Prime Minister Imran Khan has welcomed the US President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to wage a crackdown against illicit finance both at home and abroad.
Taking to Twitter, the premier penned that developing countries are becoming impoverished due to the money laundering of their corrupt elites to richer countries and offshore tax-havens.
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I welcome US President elect Biden's declared intent of a policy targeting dirty money. Developing countries are being impoverished by their corrupt elites who launder money to richer countries and offshore tax havens.https://t.co/40GcFhprtz
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 9, 2020
As a Vice President, Biden had spearheaded the Obama administration’s fight against corruption and kleptocracy.
In the run-up to the recent US Presidential Elections, Biden repeatedly pledged to make the crackdown against illicit finance the focus of the US President.
An excerpt from an article written by Biden in April this year for the Foreign Affairs magazine reads:
I will lead efforts internationally to bring transparency to the global financial system, go after illicit tax havens, seize stolen assets, and make it more difficult for leaders who steal from their people to hide behind anonymous front companies.
In a recent interview with Politico, Jake Sullivan, Biden’s pick for National Security Advisor, has said that our primary target is to rally our allies to combat corruption and kleptocracy and hold corrupt elites accountable for greater transparency.
In 2018, the UN had estimated that the cost of corruption to the global economy is $2.6 trillion annually. If anti-corruption measures are able to seize and retain only a fraction of this money in respective countries of origin, it would easily surpass the development assistance spending which crossed $166 billion in 2018, the UN noted.
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Earlier in September this year, during the meeting of the Financial Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity (FACTI) on the sidelines of the 75th virtual session of the United Nations General Assembly, PM Imran Khan had called upon UN member countries to put an end to the bleeding developing economies and strengthen international cooperation to hold the financial criminals accountable.
He revealed that more than $7 trillion is transferred out of developing countries through illegal channels each year, adding that these countries lose around $500 to $600 billion annually on account of tax evasion.
In this regard, PM Imran had also proposed a 9-point action plan to curb the flow of money laundering from developing countries.
