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Ownership Transparency

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.

Comments to SEC in Support of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) Requirements

The FACT Coalition filed a comment on January 2, 2018 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) supporting the agency’s proposal to mandate the disclosure of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) numbers by public companies and their subsidiaries.  The Coalition also urged requiring all public companies to obtain LEIs, ensuring that the LEIs are disclosed in a machine-readable format, and mandating that companies disclose all of their subsidiaries in their disclosures, rather than simply their “significant” subsidiaries.

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Corporate Anonymity is a Conduit for Crime

Few people would imagine Delaware or Wyoming as potentially key players in the world of international crime and terror. But as a result of some of the most permissive corporate legal codes in the world, that appears to be a strong possibility.

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Illicit massage parlors prolific and lucrative, study finds

Houston hosts hundreds of massage parlors described in sleazy online sex forums like RubMaps.com that generate about $107 million in illicit revenues each year, according to a new study by Vanessa Bouche, a Texas Christian University political science professor and human trafficking expert.

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