The #DubaiUnlocked revelations have shed more light on the murky world of real estate in UAE, where corrupt elites & money launderers have been stashing cash & scooping up opulent property for years.

Have déjà vu? We’ve been speaking a lot recently about the need for more oversight of UAE’s efforts to fight dirty money. 🧵⬇️ Headlines & investigations about dirty money flowing into UAE aren’t new & haven’t gone unnoticed by the international community. So, we were disappointed when @FATFNews removed UAE from their monitored “grey list” earlier this year, when numerous corrupt elites & criminals still appear to own property in Dubai totally encumbered.

⚡️ Good anti-corruption news from 2023 ⚡️

While anti-corruption progress tends to be slow, this year has yielded some good news!

🧵 Here's a thread with some of the wins we helped achieve ⬇️ In February, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of #LuxLeaks whistleblower. The public interest in leaking the data showing how multinationals constructed complex strategies to avoid paying taxes outweighed the detrimental effect. icij.org/investigations…

#CoSP10 ➡️ Here are 5 ways #UNCAC20 can promote political finance transparency ahead of the BIGGEST ELECTION YEAR IN HISTORY! 🧵

🔗 anticorru.pt/2T0
1) Close loopholes that allow third parties, shell companies and anonymous donors to enter politics.

On this International #RightToKnow Day, we’re reiterating our call on governments who committed to trace the assets from kleptocratic to publicly share measures they’ve taken. ⬇️ Disappointed that governments do not make this information available systematically & proactively, together with our chapters & partners we sent requests to 20 jurisdictions. We asked about financial sanctions imposed, investigations started & assets targeted.

🔴 The EU Commission is taking 8 countries to court for failing to transpose the Whistleblowing Directive (meaning, for failing to protect #whistleblowers). 1/5
➡️ ec.europa.eu/commission/pre… 🇪🇺 EU countries have had YEARS to adapt the Whistleblowing Directive into national laws. Only a few did it on time. Many have done it over a year after the deadline (Dec 2021). As of this day, this is the situation. ⬇️ 2/5

Our partners @OCCRP have announced one end of year award you wouldn’t want to win...

This year’s Corrupt Person of the Year is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch who controls the mercenary Wagner Group. occrp.org/en/poy/2022/ Prigozhin built his wealth similarly to many other oligarchs, even serving a jail term for robbery as a young man – but later in life he turned to geopolitics when he began using his Internet Research Agency to spread disinformation, including interfering in the US.

🔵 Not even two months after #Cyprus opened up its beneficial ownership register to the public, we are already seeing the benefits of knowing who really owns companies. 🧵 A new @OCCRP investigation has uncovered a network of shell companies – mostly registered in #Cyprus – controlled by a man likely acting as Russian banker Andrei Kostin’s proxy.

A couple of months ago, this investigation would have hit a dead end. occrp.org/en/asset-track…

🇵🇪 ¿Qué está pasando en Perú y por qué es importante para la lucha contra la corrupción? HILO ⬇️ 1/ El lunes, el Congreso del #Perú destituyó al presidente Martín Vizcarra de su cargo con acusaciones de #corrupción que habrían tenido lugar mientras era gobernador provincial. Desde entonces, miles de personas han salido a las calles para protestar. elcomercio.pe/lima/marcha-na…

🇵🇪 What is going on in #Peru and why it is important for the fight against corruption? THREAD ⬇️ 1/ On Monday, #Peru congress removed President Martín Vizcarra from office over allegations of #corruption while he was a regional governor. Thousands have taken to the streets daily in protest. de.reuters.com/article/us-per…

🔴New Financial Secrecy Index 2020 from @TaxJusticeNet shows that the corrupt has plenty of options to choose from: anonymous companies, secret bank accounts & limited exchange of information – all available in major financial centres like Cayman, USA, Switzerland or Hong Kong. The 🇺🇸 US is the 2nd biggest enabler of financial secrecy, according to the 2020 Financial Secrecy Index (#FSI2020). Will Congress finally take action to change that and pass legislation requiring companies to disclose who their real owners are?