by Alec Ross
The four largest pharmaceutical companies: Phillips, Gardner, Robins, and Surka, Offshore Shell Games 2017, https://uspirgedfund.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/USP%20ShellGames%20Oct17%201.2.pdf.
Even companies that are inextricably linked: Phillips, Gardner, Robins, and Surka, Offshore Shell Games 2017, https://uspirgedfund.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/USP%20ShellGames%20Oct17%201.2.pdf.
If a local coffee roaster is forced: Gardner, Roque, and Wamhoff, Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law, https://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidance-in-the-first-year-of-the-trump-tax-law/.
The City of London has a peculiar history: “The City’s Government,” The City of London, 2020, accessed April 17, 2020, https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/history/Pages/city-government.aspx; Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 74.
The official responsibility of the city’s top executive: “The Lord Mayor,” The City of London, 2020, https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/the-lord-mayor/Pages/default.aspx; “About,” TheCityUK, accessed April 21, 2020, https://www.thecityuk.com/about-us/.
Reuters called TheCityUK: Andy MacAskill, “Britain’s Finance Industry Warns of Threat from Brexit Law Changes,” Reuters, June 23, 2017, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-lawmaking/britains-finance-industry-warns-of-threat-from-brexit-law-changes-idUKKBN19E0UV; “About,” https://www.thecityuk.com/about-us/.
The City of London Corporation also appoints: “Key City Officers,” The City of London, 2020, https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/about-us/Pages/key-officers.aspx; Ros Wynne Jones, “Kick Privileged Bankers’ Man the Remembrancer out of Parliament,” The Mirror, May 8, 2013, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kick-bankers-man-remembrancer-out-1874811; John Christensen, interview with Jack Corrigan, April 9, 2020.
In municipal elections, the City’s eight thousand human residents: Nicholas Shaxson, “The Tax Haven in the Heart of Britain,” New Statesman, February 24, 2011, https://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2011/02/london-corporation-city; “About the City Corporation,” The City of London, 2020, https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/about-us/Pages/default.aspx.
Shaxson calls it a lobbying organization: Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 70.
One of the major contributors to the City’s: “The London Charter of Liberties,”The City of London, August 22, 2018, accessed April 20, 2020, https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan-archives/the-collections/Pages/london-charter-of-liberties.aspx.
The British banking sector began courting: Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 69, 75, 78–79.
Fewer than 6,500 people: “History of the Cayman Islands,” ExploreCayman, accessed February 1, 2021, https://www.explorecayman.com/about-cayman/history-of-the-cayman-islands; Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 90.
Some officials back in London objected: Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 92.
Eventually the Cayman Islands adopted: Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 92–93.
There are now thirteen jurisdictions: Elke Asen, “Corporate Tax Rates around the World, 2019,” Tax Foundation, December 10, 2019, https://taxfoundation.org/publications/corporate-tax-rates-around-the-world/.
When Christensen served in the Jersey government: Michael Sesit, “A Fund’s Suspicious Losses Draw Minimal Scrutiny,” Wall Street Journal, September 17, 1996, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB842911743535012500.
Both the senators implicated: Sesit, “A Fund’s Suspicious Losses Draw Minimal Scrutiny,” https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB842911743535012500.
The United States loses at least $225 billion: Niall McCarthy, “Tax Avoidance Costs the U.S. Nearly $200 Billion Every Year [Infographic],” Forbes, March 23, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/03/23/tax-avoidance-costs-the-u-s-nearly-200-billion-every-year-infographic/; Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 53, digamo.free.fr/zucman152.pdf.
In its 2020 financial secrecy index: Financial Secrecy Index 2020: Narrative Report on United States of America (Tax Justice Network, February 18, 2020), https://fsi.taxjustice.net/PDF/UnitedStates.pdf.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy: “Full Text: President John F. Kennedy’s Special Message to the Congress on Taxation, April 20th, 1961,” Tax History Project, accessed April 1, 2020, http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/2B727964C0A28BE5852571690051FD23?OpenDocument.
But as the expanding offshore markets: Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 109–15.
It wants to fight non-American tax havens: Financial Secrecy Index 2020: Narrative Report on United States of America, https://fsi.taxjustice.net/PDF/UnitedStates.pdf.
In 1952, corporate taxes accounted for: “Historical Tables: Table 2.1—Receipts by Source: 1934–2025,” Office of Management and Budget, accessed June 1, 2020, https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/historical-tables/; “CPI Inflation Calculator,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed June 1, 2020, https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl.
As a result, between 1980 and 2019: Asen, “Corporate Tax Rates around the World, 2019,” https://taxfoundation.org/publications/corporate-tax-rates-around-the-world/.
The funds that reinvest this hidden wealth: Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, digamo.free.fr/zucman152.pdf; Financial Secrecy Index 2020: Narrative Report on United States of America, https://fsi.taxjustice.net/PDF/UnitedStates.pdf.
After federal authorities locked up Chicago gangster: Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 88.
The effort was orchestrated by Meyer Lansky: Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 88.
In the 1960s, Finance Minister Stafford Sands: Banks and Trust Companies Regulation, Statute Law of the Bahamas, chap. 316, 2010; Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 89.
By the 1980s, Latin American drug traffickers: Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 25, digamo.free.fr/zucman152.pdf; Shaxson, Treasure Islands, 85.
about $7.6 trillion in private assets: Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 35, 47, digamo.free.fr/zucman152.pdf.
more than €10 trillion: “International Community Continues Making Progress against Offshore Tax Evasion,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, June 30, 2020, https://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/international-community-continues-making-progress-against-offshore-tax-evasion.htm; Alex Cobham, “It’s Got to Be Automatic: Trillions of Dollars Offshore Revealed by Tax Justice Network Policy Success,” Tax Justice Network, July 3, 2020, https://www.taxjustice.net/2020/07/03/its-got-to-be-automatic-trillions-of-dollars-offshore-revealed-by-tax-justice-network-policy-success/; Clare Coffey, Patricia Espinoza Revollo, Rowan Harvey, Max Lawson, Anam Parvez Butt, Kim Piaget, Diana Sarosi, and Julie Thekkudan, Time to Care: Unpaid and Underpaid Care Work and the Global Inequality Crisis (briefing paper, Oxfam International, January 2020), https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620928/bp-time-to-care-inequality-200120-en.pdf.
According to Zucman’s estimates: Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 53, digamo.free.fr/zucman152.pdf.
it is the developing world that suffers the most: Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 53, digamo.free.fr/zucman152.pdf.
In Africa alone, a High Level Panel: Darcy, “‘The Elephant in the Room’: Corporate Tax Avoidance & Business and Human Rights,” https://doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2016.23.
Oil accounts for more than 90 percent: “Africa: Angola,” World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, April 6, 2020, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/ao.html; “Monetary Poverty Rate Rises to 41 Percent in Angola,” Agência Angola Press, December 6, 2019, http://www.angop.ao/angola/en_us/noticias/economia/2019/11/49/Monetary-poverty-rate-rises-percent-Angola,c96d1f24-0361-42d3-b661-d30aefd0bb23.html.
With his government under an international arms embargo: Emily Crowley, “‘Angolagate’ Revisited,” Financial Transparency Coalition, April 7, 2010, https://financialtransparency.org/angolagate-revisited/.
José Filomeno dos Santos, the president’s son: “José Filomeno dos Santos: Son of Angola’
s Ex-Leader in ‘Extraordinary’ Trial,” BBC News, December 9, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50712492.
In 2020, Isabel dos Santos: Michael Forsythe, Gilberto Neto, and Megan Specia, “Africa’s Richest Woman Set to Face Charges in Angola over Embezzlement,” New York Times, January 23, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/world/africa/angola-santos-embezzlement.html.
In 2012, Sodiam and dos Santos’s husband: Hilary Osborne and Caelainn Barr, “The Diamond Deal That Rocked Angola,” Guardian, January 19, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/19/diamond-deal-that-rocked-angola-de-grisogono-luanda-leaks.
an estimated $2 billion in assets: Sydney P. Freedberg, Scilla Alecci, Will Fitzgibbon, Douglas Dalby, and Delphine Reuter, “How Africa’s Richest Woman Exploited Family Ties, Shell Companies and Inside Deals to Build an Empire,”International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, January 19, 2020, https://www.icij.org/investigations/luanda-leaks/how-africas-richest-woman-exploited-family-ties-shell-companies-and-inside-deals-to-build-an-empire/.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst: Leonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce, Capital Flight from Africa: Updated Methodology and New Estimates (research report, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst, June 1, 2018), https://www.peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1083-capital-flight-from-africa-updated-methodology-and-new-estimates.
By 2019, the program had helped: “Four Years On and Half a Billion Dollars Later—Tax Inspectors Without Borders,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, September 25, 2019, https://www.oecd.org/ctp/four-years-on-and-half-a-billion-dollars-later-tax-inspectors-without-borders.htm.
countries participating in the program: John Christensen, email to Jack Corrigan, July 10, 2020.
the fifty states use formulary apportionment: Scott Drenkard, “A Very Short Primer on Tax Nexus, Apportionment, and Throwback Rule,” Tax Foundation, March 28, 2016, https://taxfoundation.org/very-short-primer-tax-nexus-apportionment-and-throwback-rule/.
earn more than €750 million per year: Action 13: Country-by-Country Reporting Implementation Package (OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project, 2015), accessed April 2020, https://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/beps-action-13-on-country-by-country-reporting-peer-review-documents.pdf.
Though every country loses revenue to tax avoidance: Measuring and Monitoring BEPS, Action 11—2015 Final Report (OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project, Paris, 2015), 80, accessed April 2020, https://www.oecd.org/tax/measuring-and-monitoring-beps-action-11–2015-final-report-9789264241343-en.htm.
If the profits were made in Hungary: “Corporate Tax Rates Table,” https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/services/tax/tax-tools-and-resources/tax-rates-online/corporate-tax-rates-table.html.
Both the OECD and the United Nations endorse: “Tax Transparency,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2019, https://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/tax-transparency/; “International Tax Cooperation: International Efforts to Combat Tax Avoidance and Evasion,” United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Financing for Development, accessed April 2020, https://developmentfinance.un.org/international-efforts-combat-tax-avoidance-and-evasion.
As of November 2019, nearly one hundred jurisdictions: The 2019 AEOI Implementation Report (Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, November 24, 2019), https://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/AEOI-implementation-report-2019.pdf.
By combining these disparate logs: Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 92, digamo.free.fr/zucman152.pdf.
The company has been sued: Mark Scott, “Google Agrees to Pay Italy $334 Million in Back Taxes,” New York Times, May 4, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/technology/google-italy-tax.html; Simon Carraud and Mathieu Rosemain, “Google to Pay $1 Billion in France to Settle Fiscal Fraud Probe,” Reuters, September 12, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-tech-google-tax/google-agrees-to-550-million-fine-in-france-to-settle-fiscal-fraud-probe-idUSKCN1VX1SM.
After the French court’s decision: Carraud and Rosemain, “Google to Pay $1 Billion in France to Settle Fiscal Fraud Probe,” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-tech-google-tax/google-agrees-to-550-million-fine-in-france-to-settle-fiscal-fraud-probe-idUSKCN1VX1SM.
5: FOREIGN POLICY: DOES EVERY COMPANY NEED ITS OWN STATE DEPARTMENT, PENTAGON, AND CIA?
The Syrian government developed Android apps: Shannon Vavra, “Syrian Government Surveillance Campaign Turns to Spreading Malware in Coronavirus Apps,” Cyberscoop, April 16, 2020, https://www.cyberscoop.com/coronavirus-syria-surveillance-apps-lookout/.
In the United States, General Motors: A. J. Baime, “U.S. Auto Industry Came to the Rescue during WWII,” Car and Driver, March 31, 2020, https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a31994388/us-auto-industry-medical-war-production-history/; David Vergun, “During WWII, Industries Transitioned from Peacetime to Wartime Production,” US Department of Defense, March 27, 2020, https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Features/story/Article/2128446/during-wwii-industries-transitioned-from-peacetime-to-wartime-production/.
It was at the dawn of this era: Ellen Terrell, “When a Quote Is Not (Exactly) a Quote: General Motors,” Inside Adams (blog), Library of Congress, April 22, 2016, https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2016/04/when-a-quote-is-not-exactly-a-quote-general-motors/.
The number of multinational companies: Pankaj Ghemawat and Niccolò Pisani, “Are Multinationals Becoming Less Global?,” Harvard Business Review, October 28, 2013, https://hbr.org/2013/10/are-multinationals-becoming-less-global; United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, The Universe of the Largest Transnational Corporations (New York and Geneva: United Nations, 2007), https://unctad.org/en/Docs/iteiia20072_en.pdf; United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, World Investment Report 2010: Investing in a Low-Carbon Economy (New York and Geneva: United Nations, 2010), https://unctad.org/en/Docs/wir2010_en.pdf.
That year, the White House had launched: Robinson Meyer, “The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America,” Atlantic, July 9, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-secret-startup-saved-healthcare-gov-the-worst-website-in-america/397784/.
The same year Facebook released software: Jack Clark, “Why 2015 Was a Breakthrough Year in Artificial Intelligence,” Bloomberg, December 8, 2015, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-08/why-2015-was-a-breakthrough-year-in-artificial-intelligence.
the International Traffic in Arms Regulations: Jeff Petters, “What Is ITAR Compliance? Definition and Regulations,” Inside Out Security Blog, Varonis, March 29, 2020, https://www.varonis.com/blog/itar-compliance/; “Part 121—The United States Munitions List,” Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, US Government Publishing Office, accessed August 10, 2020, https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?node=pt22.1.121.
In January 2020, the US Commerce Department: “Addition of Software Specially Designed to Automate the Analysis of Geospatial Imagery to the Export Control Classification Number 0Y521 Series,” Federal Register, January 6, 2020, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/01/06/2019-27649/addition-of-software-specially-designed-to-automate-the-analysis-of-geospatial-imagery-to-the-export.
Geospatial technology was already highly regulated: “Part 121—The United States Munitions List,” https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?node=pt22.1.121.
US military leaders have begun to stress: “DOD Adopts Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence,” Department of Defense, news release, February 24, 2020, https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2091996/dod-adopts-ethical-principles-for-artificial-intelligence/.
Within months, Google employees began protesting: Scott Shane and Daisuke Wakabayashi, “‘The Business of War’: Google Employees Protest Work for the Pentagon,” New York Times, April 4, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/google-letter-ceo-pentagon-project.html.
Anduril was contracted to build: Lee Fang, “Defense
Tech Startup Founded by Trump’s Most Prominent Silicon Valley Supporters Wins Secretive Military AI Contract,” Intercept, March 9, 2019, https://theintercept.com/2019/03/09/anduril-industries-project-maven-palmer-luckey/.
The company went on to build: Steven Levy, “Inside Palmer Luckey’s Bid to Build a Border Wall,” Wired, June 11, 2018, https://www.wired.com/story/palmer-luckey-anduril-border-wall/.
Russian president Vladimir Putin remarked: Radina Gigova, “Who Vladimir Putin Thinks Will Rule the World,” CNN, September 2, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/01/world/putin-artificial-intelligence-will-rule-world/index.html.
In 2020, the number of companies: Alan Murray and David Meyer, “The Fortune Global 500 Is Now More Chinese Than American,” Fortune, August 10, 2020, https://fortune.com/2020/08/10/fortune-global-500-china-rise-ceo-daily/.
Between 2007 and 2017, the government: Ross Davies, “High-Speed Rail: Should the World Be Following China’s Example?,”RailwayTechnology, September 24, 2019, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/high-speed-rail-in-china/.
In 2017, President Xi Jinping unveiled: Paul Mozur, “Beijing Wants A.I. to Be Made in China by 2030,” New York Times, July 20, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/business/china-artificial-intelligence.html; Notice of the State Council Issuing the New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, State Council Document No. 35 (China, July 8, 2017; trans. Flora Sapio, Weiming Chen, and Adrian Lo, Foundation for Law and International Affairs), https://flia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/A-New-Generation-of-Artificial-Intelligence-Development-Plan-1.pdf.
Local governments started pouring funds: Nicholas Thompson and Ian Bremmer, “The AI Cold War That Threatens Us All,” Wired, October 23, 2018, https://www.wired.com/story/ai-cold-war-china-could-doom-us-all/.
The following month, the government drafted: Benjamin Larsen, “Drafting China’s National AI Team for Governance,” New America, November 18, 2019, https://www.newamerica.org/cybersecurity-initiative/digichina/blog/drafting-chinas-national-ai-team-governance/.