March 19, 2020

Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

Deadline: January 15, 2020

“There is a growing global consensus that the secrecy-havens—jurisdictions which undermine global standards for corporate and financial transparency—pose a global problem: they facilitate both money laundering and tax avoidance and evasion, contributing to crime and unacceptably high levels of global wealth inequality.” (Joseph E. Stiglitz and Mark Pieth)

Secrecy mechanisms and facilitators of illicit financial flows hamper public understanding of financial markets. As a result, cross border investigative journalism has become vital in order to build public understanding of the consequences of secrecy in financial markets. However, investigative journalists researching illicit financial flows face a number of challenges. We wish to explore what can be done to facilitate investigative journalism of illicit financial flows.

This is the fourth research conference in the series “Making Transparency Possible - Interdisciplinary dialogues”. The conference invites research papers for a special session on investigative journalism and hindrances and threats investigative journalists face when researching and revealing illicit financial flows.

Confirmed speakers:

Nicholas Lord is a Professor of Criminology. He joined the University of Manchester in September 2013 and teaches in the areas of white-collar and corporate crimes, financial and economic crimes, serious and organized crimes, and criminological research. Nicholas has primary research interests in white-collar and corporate crimes of a financial and economic nature, such as fraud, corruption and bribery, as well as the organization of serious crimes for financial gain, such as 'organized crime' and food fraud.

Tina Søreide is Professor of Law and Economics, NHH. Her research is focused on corruption, governance, markets and development, currently with an emphasis on law enforcement. At NHH, she teaches courses in business ethics, corruption and governance, coordinates a student mobility program in anti-corruption with schools in Ukraine and Georgia, and organizes a research program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement.

Kalle Moene is a Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Oslo. He is the head of ESOP (a center for the study of Equality, Social Organization, and Performance). His research interest is the study of inequality in income and wealth in rich and poor countries. A core interest is the role of economic development, institutions, unions and welfare states. He was a lead author in the International Panel of Social Progress. He has published widely in international journals and received the Fridtjof Nansen Prize for excellent research in 2016.

Bradley Birkenfeld is a whistle-blower and former international banker and wealth manager who worked with the Swiss investment bank UBS. UBS enabled wealthy Americans to hide wealth due to Switzerland’s banking secrecy laws and to avoid paying tax in the US. In 2007, Birkenfeld became a whistle-blower. He later obtained the largest whistle-blower reward ever given to an individual whistle-blower for reporting IRS Tax Fraud.

Simon Bendtsen is a Danish journalist with the newspaper Berlingske Tidende. Bendtsen helped expose the Danske Bank money laundering scandal. The bank is currently under investigation for channeling 234 billion dollars through an affiliate in Estonia.

Linda Larsson Kakuli and Axel Humlesjö investigated and helped revealed the so-called Sewdbank money laundering scandal for Uppdrag Granskning (Swedish SVT). The bank is currently under criminal investigation for channeling around 40 billion Swedish kroner through affiliates in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Ingi Freyr Vilhjálmsson is a journalist at Stundin, a media platform for investigative journalism financed through crowdfunding, subscriptions and public support. In 2019, Vilhjálmsson revealed how “an Icelandic fishing company bribed officials in Namibia and used Norway's largest bank to transfer 70 million dollars to a tax haven”.

Roar Østby, head of compliance in the Norwegian bank DnB.

Lars Erik Bolstad is a data scientist and expert on artificial intelligence in the Norwegian bank DnB.

Gunnar Holm Ringen is responsible for fraud prevention services and legal services in PwC Forensics Oslo and works extensively with accounting investigations. He has worked as a senior public prosecutor in the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (ØKOKRIM) and as a police inspector on the police force, and has extensive experience in the investigation, prosecution and litigation of serious cases related to most forms of financial irregularities. He has also been a district court judge.

The organizers seek paper presentations based on on-going research. We particularly welcome original, high-quality papers that can deepen our understanding of the following questions:

• What information hindrances do investigative journalists investigating illicit financial flows face?
• What type of threats/pressures/dangers/risks do investigative journalists face when investigating illicit financial flows?
• What do journalists and journalist organisations do to protect investigative journalists facing threats/pressures/dangers/risks when investigating illicit financial flows?

Other relevant topics are also welcome.

We have a limited number of scholarships available to cover direct costs for travel/hotel. Priority will be given to researchers from Latin America, Africa, The Middle East and Asia.

Abstracts and applications for scholarships have to be submitted before January 15th 2020. Please submit a one-page paper abstract together with a short CV of no more than two pages. Please send to conference@pwyp.no

The conference is organized by the research project Making Transparency Possible at Oslo Metropolitan University and financed by The Research Council of Norway.