Asset recovery: a powerful tool in the fight against global corruption

-Global corruption is now costing around $1 trillion annually.

-Asset recovery is an overlooked means of returning money to the countries and people it was stolen from.

-It can be used to provide development funds in impoverished countries most impacted by corruption.

 
The release of the Pandora Papers, nearly 12 million leaked financial records, exposes the extent to which the world’s wealthiest and powerful use legal loopholes to launder money, avoid paying taxes and hide assets. While much of the financial activity is not illegal itself, it is precisely the type that is used to conceal the proceeds of corruption. More than 330 public officials in more than 90 countries, including 14 current world leaders, have been implicated in the papers’ release. This trove of information provides us with a guide to how the global cost of corruption has swelled to around $1 trillion annually (more than $20 to 40 billion of that loss from developing countries) and also insights into how to fight it.

The revelations in the Pandora Papers have inspired Republican and Democrat lawmakers in the United States to take another look at regulating global corruption, including evasive financial practices. Indeed, Reps. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) are co-chairing a new congressional caucus against kleptocracy, and they have a strong ally in the White House. President Biden has repeatedly touted fighting corruption as a top foreign policy priority of the United States, and in a June memo officially established countering corruption as a core national security interest.

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Πηγή: weforum.org