Credit: By Gary Raynaldo / Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Director of Programmes, Small Arms Survey, speaks at IPI forum on Organized Crime, Arms Trafficking, and Illicit Financial Flows: Exploring SDG Target 16.4 in New York City Jul. 10, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

NEW YORK   –  Illicit global financial flows are massive.  “Illicit financial flows” means dirty money crossing borders.  About $US1Trillion per year, according to Tom Cardamone, President, Global financial Integrity. Reducing illicit financial flows has been adopted as a UN Sustainable Development Goal Target  16.4.    Cardamone painted a grim picture of the effort to curtail illicit financial flows at the International Peace Initiative (IPI) forum on Organized Crime, Arms Trafficking, and Illicit Financial Flows: Exploring SDG Target 16.4 in New York City Jul. 10, 2019.   This year’s UN High-Level Political Forum provides states and stakeholders the opportunity for an in-depth review of SDG 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies and its targets. The IPI side-event brought together experts working on the components of Target 16.4 to share their knowledge of the interplay between organized crime, illicit financial flows, arms flows, and development efforts.  Addressing illicit financial flows is critically important  curb such activity to promote sustainable development, Cardamone stated.

“The problem is chronic. There is nothing in the data showing over last 10 years that  gives any indication illicit flows being substantially curtailed. The problem is ubiquitous, there is no emerging or developing country that does not have a problem with illicit flows. We need transparency in corporate ownership. Shell companies are a big problem as the  Panama Papers revealed that anonymous shell companies are used around the world to hide, move and launder to money.”

-Tom Cardamone, President, Global financial Integrity.

Although governments are obligated now to address this issue  because of the mandated SDG’s target, “we are not seeing may countries attacking this as they should,” Cardamone said.  “There is a huge amount of money that is siphoned out of developing countries economies each year because of illicit financial flows.  Illicit flows is not a single thing, it is many different type of flows of illicit  money , whether it is due to grand corruption ,  transnational crime,  profit shifting by multinational corporations.”

It takes approximately $1.4 Trillion per year that is needed to be generated by the developing countries themselves to reach the SDG’s targets, according to Cardamone.  This places a  tremendous amount of pressure on developing nations to find additional  sources of revenue, he said.

DIPLOMATIC TIMES Video /  Issac Morales Tenorio, General Coordinator for Multidimensional Security, Foreign Affairs, Mexico, speaks at IPI forum on Organized Crime, Arms Trafficking, and Illicit Financial Flows: Exploring SDG Target 16.4 in New York City Jul. 10, 2019.

Credit: By Gary Raynaldo  /   Organized Crime, Arms Trafficking, and  Illicit Financial Flows IPI panel, (left to right)  Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Director of Programmes, Small Arms Survey, Tom Cardamone, President, Global Financial Integrity, Adam Lupel, Vice President, International Peace Institute, Martin Borgeaud, Chief Technical Advisor for Justice, Security and Human Rights, UNDP Lebanon, Tuesday Reitano, Deputy Director, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, at IPI in New York City July 10, 2019. 

DIPLOMATIC TIMES  Video /  Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Director of Programmes, Small Arms Survey speaks at IPI forum on Organized Crime, Arms Trafficking, and Illicit Financial Flows: Exploring SDG Target 16.4 in New York City Jul. 10, 2019