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 Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition) sent a letter to Sens. Wyden and Rubio thanking them for their support regarding Corporate Transparency Act (S.1717), which aims to combat terrorism and financial crimes by ending the incorporation of anonymous companies in the United States.
Creating a U.S. shell company takes less information than acquiring a library card. A 2014 academic study found that the U.S. is the easiest country in the world for terrorists and criminals to open anonymous shell companies to launder their money with impunity.
How Prime Minister Sharif’s Family Used Anonymous Companies
Over a year on and the effect of the Panama Papers continues to reverberate.
Last week, the leaks claimed another political scalp: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has removed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office. The leaks showed how Sharif and his children were linked to prestigious Park Lane apartments in London through a complex web of anonymously owned British Virgin Island (BVI) companies.
FACT Coalition Supports ‘Aircraft Ownership Transparency Act of 2017’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill Friday to secure the U.S. aviation system from criminal actors and terrorists hiding behind anonymous shell companies, in a move welcomed by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition.
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition) sent a letter to Reps. Lynch, Maloney, and King thanking them for their support regarding Aircraft Ownership Transparency Act of 2017 (H.R.3544) which aims to secure the U.S. aviation system from criminal actors and terrorists hiding behind anonymous shell companies. The full letter can be read below or downloaded here.
A little over a year ago, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released the Panama Papers, a treasure trove of information and a window into the world of financial secrecy. In some ways, much of what the Panama Papers revealed was already well known. Previous estimates put the amount of money hidden in offshore secrecy havens somewhere between $8 trillion and $32 trillion. In 2015, The New York Times published an impressive five-part series on the use of anonymous shell companies to purchase prime real estate in New York City. Prior to that, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit (which they just won on June 29th) to force the forfeiture of New York property secretly owned by the government of Iran in direct violation of economic sanctions. And so on. Yet it is hard to deny the captivating intrigue of the specific stories in the Panama Papers involving Russian kleptocrats, world leaders, athletes, movie stars, and others.
