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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.

On First Anniversary of Panama Papers Release, What Have We Learned?

This week marks the anniversary of the Panama Papers, a leak of more than 11 million documents exposing widespread corruption and illicit financing involving 140 public officials in more than 50 countries around the globe.  The leak, large as it was, included documents from just one law firm and had reverberations worldwide.  The impact was profound, but was it enough?  And what did we learn?

For those not steeped in money laundering practices and illicit financial flows, the Panama Papers showed the world how it all works.  If you want to finance terror; steal from taxpayers; traffic in humans, weapons, or drugs; or evade taxes, anonymous shell companies are the vehicle of choice.  The Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca showed that these entities were easy to set up, inexpensive to maintain, and able to provide legal secrecy even if covering up underlying illegal activity.

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Comments to GSA Urging Non-Proprietary, Open Identifier System in Procurement

The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition) submitted the below comments to the General Services Administration (GSA), in response to RFI #ID15170001, urging the agency to adopt a non-proprietary, open identifier system for use in federal procurement that includes the collection of information on the real people who own and control bidders of federal contracts and grants (also known as ‘beneficial owners’).

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The US Government Has No Way of Telling Who is Behind the Companies it Does Business With, or What Risk They Pose to Our Security

The U.S. government goes to great lengths to protect our national security.  And yet, our failure to manage company ownership in this country leaves us exposed to all sorts of risk. Put simply, it is way too easy for the criminal or corrupt to hide their ownership of U.S. property behind a fake company, or a series of companies in order to stash or move their dirty money without detection.

Let me give you an example. In 2013, a Global Witness undercover investigation exposed how the former Chief Minister of Sarawak in Malaysia, Abdul Taib Mahmud, and his family used their political status to buy land and forest concessions for way less than their commercial value. Swathes of the Sarawak rainforest were destroyed as a result of these schemes, as well as various abuses committed against the rightful land owners. The Chief Minister’s brother used his secretly owned Singaporean company to hide profits from those corrupt forest and land deals and so that he could avoid paying around $10 million in taxes.

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FinCEN’s Continued Effort to Purge Dirty Money from Real Estate Welcomed by Experts

Statement by the FACT Coalition on Treasury’s Decision to Renew Geographic Targeting Orders to Identify Buyers in Luxury Real Estate
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department, announced that it was renewing its temporary orders seeking to uncover illicit activity in the luxury real estate sector.

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Video: Financial Services Markup of Oversight Plan

Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduces an amendment to add the issue of anonymous companies to the docket of the Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee.  Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and Representative Stevan Pearce (R-NM), Chair of the Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee, endorse the amendment and call for action on anonymous companies.  The committee approves the amendment.

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