Opening Extractives is a cross-sector partnership between the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and Open Ownership (OO), supported by the BHP Foundation. The five-year, USD 7 million programme aims to end the use of anonymous companies linked to corruption and mismanagement in the extractive sector.
Our recently released Basel AML Index 2021 highlights how slow and ineffective implementation of beneficial ownership registries continues to provide safe havens for dirty money.
We argue that this is damaging for individual jurisdictions, but more importantly undermines all global efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF). Excerpt from the full report:
Released today, the 10th annual edition of the Basel AML Index raises grave questions about whether jurisdictions are serious about tackling their money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks, and what is holding them back.
The Basel AML Index is an independent annual ranking that assesses ML/TF threats around the world and the capacity of jurisdictions’ anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures to address their specific risks.
What does the web of connections look like that underlies grand corruption and money laundering schemes and the abuse of offshore financial centres? Who are the people involved, how do they interact and what do they do?
And what insights can we draw by looking at complex corruption and money laundering schemes from the perspective of social networks, rather than solely individuals?
These questions are at the heart of a new analysis of the so-called Lava Jato or Odebrecht scandal that has engulfed Latin America.
Money laundering schemes frequently involve complex webs of transactions and structures that offer disguise, concealment and anonymity, and transcend international borders. The use of corporate vehicles or “structures” is a common way to launder dirty money and make it appear to come from a legitimate source.
OpenOwnership's central goal is to build an open Global Beneficial Ownership Register which will serve as an authoritative source of data about who owns companies, for the benefit of all.
OpenOwnership will collect and link together beneficial ownership data sets from across the world as well as self-disclosed corporate data to enable companies and investors to more easily see who they are really doing business with. It will provide an opportunity for companies to distinguish themselves as leaders in transparency and openness by disclosing their own ownership on the platform.
The online ownership transparency platform provides a clear framework for companies wishing to commit to achieving ownership transparency. Primary users of the platform include a mix of SMEs, multinational businesses and civil society. The majority of commitments come from SMEs, often with a tech focus. The goals are to:
This initiative aimed to reduce corruption and facilitate clean business and fair market conditions in Mozambique. The main aim of the project was to build ethics management capacity in Mozambican organisations (private and public sector) with a view to reduce corruption and facilitate the ease of doing business in Mozambique.
The project aims at designing a sound framework to avoid misuses and illegal practices, enhancing awareness in the business environment and among public institutions, promoting fair market conditions through clear and transparent procedures, and disseminating results to raise awareness on the issue.
This quick guide by Phyllis Atkinson looks at how criminals manipulate and misuse corporate vehicles in offshore jurisdictions to launder money. It focuses on the meaning of "corporate vehicle" and "offshore" and other related concepts such as beneficial ownership. It also gives an example of how a trust, which is one common type of corporate vehicle in the vast "offshore ecosystem", can be used for illicit purposes.