Laurence Cockcroft

Laurence Cockcroft has been actively involved in the fight against corruption since 1991, when the proposal to develop what became Transparency International (TI) was first discussed. His work in the previous twenty five years had mainly focused on rural development in Africa where he could see that corruption had become a major threat to progress.

He joined the first international board of Transparency International in 1993 and at the same time was a key player in establishing Transparency International in the UK, and was Chairman of TI-UK from 2000-8 (and remains an adviser to the organisation). His work with Transparency International has included initiating its programme on the ‘Business Principles for Countering Corruption’ – widely adopted as a basis for corporate codes of conduct ; launching work to combat corruption in the defence sector (now Transparency International’s Defence and Security Programme) ; and promoting the UK Bribery Act which came active in 2011 and has become the basis for a series of cases in transnational corruption brought by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

His book – ‘Global Corruption : Money, Power and Ethics’ - an analysis of the factors driving corruption on a global basis was published in 2012. His latest book on the subject, 'Unmasked: Corruption in the West', written with co-author Anne Christine Wegener, was published in November 2016.
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'Unmasked: Corruption in the West' examines corruption in political finance, lobbying, multinational companies, the judiciary and the police, environmental regulation, and sport. This a unique analysis of corruption in Europe and America showing how far the west has to go to clean its own house – while the world is watching.

'Global Corruption' represents the author's accumulated experience working extensively in the developing world, co-founding TI and developing strategies to combat governmental and corporate indifference to corruption issues in both the developed world and developign world.

Critical issues covered in both books are :

Why corruption is a threat to democracy and fuels current populist politics in the EU and the US ;
How campaign finance across the world, including the US and the U buys political outcomes ;
How the lobbying industry in Washington DC and Brussels has captured the policy agenda and defined legislation ;
How key multinational companies continue to defy the anti-bribery legislation introduced over the last twenty years ;

How the banking and finance crisis of 2007/8 was partly triggered by corruption and the culture of banking has yet to address this.
Why global poverty and huge inequality continue to be sustained by corruption
How environmental destruction is accelerated by corruption with serious consequences for climate change
How organised crime is a critical driver of corruption from the EU to China and Mexico, and has powerful links to formal politics
How ‘Illicit’ capital flows, originating in various forms of corruption, channel $1 trillion per year to ‘secrecy jurisdictions’