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Saturday, July 31, 2010 9:30 GMT

Stories by Lucy Komisar

Lucy Komisar is a New York-based investigative journalist. She writes for IPS on corruption, offshore banking and corporate secrecy, as well as regular theatre reviews.

Her chapter, "The BCCI Game: Banking on America, Banking on Jihad," appears in the new book "A Game as Old as Empire", just published by Berrett-Koehler (San Francisco).

U.S. Civil Rights Veterans Pass Torch to Younger Generation
by Lucy Komisar*
Robert Moses, 75, a legendary leader and organiser in the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement, was huddled with a dozen people discussing plans for a campaign to make quality education a constitutional right. On one side was his son Omowale, 38. On the other was John Doar, 89, head of the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department in 1960-67 and prosecutor of the major civil rights cases of that era.

CORRUPTION
U.S. Banks Abetting Corrupt Regimes, Probe Finds
by Lucy Komisar*
The global bank HSBC may be running offshore accounts for central banks. According to a U.S. Senate investigation, an HSBC subsidiary in London called HSBC Equator Bank had a sister bank in the Bahamas.

FILM
Challenging 500 Years of Globalisation
by Lucy Komisar
To end poverty, you have to know how it began - with globalisation. No, not the 20th century variety engendered by multinationals and their friends at the IMF, World Bank and WTO. They just codified practices that kept developing countries poor.

Q&A
Tax Havens, Bank Secrecy, and Tricks
by Lucy Komisar interviews BOB ROACH, Chief Investigator of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation
At a recent conference in Miami organised by Offshore Alert, a specialised media organisation focused on financial crime, IPS correspondent Lucy Komisar sat down with veteran investigator Bob Roach to discuss the hurdles facing regulators trying to crack down on tax havens, which cost the U.S. alone an estimated 100 billion dollars annually.

FINANCE
OECD Tax Havens Deal Falls Short, Critics Say
by Lucy Komisar*
Jeffrey Owens, the tax &com;point person&com; of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was stung by activist critics of the OECD standards under which countries will be put on a tax haven blacklist and targeted for sanctions.

FINANCE-US
IRS on the Track of Tax-Cheating "John Doe's"
by Lucy Komisar*
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is hitting pay dirt with a novel legal tactic designed to catch tax evaders. And it's going to use it to force international banks to give up the names of tax cheats.

/EXCLUSIVE/FINANCE
How One Fund's Profits Ended Up in the Caymans
by Lucy Komisar*
President Barack Obama said he would crack down on firms that use offshore centres to evade taxes. He could begin with a New York subsidiary of one of the world's largest private banks, which uses a Cayman Islands company to shift its profits.

FINANCE-US
Treasury Nominee Failed to Halt Bond Scam
by Lucy Komisar*
U.S. senators at Timothy Geithner's confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary Wednesday may want to ask him about a failure to act that is costing the U.S. a lot more than the amount he evaded on taxes.

FINANCE
Crisis Pits Vatican Against Offshore Bankers
Analysis by Lucy Komisar*
The financial crisis has the U.S. swirling with charges about the immoral greed of some corporate executives who recklessly bet their companies' futures to line their own pockets. The popular fix for this international calamity stops at the nation's borders: decouple top-line salaries and bonuses from stock prices and institute more transparency and regulation.

FINANCE-US
AIG's Offshore Strategies Hide a Scam
by Lucy Komisar*
The company getting the biggest U.S. bailout operated a scam to help clients cheat on U.S. taxes, regulators say. It is AIG, American International Group, the world's largest insurance conglomerate.

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