|
A ‘ghost’ company – registered in the Canadian city of Calgary – employed Oleg Niculescu, who died when his fishing trawler sank. According to CBC/Radio-Canada, the story highlights the country’s scarce corporate accountability. NBC reports that North Korea had an “elaborate” scheme using a string of shell companies that moved money through U.S. banks. The Miami Herald and McClatchy looked at many things, including the role of Miami in major money laundering scandals. And BuzzFeed News reports on Deutsche Bank’s mirror trades … and about a mysterious company (there is a pattern here!) called ASK Trading.
TRY HARDER
That was the message from a high-level United Nations panel last week, which announced banks and governments were doing little to tackle tax abuses, money laundering and corruption. The panel’s co-chair Dalia Grybauskaitė said “too many governments are stuck in the past … we’re all being robbed, especially the world’s poor.” Just days after the first FinCEN Files stories were published, the panel lauded the work of reporters – including ICIJ and our network – for helping to generate the “sustained national political will” to force change.
The first United States taxpayer charged with crimes connected to our 2016 investigation, Panama Papers, could spend four years in prison for wire and tax fraud, money laundering, false statements and other charges. Judge Richard M. Berman said it wasn’t even a question to send Harald Joachim von der Goltz – who is 83 – to prison. “It can’t be that most of us pay our taxes, and 17% can willy-nilly disrespect the law,” he said, referring to government research about the scale of tax avoidance and evasion.
Massachusetts-based accountant Richard Gaffey will spend more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to eight crimes – including conspiracy to commit tax evasion. Judge Berman (who also proceeded over the aforementioned case) said: “We just can’t have CPAs [certified public accountants] and attorneys and other professionals using their special skills and expertise so blatantly and obviously to violate the law for financial gain.”
In Malta police arrested Keith Schembri, the country’s former top government adviser, and his auditor, Brian Tonna. The arrests are in connection with alleged kickbacks from passport sales to wealthy Russians. It comes after Schembri was forced to resign last November after being implicated in the 2017 car-bomb murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Developments in this story are ongoing - I’d recommend following our member Jacob Borg for all the latest.
U.S. lawmakers have taken steps to ban the import of goods connected with forced labor in China. Last week, the House of Representatives voted in favor of the ban, which would stop “certain products” from Xinjiang, the region in northwest China known for being home to the country’s internment camps – and forced labor. “We must send a clear message to Beijing: these abuses must end now,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. China Cables revealed how Uighur detainees were sent – under police watch – from camps to job sites.
Thanks for reading.
Until Tuesday!
Amy Wilson-Chapman
ICIJ’s community engagement editor
P.S. If you’ve enjoyed our coverage this week, remember to tell your friends and family and share our work on social media with the hashtag #FinCENFiles. Send them an email now!
|
