0:00:00.397,0:00:02.828
When we talk about corruption,

0:00:02.852,0:00:06.298
there are typical types[br]of individuals that spring to mind.

0:00:06.322,0:00:08.626
There's the former Soviet megalomaniacs.

0:00:08.650,0:00:11.815
Saparmurat Niyazov, he was one of them.

0:00:11.839,0:00:13.803
Until his death in 2006,

0:00:13.827,0:00:17.109
he was the all-powerful[br]leader of Turkmenistan,

0:00:17.133,0:00:20.874
a Central Asian country[br]rich in natural gas.

0:00:20.898,0:00:24.824
Now, he really loved to issue[br]presidential decrees.

0:00:24.848,0:00:27.069
And one renamed the months of the year

0:00:27.093,0:00:30.219
including after himself and his mother.

0:00:30.243,0:00:32.253
He spent millions of dollars

0:00:32.277,0:00:35.073
creating a bizarre personality cult,

0:00:35.097,0:00:37.042
and his crowning glory was the building

0:00:37.066,0:00:41.082
of a 40-foot-high gold-plated[br]statue of himself

0:00:41.106,0:00:44.146
which stood proudly[br]in the capital's central square

0:00:44.170,0:00:47.138
and rotated to follow the sun.

0:00:47.162,0:00:49.911
He was a slightly unusual guy.

0:00:49.935,0:00:51.768
And then there's that cliché,

0:00:51.792,0:00:55.167
the African dictator[br]or minister or official.

0:00:55.191,0:00:58.278
There's Teodorín Obiang.

0:00:58.302,0:01:02.509
So his daddy is president[br]for life of Equatorial Guinea,

0:01:02.533,0:01:05.633
a West African nation that has exported

0:01:05.657,0:01:09.114
billions of dollars of oil since the 1990s

0:01:09.138,0:01:13.158
and yet has a truly appalling[br]human rights record.

0:01:13.182,0:01:15.052
The vast majority of its people

0:01:15.076,0:01:18.007
are living in really miserable poverty

0:01:18.031,0:01:20.127
despite an income[br]per capita that's on a par

0:01:20.151,0:01:22.625
with that of Portugal.

0:01:22.649,0:01:25.330
So Obiang junior, well, he buys himself

0:01:25.354,0:01:29.762
a $30 million mansion[br]in Malibu, California.

0:01:29.786,0:01:30.863
I've been up to its front gates.

0:01:30.887,0:01:33.958
I can tell you it's a magnificent spread.

0:01:33.982,0:01:37.677
He bought an €18 million art collection

0:01:37.701,0:01:41.816
that used to belong to fashion[br]designer Yves Saint Laurent,

0:01:41.840,0:01:43.364
a stack of fabulous sports cars,

0:01:43.388,0:01:45.919
some costing a million dollars apiece --

0:01:45.943,0:01:48.235
oh, and a Gulfstream jet, too.

0:01:48.259,0:01:49.596
Now get this:

0:01:49.620,0:01:53.737
Until recently, he was earning[br]an official monthly salary

0:01:53.761,0:01:57.891
of less than 7,000 dollars.

0:01:57.915,0:01:59.944
And there's Dan Etete.

0:01:59.968,0:02:02.588
Well, he was the former[br]oil minister of Nigeria

0:02:02.612,0:02:04.562
under President Abacha,

0:02:04.586,0:02:08.064
and it just so happens[br]he's a convicted money launderer too.

0:02:08.088,0:02:10.306
We've spent a great deal of time

0:02:10.330,0:02:12.707
investigating a $1 billion --

0:02:12.731,0:02:14.470
that's right, a $1 billion —

0:02:14.494,0:02:17.131
oil deal that he was involved with,

0:02:17.155,0:02:19.083
and what we found was pretty shocking,

0:02:19.107,0:02:21.849
but more about that later.

0:02:21.873,0:02:25.366
So it's easy to think[br]that corruption happens

0:02:25.390,0:02:27.226
somewhere over there,

0:02:27.250,0:02:29.682
carried out by a bunch of greedy despots

0:02:29.706,0:02:31.706
and individuals up to no good in countries

0:02:31.730,0:02:34.714
that we, personally, may[br]know very little about

0:02:34.738,0:02:36.403
and feel really unconnected to

0:02:36.427,0:02:39.891
and unaffected by what might be going on.

0:02:39.915,0:02:43.134
But does it just happen over there?

0:02:43.158,0:02:46.413
Well, at 22, I was very lucky.

0:02:46.437,0:02:49.194
My first job out of university

0:02:49.218,0:02:53.178
was investigating the illegal[br]trade in African ivory.

0:02:53.202,0:02:57.407
And that's how my relationship[br]with corruption really began.

0:02:57.431,0:03:00.415
In 1993, with two friends[br]who were colleagues,

0:03:00.439,0:03:03.218
Simon Taylor and Patrick Alley,

0:03:03.242,0:03:06.819
we set up an organization[br]called Global Witness.

0:03:06.843,0:03:09.569
Our first campaign[br]was investigating the role

0:03:09.593,0:03:13.875
of illegal logging in funding[br]the war in Cambodia.

0:03:13.899,0:03:16.918
So a few years later, and it's now 1997,

0:03:16.942,0:03:21.679
and I'm in Angola undercover[br]investigating blood diamonds.

0:03:21.703,0:03:23.406
Perhaps you saw the film,

0:03:23.430,0:03:25.097
the Hollywood film "Blood Diamond,"

0:03:25.121,0:03:26.674
the one with Leonardo DiCaprio.

0:03:26.698,0:03:30.129
Well, some of that sprang from our work.

0:03:30.153,0:03:32.845
Luanda, it was full of land mine victims

0:03:32.869,0:03:35.025
who were struggling[br]to survive on the streets

0:03:35.049,0:03:38.113
and war orphans living[br]in sewers under the streets,

0:03:38.137,0:03:40.202
and a tiny, very wealthy elite

0:03:40.226,0:03:43.421
who gossiped about shopping[br]trips to Brazil and Portugal.

0:03:43.445,0:03:46.182
And it was a slightly crazy place.

0:03:46.206,0:03:49.866
So I'm sitting in a hot[br]and very stuffy hotel room

0:03:49.890,0:03:52.926
feeling just totally overwhelmed.

0:03:52.950,0:03:55.282
But it wasn't about blood diamonds.

0:03:55.306,0:03:58.184
Because I'd been speaking[br]to lots of people there

0:03:58.208,0:04:00.552
who, well, they talked[br]about a different problem:

0:04:00.576,0:04:03.973
that of a massive web[br]of corruption on a global scale

0:04:03.997,0:04:07.307
and millions of oil dollars going missing.

0:04:07.331,0:04:09.768
And for what was then[br]a very small organization

0:04:09.792,0:04:11.916
of just a few people,

0:04:11.940,0:04:14.658
trying to even begin to think[br]how we might tackle that

0:04:14.682,0:04:17.129
was an enormous challenge.

0:04:17.153,0:04:18.677
And in the years that I've been,

0:04:18.701,0:04:21.232
and we've all been campaigning[br]and investigating,

0:04:21.255,0:04:23.495
I've repeatedly seen[br]that what makes corruption

0:04:23.519,0:04:25.763
on a global, massive scale possible,

0:04:25.787,0:04:28.897
well it isn't just greed[br]or the misuse of power

0:04:28.921,0:04:31.336
or that nebulous phrase "weak governance."

0:04:31.360,0:04:33.373
I mean, yes, it's all of those,

0:04:33.397,0:04:36.325
but corruption, it's made[br]possible by the actions

0:04:36.349,0:04:39.946
of global facilitators.

0:04:39.970,0:04:43.136
So let's go back to some of those[br]people I talked about earlier.

0:04:43.160,0:04:44.653
Now, they're all people[br]we've investigated,

0:04:44.677,0:04:47.439
and they're all people who couldn't[br]do what they do alone.

0:04:47.463,0:04:49.879
Take Obiang junior. Well, he didn't end up

0:04:49.903,0:04:53.718
with high-end art and luxury[br]houses without help.

0:04:53.742,0:04:55.893
He did business with global banks.

0:04:55.917,0:04:59.732
A bank in Paris held accounts[br]of companies controlled by him,

0:04:59.756,0:05:02.130
one of which was used to buy the art,

0:05:02.154,0:05:04.771
and American banks, well, they funneled

0:05:04.795,0:05:07.707
73 million dollars into the States,

0:05:07.731,0:05:11.806
some of which was used to buy[br]that California mansion.

0:05:11.830,0:05:14.714
And he didn't do all of this[br]in his own name either.

0:05:14.738,0:05:16.468
He used shell companies.

0:05:16.492,0:05:18.802
He used one to buy[br]the property, and another,

0:05:18.826,0:05:20.888
which was in somebody else's name,

0:05:20.912,0:05:24.886
to pay the huge bills it[br]cost to run the place.

0:05:24.910,0:05:27.114
And then there's Dan Etete.

0:05:27.138,0:05:29.196
Well, when he was oil minister,

0:05:29.220,0:05:34.326
he awarded an oil block now[br]worth over a billion dollars

0:05:34.350,0:05:37.160
to a company that, guess what, yeah,

0:05:37.184,0:05:39.543
he was the hidden owner of.

0:05:39.567,0:05:42.945
Now, it was then much later traded on

0:05:42.969,0:05:45.541
with the kind assistance[br]of the Nigerian government --

0:05:45.565,0:05:47.623
now I have to be careful what I say here —

0:05:47.647,0:05:51.772
to subsidiaries of Shell[br]and the Italian Eni,

0:05:51.796,0:05:54.426
two of the biggest oil companies around.

0:05:54.450,0:05:56.879
So the reality is,[br]is that the engine of corruption,

0:05:56.903,0:05:59.322
well, it exists far[br]beyond the shores of countries

0:05:59.346,0:06:02.521
like Equatorial Guinea[br]or Nigeria or Turkmenistan.

0:06:02.545,0:06:04.845
This engine, well, it's driven

0:06:04.869,0:06:07.211
by our international banking system,

0:06:07.235,0:06:09.754
by the problem of anonymous[br]shell companies,

0:06:09.778,0:06:12.136
and by the secrecy that we have afforded

0:06:12.160,0:06:15.105
big oil, gas and mining operations,

0:06:15.129,0:06:18.838
and, most of all, by the failure[br]of our politicians

0:06:18.862,0:06:20.913
to back up their rhetoric and do something

0:06:20.937,0:06:25.905
really meaningful and systemic[br]to tackle this stuff.

0:06:25.929,0:06:27.916
Now let's take the banks first.

0:06:27.940,0:06:30.250
Well, it's not going[br]to come as any surprise

0:06:30.274,0:06:34.562
for me to tell you that banks[br]accept dirty money,

0:06:34.586,0:06:39.106
but they prioritize their profits[br]in other destructive ways too.

0:06:39.130,0:06:42.213
For example, in Sarawak, Malaysia.

0:06:42.237,0:06:45.852
Now this region, it has just five percent

0:06:45.876,0:06:51.268
of its forests left intact. Five percent.

0:06:51.292,0:06:52.603
So how did that happen?

0:06:52.627,0:06:55.659
Well, because an elite[br]and its facilitators

0:06:55.683,0:06:57.833
have been making millions of dollars

0:06:57.857,0:07:01.364
from supporting logging[br]on an industrial scale

0:07:01.388,0:07:03.770
for many years.

0:07:03.794,0:07:06.024
So we sent an undercover investigator in

0:07:06.048,0:07:09.614
to secretly film meetings[br]with members of the ruling elite,

0:07:09.638,0:07:12.945
and the resulting footage, well,[br]it made some people very angry,

0:07:12.969,0:07:15.195
and you can see that on YouTube,

0:07:15.219,0:07:17.172
but it proved what we had long suspected,

0:07:17.196,0:07:20.669
because it showed[br]how the state's chief minister,

0:07:20.693,0:07:22.579
despite his later denials,

0:07:22.603,0:07:25.978
used his control over land[br]and forest licenses

0:07:26.002,0:07:29.009
to enrich himself and his family.

0:07:29.033,0:07:33.608
And HSBC, well, we know[br]that HSBC bankrolled

0:07:33.632,0:07:35.617
the region's largest logging companies

0:07:35.641,0:07:38.022
that were responsible[br]for some of that destruction

0:07:38.046,0:07:40.609
in Sarawak and elsewhere.

0:07:40.633,0:07:44.317
The bank violated its own[br]sustainability policies in the process,

0:07:44.341,0:07:48.137
but it earned around 130 million dollars.

0:07:48.161,0:07:50.473
Now shortly after our exposé,

0:07:50.497,0:07:53.075
very shortly after our exposé[br]earlier this year,

0:07:53.099,0:07:56.079
the bank announced[br]a policy review on this.

0:07:56.103,0:07:58.665
And is this progress? Maybe,

0:07:58.689,0:08:01.168
but we're going to be[br]keeping a very close eye

0:08:01.192,0:08:03.505
on that case.

0:08:03.529,0:08:06.918
And then there's the problem[br]of anonymous shell companies.

0:08:06.942,0:08:09.747
Well, we've all heard[br]about what they are, I think,

0:08:09.771,0:08:12.243
and we all know they're used quite a bit

0:08:12.267,0:08:14.829
by people and companies[br]who are trying to avoid

0:08:14.853,0:08:17.876
paying their proper dues to society,

0:08:17.900,0:08:19.929
also known as taxes.

0:08:19.953,0:08:22.838
But what doesn't usually come to light

0:08:22.862,0:08:27.388
is how shell companies are used to steal

0:08:27.412,0:08:30.760
huge sums of money,[br]transformational sums of money,

0:08:30.784,0:08:32.806
from poor countries.

0:08:32.830,0:08:36.226
In virtually every case of corruption[br]that we've investigated,

0:08:36.250,0:08:38.438
shell companies have appeared,

0:08:38.462,0:08:40.798
and sometimes[br]it's been impossible to find out

0:08:40.822,0:08:44.310
who is really involved in the deal.

0:08:44.334,0:08:46.638
A recent study by the World Bank

0:08:46.662,0:08:49.588
looked at 200 cases of corruption.

0:08:49.612,0:08:52.678
It found that over 70[br]percent of those cases

0:08:52.702,0:08:55.632
had used anonymous shell companies,

0:08:55.656,0:08:59.014
totaling almost 56 billion dollars.

0:08:59.038,0:09:01.276
Now many of these[br]companies were in America

0:09:01.300,0:09:02.586
or the United Kingdom,

0:09:02.610,0:09:04.987
its overseas territories[br]and Crown dependencies,

0:09:05.011,0:09:07.241
and so it's not just an offshore problem,

0:09:07.265,0:09:09.533
it's an on-shore one too.

0:09:09.557,0:09:11.672
You see, shell companies, they're central

0:09:11.696,0:09:14.926
to the secret deals which may[br]benefit wealthy elites

0:09:14.950,0:09:17.950
rather than ordinary citizens.

0:09:17.974,0:09:21.196
One striking recent case[br]that we've investigated

0:09:21.220,0:09:24.172
is how the government[br]in the Democratic Republic of Congo

0:09:24.196,0:09:28.529
sold off a series of valuable,[br]state-owned mining assets

0:09:28.553,0:09:31.883
to shell companies[br]in the British Virgin Islands.

0:09:31.907,0:09:34.155
So we spoke to sources in country,

0:09:34.179,0:09:37.191
trawled through company[br]documents and other information

0:09:37.215,0:09:41.246
trying to piece together a really[br]true picture of the deal.

0:09:41.270,0:09:44.071
And we were alarmed to find[br]that these shell companies

0:09:44.095,0:09:46.587
had quickly flipped many of the assets on

0:09:46.611,0:09:50.808
for huge profits to major[br]international mining companies

0:09:50.832,0:09:53.171
listed in London.

0:09:53.195,0:09:56.427
Now, the Africa Progress[br]Panel, led by Kofi Annan,

0:09:56.451,0:09:59.315
they've calculated[br]that Congo may have lost

0:09:59.339,0:10:04.419
more than 1.3 billion dollars[br]from these deals.

0:10:04.443,0:10:06.672
That's almost twice

0:10:06.696,0:10:12.312
the country's annual health[br]and education budget combined.

0:10:12.336,0:10:14.938
And will the people of Congo,[br]will they ever get their money back?

0:10:14.962,0:10:16.596
Well, the answer to that question,

0:10:16.620,0:10:18.490
and who was really involved[br]and what really happened,

0:10:18.514,0:10:20.993
well that's going to probably[br]remain locked away

0:10:21.017,0:10:24.142
in the secretive company registries[br]of the British Virgin Islands

0:10:24.166,0:10:28.976
and elsewhere unless we all do[br]something about it.

0:10:29.000,0:10:31.963
And how about the oil, gas[br]and mining companies?

0:10:31.987,0:10:34.677
Okay, maybe it's a bit[br]of a cliché to talk about them.

0:10:34.701,0:10:36.797
Corruption in that sector, no surprise.

0:10:36.821,0:10:41.230
There's corruption everywhere,[br]so why focus on that sector?

0:10:41.254,0:10:43.430
Well, because there's a lot at stake.

0:10:43.454,0:10:47.527
In 2011, natural resource exports

0:10:47.551,0:10:51.039
outweighed aid flows by almost 19 to one

0:10:51.063,0:10:55.462
in Africa, Asia and Latin America.[br]Nineteen to one.

0:10:55.486,0:10:59.099
Now that's a hell of a lot[br]of schools and universities

0:10:59.123,0:11:01.076
and hospitals and business startups,

0:11:01.100,0:11:03.434
many of which haven't[br]materialized and never will

0:11:03.458,0:11:07.765
because some of that money[br]has simply been stolen away.

0:11:07.789,0:11:10.170
Now let's go back to the oil[br]and mining companies,

0:11:10.194,0:11:13.186
and let's go back to Dan Etete[br]and that $1 billion deal.

0:11:13.210,0:11:16.475
And now forgive me, I'm[br]going to read the next bit

0:11:16.499,0:11:18.772
because it's a very live[br]issue, and our lawyers

0:11:18.796,0:11:20.962
have been through this in some detail

0:11:20.986,0:11:24.272
and they want me to get it right.

0:11:24.296,0:11:28.445
Now, on the surface, the deal[br]appeared straightforward.

0:11:28.469,0:11:30.545
Subsidiaries of Shell and Eni

0:11:30.569,0:11:33.519
paid the Nigerian[br]government for the block.

0:11:33.543,0:11:35.682
The Nigerian government transferred

0:11:35.706,0:11:38.506
precisely the same amount,[br]to the very dollar,

0:11:38.530,0:11:43.121
to an account earmarked[br]for a shell company

0:11:43.145,0:11:45.247
whose hidden owner was Etete.

0:11:45.271,0:11:48.636
Now, that's not bad going[br]for a convicted money launderer.

0:11:48.660,0:11:50.093
And here's the thing.

0:11:50.117,0:11:51.970
After many months of digging around

0:11:51.994,0:11:55.505
and reading through hundreds[br]of pages of court documents,

0:11:55.529,0:11:57.460
we found evidence that, in fact,

0:11:57.484,0:12:00.889
Shell and Eni had known that the funds

0:12:00.913,0:12:03.964
would be transferred[br]to that shell company,

0:12:03.988,0:12:07.671
and frankly, it's hard[br]to believe they didn't know

0:12:07.695,0:12:10.962
who they were really dealing with there.

0:12:10.986,0:12:14.050
Now, it just shouldn't take[br]these sorts of efforts

0:12:14.074,0:12:16.579
to find out where the money[br]in deals like this went.

0:12:16.603,0:12:18.148
I mean, these are state assets.

0:12:18.172,0:12:19.614
They're supposed to be[br]used for the benefit

0:12:19.638,0:12:21.347
of the people in the country.

0:12:21.371,0:12:24.536
But in some countries,[br]citizens and journalists

0:12:24.560,0:12:26.560
who are trying to expose stories like this

0:12:26.584,0:12:28.061
have been harassed and arrested

0:12:28.085,0:12:32.516
and some have even risked[br]their lives to do so.

0:12:32.540,0:12:36.320
And finally, well, there[br]are those who believe

0:12:36.344,0:12:38.644
that corruption is unavoidable.

0:12:38.668,0:12:40.793
It's just how some business is done.

0:12:40.817,0:12:43.358
It's too complex and difficult to change.

0:12:43.382,0:12:46.285
So in effect, what? We just accept it.

0:12:46.309,0:12:48.678
But as a campaigner and investigator,

0:12:48.702,0:12:49.729
I have a different view,

0:12:49.753,0:12:51.899
because I've seen what can happen

0:12:51.923,0:12:54.453
when an idea gains momentum.

0:12:54.477,0:12:57.197
In the oil and mining sector, for example,

0:12:57.221,0:12:58.460
there is now the beginning

0:12:58.484,0:13:01.709
of a truly worldwide transparency standard

0:13:01.733,0:13:04.729
that could tackle some of these problems.

0:13:04.753,0:13:07.151
In 1999, when Global Witness called

0:13:07.175,0:13:10.490
for oil companies to make[br]payments on deals transparent,

0:13:10.514,0:13:14.279
well, some people laughed[br]at the extreme naiveté

0:13:14.303,0:13:16.382
of that small idea.

0:13:16.406,0:13:19.952
But literally hundreds[br]of civil society groups

0:13:19.976,0:13:21.830
from around the world came together

0:13:21.854,0:13:23.439
to fight for transparency,

0:13:23.463,0:13:27.420
and now it's fast becoming[br]the norm and the law.

0:13:27.444,0:13:29.392
Two thirds of the value

0:13:29.416,0:13:31.712
of the world's oil and mining companies

0:13:31.736,0:13:35.483
are now covered by transparency laws.[br]Two thirds.

0:13:35.507,0:13:36.956
So this is change happening.

0:13:36.980,0:13:38.846
This is progress.

0:13:38.870,0:13:41.969
But we're not there yet, by far.

0:13:41.993,0:13:44.215
Because it really isn't about corruption

0:13:44.239,0:13:46.330
somewhere over there, is it?

0:13:46.354,0:13:48.535
In a globalized world, corruption

0:13:48.559,0:13:50.798
is a truly globalized business,

0:13:50.822,0:13:52.913
and one that needs global solutions,

0:13:52.937,0:13:56.913
supported and pushed by us[br]all, as global citizens,

0:13:56.937,0:13:58.075
right here.

0:13:58.099,0:13:59.265
Thank you.

0:13:59.289,0:14:06.105
(Applause)