Corporate transparency issues

Global Financial Integrity Honors Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) with 2011 Annual Award for Exemplary Leadership

Senator to Accept Award Tonight at Gala Dinner in Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) will tonight present Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) with the organization’s 2011 annual Award for Exemplary Leadership in acknowledgement of his untiring efforts on behalf of financial integrity in the U.S. and abroad. Sen. Levin will accept the award this evening at a gala dinner hosted by GFI in his honor at The Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC.

“We are thrilled to honor Sen. Levin’s many distinguished contributions in pursuit of transparency and accountability in our financial system,” said GFI Director Raymond Baker. “For many years, Senator Levin has been at the forefront of both foreign and domestic anticorruption and tax justice efforts.”

“As chairman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Sen. Levin has played a pivotal role in exposing many of the biggest financial fraud schemes of the past decade. He led efforts to investigate offshore abuse in the collapse of Enron, exposed rampant money-laundering facilitation on behalf of foreign dictators at Riggs National Bank, and more recently, held hearings revealing how both UBS and LGT Bank helped thousands of wealthy Americans evade paying taxes to the IRS,” added Mr. Baker.

In the current Congress, GFI notes that Senator Levin has sponsored three pieces of legislation which would promote financial integrity. They are:

1. The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (S. 1346);
2. The Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (S. 1483); and
3. The Equal Access to Tax Planning Act (S. 139).

Senator Levin is the third person to receive this honor from GFI. The award was first given in December 2009 to then-retiring New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. Eva Joly, chairperson of the European Parliament’s Development Committee, received the 2010 award.