Treasure Islands - Nicholas Shaxson [162]
50.The GFI studies present a range of estimates, with net flows into deficit countries worth hundreds of billions of dollars. See chart 7 in Dev Kar and Devon Cartwright Smith, “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries 2002–2006,” Global Financial Integrity, Washington, D.C., 2008, http://www.gfip.org/storage/gfip/economist%20-%20final%20version%201–2–09.pdf.
51.See Rebecca Smith, “Monty’s £10,000 Credit Limit,” July 28, 2003, http://www.wilmslowexpress.co.uk/news/s/63/63903_montys_10000_credit_limit.html.
CONCLUSION
1.The IASB issues International Financial Reporting Standards, which are currently in a process of “convergence” with U.S. accounting standards under the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which has a complex, private-led ownership structure but also does not require country-by-country reporting.
2.The World Bank says it “meets the cost/benefit test”; see the World Bank submission to the IASB, June 28, 2010, http://www.ifrs.org/NR/rdonlyres/7FAC2D52-A064–41BD–8BA8–445245232E0B/0/CL55.pdf.
3.Currently the most comprehensive source of updated information available on the topic of information exchange is a section entitled “On Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes” on the website of the Tax Justice Network, http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=140.
4.“Double Tax Treaties and Tax Information Exchange Agreements: What Advantages for Developing Countries?” Misereor, February 2010.
5.“Tax for Development,” OECD Observer, December 2009–January 2010.
6.Campaigns have been established to pursue this. See, for example, Tax Justice Focus 6, no. 1 (2010), which explores land value taxation.
7.This example of the street musician is borrowed from Henry Law, “A Tax That Is Not a Tax,” Tax Justice Focus 6, no. 1 (2010), www.taxjustice.net.
8.Raymond Baker, “Transparency First,” The American Interest, July–August 2010.
9.This last paragraph is taken from my article coauthored with Raymond Baker and John Christensen in the September–October 2008 edition of the American Interest, entitled “Catching Up with Corruption.”
INDEX
Abacha, Sani, 127
Abalone, 138
Abedi, Agha Hassan, 133–4
accountants, 7–9, 12–14, 16, 25, 79, 98–9, 101, 121, 130, 133, 142, 159, 161, 180, 184, 202–5, 208–9, 214–15, 217, 222, 226–7, 231, 249n5
adversarial legal system (Anglo-Saxon), 2
Africa
blaming, 8, 29, 183
and “capital flight,” 139–40
and developing nations: See developing nations
fleecing of, 136–40
and oil, 1–4, 7–9, 19–20, 23, 36, 69, 105, 138–9
post-colonialism, 2–8
poverty in, 2, 131
and taxation, 146–7
See Angola; Gabon; Nigeria; South Africa; Uganda
“aged shelf company,” 121
Alexander, Henry, 75
American Beef Trust, 36, 41
American Express, 103
American International Group (AIG), 67, 132, 218
Anatomy of Britain (Sampson), 64
Andorra, 17, 26
Angola, 1, 4, 84, 136–40, 249n18, 250n21,25
Anguilla, 87
Anstee, Nick, 71
Argentina, 35–8, 40, 42, 46–7, 58, 95–6, 142–3, 156–7, 173, 238n2
Arkansas, 120
Armour, Philip D., 36
arms trafficking, 131, 136–7, 178, 249n16,17
Arthur Andersen, 204, 253n1
Asset-Backed Securities Facilitation Act (2002), 201
Attlee, Clement, 72
audits, 202–5, 208–9, 214–15, 249n5
Australia, 7, 24, 26–7, 33
Austria, 17, 223
Autogue, Mr., 1–2, 5
automatic information exchange, 167, 222–3
Bahamas, 10, 18–19, 27, 38, 44, 79, 82, 89–90, 97, 99, 101, 111, 113, 117, 171–5, 177, 179, 244n59,4
Bakan, Joel, 158
Baker, Raymond, 29, 109, 139–40, 226, 246n4
balance-of-payments deficit, 107–8, 112, 116
Banco Mercantil de São Paulo, 172
Bank of America, 22, 103, 236n27
Bank of China, 71, 81
Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), 132–6, 165–6, 204, 249n5,13
Bank of England, 63–6, 75–6, 78–82, 86, 89, 91–3, 97, 104, 114, 134–6, 166, 217, 231, 241n9,