Did a rich Miamian help rig the Olympic site selection? Investigators want to know (Miami Herald)
August 17, 2017Shruti Shah of the anti-corruption nonprofit Transparency International USA, said being connected to several businesses is legal, but makes it difficult to get a comprehensive look at companies. “The problem is you can open companies without having to disclose who really beneficially owns these companies,” she said. Read more
Shruti Shah: Six bills in Congress (so far) target anonymous companies (FCPA Blog)
August 9, 2017The United States has been subject to increased criticism for its lax approach to anonymous companies, particularly in the aftermath of the Panama Papers. However, there are recent and positive signs that the U.S. is beginning to address the potential threat that anonymous companies pose to our security and economy. Read more
A new corruption probe linked to Trump is a scathing indictment of the US real-estate industry (Quartz)
July 7, 2017The Treasury says 30 percent of buyers involved in deals since Geographic Targeting Orders were established last year have been deemed suspicious in previous reports. By the time their names are revealed, such buyers have already parked their money, says Shruti Shah, vice president of the Coalition for Integrity, a transparency NGO. “The transaction is already done,” she says. Instead, she argues that real-estate brokers should have to do their due diligence before the purchase is made. “The sad part is this can be done without legislation; it can be done through rule-making by the Treasury,” she says. Read more
G20 Summit: Hopes dim for wider foreign anti-bribery law (The Indian Express)
July 6, 2017Coalition for Integrity writes to Trump, urging him to seek a wider consensus among leaders for implementing the FCPA. Read more
Bribery, Corruption, Money Laundering: The Many Investigations into Trump Business Partners (Huffington Post)
June 29, 2017A number of countries where the Trump Organization conducts business rank high on the Corruption Perception Index put out by the international anti-corruption group Transparency International, said Shruti Shah, a due diligence expert at the anti-corruption nonprofit Coalition for Integrity. Shah told HuffPost that these deals were “troubling not just because of the CPI score of the countries mentioned, but also because, in some cases like Azerbaijan, the business partners are closely associated with government officials.” Read more
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