draining development.pdf - Khazar University

488 Draining Development?Christian Aid. Some proposals, such as country-by-country reporting ofrevenues and taxes by corporations that has been advocated by RichardMurphy and referred to by him in chapter 9, seek to reduce the extent oftransfer mispricing (Murphy 2009). Others, such as tightening the regulationof tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, broadly target all methodsbehind IFFs (TJN 2007). Still others, such as strengthening anti–moneylaundering (AML) efforts, build on existing initiatives.One rhetorical merit of the term flows is it makes clear that there isboth a destination and a source. Should both ends receive the samefocus? Michael Levi, in chapter 12, points to the difficulty of enhancingAML controls in developing countries, illustrating the political economypoint made by Blankenburg and Khan in chapter 2. Inasmuch as AMLaims to curb the fruits of corruption, it often requires those who benefitmost from the theft to build stronger controls that either prevent thecrime or increase the probability of detection. It is fanciful to imaginethat Marcos, Mobutu, or Suharto would have allowed the operation ofan effective domestic AML, whatever laws they might have permitted tobe placed on the books. It may be that the AML controls that mattermore for developing countries are those that operate in destinationcountries. Tim Daniel and James Maton, in their review of recent cases(chapter 13), show that courts and police in Switzerland and the UnitedKingdom have helped return stolen assets to Nigeria, whereas the systemsin African countries such as Kenya have singularly failed in dealingwith their own grand corruption (Wrong 2009). In his talk at the conferenceat the World Bank in September 2009 at which the papers formingthe basis of this volume were presented, Nuhu Ribadu, the former anticorruptionchief of Nigeria, stressed that a major aim of his early effortsin Nigeria was to induce cooperation from investigative bodies in theUnited Kingdom and the United States because, relative to his agency,they had more expertise and greater legal powers. He sought to demonstrateto these bodies that he was serious about recovering the stolenassets, and he accomplished that goal. As a consequence, after successfulprosecutions in British and Swiss courts generated by his Nigerian initiativesand cooperation from the British and Swiss governments, there wasa sharp reversal in flows of illicitly generated funds; large sums flowedfrom the United Kingdom and Switzerland, where they now seemedexposed to confiscation, back to Nigeria.