09.05.2013 | Global Witness welcomes Kofi Annan’s call for financial transparency in African resource deals
Campaign group Global Witness has backed a call by prominent figures including Kofi Annan, Bob Geldof and Graca Machel for Africa’s natural resource wealth to be used for the benefit of its people. This year’s report... read more
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and fellow G8 leaders must crack down on anonymous company ownership, said Global Witness today following revelations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)... read more
The British bank, HSBC, made a $20.6bn profit in 2012 and paid its CEO a $3m bonus, it was announced today. This is in spite of the fact that HSBC was fined a record $1.9bn for doing business with Mexican drug lords,... read more
05.02.2013 | We could end poverty if … David Cameron is right?
Britain‘s G8 presidency a chance to reframe the poverty debate
It’s always encouraging to see our leaders pushing the right line for a change. Outlining his agenda for the G8 at the World Economic Forum in Davos... read more
The European Commission’s new draft legislation for how to crack down on financial crime, published today, misses an opportunity to make it much harder for tax evaders, mobsters, arms dealers and corrupt politicians to... read more
11.12.2012 | Senior HSBC bankers need to face jail for their bank’s role in laundering drugs money; fining the bank won’t work
Today, Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, announced that it will pay $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion) to settle allegations that it laundered money for drugs cartels, terrorists and pariah states. During approximately the same... read more
28.11.2012 | Inside Job - How crooks set up the largest bank in Afghanistan & then robbed it for almost $1 billion
Global Witness available for comment
The first official analysis of the “Kabul Bank Crisis” of 2010 reveals an urgent need for reform in the international banking system, said Global Witness today. The “Report of the... read more
Rosie Sharpe, Senior campaigner, Global Witness
Investigations carried out by the Guardian, ICIJ and the BBC's Panorama programme into the ease with which anonymous shell companies can be used to move dirty money... read more
19.11.2012 | Maxim Bakiyev’s extradition case raises concerns over his activities in the United Kingdom
Русская версия здесь
Updated 7 December 2012
Maxim Bakiyev appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London today in relation to extradition proceedings filed by the United States regarding an ongoing insider... read more
Today, HSBC added $800 million to the money it has set aside to cover US fines for money laundering, bringing the total amount that the bank has set aside for this issue to $1.5 billion. If the fine was of... read more
02.11.2012 | In the future, there will be no forests left
Click here to read the press release
HSBC has bankrolled logging companies causing widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses in Sarawak, Malaysia, violating its sustainability policies and earning... read more
Read the report
Read this report covered in The Economist
简体中文
HSBC has bankrolled logging companies causing widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses in Sarawak, Malaysia, violating its... read more
14.05.2013 | Bill Oddie evicted from HSBC HQ while protesting against bank’s role in Malaysian rainforest destruction
Naturalist and comedian Bill Oddie has been filmed being evicted from HSBC’s London headquarters while protesting against the bank’s business ties to companies that are illegally destroying rainforests and abusing human... read more
09.05.2013 | Global Witness welcomes Kofi Annan’s call for financial transparency in African resource deals
Campaign group Global Witness has backed a call by prominent figures including Kofi Annan, Bob Geldof and Graca Machel for Africa’s natural resource wealth to be used for the benefit of its people. This year’s report... read more
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and fellow G8 leaders must crack down on anonymous company ownership, said Global Witness today following revelations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)... read more
The British bank, HSBC, made a $20.6bn profit in 2012 and paid its CEO a $3m bonus, it was announced today. This is in spite of the fact that HSBC was fined a record $1.9bn for doing business with Mexican drug lords,... read more
The European Commission’s new draft legislation for how to crack down on financial crime, published today, misses an opportunity to make it much harder for tax evaders, mobsters, arms dealers and corrupt politicians to... read more
11.12.2012 | Senior HSBC bankers need to face jail for their bank’s role in laundering drugs money; fining the bank won’t work
Today, Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, announced that it will pay $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion) to settle allegations that it laundered money for drugs cartels, terrorists and pariah states. During approximately the same... read more
28.11.2012 | Inside Job - How crooks set up the largest bank in Afghanistan & then robbed it for almost $1 billion
Global Witness available for comment
The first official analysis of the “Kabul Bank Crisis” of 2010 reveals an urgent need for reform in the international banking system, said Global Witness today. The “Report of the... read more
19.11.2012 | Maxim Bakiyev’s extradition case raises concerns over his activities in the United Kingdom
Русская версия здесь
Updated 7 December 2012
Maxim Bakiyev appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London today in relation to extradition proceedings filed by the United States regarding an ongoing insider... read more
Today, HSBC added $800 million to the money it has set aside to cover US fines for money laundering, bringing the total amount that the bank has set aside for this issue to $1.5 billion. If the fine was of... read more
Read the report
Read this report covered in The Economist
简体中文
HSBC has bankrolled logging companies causing widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses in Sarawak, Malaysia, violating its... read more
Read Stefanie Ostfeld's comment piece on The Hill's Congress Blog.
Senate hearing examines money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing allegations
According to the chair of a U.S. Senate... read more
The world’s richest countries promised to close the gap between commitments they have made to fight corruption and the implementation of these promises in reality, as part of the leaders communiqué issued yesterday at... read more
17.06.2012 | Global Witness calls for action to end hidden company ownership in light of money laundering accusations
пресс-релиз на русском языке доступен тут
Global Witness is today revealing evidence that numerous UK companies appear to have helped facilitate a major money laundering scandal centred on a bank in Central Asia. Grave... read more
Obiang Should Tackle Corruption, Poverty, and Repression in Oil-Rich Equatorial Guinea
(Washington, DC, June 15, 2012) – The president of Equatorial Guinea should take concrete steps to respect human rights, address... read more
A new US Department of Justice court filing has made substantial allegations of corruption against Teodorin Obiang, the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea. The document is part of a wider US effort to recover... read more
10.05.2013 | Anonymous companies: A Global Witness briefing
Money launderers, corrupt politicians, terrorists, arms traffickers, drug smugglers, and tax evaders all rely on two things to move their dirty money: company structures that allow them to hide their identity, and banks... read more
There have been two cost/benefit analyses carried out looking at the costs of a beneficial ownership registry: one done by the UK in 2002 and one done by the European Commission in 2007. Both concluded that public... read more
02.11.2012 | In the future, there will be no forests left
Click here to read the press release
HSBC has bankrolled logging companies causing widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses in Sarawak, Malaysia, violating its sustainability policies and earning... read more
17.06.2012 | Grave Secrecy
简体中文
Read the Press Release
Grave Secrecy was published in June 2012. It reveals evidence that numerous UK companies have been involved in a major money laundering scandal involving a Kyrgyzstan bank, and shows how... read more
This paper puts forward some ideas for how the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the body that sets the global standards designed to curb financial crime, can ensure that these standards are actually implemented... read more
Organisations representing over 1000 civil society groups have written to the EU calling on it to establish a new standard for company ownership transparency. NGO coalitions including Publish What You Pay, the UN... read more
29.02.2012 | Global Witness Submission to International Development Select Committee Inquiry on Tax and Development
Global Witness' response to an International Development Select Committee Inquiry on Tax and Development. Our response highlights the need for disclosure of revenue payments in the extractive sector and for more... read more
Civil society submission to G20 anti-corruption working group, February 2012 read more
This submission focuses on the role of the financial sector of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in facilitating a possible loss in value of billions of dollars from state mining assets in the Democratic Republic of... read more
New research published by the Tax Justice Network shows that tax evasion costs 145 countries, representing over 98% of world GDP, more than US$3.1 trillion annually.
In the UK for instance, a staggering £69.9 billion a... read more
19.09.2011 | Submission to the Financial Action Task Force in response to standards review: second round
This submission is in response to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) consultation, The Review of Standards – Preparation for the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluations: Second public consultation. It follows on from the... read more
30.08.2011 | Joint NGO submission to the UK government's consultation on the anti-money laundering regulations
Global Witness and a number of other civil society organisations are deeply concerned about the UK government's proposal to water down the anti-money laundering regulations. This submission lays out in detail our... read more
Global Witness, along with over 400 other civil society groups, have written to the G20's anti-corruption working group outlining their priorities for the upcoming Cannes G20 summit. This follows on from a previous... read more
For over a decade, Global Witness has targeted policy-makers, international organisations, regulators and the banks themselves in an effort to make it harder for corrupt politicians to stash loot in foreign bank... read more
07.02.2011 | Press advisory: Global Witness spokespeople available for comment on banking of politicians’ funds
Following recent events in Egypt, Tunisia, Ivory Coast and Haiti, Global Witness specialists are available for comment and analysis on how senior politicians access the financial system.
The unrest in Tunisia,... read more
05.02.2013 | We could end poverty if … David Cameron is right?
Britain‘s G8 presidency a chance to reframe the poverty debate
It’s always encouraging to see our leaders pushing the right line for a change. Outlining his agenda for the G8 at the World Economic Forum in Davos... read more
Rosie Sharpe, Senior campaigner, Global Witness
Investigations carried out by the Guardian, ICIJ and the BBC's Panorama programme into the ease with which anonymous shell companies can be used to move dirty money... read more
01.10.2012 | Mystery shopping exercise shows how easy it is to set up anonymous companies in the U.S. and UK
Originally posted on the Taskforce on Financial Integrity’s website here.
By Rosie Sharp
Rosie Sharp is a Senior Campaigner for Global Witness, a member of the Task Force Coordinating Committee.
You’re a criminal and... read more
19.09.2012 | Blog from Global Witness' Stefanie Ostfeld: Dictators’ Riches Are Stolen at Home, But Banked in the West
This post first appeared on Freedom House's Freedom at Issue blog.
Corrupt dictators who take bribes and loot their treasuries are rightly condemned by governments and other observers in developed... read more
This article was published in the Financial Times on 24th February 2011.
Read press advisory on this issue.
Don't make it easier for dictators to steal
By Anthea Lawson, head of Kleptocracy campaign
The world may... read more
Read this blog on Huffington Post.
When governments around the world are taking measures in support of fiscal austerity, foreign assistance is always a prime target for the chopping block. Bravely, some governments,... read more
This piece first ran on the Guardian website.
The rich world has been busy tightening its belt in recent weeks, with Britain, Germany and Spain all announcing the severest economic cuts in generations and... read more
Clariden Leu AG, with roots that make it Switzerland's oldest private bank, has begun telling certain U.S. customers suspected of offshore tax evasion that it will disclose their names to the U.S. Internal Revenue... read more
06.09.2011 | Wall St Journal - SocGen deals eyed by Libya
Officials working with Libya's new governing authority are examining whether any payments made by Société Générale SA as part of its business relationship with the Libyan Investment Authority ended up in the hands of... read more
An international financial crime watchdog has been urged not to relax its stance on monitoring political officials in the light of the desperate scramble to freeze the assets of deposed leaders in the Middle East and... read more
Rosie Sharpe, Senior campaigner, Global Witness
Investigations carried out by the Guardian, ICIJ and the BBC's Panorama programme into the ease with which anonymous shell companies can be used to move dirty money... read more
Rob Walker of the BBC Assignment team investigates what’s happened to billions of dollars in oil revenues paid to the government of Equatorial Guinea since it's oil boom in the 1990s.
Anthea Lawson from Global... read more
Global Witness has long campaigned for companies to come clean about who actually owns them. In most countries in the world individuals can legally disguise their identities and their assets behind anonymous shell... read more
This op-ed appeared in the International Herald Tribune
The Stolen Money Trail
By Anthea Lawson
Earlier this month, Swiss bank regulators found that four Swiss banks had not done enough to identify dictators’ assets... read more
The London-based anti-corruption campaign group, Global Witness, said it has evidence that Teodorin Obiang, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of the tiny West African state of Equatorial Guinea, has plans to... read more
This article was published in the Financial Times on 24th February 2011.
Read press advisory on this issue.
Don't make it easier for dictators to steal
By Anthea Lawson, head of Kleptocracy campaign
The world may... read more
A U.S. diplomat called Equatorial Guinea's dictator of 31 years one of "the good guys" in leaked diplomatic cables urging Washington to engage with its third largest oil supplier or risk endangering energy security,... read more
Kazakhstan's septuagenerian President Nursultan Nazarbayev has brought over 50 businessmen on a three day visit to the EU that is to see the European Investment Bank (EIB) open a €1.5 billion credit line to help fund... read more
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