Playing with the rules in the extractive industries sector

Over the last two decades, several laws and initiatives have been adopted around the world to fight illicit financial flows, but corruption and tax avoidance remain high in the oil, gas and mining sector. What are some of the reasons for that? Extractive industries actors, being multinational companies or public officials, use law to their advantage. They try to be creative and innovative in order to pursue illicit practices: they circumvent and manipulate anti-corruption legislation or transparency measures. The so-called legal and financial engineering through the use of complex ownership structures, shell companies and law havens facilitate these illicit financial flows – while experts who master the legal, political and financial environment in which extractive industries players evolve provide instrumental support.

These are some of the findings in Sophie Lemaître’s recent book “Corruption, tax avoidance and money laundering in the extractive industries sectors: The art of playing with Law“. Tuesday, 3 December, she is going to elaborate on this topic further in her presentation. Afterwards relevant academics will reflect on the topic in a panel discussion, moderated by Shrey Nishchal.

The panel:

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Sophie Lemaître
, Senior Advisor, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, CMI

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Lise Ra



kner
, Professor, Department of Comparative Politics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bergen

–

Henrik Skar
, Postdoctoral fellow, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen

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Shrey Nishchal
, PhD-candidate, NHH (moderator)

Coffee, tea and croissants.

The event is free and open for all!