Maya Forstater

Participants were people at the sharp end of seeking to understand & uncover IFFs in order to prevent crime & bring perpetrators to justice: anti money laundering experts, cops, gov, banks, service providers, NGOs, academics, FATF, Europol etc...

Discussion was wide ranging: effectiveness of AML, threat of virtual currencies, use of shell corporations, public private pships to share info & intel, beneficial ownership registration, technology & AI, reconciling transparency & privacy, derisking & financial inclusion

No one said this is mainly about MNCs tax planning https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2016/mbeki-panel-ramps-war-against-illicit-financial-flows … https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2013/illicit-financial-flows-africa-track-it-stop-it-get-it … https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/dispatch/africa-still-leaking-billions-through-tax-evasion-15069221https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/24/world-is-plundering-africa-wealth-billions-of-dollars-a-year … (but they did say its about tax fraud, and MNCs engaging in bribery & collusion w kleptocrats. They did talk about Danske Bank)

No one said that the aim of tracking, preventing, stopping and returning illicit financial flows is to raise finance for development. But they did talk about the development harms caused by state capture.

No one said this: "corrupt activities such as bribery & embezzlement constitute only about 3% of illicit outflows criminal activities such as drug trafficking and smuggling make up 30% to 35% and commercial transactions by multinational companies make up a whopping 60% to 65%"

No one said that calculations based on gaps & mismatches in trade data or macroeconomic data was useful to their work, or referenced this in helping to understand the nature of the threats.

Barely anyone talked about tax avoidance (apart from Sol who raised this argument that it should be included in #IFFs from the floor http://www.ictd.ac/blog/why-tax-avoidance-is-illicit/ …).