The Counter Helpdesk Created to Catch Corporate Crooks
The Counter Helpdesk Created to Catch Corporate Crooks
The Counter’s corporate research team investigates companies by “following the money” to reveal corporate and capital structures.
The Centre for Research on Multinationals (SOMO), which investigates multinational corporations, has launched The Counter helpdesk to offer pro bono corporate research support to activists, public interest journalists, and strategic litigators.
The initiative aims to hold companies accountable for social harms and environmental destruction. According to SOMO, which is based in the Netherlands, multinational companies set up complex corporate structures to shift profits, lower costs, undermine labour standards, avert regulation, and dodge taxes. But it is often unclear who is responsible for people affected by these corporate wrongdoings.
Corporate research support from The Counter will help activists investigate the corporate fraud cases. The Counter will provide information about corporate and capital structures, ownership, operations, finances, and governance. This information can be used in investigations, court cases, or campaigns.
A useful new tool launched by @SOMO to help communities untangle corporate structures and ensure accountability for corporate harms to human rights: https://t.co/OGpg1m5Ncd.
— Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur HRDs (@MaryLawlorhrds) September 18, 2023
SOMO says it has investigated companies and provided corporate research to environmental and human rights activists. Now support from funders has enabled it to scale up its operations and set up The Counter.
The Counter’s corporate research team investigates companies by “following the money” to reveal corporate and capital structures, shell companies in tax havens, hidden profits, secret owners, supply chains, and influential investors.
It uses open-source and publicly available information, as well as material from subscription databases to help activists and journalists accomplish their projects.
