MONEY MATTERS

The World Bank and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has urged the governments to fight financial crimes which includes large-scale corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing.

Emile Van der Does de Willebois, a World Bank financial expert said, “We need to put corporate transparency back on the national and international agenda, it is important for governments to increase the transparency of their legal entities and arrangements, and at the same time improve the capacity of law enforcement.”

“Puppet Masters” is a report which examines how bribes, embezzled state assets and other criminal proceeds are being hidden via legal structures like shell companies, foundations, trusts and others. The release of this report coincided with the U.N. conference on corruption in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Transparency International with other civil society organizations are calling for action to step up the recovery of stolen assets. They are also demanding more robust anti-money laundering measures. The U.N. and the World Bank say that the laws and regulations are insufficient to control money laundering.

The report also says that “In any complex corruption investigation involving the use of corporate vehicles, an imaginative, tenacious and expert investigator is indispensable.” While vital sources of information are banks and trust or company service providers (TCSPs), the Bank and the UNODC said its review showed that banks and TCSPs “still do not adequately identify the powerful beneficial owner when establishing a business relationship.”

American banks are not generally obliged to collect beneficial ownership information when establishing a business relationship. “At the very least, an official declaration by the customers as to beneficial ownership could be useful in improving the situation,” said the report.

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