The U.S. is the easiest place in the world for a criminal, terrorist, tax cheat, or kleptocrat to open an anonymous shell company to launder their money with impunity. Anonymous corporations are great ways to hide money and other assets — they can hold a bank account or buy a yacht. Criminals often layer anonymous corporations, with one owning another and so on, making it even harder for law enforcement to “trace the money” and figure out who is directing the company’s activity. It’s time to ending the use of anonymous shell companies as vehicles for illicit activity by requiring that the true owners of U.S. companies be disclosed at the time of formation and updated upon any change.
The proposed form allows reporting entities to report “unable to obtain” or “unknown” with respect to most relevant details regarding a given beneficial owner’s identity – including whether the company is even able to identify its beneficial owners in the first place.
A recent draft rule by Treasury’s FinCEN to implement the Corporate Transparency Act contains severe deficiencies that, if left in place, could “undermine U.S. national security and global leadership in the fight against corruption.”
The FACT Coalition submitted comments yesterday recommending that the Treasury Department address critical weaknesses in its proposed rule detailing access protocols for the new beneficial ownership information directory to be established under the Corporate Transparency Act.
Less than a week after the conclusion of the IACC, the Biden Administration took another big step toward meeting its anti-money laundering and anti-corruption commitments with the release of the second draft rule to implement the Corporate Transparency Act early today.
The FACT Coalition welcomes today’s release by the Department of the Treasury of the second draft rule – this time, defining directory access protocols – necessary to implement the landmark Corporate Transparency Act.
In advance of the Second U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, leaders in the U.S. and Africa must seize the moment to advance a new partnership to curb Illicit Financial Flows, corruption, and tax dodging.
