How can we use data to understand how and where shell companies are used by individuals wishing to hide illicit wealth?
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Join us for the launch of our most recent research report on global shell companies and offshore financial secrecy from the Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) programme. The newly generated research uses big data analytics and global mapping to provide an important evidence base for anti-corruption policy-making in the future.
The lead researcher, Daniel Haberly (University of Sussex), will discuss the results of statistical analysis of 36,000 company formations recorded in leaked data from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and explain the data mapping of the novel Regulation of Illicit Financial Flows (RIFF) dataset that visualized the global spread of regulations to counter financial secrecy and money laundering.
This research provides the most detailed evidence base to date for anti-corruption policy related to offshore financial secrecy and shell companies. The discussion will explore the main research findings in regards to Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), the impact of the global Anti-Money Laundering (AML) system and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards. It will also focus on urgently needed reforms to combat transnational corruption, specifically publicly available beneficial ownership registers and removing restrictive banking secrecy measures. It builds on an existing GI-ACE project on offshore financial secrecy reform, also led by Daniel Haberly.
The discussion will be moderated by Paul Heywood (Programme Director, GI-ACE) and commented on by Erica Hanichak (Government Affairs Director, FACT Coalition) who will bring a U.S. perspective on the research findings.
To join in person (at the Open Gov Hub) or online (on Zoom), please sign up here.
EVENT PLAN
There will be a Q&A session during the event and a social happy hour after it.
This event will take place at the Open Gov Hub (inside the Lagos & Kinshasa event space) and is open to the public. It will follow the AC4D forum happening at the World Bank, so if you have colleagues in town, feel free to invite them. Please ensure to register for access to the space and the right headcount for the refreshments.
We will start the registration at 4:30 PM (with some drinks) with the main event beginning at 5:00 PM. The short presentation will follow a discussion, The happy hour with great food and drinks will kick off right at 6:00 PM.
We hope to see you there!
SPEAKERS
Presenter: Daniel Haberly, University of Sussex
Discussant: Erica Hanichak, FACT Coalition
Moderator: Paul Heywood, GI-ACE
BIOS
- Daniel Haberly is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, and the co-author of Sticky Power: Global Financial Networks in the World Economy (Oxford University Press). He is currently leading a Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) project with the Centre for the Study of Corruption. This seeks to better understand the illicit use of offshore shell companies by making use of leaked data from the Panama and Paradise Papers, together with a newly constructed dataset of the changing world map of financial secrecy and anti-money laundering regulation since 1990.
- Erica Hanichak is the government affairs director at the FACT Coalition, where she leads the group’s engagement with federal policymakers, particularly as it pertains to the FACT’s anti-money laundering priorities. Before joining FACT, Erica spent six years working with U.S.-based nonprofits focused on advancing transparent governance, accountability, and rule of law in the Middle East. Erica served as government relations director at Americans for a Free Syria, where she partnered with lawmakers, administration officials, and grassroots nonprofit organizations to pass bipartisan legislation to counter the financing of human rights abuses and mass atrocities. Erica is a 2022-2023 Penn-Kemble Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, and is an ACAMS certified anti-money laundering specialist. Erica holds a Bachelors of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in International Politics, with a focus on International Security and Eurasian Studies.
- Paul Heywood holds the Sir Francis Hill Chair of European Politics, University of Nottingham, UK and is the author, co-author or editor of eighteen books and more than eighty journal articles and book chapters. He concurrently serves as the Programme Director of the FCDO-funded Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) programme, working with Global Integrity. The GI-ACE programme generates actionable evidence for more effective anti-corruption initiatives. He is the co-founder of CurbingCorruption.com and has been a contributor to many other research projects including ANTICORRP. He is a member ofthe Board of Trustees of Transparency International UK, and also TI’s International Council.
ABOUT GI-ACE
The Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) programme, funded by UK’s FCDO, supports research projects around the world that generate actionable evidence on concrete corruption issues that policymakers, practitioners, and advocates can use to design and implement more effective anti-corruption initiatives.
GI-ACE moves away from national-level top-down technical and regulatory approaches and instead prioritizes operationally relevant, problem-driven, rigorous, and actionable research. The programme investigates anti–corruption, focuses on real-world problems (not just concepts or theory); tackles the politics of anti-corruption (as well as the technical barriers); and seeks to demonstrate impact (by measuring reduced corruption).
Since 2018, GI-ACE has supported 19 research projects, which produced 85+ publications – with the next phase of up to 9 projects kicking off later this year.
