the Trillion Dollar scandal

Dear Zoltan,

Over the last few weeks, you've taken action to stop the Trillion Dollar Scandal that is depriving developing countries of this almost incomprehensible amount of money every year.

THANK YOU.

More than 86,000 people stood alongside you and signed our petition. And as world leaders headed to Australia last week for the G20 Summit, we made sure they got your message calling for new transparency laws to shine a light on the murky world of global corruption.

So did they do what you asked them to? A bit. But nowhere near enough.

Anonymous shell companies that allow criminals to hide their dirty money are a big part of the problem. Leaders did all sign up to some broad principles to make sure all companies reveal who owns them, which is a good step forward. But this information won't be made truly public for you or me to see, or even the governments of many developing countries either.

Over the years we've campaigned for more transparency in the oil and mining sector, and thanks to support from our members we've had real success. So it was disappointing to see the subject almost ignored by world leaders at this summit. Making sure the wealth that many developing countries have under the ground actually reaches the people who live above it, will help reduce poverty and allow families to build brighter futures.

Together we've pushed our leaders hard, and there is no doubt our voices have been heard. But we need more than a few rays of light to beat this global scandal. We need dazzling sunshine.

So what happens next? We will keep up the pressure on the leaders to do more, encouraging those that have made already some progress to lead the way for others. We'll need your help to do that, so we hope you'll stick this one out with us. We couldn't have made it this far without you.

We won't stop until there are no more dark corners for this Trillion Dollar Scandal to hide.

Thank you.

David McNair, ONE.org

p.s. You can read more about what world leaders did and didn't do to tackle corruption at the G20 Summit on the ONE blog.