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 FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition today praised the passage of legislation in the United Kingdom to crack down on the use of anonymous shell companies with the creation of a public registry of corporate ownership. The new law brings increased pressure on the United States to follow suit.
The FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition submitted comments to the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday welcoming the government’s proposed rule to require U.S. banks to know the true owner of all accounts opened in their institutions as a step toward pushing dirty money out of the American financial system, while cautioning that several elements of the proposal need to be strengthened.
The FACT Coalition submitted the attached comment to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in October 2014 regarding FinCEN’s notice of proposed rule making for customer due diligence procedures for financial institutions.
With scams, frauds, and cons as prevalent as ever, a new report authored by Global Witness, with support from the FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition and others, thrusts anonymous American companies into the spotlight and demonstrates how crooks and the corrupt use them to rip people off.
In recognition of its efforts on corporate issues, the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition was awarded the Arca Foundation’s Smith Bagley Memorial Grant.
Anonymous shell companies threaten U.S. security on many fronts. Requiring the disclosure of beneficial ownership information addresses the problem.
