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 (FACT) Coalition, founded in 2011, spent nearly a decade producing investigative reports, lobbying legislators and building a coalition with interest groups such as Friends of the Earth and Polaris.
On October 6, following the release of the first final rule to implement the landmark Corporate Transparency Act, the FACT Coalition hosted a private civil society roundtable conversation with senior Treasury Department officials to discuss progress in improving and strengthening U.S. anti-money laundering and anti-corruption safeguards.
With a robust first rulemaking on the landmark Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), the Biden Administration has taken an important step toward delivering on its commitment to making the fight against corruption a foremost national security priority.
Let’s talk statistics. On an average year, anywhere between 300 billion to 2 trillion U.S. dollars are laundered globally. To put it into perspective, this sum rivals the economic output of Brazil, the world’s eighth largest economy. As numbers grow, the United States’ position on money laundering and financial transparency policies continues to falter, further …
Today, Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the U.S. government through December 16, which now awaits President Biden’s signature. While the measure will ensure that agencies can continue operations at existing budgetary levels, the resolution puts off approving the increased funding for key offices in the U.S. Treasury Department contemplated in both chambers’ appropriations bills for fiscal year 2023.
Ian Gary, the executive director of the FACT Coalition, called the release of the new rule “a historic moment in the decades long fight to rid the U.S. of dirty money.”
