"Multinationals rob Kenya of Sh78b in tax evasion, says US research firm"

Kenya was conned of more than Sh78 billion through corruption and tax evasion between 2003 and 2012, a US-based research firm has reported. Researchers from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) compiled the losses, which they describe as "modest" considering gaps in information, but could be bigger than all mega-scandals, including Goldenberg, combined. The findings could mount pressure on Kenya's bilateral partners whose companies and individuals are accused of perpetrating the crimes while the proceeds end up in foreign banks. The losses were much larger than the combined foreign direct investment (FDI) and aid given to Kenya, and for all the other developing countries. "These outflows — already greater than the combined sum of all FDI and aid flowing into these countries — are sapping roughly a trillion dollars per year from the world's poor and middle-income economies," said GFI President Raymond Baker, a specialist on financial crime…Nearly 80 per cent of all illicit flows, the Washington-based GFI found was through mis-invoicing – where the multinational firms booked most of their expenses in the poor countries to shift profits to sister companies operating in lower tax jurisdictions. GFI concludes that fraudulent mis-invoicing of trade transactions was the largest component of illicit financial flows from developing countries, accounting for 77.8 per cent of all illicit flows.