This Beneficial Ownership (BO) checklist is a preliminary attempt to provide policymakers currently working on establishing BO registries in many countries with all the relevant issues that should be considered and addressed. The checklist does not in any way replace the development of a full...

The OECD developed the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for automatic exchange of information. However, the CRS contains several loopholes regarding access to information by developing countries, thresholds and a number of excluded accounts and a lack of sanctions to enforce compliance. This...

The OECD developed the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for automatic exchange of information and a Handbook for Implementation of the CRS. This paper identifies and explains new loopholes since the publication of the CRS, especially with regard to trusts

Two global transparency initiatives are underway that could help tackle financial crimes including tax evasion, money laundering and corruption: registration of beneficial ownership for companies (to identify the real persons owning or controlling such companies) and automatic exchange of bank...

There are serious shortcomings in the international and European framework rules for trusts' beneficial ownership identification, verification and policing of the system, the FATF's (2012) 40 recommendations and the 4th EU Directive on anti-money laundering (2015) respectively. This paper...

There are serious shortcomings in the international and European framework rules for companies' beneficial ownership identification, verification and policing of the system, the FATF's (2012) 40 recommendations and the 4th EU Directive on anti-money laundering (2015) respectively. This paper...

This paper seeks to start a debate on the harms that trusts can inflict on societies (e.g. money laundering, corruption and tax evasion risks, potential to defraud creditors, avoid taxes, etc.), and what can be done about this. The paper takes a global perspective on the risks of secrecy, asset...

This policy paper complements an academic paper which has been published as a working paper in the Charles University (Prague) Institute of Economics Working Paper Series (“Is Panama really your tax haven? Secrecy jurisdictions and the countries they harm”). This policy paper uses the...

The European Union (EU) has been making improvements to its legal frameworks relating to the collection and exchange of relevant information to help tackle illicit financial flows related to tax evasion and tax avoidance and in order to identify money associated with crime. Given the existence...

In a world where billion-dollar corruption and money laundering schemes can travel through developed countries' financial institutions undetected, the only chance for any country's authorities to successfully address financial crime is to apply cutting edge technology for crime detection. At the...