US lawmakers’ new tactic to finally crack down on secretive shell companies: link them to Russia (Quartz)
June 28, 2017While transparency advocates are very much in favor of the effort, they say tightening laws around shell companies still leaves large gaps in America’s defenses against money-laundering. “The US is getting on the train in the right direction but there’s more work still to do,” says Shruti Shah, vice president of the Coalition for Integrity, formerly the US branch of Transparency International. Read more
Trump’s White House Family Affair Looks a Lot Like the Most Corrupt Nations in the World (Huffington Post)
April 25, 2017“You’ve seen it in countries all over the world where they’ve appointed family members, whether it’s their son, daughter, in-laws — it provides for tremendous opportunities for corruption,” said Shruti Shah, an international anti-corruption expert at Coalition for Integrity, a good-government nonprofit. “People who want to curry favor find their way to provide favors to family members as a way to get closer to the person in power.” Read more
Donald Trump is Making the United States an Anti-Corruption Laughingstock (Mother Jones)
April 13, 2017Convincing lawmakers in corruption-plagued countries to change their laws—and asking prosecutors and law enforcement officials to have the courage to enforce those laws—is a tough enough sell, says Shruti Shah, vice president of programming and operations at the Coalition for Integrity, formerly the US chapter of Transparency International. Having a president who seems blithely unconcerned about his myriad conflicts of interest doesn’t help, she says. Read more
Shruti Shah on the Panama Papers: A year of gains for transparency, but gaps remain (FCPA Blog)
April 12, 2017The Panama Papers leak exposed the harm caused by anonymous companies and spurred global reform efforts. But reform shouldn’t be driven by scandals and leaks. The lesson from the Panama Papers is that the gaps and loopholes that allow anonymous actors to abuse the system need to be closed. Read more
The cellphones were infected with porn. Then the Panama Papers exposed a bribery scheme, this company says (Miami Herald)
March 20, 2017“The Panama Papers highlight how easy it is for criminals and fraudsters to manipulate the global financial system and use the secrecy afforded by these anonymous companies to benefit from their ill-gotten gains,” Shah said. “The whole concept behind a shell company is you cannot figure out who ultimately controls the company or who is deriving economic benefits from it.” Read more
One of the US’s greatest gifts to the global economy is under threat from Trump (Quartz)
March 13, 2017The role of the SEC is to instill internal controls on corruption within companies and ensure their accounting isn’t hiding bribery. It can also force them to turn over any profits made from corruption, sometimes worth hundreds of millions of dollars. If and when Clayton is confirmed, Shruti Shah, vice president at Transparency International USA, says she worries he could start putting resources and personnel into different departments. “That would send all the wrong signals” to companies, she said. Read more
Jan 31, 2017 – Letter on Cardin-Lugar 1504 Anti-Corruption Provision
February 8, 2017TI-USA joined several other civil society organizations in sending a letter to Speaker Ryan, Minority Leader Pelosi, Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters urging them to support the Cardin-Lugar Anti-Corruption rule and vote no on H.J. Resolution 41. Read more
No, The System’s Not Totally Rigged. But That Idea Sure Helped Donald Trump (Huffington Post)
December 18, 2016Transparency International, a group that tracks corruption worldwide, ranks the United States 16th among 168 nations ― on par with other Western, industrialized nations and considerably better than China (83rd), Mexico (95th) and Russia (119th), countries mentioned favorably by Trump during the campaign. “The U.S. doesn’t really do terribly,” said Shruti Shah. Read more
Shah and Heywood: FATF report finds U.S. weak on transparency of beneficial ownership (FCPA Blog)
December 5, 2016The new report on the United States by the global anti-money laundering body known as the Financial Action Task Force or FATF has a number of positive findings. However, the report finds significant weaknesses, with the most important being related to gaps in access to information on the ultimate owners of companies (beneficial owners). Read more