Office Space: Who Really Owns Real Estate Leased by the U.S. Government?: Natalie Duffy highlights a new report which found it impossible to identify the true owners of one third of the government’s “high security” leases - because of anonymous companies.
News
- Deutsche Bank was fined $630 million for its role in the $10 billion Russian “mirror trading” scheme. (BBC)
- Congress will this week vote to repeal a law requiring U.S. extractives firms to report payments made to foreign governments, in a move roundly condemnedby anti-corruption groups. (Bloomberg, KI, FACT, GW, PWYP)
- The Council of Europe will investigate whether Azerbaijan bribed members to influence human rights votes. (Reuters)
- NatWest reversed its decision to close RT’s UK bank accounts. (Guardian)
- Xiao Jianhua, a Chinese billionaire with links to Xi Jinping, was reportedly abducted from Hong Kong by Chinese security services. (FT)
- Kazakhstan is suing a government critic in a U.S. court for alleged hacking. (Courthouse News)
- The head of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is to join a controversial bank as its chief lobbyist. (This Is Money)
Features
- The most effective way of combatting terrorism isn’t a travel ban, but ending the anonymous companies which finance it. (Gary Kalman, FACT)
- Removing sanctions won’t save Russia’s corrupt economy. (David Clark, New Statesman)
- “Brexit and the new focus of UK trade and mercantile diplomacy throws UK anti-corruption thinking into a state of flux.” (Daniel Hough, The Conversation)
- Sven Giegold MEP: “In the end, why would you open a secret company in Panama for legitimate reasons? Very hard to explain.” (Malta Independent)
- Do people begin behaving corruptly slowly - or suddenly? (Julie Beck, The Atlantic)
- Illicit Chinese demand is driving illegal amber mining in western Ukraine - with devastating economic, social, and environmental consequences. (National Geographic)
