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Stolen Assets

Duvalier
According to estimates of Transparency International and the UN, Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby-Doc) embezzled between $300m and $1.2bn during his regime (1972-1986). He was able to empty most of his Swiss accounts in time after his ousting. However, $7m were found on Swiss bank accounts. On February 12, 2008 the Swiss authorities decided to repatriate the funds to the Haitian government. International and Swiss NGO played a central role in the prolongation of the freezing-in of the funds in 2007 and are in touch with the Haitian NGO and the Swiss government concerning the issues of repatriation, use and monitoring.

Mobutu
Joseph-Désiré Mobutu reigned from 1965-1997. In the last year of his dictatorship, he managed to transfer most of his Swiss funds to foreign accounts. The Swiss Banking Commission reported no more than 9m CHF Mobutu-funds on Swiss accounts in 1997. The following procedure of mutual legal assistance, like in the Duvalier case, was hampered by political loyalties. In 2008 AFP took initiative and leadership in mobilizing Congolese NGO and lobbying the Swiss authorities. Only on December 12, 2008, after heavy public pressure and intensive lobbying in Kinshasa, did the Democratic Republic of Congo mandate a lawyer to request the repatriation to the Congolese government.

Abacha
After dictator Sani Abacha's death in 1999, $500m embezzled funds were found on Swiss accounts. In 2004, a delegation of Swiss NGO attended the founding conference of the Nigerian NGO Network on Stolen Assets comprising 50 NGO from all 6 geopolitical regions. Upon intensive media work and lobbying of Swiss NGO on the premises and back in Switzerland, for the first time, the Swiss government used its full diplomatic leeway and negotiated with Nigeria about the use of the funds as well as the monitoring of the use. In September 2005, Nigeria agreed with Switzerland and the World Bank that the latter should organise a monitoring exercise for 50 projects, providing that 10 Nigerian government representatives and 10 NGO-representatives would report the degree of project implementation on the premises and in the books. In spring 2006, the monitoring was done and in December of the same year the World Bank and the NGO released two separate reports. The findings were that many projects had been accomplished before the funds were repatriated, or that they had been abandoned or poorly implemented. Despite these sore results, the monitoring exercise as such was a very important achievement in the repatriation of stolen assets.
[more, PEMFAR SHADOW REPOR pdf 545KB, www.go.worldbank.org]

Angola
Anti-corruption organizations Aktion Finanzplatz Schweiz (AFP), Berne Declaration and Global Witness have been calling in vain on the Public Prosecutor and the Investigating Judge of Geneva to take action in a criminal investigation pending since 2000 into alleged corruption that involves significant public funds and key political figures in Angola, one of Africa’s major oil producers. The case concerns hundreds of millions of dollars of suspicious transactions through a bank account in Geneva at the end of the 1990s.
[more, Geneva Prosecutor must revive Angola Oil Corruption Probe pdf 17KB]


Illegitimate Debts (odious debts)

In recent years, the doctrine of odious debts has become a new tool in the hands of debt activists. It is estimated that $ 500 billion’s worth of loans of developing countries could be regarded as odious as they have mostly been contracted by dictators or odious regimes. But the concept of odious debts arguably can be extended and can deepen a new approach to sustainable loans to Third World Country, freeing money for a more just and democratic development in the Third World. Aktion Finanzplatz Schweiz documented the discussion on odious debts in the last few years, producing several highly regarded publications in German. In 2005 AFP published a new brochure on “Odious debts – human rights and indebtness”, containing papers by leading exponents in the field, including Charles Abrahams (South Africa), Damien Millet (France), Beverley Keene (Buenos Aires) and David Ugolor (Nigeria). On October 3 and 4 2007 AFP organized an International Conference on Illegitimate Debts in Bern, Switzerland. For the first time legal experts and civil society representatives met to discuss the possibilities of applying the concept of odious debts in international law and in private law.

Papers of the International Conference on Illegitimate Debts (Odious Debts)
in Bern, Switzerland, October 3/4 2007

Conference reports

Case studies:

  • Favorable conjuncture on the global market and conservative debt policy. Azerbaijan case study, Ingilab Agajan Ahmadov, Director of the «Public Finance Monitoring Center» in Azerbaijan [pdf 194 KB]
  • Argentina 1976 – 2007:The paradigmatic case of an extraordinarily legitimate debt, Beverly Keene, Dialogue 2000 Argentina, Jubilee South/Americas [pdf 147 KB]
  • Présentation du cas de la République Démocratique du Congo, Victor Nzuzi Mbembe, Member of the farmers organization GRAPR and of NAD in DRC [ pdf FR 106 KB]
  • Drop Pakistan Debt: There is no other way, Farooq Tariq, Campaign for the cancellation of third world debt (CADTM), Pakistan [pdf 93 KB]

Key note speaches:

  • Alternatives to the traditional odious debts doctrine, Sabine Michalowski, Reader in Law, University of Essex [pdf 109 KB]
  • The Dilemma of Odious Debts, Mitu Gulati, professor at the law faculty of the Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA [pdf 65 KB]

Other conference papers:

  • NGO activities on illegitimate debts in Europe, Jürgen Kaiser, erlassjahr, Germany [pdf 95 KB]
  • A Fresh Look at the Odious Debt Doctrine (part of the AFP brochure “Odious debts – human rights and indebtness”), Charles Abrahams, South Africa, attorney and legal adviser of the NGO coalition Jubilee South Africa and legal representative of the Apartheid, Debt & Reparations Campaign [pdf 163 KB]
  • Odious Debts in International and Private Law [fpi 2/07], André Rothenbühler, Aktion Finanzplatz Schweiz [pdf 99 KB]

 

Different papers on odious debts

  • Lis Füglister: Odious debt – human rights and debt cancellation [pdf 91 KB]
  • Lis Füglister: Campaigns and activities [pdf 64 KB]
  • Beverly Keene: Haiti needs freedom from debt, now! [pdf 79 KB]
  • African Jubilee South on the G7 Finance Ministers Debt Cancellation Announcement; Jubilee South Reiterates Demand for 100% Unconditional Cancellation [pdf 25 KB]
  • Eric Toussaint: The odious debt of Russia, the new Oligarchs and the Bretton Woods institutions [pdf 115 KB]

 

Tax avoidance

Aktion Finanzplatz is a member of the international Tax Justice Network and supports its aim of a more just tax system and its fight against tax fraud and capital flight Aggressive tax avoidance. A new issue in the context of corporate social responsibility. Lecture by André Rothenbühler, October 2005 [pdf 87 KB]

For further information see also: www.taxjustice.net

South Africa

Aktion Finanzplatz supports the aim of the Khulumani court case against multinational corporations for compensation to victims of the apartheid regime, and in looking to extend the accountability to multinationals

Amicus curiae in support of Khulumani, September 2004 [pdf 5.21 MB (60 pages)]
Press release Khulumani, September 2004 [pdf 300 KB]

For further information see: www.apartheid-reparations.ch
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