Afghanistan’s Bitter Future
The United States has spent $104 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan over the last 13 years. Approximately $62 billion of this total has been used to support the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
Read MoreThe Hard Facts of Global Corruption Action
It takes two to tango to rob national treasuries and undermine global commerce: the government officials and politicians who take the bribes and, of course, the corporations who pay the bribes.
Read MoreCorruption Data Must be Wake Up Call to World Bank and UN
A new global survey of corruption published by Transparency International (TI) shows an all-too-familiar picture of deep and far-reaching abuse of government positions by politicians and officials for their personal gain. More than two-thirds of the 175 countries covered by the survey show very high levels of corruption.
Read MoreUrgently Needed: New Efforts to Protect Anti-Corruption Civil Society Activists
"With impunity there cannot be peace," says Carlos Hernández, Director in Honduras of the Asociación para una Sociedad Mas Justa (the Honduran national chapter of Transparency International). Carlos calmly talks about the endless waves of murders in his country, the rising numbers of contract killers and the intense efforts that he and his colleagues are making to find constructive ways to work with the police, the judiciary and, more broadly, with the general public to curb corruption and find a path to justice and stability.
Read MoreG20 Needs to Boost Banking Supervison - Five Major Banks Pay Fines for Currency Manipulation
On the eve of the Group of 20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, a group of the world’s biggest banks have agreed to pay $4.2 billion in fines to U.K., U.S. and Swiss authorities to settle charges that they fixed international currency markets over many years.
Read MoreTo Boost Exports Many Governments Ignore Corporate Bribe-Paying
Important trading powers, such as Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Brazil, are failing to enforce national laws that call for criminal prosecution of companies from their countries that bribe foreign government officials and politicians.
Read MoreBrave Chinese Anti-Corruption Reporter Wins Big
It took enormous courage in 2012 for a Chinese reporter to go into print to expose one of the Chinese Communist Party's most senior officials for taking bribes and building a fortune by abusing his public office. Reporter Luo Changping did just that and, as a result, on September 24, 2014, Liu Tienan, the former deputy head of the National Reform and Development Commission, pleaded guilty in a trial in the northern province of Hebei.
Read More"No Impunity" Needs to be the Rule for Corrupt Politicians and Corporations
Finance Ministers of the Group of 20 leading global economies agreed to take measures against tax avoidance by giant global corporations at their meeting in Australia on September 20. This now needs to be seen by the G20 as a stepping stone towards far tougher and meaningful actions against illegal tax evaders, corrupt corporations and financial institutions that launder money for corrupt officials, politicians, criminal organizations and businesses.
China’s XI Follows the Anti-Corruption Text Book, But Still Has a Way to Go
President Xi Jinping of China is following the textbook to the letter in his determined efforts to fight corruption. His guru could well be Professor Robert Klitgaard, a distinguished American academic, now at Claremont Graduate University in California.
Read MoreWorld Bank's Record of Sanctioning Corrupt Firms Impresses
World Bank president Jim Yong Kim says,"Each dollar lost to corruption is a dollar stolen from a pregnant woman who needs health care; or from a girl or boy who deserves an education; or from communities that need roads and clean water."
Read MoreU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Faces Mounting Pressure to Act on Oil, Gas, Mining Global Transparency
The American Petroleum Institute (API), the powerhouse lobbying group for the oil industry, is pushing hard for actions that are not only explicitly against the interests of investors, but that bolster corrupt regimes in many foreign countries, such as in Nigeria and Angola and Venezuela.
Read MoreBuilding Anti-Corruption Agencies In The African Commonwealth
Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) have been established in increasing numbers of countries in recent years and have complemented the efforts by public prosecutors and the judiciary to curb corruption in their countries. Are they making a difference?
Read MoreKIEV: US Vice President Biden Talks Bluntly About Corruption
When countries are in acute difficulties and turn to the United States for support, then they do not expect to be publicly rebuked for corruption. Now, Vice President Joe Biden on a visit to Ukraine has done just this and it may signify a change in U.S. foreign policy approaches to dealing with kleptocratic regimes.
Read MoreUkraine's Financial Overthrow
Despite all the swagger of Russia's Putin and the pro-Russian sentiments of many citizens of Ukraine living in Crimea, the people of Ukraine remain angry about the staggering sums of cash allegedly stolen from them by the country's former government leaders and their cronies.
Read MoreAvon’s Alleged Foreign Bribes Spell Trouble
The image of the serene Avon Lady calling on charming housewives to sell beauty products is being replaced by a picture of hardened Avon executives across the developing world paying bribes to build their business.This is not a trivial matter. Avon is in trouble.
Read MoreWho Cares About the Law -- We Just Want to Make Money, Says Chase
Wall Street's trumpets blasted in full force from the top of America's largest bank today to declare: all we care about is making money, even if that means breaking the law at times.
Read MoreWhy Top Bankers Evaded Justice
Across the world people have been asking why none of America’s top bankers went to jail for the crimes that caused the 2008 financial crisis. A leading New York judge now provides disturbing answers and underscores that none of the key bankers who caused the crisis will ever be criminally prosecuted.
Read MoreAnti-Corruption is Marching Ahead
Across the globe the call -- "End Corruption" -- is ringing loud. In the bitter cold of Ukraine's capital, Kiev, tens of thousands of citizens are demonstrating against the government of president Viktor Yanukovych. The protesters declared: "Out with the bandits!"
Read MoreKey Challenges Emerge in the Changing Landscape of Corporate Corruption
Corporations engaged in international business are facing formidable anti-corruption challenges. U.S. and other Western companies face the dual pressures of looming ever larger on the screens of official and media investigators, while on the other hand they find that winning big foreign deals is increasingly more difficult because of the rise of unscrupulous competitors.
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