BRIDGEGAP fills the knowledge gaps regarding both the extent to and the mechanisms by which corruption infiltrates open societies even across borders and it produces measurements of corruption across countries and time by its innovative models, as well as social network maps. It also assesses and offers solutions to the digital transparency gaps, ranging from the tools of transparency, the use and abuse of technology in corruption and anticorruption to the state of it. Finally, it assesses public accountability and anticorruption regulation across EUMS and candidate states to identify regulatory and impact gaps, thus addressing the academia–policy gap in corruption studies. The research will result in academic publications as well as in interactive analytical and research commons like comparative law repositories EU Compass, European Transparency Index, Follow the Money search engines across newly interconnected databases. All its pooled data will be displayed transparently on the website as a Data Hub and will offer end users the same investigation and analytical tools as the project researchers, inviting crowd-sourcing and offering online tutorials.

UU Project Leader and Leader of Work Package 6: The Use of Artificial Intelligence to Fight Corruption

Research project about Trade-Based Money Laundering with the Anti-Money Laundering Centre (part of the Fiscal Police) in the Netherlands.

https://www.wodc.nl/onderzoeksdatabase/2790-witwaspiramide.aspx

• prof. dr. Brigitte Unger

• Prof. dr. Edward Kleemans
• dr. Brigitte Slot
• dr. Linette de Swart

Since 2008 'fiscal leaks' have become an immediate policy challenge for EU governments, partly as a result of tax abuse. The COFFERS project unfolds as EU tax authorities transition to a new era in tackling tax abuse based upon policy innovation at the OECD, EU and national levels. COFFERS recognizes this creates a state of flux where much tax authority expertise regarding past regulations, systems and practices is now irrelevant and understanding has, instead, to focus upon the on-going change process. Deploying principles of evolutionary political economy COFFERS both studies and is an integral part of this change process. COFFERS recognizes that identifying and tackling the tax gap to relieve inequality is the ultimate aim. Noting the tax gap exists both domestically and internationally and ranges from criminal money laundering to sophisticated tax avoidance, COFFERS benchmarks current understanding of these issues, undertakes comparative analysis of approaches taken to tackle them across EU Member States, and assesses resources being allocated to the task of closing the tax gap. In parallel expert networks in business, the tax profession, secrecy jurisdictions and the criminal economy that develop the mechanisms undermining the expected effectiveness of tax systems will be appraised, especially with regard to responses to regulatory changes taking place. This results in COFFERS outputs that transmit analysis, risk assessment and policy advice. Deliverables of use to EU tax authorities include new tax gap analyses by state, tax risk maps identifying risk by jurisdiction, a new anatomy of money laundering risk, and tools to help tax authorities understand the risks that they face domestically and internationally. COFFERS delivers value for money in enhancing tax yield, effectiveness in creating the tools to achieve that goal, and behavioural change in taxpayers and their advisers as a result of recommendations made, all with the aim of reducing inequality.

Project website: http://coffers.eu/

• prof. dr. Brigitte Unger
• dr. Peter Gerbrands

• Prof. dr. Richard Murphy (City University London)
• Prof. dr. Ronen Palan (City University London)
• Prof. Anastasia Nesvetailova (City University London)
• Prof. dr. Leonard Seabrooke (Copenhagen Business School)
• dr. Duncan Wigan (Copenhagen Business School)
• Dr. Brooke Harrington (Copenhagen Business School)
• Markus Meinzer (Tax Justice Network)
• Dr. Sheila Killian (University of Limerick)
• Prof. dr. Thomas Rixen (University of Bamberg)
• Dr. Petr Janský (Charles University in Prague)
• Prof. Yuval Millo (University of Leicester)
• Dr. Nikiforos Panourgias (University of Leicester)
• Dr. Leyla Ates (Istanbul Kemerburgaz University)

IARM – Identifying and Assessing the Risk of Money Laundering in Europe (HOME/2013/ISEC/AG/FINEC/4000005193) is a research project co-funded by EU Commission, DG Home Affairs, aimed at identifying and assessing the risk of money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) in Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Beneficiaries of project IARM are researchers, practitioners, institutions and private companies in the AML field. IARM will help European public authorities and obliged entities (e.g. banks, professionals, real estate agencies, etc) to develop more effective AML/CTF risk assessment policies and customer due diligence activities.

Project IARM lasts 24 months, ending in November 2016.

Project-website: http://www.transcrime.it/iarm

• Prof. Ernesto Savona
• Prof. Michele Riccardi
• Diana Camerini
• Lucia Merlino
• Prof. Edward Kleemans
• Dr. Matt Hopkins
• Dr. Nikki Shelton

project with TRANSCRIME (Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Università di Trento) on the investment behaviour of Organised Crime

• prof. dr. Brigitte Unger

• Prof.dr. Ernesto Savona
• Prof. dr. Michele Riccardi

Development of an EU Evaluation Mechanism in the area of Anti-Corruption with a particular focus on identifying and reducing the costs of corruption in Public Procurement involving EU Funds

• PriceWaterhouseCoopers
• ECORYS

A research project on the Economic and Legal Effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing in the 27 EU Member States

• prof. dr. Brigitte Unger
• prof. dr. Henk Addink

• John Walker

• prof. dr. Brigitte Unger

• H. Nelen
• L. Ritzen