Collaborative research project on anti-corruption wins top commendation at University of Exeter award ceremony

The Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) project ‘Testing and evidencing compliance with beneficial ownership checks’ – a collaboration between researchers at DPIR, the universities of Exeter, Cambridge and Columbia University–has won the ‘Fair, Just and Inclusive Society Award’ at the University of Exeter’s inaugural Knowledge Exchange Awards.

The Knowledge Exchange Awards recognise collaborations between researchers and organisations that have made an outstanding impact on society, health and the environment.

Through the three-year project, the GI-ACE researchers sought to shed light on the practices that have turned Britain into a key centre of enabling for grey money derived from around the globe.

This included the use of investigative techniques to compile a database of UK real estate acquired by overseas politicians, their relatives and associates from Central Asia and Africa.

These practices range from the provision of banking services to setting up offshore structures hiding the beneficiaries of assets, to the assistance for the purchase of real estate with precious little questions asked and libel threats to block critical voices.

Co-investigator Ricardo Soares de Oliveira said: " A just society is a more equal one, which does not reward kleptocrats or elites to the detriment of the wider public.”

“We are truly honoured that this contribution was recognised for the Fair, Just and Inclusive Society award and want to extend this recognition to our co-finalists, who are all engaged in incredibly important work."