Undermining Sanctions
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Nigeria: Evidence of Corruption and the Influence of Social Norms
www.transparency.org www.cmi.no Nigeria: Evidence of corruption and the influence of social norms Query Can you provide an overview of corruption in Nigeria, presenting the existing evidence on what types of corruption take place in the country, at what levels of society, at what magnitude – and in particular, what social norms are involved? Purpose nepotism and cronyism, among others; and (ii) to preserve power, which includes electoral Contribute to the agency’s work in this area. corruption, political patronage, and judicial corruption. Content Evidence also suggests that these forms of 1. Introduction: The literature on corruption in corruption are related to the country’s social Nigeria norms. Nigeria is assessed as a neo-patrimonial state, where power is maintained through the 2. Social norms and corruption in Nigeria awarding of personal favours and where 3. Forms of corruption in Nigeria politicians may abuse their position to extract as 4. References many rents as possible from the state. Summary This answer provides an overview of the existing evidence regarding corruption and social norms, highlighting the main areas discussed in the literature related to the social mechanisms influencing corruption in the country, as well as an overview of existing evidence regarding the main forms of corruption that take place in Nigeria. Available evidence demonstrates that corruption in Nigeria serves two main purposes: (i) to extract rents from the state, which includes forms of corruption such as embezzlement, bribery, Author(s): Maíra Martini, Transparency International, [email protected] Reviewed by: Marie Chêne; Samuel Kaninda, Transparency International Acknowledgement: Thanks to the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) for their contribution. -
GLENCORE: a Guide to the 'Biggest Company You've Never Heard
GLENCORE: a guide to the ‘biggest company you’ve never heard of’ WHO IS GLENCORE? Glencore is the world’s biggest commodities trading company and 16th largest company in the world according to Fortune 500. When it went public, it controlled 60% of the zinc market, 50% of the trade in copper, 45% of lead and a third of traded aluminium and thermal coal. On top of that, Glencore also trades oil, gas and basic foodstuffs like grain, rice and sugar. Sometimes refered to as ‘the biggest company you’ve never heard of’, Glencore’s reach is so vast that almost every person on the planet will come into contact with products traded by Glencore, via the minerals in cell phones, computers, cars, trains, planes and even the grains in meals or the sugar in drinks. It’s not just a trader: Glencore also produces and extracts these commodities. It owns significant mining interests, and in Democratic Republic of Congo it has two of the country’s biggest copper and cobalt operations, called KCC and MUMI. Glencore listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2011 in what is still the biggest ever Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the stock exchange’s history, with a valuation of £36bn. Glencore started life as Marc Rich & Co AG, set up by the eponymous and notorious commodities trader in 1974. In 1983 Rich was charged in the US with massive tax evasion and trading with Iran. He fled to Switzerland and lived in exile while on the FBI's most-wanted list for nearly two decades. -
Comment Letter on Disclosure of Payments by Resource
THE CARTER CENTER flt * March 16, 2020 The Honorable Jay Clayton Chair, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Street N.E. Washington, DC 20459-1090 Dear Chair Clayton, I am writing to urge the SEC to improve the proposed reporting rule for Section 1504 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Release No. 34-87783; File No. S7-24-19). The current rule as drafted does not meet global transparency standards for the disclosure of payments by extractive sector companies to governments, instead allowing for the aggregation of payments across projects and establishing exemptions that will result in many important revenue flows going unreported. Tracking these payments is an important element in the fight against corruption, and the proposed rule fails to require the level of disclosure that is needed to enable civil society to hold their governments accountable. This work is critical in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where The Carter Center supports civil society to use extractive sector information to advance reforms. The DRC is among the poorest nations in the world despite vast natural resource wealth. If properly managed, extractive industry revenues could help alleviate poverty and generate economic growth. Yet in the DRC and other resource-rich countries, these hopes are often dashed. Opacity facilitates corruption and a lack of accountability, while citizens and communities suffer. While the DRC has made some progress in improving transparency as a result of its participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and recent legal reforms, the complex revenue streams remain difficult to track. -
UNDERMINING SANCTIONS Evidence Suggests Scandal-Hit Billionaire Dan Gertler Is Trying to Dodge US Sanctions Using a Suspected Money Laundering Network
UNDERMINING SANCTIONS Evidence suggests scandal-hit billionaire Dan Gertler is trying to dodge US sanctions using a suspected money laundering network 2 July 2020 On 8 March 2018, a man walks into friends, and crush his enemies, Gertler’s mining a nondescript bank on Boulevard 30 deals have drawn the interest of investigators Juin, a congested and chaotic artery and prosecutors around the world. For his former business partners in DRC, Gertler has morphed running through the heart of from lucky charm into Achilles heel. Various Kinshasa, the sprawling capital of multinational companies, such as Glencore, Och- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He has come to Afriland First Bank Ziff and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation to make a deposit: $6 million, over (ENRC), who have all worked with Gertler in DRC, three separate cash deposits, into have faced or are facing investigations by American, Swiss and British law enforcement the account of an obscure company bodies into their Congolese deals.3 he had set up less than two months earlier. On 21 December 2017 – just a few months before Abihassira found himself delivering millions in The company appears to be a sham, and the cash to a Kinshasa bank – Gertler’s wheeling and provenance of the $6 million deposited at dealing finally caught up with him: he was Afriland Bank that day is unclear. The money sits sanctioned by the US for “hundreds of millions of in the company account for several months, but dollars’ worth of opaque and corrupt mining and is later sent on a circuitous journey via a oil deals” in DRC.4 Congolese middleman and another suspicious Overnight, Gertler, 18 of his companies, his family company, before some of the money is funneled foundation and any other company he owns a abroad. -
Global Witness Report Reveals How Cambodia's Political Elite Are
Cannot read this email? Click here CONTENTS August 2007 Exposing high-level illegal logging in Cambodia Dear @FIRSTNAME@, Instigating a global drive towards energy Welcome to a bumper edition of the Global revenue transparency Witness newsletter. You'll see we have more Mittal Steel agrees a better deal for the stories than ever before - since March we Liberian people have launched three exciting new investigative reports, highlighted to the US Hot Chocolate: the violent origins of the cocoa government the importance of energy in chocolate revenue transparency, drawn ethical Revealing the extent of illegal logging in investors' attention to strange goings on at Nicaragua the HSBC bank, brought important recommendations to the Congolese HSBC's environmental approach is criticised by government, and seen a real success taking investors place in Liberia. Read on for more of the latest news from our campaigns to end Pushing for reform of the Democratic Republic resource-fuelled conflict, corruption and of Congo's natural resource governance environmental destruction throughout the world. Global Witness Report Reveals how Cambodia’s Political Elite are Stripping the Country of its Natural Resources In June this year Global Witness published a damning report on illegal logging and high-level corruption in Cambodia called Cambodia’s Family Trees . The result of several years undercover research in Cambodia, the report exposes in graphic detail how a syndicate comprising relatives of Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials has looted the country’s forests. Members of this group are heavily implicated in cases of kidnapping and attempted murder. The report also presents evidence of corruption by senior officials and the smuggling activities of elite military units controlled by Hun Sen. -
A Decade of Experience:REDD
A Decade of Experience Lessons Learned from Independent Forest Monitoring to Inform REDD Global Witness December 2009 Acknowledgements Global Witness would like to acknowledge support received from the UN Collaborative Programme on REDD (UN-REDD) to produce this report. Global Witness Limited (Global Witness) is a non-profit company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England (Company No. 2871809). Global Witness exposes and breaks the links between the exploitation of natural resources and the funding of conflict, corruption and human rights abuses. Global Witness carries out investigations in countries devastated by conflict, corruption and poverty and our findings from these investigations are used to brief governments, intergovernmental organisations, civil society and the media. Global Witness is recognised as the equivalent of a US public charity as described in section 509(a)(1) of the US Internal Revenue Service Code 1986. ISBN: 978-0-9562028-9-5 © Global Witness Ltd. December 2009 Disclaimer Any views expressed in this report are those of Global Witness. This document has been printed on 100% recycled paper. Table of Contents Abbreviations and Terms ii-iii 1 Introduction 1 2 Designing Independent Forest Monitoring 3 2.1 Goal and minimum standards 3 2.2 Establishing IFM 5 2.2.1 Scoping work 5 2.2.2 Host institution, agreement and stakeholder engagement 5 2.2.3 Terms of Reference 5 2.2.4 The monitoring team 6 2.2.5 Reporting Panel 6 2.3 Funding 8 2.3.1 The cost of IFM 8 3 Independent Forest Monitoring In Practice 11 4 Impacts -
Case 1:19-Cv-03737 Document 1 Filed 12/15/19 Page 1 of 79
Case 1:19-cv-03737 Document 1 Filed 12/15/19 Page 1 of 79 TERRENCE COLLINGSWORTH (DC Bar # 471830) International Rights Advocates 621 Maryland Ave NE Washington, D.C. 20002 Tel: 202-543-5811 E-mail: [email protected] Counsel for Plaintiffs UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ________________ JANE DOE 1, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JOHN DOE 1, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JOHN DOE 2, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JENNA ROE 3, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JAMES DOE 4, Individually and on Case No. CV: behalf of Proposed Class Members; JOHN DOE 5, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JENNA DOE 6, Individually and on CLASS COMPLAINT FOR behalf of Proposed Class Members; INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AND JANE DOE 2, Individually and on DAMAGES behalf of Proposed Class Members; JENNA DOE 7, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JURY TRIAL DEMANDED JENNA DOE 8, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JOHN DOE 9, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JENNA DOE 10, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JENNA DOE 11, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JANE DOE 3, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; JOHN DOE 12, Individually and on 1 Case 1:19-cv-03737 Document 1 Filed 12/15/19 Page 2 of 79 behalf of Proposed Class Members; and JOHN DOE 13, Individually and on behalf of Proposed Class Members; all Plaintiffs C/O 621 Maryland Ave. -
April 16, 2015, 10:46 P.M. Annual Review 2010 \ 1
\ 1 CONTENTS OUR WORK 4 DIrectors’ messAGE 6 CorruPTION 8 COMPANIes 10 GoVernMents 12 THE FINAncIAL sector 12 CAse studY: KAZAKHstAN, KAZAKHMYS And THE London Stock EXCHANGE 14 ConFLICT 16 DEMocrATIC REPUBLIC OF ConGO 18 SudAN 18 LIBerIA 20 ConFLIct DIAMonds 21 CAse studY: ConFLIct MInerALS IN EAstern ConGO 22 EndING IMPunITY 24 DRC LEGAL ActIon 26 JudICIAL REVIew 26 AccountABILITY IN LIBerIA 26 LIBEL reForM 27 ForestS & CLIMATE 28 REDD+ 30 IndustrIAL scALE LOGGING 32 ILLEGAL LOGGING IN MADAGAscAR 32 EMPowerING CIVIL socIetY 33 CAse studY: MADAGAscAR’S ILLEGAL rosewood trAde 34 FundrAISING 36 THAnk You 36 IncoME And EXPendIture 37 Our donors 38 More information about all our campaigns can be found on our website www.globalwitness.org \ 3 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) (Oslo, Norway) Donor aid and corruption (Paris) Global anti-money laundering standards (Paris) Judicial Review (London) Accountability for Liberia (The Hague, Holland) 2010: Libel reform (London) OURGLOBAL WITNESS WORK New US transparency laws (Washington) Industrial scale logging (Washington) UN REDD+ agreement (Cancun, Mexico) Empowering civil society (Peru, Ecuador) Former Soviet Union (Kazakhstan) Singapore’s demand for Cambodia’s sand Oil transparency in Sudan (China) Gaps in Angola’s oil data British banks and Nigerian corruption Minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo Congolese legal action Oil transparency in Sudan Post-conflict Liberia Conflict diamonds (Zimbabwe) Illegal logging in Madagascar Empowering civil society to make forest use -
Global Witness ANNUAL REVIEW 2008 ABOUT GLOBAL WITNESS
ANNUAL REPORT 2008 global witness ANNUAL REVIEW 2008 ABOUT GLOBAL WITNESS THEY [GLOBAL WITNESS] EPITOMISE THE COMMITMENT, CREATIVITY AND DILIGENCE THAT SHOULD BE THE HALLMARK OF LEADERSHIP – WHETHER OF NON-PROFIT ADVOCACY GROUPS, COMPANIES, OR NATIONS…MOST NOTABLY [GLOBAL WITNESS] HAVE REJECTED EASY ANSWERS THAT, FOR TRUE CHAMPIONS OF PEACE, ARE FLEETING AND EMPTY. TONY P. HALL AND FRANK R. WOLF, MEMBERS OF US CONGRESS AND PATRICK LEAHY, US SENATOR RECOMMENDATION LETTER FOR THE 2003 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE GLOBAL WITNESS INVESTIGATES AND CAMPAIGNS Throughout 2008 Global Witness continued to make TO PREVENT NATURAL RESOURCE-RELATED CONFLICT great strides towards breaking the links between natural AND CORRUPTION AND ASSOCIATED ENVIRONMENTAL resource extraction and conflict, corruption and human AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES. rights and environmental abuses across the world. From investigations into conflict minerals in the In 2006, aid flows to Africa totalled $49 billion while Democratic Republic of Congo and illegal logging in payments for natural resources were an incredible Liberia, to a new and ambitious strand of work on $250 billion. This discrepancy illustrates the potential banks and financial institutions, Global Witness that natural resources have to eliminate poverty continued to use its analysis, awareness-raising, and promote economic growth. The trade in natural lobbying, and policy development to advocate for resources is huge – and so are the profits associated systemic change. with it. However, often the benefits are diverted or co-opted by elites who ride roughshod over human By exposing the roots of conflict and corruption, and rights in their attempts at self-enrichment. Extensive refusing to accept that some problems are too large to corruption, particularly in vulnerable countries, including be tackled, or some attitudes too entrenched to be those that are coming out of lengthy periods of conflict, challenged, Global Witness seeks not just front-line exacerbates inequality and entrenches poverty. -
Corruption Perceptions Index 2020
CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2020 Transparency International is a global movement with one vision: a world in which government, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are free of corruption. With more than 100 chapters worldwide and an international secretariat in Berlin, we are leading the fight against corruption to turn this vision into reality. #cpi2020 www.transparency.org/cpi Every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained in this report. All information was believed to be correct as of January 2021. Nevertheless, Transparency International cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of its use for other purposes or in other contexts. ISBN: 978-3-96076-157-0 2021 Transparency International. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0 DE. Quotation permitted. Please contact Transparency International – [email protected] – regarding derivatives requests. CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2020 2-3 12-13 20-21 Map and results Americas Sub-Saharan Africa Peru Malawi 4-5 Honduras Zambia Executive summary Recommendations 14-15 22-23 Asia Pacific Western Europe and TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE European Union 6-7 Vanuatu Myanmar Malta Global highlights Poland 8-10 16-17 Eastern Europe & 24 COVID-19 and Central Asia Methodology corruption Serbia Health expenditure Belarus Democratic backsliding 25 Endnotes 11 18-19 Middle East & North Regional highlights Africa Lebanon Morocco TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL 180 COUNTRIES. 180 SCORES. HOW DOES YOUR COUNTRY MEASURE UP? -
Carter Center Metalkol-Asset-Sale Press
EMBARGOED UNTIL 3 A.M. GMT, OCTOBER 26 Oct. 26, 2016 In Atlanta: Soyia Ellison, [email protected] In DRC: Daniel Mulé, [email protected] Carter Center Urges DRC to Disclose Sale Contract for State-owned Mining Company’s Metalkol Share The Carter Center urges the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to release the contract under which state-owned mining company Gécamines sold its interests in the Kolwezi Tailings project. The sale apparently took place in April 2016, but that fact became known only yesterday when Bloomberg News reported that Gécamines and its subsidiary, Société Immobilière du Congo (SIMCO), sold their collective 25 percent stake in Metalkol, the joint venture with Eurasian Resources Group, which owns the Kolwezi Tailings permit. In order to allow for transparent review, the public release of the contract should indicate the sale price and the destination and proposed use of the proceeds. The government has repeatedly expressed its strong commitment to contract transparency and adherence to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Standard, which requires that all state entities, including state-owned companies, disclose their revenues. Publishing such information allows the Congolese public to review whether transactions are fair and could potentially contribute to sustainable development. “The Metalkol asset sale is the latest in a growing list of undisclosed Gécamines transactions,” said Daniel Mulé, the Carter Center’s extractive industries governance program manager. “It is essential that the government immediately release the contracts for the sale of the Metalkol stakes and other undisclosed transactions for which the government—mandated 60-day publication deadline has long past.” The Kolwezi Tailings' peculiar history warrants scrutiny. -
BUSINESS RISKS and the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC of the CONGO What Happens When Kabila Steps Down?
BUSINESS RISKS AND THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO What happens when Kabila steps down? Business risks and the DRC: what happens when Kabila steps down? Introduction Long-sitting autocrats are due to step down across Africa over the next few years. The first in line is Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While political transitions always carry risk of uncertainty, the 23 December presidential election will be a litmus test for the country. As in most post-authoritarian political contexts, the stability of the country will depend on the legacy of the leader. Nowhere in the world is this more evident than in the African context, and in the DRC in particular where the legacy is far from ideal, and the risks to stability remain high. While the DRC’s political and security problems are well-known, few are privy to the stranglehold Kabila and his immediate family and friends have over the economy and business environment since taking power in 2006. Kabila’s growing business interests and wealth over the past 12 years, along with the promotion of a staunch Kabilist as his successor, could indicate that Kabila is intent on remaining untouchable even after 23 December. This, in addition to Kabila’s influence of the Congolese economy indicates that multinational companies looking to conduct operations in the DRC and the surrounding region could continue to face very similar political and security risks, as well as problems relating to corruption and money- laundering, in the medium- to long terms. A family affair Since 2006, President Joseph Kabila and his immediate family have allegedly amassed huge wealth since he came to power in 2006.