After 30 years on the run, Italy's most wanted fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro of the Cosa Nostra has been arrested in Sicily. We look at the costs of organised crime, both economic and societal, the contagion that financial secrecy facilitates, and how to reverse the rot.

Secrecy jurisdictions and tax havens have made it possible for mafiosi to progress from crossing physical borders with bank notes stuffed in suitcases, to being able to pour unlimited amounts of money into the financial system. Dirty money in, ‘clean’ money out. That money destabilises economies and corrupts democracies, while organised crime toxifies societies. The problem is that financial secrecy and tax havens are also the friend of commerce, multinationals and wealthy, powerful people worldwide...

Featuring:

Professor of Criminology, Federico Varese

Journalist, Stefano Vergine

Surgeon in Malta and opinon piece writer, Kevin Cassar

Hosted and produced by Naomi Fowler of the Tax Justice Network

Transcript available here: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Taxcast_Transcript_Feb_2023.pdf (Some is automated)

Our website (with links to further reading) is available here: https://www.thetaxcast.com