Corruption in the Gold Supply Chain

• Speaker: Mark Pieth, Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Basel

The supply chain of gold is full of challenges, ranging from conflict over slavery to serious environmental degradation. One major challenge, both in artisanal and industrial gold mining is corruption, e.g. in order to obtain mining rights or to subvert controls. These challenges and how to confront them will be discussed in the talk.

Mark Pieth has since 1993 been Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He has served twice as Dean of the Basel Law School. In 2014 he has been presented with an honorary doctorate by Sussex University, UK. As an academic he has published extensively in the areas of economic crime, criminal law, criminal procedure and sanctioning.

From 1989 to 1993, Mark Pieth was Head of Section on Economic and Organised Crime at the Swiss Federal Office of Justice. During this time he was a Member of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). From 1990 to 2013 he chaired the OECD Working Group on Bribery. In 2004 and 2005 he was a Member of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN’s Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq (“Volcker Committee”). From autumn 2008 to summer 2014 he was a Member of the Independent Advisory Board of The World Bank Group (IAB). Mark Pieth has from November 2011 until the end of 2013 chaired the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) to oversee the reform process of FIFA. From 2013 to 2016 he was Chairman of the Sanction Appeals Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB). He was member of the Independent Committee to revise the practices of the legal and financial industry in Panama.

Mark Pieth is the founder and Chair (until 2022) of the Basel Institute on Governance (BIG). In this capacity he has co-initiated several collective actions, including the Wolfsberg Banking Group and the WEF’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI).

From August 1, 2020, he has retired from University and has now opened a law firm specialized on expert opinions in international cases.

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