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Tutu Alicante Photograph: guardian.co.uk
Anti-Corruption
“The UK’s decision to sanction Teodorin Obiang is a welcome decision for the people of Equatorial Guinea. It’s a step in the right direction which reminds us that corruption always claims victims. Despite our oil wealth, the majority of citizens live without access to drinking water or decent schools”
Tutu Alicante
Executive Director, EG Justice
What we do
We promote transparency and accountability in public and private institutions to encourage responsibility and minimise the corrosive economic, political, social and human impacts of corruption, considered to be one of the key barriers to sustainable development.
This work often looks beyond the place of origin of corruption, to effective means of enforcement which entails holding corporations and governments to account across the developed world.
Illicit financial flows lock the poorest countries in the world in a cycle of underdevelopment and conflict.
Why we do it
By contributing to the expansion of USA and UK Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions regimes worldwide, we are reducing the spaces for kleptocrats to launder public funds that could otherwise be dedicated towards sustainable development and poverty reduction.
How we do it
1
Preventing looting of Ghana’s national gold reserves
ILP sourced emergency legal representation for a coalition of Ghanaian NGOs in order to postpone a listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) of a shell company set up to hold the country’s future gold revenues, so that an investigation of potential corruption could be carried out by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
As a result, the Solicitors’ Regulatory Authority also asked for the dossier, to allow them to investigate the role of the law firms involved in this transaction.
2
Ukraine defence legislative reform
Transparency International’s Independent Anti-Corruption Committee on Defence (NAKO) team asked ILP to assemble an international pool of legal experts to review, analyse and propose legislative changes concerning the privatisation of state-owned arms export companies, state secrecy, and military procurement.
ILP’s volunteers were then asked to present the findings to an invited group of political advisors from G7 embassies in Kiev, Ukrainian experts, and selected NGOs campaigning for reform on these issues.
3
Repatriation of stolen Congolese assets from San Marino
ILP assisted a collective representing Congolese civil society with advice from Italian lawyers to enable the return of €19 million Euros in bribes stolen from public funds by senior Congolese political figures and held in accounts in the Republic of San Marino.
The funds had been frozen and seized by the San Marino Court of Appeal after a criminal investigation, but there was no plan to return them to the citizens of the Congo. The Prime Minister of San Marino asked the ILP taskforce for a report on international best practices and for advice on how to structure a repatriation.
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