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 Sentry’s report points to major ways the international community must act to deny kleptocrats the “brain trust” on which they rely to perpetrate their crimes. It’s up to the U.S. to be a leader, not a laggard, in implementing a robust anti-money laundering regime.
Join FACT and the Hudson Institute for an in-person, Senate briefing on September 28th to learn about the scale of the problem posed by professional “enablers” and the future of this crucial reform agenda.
As world leaders gather this week in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), an epidemic of offshore wealth looms large over efforts to safeguard a turbulent post-pandemic world. Faced with myriad unpredictable crises, ranging from historic floods and droughts to widespread food scarcity and brewing recessionary fears, governments around the world are facing a need to raise revenues to stave off disasters and have a chance to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Today, Elizabeth Rosenberg, Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Andrew Adams, Director of the Task Force KleptoCapture at the Department of Justice, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on steps the Administration is taking in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On August 16, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. The IRA, among other things, creates a corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT) that applies a 15 percent minimum tax on the largest corporations worldwide, aggregate “book” income, adjusted for certain identified tax preferences.
On August 8, the FACT Coalition applauded the inclusion of crucial investments in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and specific measures to combat tax dodging by multinational corporations in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which the Senate enacted over the weekend.
