Global Financial Integrity (GFI) - Rachel Brown

Rachel Brown

Rachel.Brown@tufts.edu

Major: International Relations

Tufts program & expected graduate year: College of Arts & Sciences, Spring 2010

Rachel during the summer of 2009 worked as an intern for Global Financial Integrity with her main duties consisting of updating news and events on the website, to find and send daily news updates, blog, and research the smuggling of two to three specific commodities.  Her research interests had always revolved around the issue of the impact of corruption on security and development, having done research looking at corruption in Kenya and Guatemala.

During her internship she focused on two reports producing quantitative estimates of the value of diamonds and colored gemstones that are annually smuggled out of the developing world into the developed world. This was part of a larger project to estimate the total value of goods smuggled annually out of the developing world into the developed world, and was an attempt to quantify a new aspect of illegal flows of money. While GFI’s produces reports on annual illicit flows out of the developing world into the developed world, these reports do not take smuggling into account, and the project this summer was an attempt to get an initial estimate for what the numbers for smuggling might look at. In doing so, these reports contributed to the overall mission of GFI to provide reliable and comprehensive information about global illicit financial flows.

Her experience was very positive, noting that work environment was very friendly and that she learned a great deal.  She advanced her knowledge of what is currently being done within the U.S. to impact global financial regulations such that global financial institutions are no longer able to hide or launder the money of corrupt leaders.

A Sample of Rachel's Blog Entries can be read here:

http://www.financialtaskforce.org/2009/07/10/kenyas-anglo-leasing-scanda...