South Sudan hopes to sell several unexplored oil blocks for $1 billion in coming months, a finance official said, giving a potential lifeline for the African country's hobbled economy. Reuters.
To read the Global... read more
News and reports
12.02.2013 | EU warned on blood diamond love triangle
For immediate release
Global Witness today called on EU foreign ministers to strengthen measures which restrict sales of diamonds from Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange region to Europe. The warning comes as Belgium... read more
Global Witness’ investigations indicate that ZMDC, joint venture company Anjin, and businessman Sam Pa are involved in off-budget financing of military, police and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). We believe... read more
Global Witness welcomes the Dutch government’s decision to reject the inclusion of a dangerous loophole in a new European transparency law.
The law will force oil, mining and logging companies to publish the payments... read more
Washington, 11th February 2013: The World Bank Board of Directors has blocked a call by independent evaluators to review the outcomes of the Bank’s support for industrial-scale logging in tropical rainforests. The... read more
08.02.2013 | Norway’s national oil company Statoil withholds support from US anti-transparency lawsuit
Norwegian state-owned oil company Statoil has formally distanced itself from a U.S. oil industry lawsuit that seeks to scrap a landmark transparency and anti-corruption law established in the United States.
The... read more
Cameroon | Democratic Republic of Congo | Ecuador | Ghana | Guatemala | Liberia | Peru | Forest Transparency
Public access to information remains a major obstacle to saving rainforests
Commitments to improve public access to information over how forests are managed in developing countries are not being met, said Global... read more
07.02.2013 | Nederlandse regering kan transparantiewetgeving afzwakken terwijl schandaal rond betaling van Shell toeneemt
Click here to read in English.
Voor onmiddellijke publicatie
Het schandaal rond een Nigeriaanse oliedeal, waarbij Shell en het Italiaanse bedrijf Eni betrokken zijn, en waarbij een bedrag van 1,1 miljard US dollar werd... read more
Klik hier om te lezen in het nederlands.
For immediate release
As the scandal grows around a Nigerian oil deal involving Shell and Italian firm Eni who made a US$1.1 billion payment that ended up in the accounts of a... 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
01.02.2013 | World Bank foresters ignore independent evaluation and pledge to carry on logging the world’s rainforests
Cambodia | Cameroon | Democratic Republic of Congo | Indonesia | Liberia | Industrial Forest Use | Forests
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Global Witness available for comment
An independent evaluation leaked earlier this week found that the World Bank’s support for the logging of tropical rainforests is failing in its key aims of... read more
简体中文
New research reveals capability and widespread support to strengthen transparency
The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has the potential to play a greater role in improving extractive company transparency and... read more
15.01.2013 | Transparency Matters: Disclosure of payments to governments by Chinese extractive companies
简体中文
Click here to read the press release.
China’s supply of natural resources is a key element in the drive to sustain economic growth and long-term energy security. However, many resource-rich countries that China... read more
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s 4 January Executive Order expanding a moratorium on logging under Private Use Permits is a welcome move towards restoring the rule of law in Liberia’s forest sector. The Order also... read more
01.02.2013 | World Bank foresters ignore independent evaluation and pledge to carry on logging the world’s rainforests
Cambodia | Cameroon | Democratic Republic of Congo | Indonesia | Liberia | Industrial Forest Use | Forests
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Global Witness available for comment
An independent evaluation leaked earlier this week found that the World Bank’s support for the logging of tropical rainforests is failing in its key aims of... read more
简体中文
New research reveals capability and widespread support to strengthen transparency
The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has the potential to play a greater role in improving extractive company transparency and... read more
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s 4 January Executive Order expanding a moratorium on logging under Private Use Permits is a welcome move towards restoring the rule of law in Liberia’s forest sector. The Order also... read more
Shareholders of London-listed Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation will meet on Friday 28 December to vote on a $550 million deal aimed at buying out its main copper-and-cobalt mining partner in the Democratic... read more
Global Witness welcomes the public response of the Ministry of Mines to our Copper Bottomed? report on Afghanistan’s biggest private investment and the country’s first major extractives agreement – the 2008 Aynak copper... read more
21.12.2012 | Logging company flouts Liberian President’s timber export ban and drives breakdown in rule of law
The logging company Atlantic Resources has shipped millions of dollars worth of illegal timber from Liberia in breach of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s August order to halt timber exports, Global Witness revealed... 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
On 22 August 2012 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published the final rule for Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
The provision aims to prevent the trade in tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from fuelling... read more
For Immediate Release
Bloomberg and Reuters news agencies have reported that the International Monetary Fund has halted its loan programme with the Democratic Republic of Congo because of concerns over transparency in... read more
For immediate release
Legal action by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce threatens to protect business practices that are fuelling bloodshed in Africa.
Global Witness today condemned recent legal action by the U.S. Chamber of... read more
简体中文
Amid reports of endemic corruption, escalating security concerns, and delays restarting crude oil production, South Sudan’s new oil laws offer grounds to be optimistic about the prospects for development and... 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
Global Witness today expressed grave concern at the worsening humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo caused by fighting between M23 rebels and the Congolese army (FARDC).
“The M23 and FARDC... read more
20.11.2012 | Lifting the lid on Afghanistan’s biggest mining deal
To read the full report, click here.
简体中文
برای دانلود متن کامل گزارش، اینجا را کلیک کنید
په پښــــــــتو ژبه د راپور لنډیز د لوستلو لپاره دغه ځای کلیک کړی
Afghanistan’s biggest mining deal has major implications for... read more
په پښــــــــتو ژبه د راپور لنډیز د لوستلو لپاره دغه ځای کلیک کړی
برای دانلود متن کامل گزارش، اینجا را کلیک کنید
د نړيوال شاهد يا (Global Witness) په وینا، د افغانستان د تر ټولو لوی کان استخراج کولای... read more
21.02.2012 | BP makes opaque payments for Angola oil block as petro-lobby seeks weak transparency rules
Read the full BP Angola briefing
Read BP's Letter to Gavin Hayman, Campaigns Director at Global Witness
As oil industry lobbyists attempt to water down watershed transparency legislation in the United States and the... read more
13.02.2012 | Diamonds: A Good Deal for Zimbabwe?
Diamonds: A good deal for Zimbabwe? reveals that several directors of one of the largest mining companies operating in Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange diamond fields are drawn from the Zimbabwean military and police,... read more
Civil society submission to G20 anti-corruption working group, February 2012 read more
READ THE PRESS RELEASE
READ THE REPORT
Read the "Citizens checklist" aimed at preventing corruption in the award of oil, gas and mining licences.
Lire la « Liste de vérification à l’attention des citoyens » en français... read more
Please see the attached letter from seven international non-governmental organizations, experts on the topic of illegal logging in Madagascar, to the Minister of Environment and Forests of Madagascar, regarding the... 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
06.12.2011 | The need for resource transparency beyond the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative : Lessons Learned
Over the next three years, Afghanistan will be awarding contracts for many of its valuable mineral and petroleum reserves. It is critical to Afghanistan’s future that access to these resources is managed carefully... read more
05.12.2011 | Why we are leaving the Kimberley Process - A message from Global Witness Founding Director Charmian Gooch
Read the press release
The diamond trader looked me in the eye and said "If I don't buy them somebody else will". He was talking about blood diamonds from Angola, Sierra Leone and elsewhere. It was 1997 and I was... read more
Lire en français
In July and August 2011, news came out that state mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Gécamines and Sodimico had sold stakes in four major mining sites without making the... read more
30.11.2011 | External briefing on Safeguarding REDD+
This briefing, carries out by consultant group LTS International, examines existing systems for ensuring that finance for the UN's Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation scheme, under which rich... 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
24.11.2011 | Global Witness chapter for European Commission report: What are the risks for investing in REDD+ countries?
In recent years, new and significant amounts of money have been committed by the international community in an effort to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+). While this new... read more
22.11.2011 | Global Witness spokespeople available for comment on “secret sales” scandal in DR Congo
Global Witness welcomes the recent statement by UK MP Eric Joyce raising concerns over the secretive sales of what appear to be billions-of-dollars-worth of mining assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr... read more
A shorter version of this article appeared in City AM.
Read Risky Business report on this issue
Zhezkazgan, Sverdlovsk, Pavlodar. Not names your average investor will have heard of, but all of them are... read more
Diarmid O'Sullivan, Open Society Foundation research fellow and ex-Global Witness campaigner has released a report today on how transparency helps identify problems in the governance of natural resources, as well... 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
One story that will be sure to develop in 2013 is the controversy around ENRC’s activities in Congo. For the background for this, a good place to start is the Global Witness statement of 23 December: “ENRC shareholders... 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
Shell companies
Launderers Anonymous
A study highlights how easy it is to set up untraceable companies
Sep 22nd 2012 | NEW YORK | from The Economist
SHELL companies—which exist on paper only, with no real... 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
13.09.2012 | Business Insider: The Man Who Infiltrated Pablo Escobar's Cartel Explains What's Wrong With The Global Banking System
By Michael Kelley | Business Insider – Fri, Sep 7, 2012 12:56 PM EDT
Robert Mazur, the U.S. Customs special agent who led one of the most successful undercover operations in U.S. law enforcement... read more
By Tom Picken - read this blog on Reuters Trustlaw
International efforts to protect forests and the people that live in them have failed so badly that just 20 per cent of forest remains untouched by commercial activity... read more
Ahead of Thursday’s meeting of the European Parliament's Legal Affairs committee, Global Witness staged a parade of “dictators” in protest at plans to water down upcoming European laws to make oil, mining and timber... read more
Huffington Post blog written by Global Witness' Sudan and South Sudan Analyst, Dana Wilkins, available here. 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
Global Witness's Anthea Lawson and the Financial Task Force's Christine Clough discuss ways to address the illicit financial flows that threaten Uganda's extractive sector and wider economy.
Read here. read more
03.02.2011 | Global Witness for The Times - British business simply can not afford a delay to the Bribery Act
Read this article on The Times website.
We are desperately trying to rebuild British business after the financial crisis. Against that backdrop, you would think that an update to archaic anti-bribery laws that brings... 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
Diarmid O'Sullivan, Open Society Foundation research fellow and ex-Global Witness campaigner has released a report today on how transparency helps identify problems in the governance of natural resources, as well... read more
05.11.2012 | Daily Telegraph - 'Land grab' as families are uprooted to make way for luxury resort that will host EU ministers
Cambodia | Laos | Land Deals
At least 500 people have been uprooted from their homes to make way for luxury villas where European Union foreign ministers, including William Hague, will stay during a summit in Laos on Monday, writes David Blair in... read more
A report by Peru Support Group.
Abstract: High gold prices, persistent poverty and a shortage of employment opportunities in Peru have all contributed to an increase in artisanal and small-scale gold mining activity in... read more
Shell companies
Launderers Anonymous
A study highlights how easy it is to set up untraceable companies
Sep 22nd 2012 | NEW YORK | from The Economist
SHELL companies—which exist on paper only, with no real... read more
20.08.2012 | Tokyo Sexwale and the DRC's Mr Grab
"A $150-million investment ties Tokyo Sexwale to a controversial Israeli businessman as he pulled off the "heist" of a prize mining asset in the DRC" - Mail & Guardian. Click here to read the article. read more
18.11.2011 | Reuters Africa: South Sudan assertive on oil sales
South Sudan will market its crude through its oil ministry, an oil official said on Thursday casting further doubt on the role trading major Glencore's venture will have in selling the nation's oil. Alexander Dziadosz... read more
Some donors do well, all donors can do better, writes Publish What You Fund. read more
Britain is being urged to help close down a legal loophole that lets financiers known as "vulture funds" use courts in Jersey to claim hundreds of millions of pounds from the world's poorest countries, write Greg Palast... read more
15.11.2011 | BBC: Call for greater aid transparency
A UK-based lobby group is calling for more transparency in the spending of global development aid, estimated to be worth about $150bn (£93bn), writes BBC's Mark Doyle. 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
South Sudan's oil minister said on Saturday that an oil cargo detained by northern officials in Port Sudan in a row over duty payments had now sailed, but that negotiations over transit fees were stalled - read... read more
A major international anti-corruption provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation remains stalled at the Securities and Exchange Commission, a year after the bill was passed by Congress and three months... read more
Two days before Sudan splits in two, negotiating teams have failed to agree how to divide the oil critical to the economies of north and south, as aid agencies warn the country is closest to war since a 2005 peace deal... read more
British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, write Damian Carrington and Stefano Valentino. read more
26.10.2010 | BBC World - China fuels Madagascar timber crisis
Soaring demand in China and political unrest in Madagascar are fuelling illegal logging for hardwoods in the African nation, a report concludes.
BBC World - China fuels Madagascar timber crisis 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
Liberia is seeking to prosecute a British citizen for bribery in a proposed carbon deal that would have given him control of a fifth of the West African country's rainforests, the government said.
Reuters –... read more
11.10.2010 | Al Jazeera – UK banks ‘aided Nigeria corruption’
High street banks in the United Kingdom could have helped fuel corruption in Nigeria by accepting millions of dollars in deposits from dubious politicians in the west African nation, an international corruption... read more
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