Friday March 30, 2018
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Dampeer Room
Kelvin Smith Library *
Case Western Reserve University
Dear Colleagues:
Fifty years ago, Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15-minutes. It’s imprecise but we’ve become accustomed to such bursts of publicity.
Two years ago a leak of millions of documents, the “Panama Papers,” led to 300 reporters working through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists publishing a coordinated blast of stories through major outlets around the world, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for how it exposed “the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens.” This past November, a similarly massive trove appeared as the “Paradise Papers,” similarly illustrating pervasive tax evasion (at least) and not helping the images of, among others, Queen Elizabeth, Apple, Madonna, Vladimir Putin, and Bono.
A great set of stories, but have you heard much about them since? And if not, is that because they were 15 minutes of scandal or because a lot is happening quietly? There have been a few visible results – especially in Pakistan, where the Supreme Court ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for corruption. And the law firm in the Panama story, Mossack Fonseca, went out of business. But are business practices changing, or governments cracking down? Professor Gordon offers his perspective as a leading scholar of international tax evasion.
All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Richard Gordon teaches courses on financial integrity, banking regulation, and international taxation. Prior to coming to Case Western Reserve, Gordon practiced international tax law in Washington, DC, and later taught courses in tax and corporate governance at the Harvard Law School, where he also served as deputy director of the International Tax Program. After leaving Harvard, Gordon joined the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where he was senior counsel and senior financial sector expert, and where he worked on sovereign debt restructuring and financial integrity matters.
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Gordon served on the select IMF Task Force on Terrorism Finance and co-led the IMF and World Bank’s involvement in anti-money laundering and terrorism financing. He was the principal draftsperson of the preventive measures section of the first compliance assessment methodology for the Financial Action Task Force 40 Recommendations. He has participated in a number of FATF 40 compliance assessments in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Southeast Asia, and has published numerous scholarly articles, book chapters and research studies on anti-money laundering and terrorism as well as scholarly articles and book chapters on taxation.
Where We Meet
The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our programs are open to all and no registration is required. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library.
* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.
The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.
Parking Possibilities
The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
April 6: Income Inequality Among Seniors, At Home and Abroad. With Terry Hokenstad Jr. Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, and Emily Campbell M.A., Associate Director, Center for Community Solutions.
April 13: The Eurozone Crisis is Over: Now What? With Nicolas Véron, Senior Fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels and the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. ***Alternate Location: Peter B. Lewis Building, Room 202, 11119 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH 44106***
April 20: People and Property. With Peter Gerhart J.D., Professor and Dean Emeritus, School of Law.
April 27: Two Sides of Brexit. With Elliot Posner Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science, and Luke Reader Ph.D., SAGES Lecturer. |
