The report notes that tax abuse and money laundering trap billions of people
in poverty.
The world must curb financial flows associated with tax evasion and avoidance, as well as those obtained through corrupt activities and money laundering. The magnitude of the funds involved is immense; trillions of dollars in bank accounts and other assets, and not just in tax havens.
The concealed money drains resources from the hands of governments, generates increasing inequality –because the beneficiaries are generally rich people— and causes significant deterioration in public sector governance worldwide. Increased transparency and accountability to curb these flows would improve governance and enhance fairness at the national and international levels…. FINANCIAL INTEGRITY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Whistleblowers, human rights advocates, journalists, activists, artists, lawyers and researchers denouncing abuses and wrongdoing in the course of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
BEHIND THE MASK presents acts of whistleblowing in times of the coronavirus and exposes practices dangerous to public health during the pandemic. In the context of the Disruption Network Lab programme on the relations between technology, politics, and society, we invite experts that have been speaking out to save other people’s lives by denouncing misconducts and corruption in healthcare systems. Alongside, we focus on forms of retaliation suffered by whistleblowers during the pandemic, and on the stories of those forbidden from speaking out publicly about the coronavirus. The conference and the programme around it also present new forms of collective care, social justice and resistance to foster accountability and literacy, and to defend human rights at a global scale.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted power asymmetries and injustices that already existed in society, but which are now impossible to ignore. Together with people who lost friends, family or jobs, and who suffered violence during the lockdown, are also the ones who never had a job or a home, and who suffer violence almost every day. The work of whistleblowers and those who speak out in times of crisis becomes incredibly important to produce global awareness….WHISTLEBLOWING DURING THE PANDEMIC
Follw the trail of the money – and you will find the mafia. (Giovanni Falcone)
The actual situation in fighting the Mafia.
As every year public prosecuters, journalists and familiy members of victims to the Mafia met under this motto in the Faculty of Law of the Palermo University before the anniversary of the assassination of Capaci (Sicily), this year in order to analyse the economic aspect of the problem in front of a public audience. As every year the newspaper Antimafia Duemila and the students association antimafia „Contrariamente“ of Palermo had sent out the invitations.
Here are some excerpts:
The prosecuter Sebastiano Ardita from Messina
regards the actual situation in Italy with some concern. He observes a schizophrenic handling of Falcones’s heritage. On the one hand the 25th anniversary of the assassination is being remembered with great medial pomp, on the other hand the innovative ideas of the antimafia judge are being rejected.
● In 2017 a number of charismatic and experienced Mafia-bosses will be released from prison as the have served their sentences, and this at a moment when the Cosa Nostra is still looking for a boss of the bosses.
● The government intends to substantially reduce the permission for the legal authorities to tap telephones.
● Political forces are trying to reduce or totally abolish article 41 bis (which defines the solitary confinement of Mafia-bosses and terrorists).
● The former president of the Regione Sicilia, Salvatore Cuffaro, now has the permission to officially instruct journalists although he has served a sentence of six years in prison because of „aggravated aiding and abetting the Mafia“.
● The corruption caused by the Mafia today is to be found in every area which can be used as a basis for exerting influence. Not being visible it can be active everywhere in the state and the civil services.
Thus it must be concluded that the Italian State is far behind the possibilities of the Mafia and does not have appropriate instruments to fight the Mafia as it has already been in the times of Falcone.
Gianni Dragoni, jounalist of the economic news paper „Il sole 24 ore“ publishes numbers: According to estimates by the last parliamentary anti-Mafia commission the Italian Mafia has an annual turnover of 160 billion Euro, the annual profit is estimated at 105 billions.
So, if the Italian Mafia with all its business branches was a holding company, it would be the largest Italian economic enterprise by far, and would achieve a turnover 40 billion higher than Exor, the largest Italian group of enterprises including Fiat-Chrysler, Ferrari, CNH (italo-american multinational group), PartnerRe (multinational insurance company) and Juventus Torino. Their total turnover in 2016 was 111 billion Euro.
The value of a company is calculated at the stock exchange on the basis of its profit. If you take the estimated 105 billions profit as a basis, the „mafia spa“ would be worth 1680 billions which is nearly three times as much as all 260 Italian companies listed at the stock exchange togethter.
PS: On 19th May 2017 Apple was valuated at 811 billion Dollar which corresponds to 725 billion Euro. This means „Mafia spa“ could buy Apple and still would be worth 965 billions.
Aaron Pettinari, chief editor of Antimafia Duemila, states that Giovanni Falcone, before he was murdered, was following the trail of the money and was making inquiries about the huge financial movements of the Italien Mafia which first ended up at the small Milano bank Rasini and then apparently disappeared in the nowhere – the „nowhere“ supposedly was to be found in Switzerland. These investigations were one of the reasons why various persons wanted Falcone to be eliminated. But some things have changed since the big Mafia-assassinations 25 years ago, Pettinari supposes and passes the microphone on to Roberto Scarpinato.
Roberto Scarpinato, chief prosecutor of Palermo in charge, is of the opinion that nothing is any more as it used to be in earlier days. He says that we find ourselves in a world in which the capital destroys democracy. „He who has the most money has the say.“
First of all we must avoid a mistake which the public often makes: The mistake to regard the Mafia phenomenons with the eyes of 25 years ago. „The Italy of those days does no longer exist!“ There are new forms of Mafia crimes instead which cannot be coped with applying the anti-Mafia laws of the past. The reason for this are many international changes of historic consequences as e.g. the end of the Soviet Union, the globalization, the introduction of the Euro, the enlargement of the EU in eastern Europe and much more. These changes did not only bring disorder to the old legal societies but also disturbed the balance in the vast illegal society and above all in the universe of the Mafia.
There has been a specialization within the Mafia groups, says Scarpinato. The traditional mafioso who collects protection money and points his gun at the temples of his victims is no longer asked for. Achievement of results by using force is no longer „in“. New forms of the Mafia seem to be more successful. The supreme court speaks of the „silent Mafia“, Scarpinato calls them the „Mafia mercatiste“(roughly: the Mafia of the free market), which means Mafia organisations that flexibly adapt themselves to the changes, which adopt the rules of the so called free market, which have become service agencies, agencies who offer illegal services and illegal goods. For this there is an incredibly large demand by millions of „normal“ people, think of e.g. millions of nouveaux riches in China, in India, in Russia etc.
The selection and specialization within the Mafia groups have reduced the classical Mafia methods of using force to a minimum, and above all in the north a new type of relationship Mafia – population has developed. Scarpinato calls it a „collusive“ (accomplice-) relationship, so that the borderlines between Mafia crimes, white collar crimes, crimes in politics and civil service – which above all consist in systematic corruption – become less and less clear.
Numerous investigations and trials in the recent past have uncovered the existence of so called „criminal systems“ which have neither the typical features of a Mafia organisation nor that of a „simple criminal organisation“. These are criminal systems which exist alongside the legal power systems formed by the „white collar elite“ (e.g. the so called cliques, P2, P3, P4 and so on) and the Mafia aristocracy. There transactions are negotiated to which the normal Mafia troups have no access.
Scarpinato identifies three different types of Mafia:
(The following passages are slightly shortened. We continue with the form of direct speech in order to facilitate the reading.)
If we take serious what I have said here it must be clearly understood that, today, the fight against organized crime cannot be left to criminal courts and police forces alone. The fight must be fought world wide, on all levels and on all fronts. The most important and decisive front is the protection and restoration of democracy in politics versus the great economic and financial forces, of which the „Mafia in the free market“ has become an important and solid component.
The fight means to create national and international institutions which enable the nations to again decide on their own fate and to allow politics to again control economy. This means for example on an European level that it is not acceptable that the decision about the development of individual countries can be made by non-representative organs as e.g. the Central Bank of Europe, by the European Commission which is not representative, or by the European Parliament which does not have any importance. Also Europe must become a state under the rule of law, and we must create a European Parlament which gives expression to the will of the nations and which is in the position to control the decisons of the individual countries and which makes the decisions regarding the life of the individual peoples transparent. In Italy as well as in Europe we must create a political democracy which leads to an alternative society based on the concept of „human dignity“. Which therefore is totally different from the one that only is driven by money and which reduces man to an exchangeable mechandise. The big Mafia bosses, the big bosses of the criminal systems and the powerful of the economy dream of this type of society which allows to totally control the lifes of each and everyone of us.
Comments: 1. The criminal organisation of the type Mafia is defined by the law „Art. 416 bis“, the ordinary criminal organisation by the law „Art. 416“.
2. Banca Rasini Milano is a small bank in which the father of Silvio Berlusconi was employed. This small bank is known for its numerous criminal customers among wich there are Mafia bosses as Totò Rina, Pippo Calò, Bernardo Provenzano and Stefano Bontade.
3. In the following I am using the translation „accomplice“ for the Italian expression „collusi“. In Italian, however, it is used exclusively for accomplices of the Mafia in economy, politics and the population.
4. Oligopol: similar to monopoly (in which one person or company dominates the market), in this case the market is dominated by a few.
5. The „CONSIP“ case: Consip is the Italian head office for purchasing for the civil service and operated by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The expenditures for the purchases amount to thousands of millions. In 2014 tenders were invited by the state for 2.4 billiards for maintenance and cleaning jobs in the health services. The case is now being investigated by the public prosecutors offices in Naples and Rome because of alleged corruption. So far an entrepreneur from Campania was arrested, investigation are going on against the father of Matteo Renzi, the Minister of Sports, an ex-manager of Consip and many others.
6. Cricche = groups of people in influential positions like e.g. politicians.
P2: a secret lodge under the leadership of Licio Gelli, of which Silvio Berlusconi was a member. It has been dissolved in the meantime, however there are successors.
How is it going with the bribes?
You know, the economic crisis,
now I must even accept watches.
(written on the board: depose here)
And what do you get in return?
The order for furnishing the hand cuffs.
Summary
Scarpinato snatches the glasses away from us through which we have been seeing economy so far and quotes a Mafia boss: „Dottore, today’s world is different from the one in old days. In the past politics controlled economy, today it is economy that governs politics. The markets dictate what the governments have to do. And we are the black heart of economy. We are the economy“.
And now I am faced with the uneasy question: Which politicians will save democracy for us. What can I do?
Comment:
A big thank you to Missis Klose who posted this article. It is, however, a pity that hardly anyone is interested in thos contributions and insights. I was in Palermo when the crow of people started to march in direction of Baum-Falcone in Via D’Amelio in memory of Falcone, Borsellino and all the other victims to the Mafia. Somebody held up a poster with the following text: „I am not afraid of the mafiosi, I am afraid of all the honestly indifferent“. I think these words explain the problem in its full extent.
It is true that there are not enough activities by far against the Mafia and the other more or less organized criminality in Italy. But in Germany the Mafia is not even noticed – not to mention fighting it.
Task Force Eligo generates more than $580 million in cash, drugs and assets
Australian Crime Commission, Australian Federal Police, Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre
The Australian Crime Commission has today unveiled a year-long covert money laundering investigation codenamed Eligo following a record $5.7 million cash seizure in Sydney at the weekend (Saturday, 18 January 2014).
The Eligo National Task Force, established in 2012 as an Australian Crime Commission-led special investigation into the use of alternative remittance and informal value transfer systems by serious and organised crime, has seized more than $580 million worth of drugs and assets, including $26 million in cash.
Reflections on possible accounting fraud and money laundering constructions at Wirecard
By Dick Crijns, senior advisor AMLC
During the last two weeks I have been regularly asked questions about potential fraud at Wirecard. I noticed that everyone mentions potential accounting fraud and possible market manipulation, but in response to the open ends, questions are also asked about relationships with money laundering. Despite the fact that there is still very little that is really clear regarding the nature and scope of what has happened at Wirecard, I can see the necessary references points for more fraud, as well as a potential role for Wirecard in a money laundering scheme. In response to these questions, in this article I wish to set out a number of main points regarding the frauds and present some important background information.
As far as I am concerned, this is an open end article, which will be adapted as soon as more information is available. Even while writing it I was able to concretise certain aspects due to more information being released… Wirecard-money-laundering-perspective Readspeaker
The Azerbaijani laundromat: a new money laundering machine in a familiar guise
D. Crijns, AMLC senior advisor
Most of you are familiar to the so-called Russian laundromat, a $20 billion money laundering scheme during the period 2010 – 2014. A few weeks ago, the journalist collective OCCRP published a new, similar scheme: the Azerbaijani laundromat.
In this article I will discuss four items. First the new scheme in short. Then I will deal with a special legal entity that is often used in this type of money laundering scheme, and give some examples and more detailed information. In the third paragraph I will focus on the role of the banks in the scheme and how the money actually got into the hands of the criminals. Finally, I will give examples of how the money is spent. Readspeaker
What do assassinations, cyber hacks and disinformation have in common? They’re all weapons used by states against each other in a grey zone of harm that sits – deliberately – under the threshold of war, but could be just as dangerous if ignored.
Sky News journalist Deborah Haynes explores this often invisible battlefield, where anything can be – and is – used as a weapon and anyone, anywhere can be a target.
This episode seeks to explain what the grey zone is. It includes a warning from General Sir Nick Carter, the head of the UK’s armed forces, and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, about the danger of ignoring attacks in this murky space, while Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb, a former director of UK special forces, warns: “We’re being boiled like a frog!”
Sky News journalist Deborah Haynes then travels to Salisbury with the widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko to visit the site of one of the most high profile grey zone attacks – the poisoning of another ex-Russian agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.
Lord Mark Sedwill, a former national security adviser, talks about how he led the UK’s response to nerve agent poisoning and the fake news that followed.
Finally, Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative website Bellingcat, describes how he and his team revealed the true identities of the Russian military intelligence officers named by the UK as prime suspects in the attempted assassination. Russia denies involvement.
Interviews:
General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff
Ben Wallace, defence secretary
Lord Mark Sedwill, former UK national security adviser, former cabinet secretary podcasts.apple.com
A corporate tax haven is pretty much what most people would imagine it to be: a jurisdiction that provides facilities to help multinationals escape taxes elsewhere. More formally, we define it as
A jurisdiction that seeks to attract multinational companies by offering facilities that enable them to escape or undermine the tax laws, rules and regulations of other jurisdictions, reducing their tax payments in these jurisdictions.
Current data and research suggests that governments around the world lose over US$ 500 billion — half a trillion dollars — in tax each year due to corporate tax havens. The IMF, for instance, recently estimated that rich countries lose some $450 billion annually to tax-haven related corporate tax dodging, while lower-income countries lose $200 billion (which represents a bigger share relative to their smaller economies). But remember: tax losses are just one dimension of the damage. The harm that corporate tax havens inflict on democracy, on society, and on our trust in politics and markets, is incalculable. Financial Secrecy Index – 2020 ResultsMake Taxes Work For Women
Al Jazeera Investigations:
A satirical look at the dubious characters and state officials who buy nationality as if it’s a luxury car. Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit obtained a leak of documents that we’re calling The Cyprus Papers.
If you can afford $2.5 million to purchase a passport to Europe, then you’re probably already on someone’s rich list with at least a Porsche in the garage. The leak reveals 2,500 people who paid to become new citizens of Cyprus with the added perk of be able to live and work anywhere from Milan to Monte Carlo.
So who’s on the list? Among the names in The Cyprus Papers are convicted criminals, men on the run and political figures regarded as a high-risk for dirty money.
Find out more about The Cyprus Papers and the strange trade in nationality in our investigative data-story.
