There is a growing recognition that the enablers of large-scale (‘grand’) corruption lie in transnational financial networks. Literature suggests that a large proportion of illicit flows from Nigeria are invested in the UK. But illicit flows are, by their nature, illegal and deliberately hidden from view, making them a particularly challenging object of research. By presenting the findings of three Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) projects that analyse UK-Nigeria business connections from different perspectives, this discussion will examine and problematise the international financial architecture that allows for proceeds of grand corruption looted from Nigeria to be laundered in the UK. It will furthermore discuss the role of Western professional service providers in facilitating kleptocratic practices.
Presentation titles:
Does transparency bring cleanliness? Offshore financial secrecy reform and corruption control – Dan Haberly and Valentina Gullo
Enabling looting: Tracking the laundering of Nigerian kleptocrats’ ill-gotten gains in the United Kingdom – Ricardo Soares de Oliveira and Tena Prelec
Tracking Beneficial Ownership and the Proceeds of Corruption: A puzzle of financial flows – Jackie Harvey and Peter Sproat.
Discussant: Abdullahi Shehu
Chair: Matthew Page, nonresident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, associate fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House, and nonresident fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja.
Presentations (in order they will present):
Dr Daniel Haberly, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Department of Geography, University of Sussex
Prof Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, DPIR, University of Oxford
Dr Tena Prelec, Research Fellow (Kleptocracy & Anti-Kleptocracy), DPIR, University of Oxford
Prof Jackie Harvey, Professor of Financial Management and Director of Business Research, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University
Dr Peter Sproat, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University
Dr Abdullahi Shehu, Professor of Criminology and former Director General of the ECOWAS Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA)
This will be followed by a Q&A which will be at least half hour, Chatham House rules.
Hosted by: DPIR, Oxford in collaboration with Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme.
