Press Coverage

FACT program director for environmental crime Julia Yansura was featured extensively in a new documentary by Business Insider covering the U.S.’ status as the largest importer of Colombian gold. Illicit gold has emerged in recent years as a top source of income for transnational drug cartels, armed groups, and other criminal actors in Colombia and throughout the Western Hemisphere.

“If we want to help shut down this problem, we need to do more from the U.S. side,” Yansura said, adding that “the financial sector is massively exposed to [illicit gold] risks, yet they’ve received very little guidance from U.S. regulators about how they should be managing them.”

FACT policy director Zorka Milin was quoted by the Washington Post in their coverage of a “questionable” $370 million tax break given to Cheniere, one of the world’s largest exporters of natural gas.

The IRS granted Cheniere a tax credit for so-called “bunker” fuel used to power its enormous shipping fleet from 2018 to 2024. The credit statutorily only applies to natural gas-fueled “motorboats,” generally defined as shorter than 65 feet. “I am not sure how they could reach this conclusion,” Milin said of the IRS decision.

FACT’s deputy director Erica Hanichak was quoted by Law360 in their coverage of the decline in white-collar crime enforcement, linking it to the ongoing mutual evaluation of the United States by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

From the article: The enforcement focus and resource shift also come as the U.S. faces the “biggest evaluation of the strength of its anti-money laundering standards” in a decade, noted Erica Hanichak, deputy director at FACT….“We’ll see what FATF decides. But I think for an appropriate assessment, FATF should express concern about the state of enforcement in the U.S.”

FACT deputy director Erica Hanichak was quoted by ICIJ’s Spencer Woodman in his coverage of recent cuts to the IRS’ anti-money laundering unit, and the dire implications for enforcement of AML laws against cryptocurrency exchanges and other money service businesses.

“The reduction in supervisory staff at the IRS matches a trend we’ve seen across [anti-money laundering] enforcement agencies,” said Hanichak. “This sends the signal that the U.S. is open to dirty money. It undermines our national security and market integrity.”

FACT program director for environmental crimes Julia Yansura was quoted by ACAMS in their coverage of the recent trend of illegal miners in Colombia and Brazil routing gold through Venezuela.

“We used to be concerned with Venezuelan gold getting smuggled across borders and exported as Colombian or Brazilian gold. Now, within the last six to 12 months, we are seeing a reversal, with dirty gold from neighboring countries being exported out of Venezuela.”

Read FACT executive director Ian Gary’s latest op-ed in the Hill on how the U.S. tax code subsidizes overseas fossil fuel production. Citing FACT’s latest report, America-Last and Planet-Last: How U.S. Tax Policy Subsidizes Oil and Gas Extraction Abroad, Gary highlighted the fact that U.S. oil and gas multinationals collectively pay billions more in taxes to foreign governments than to the U.S. Treasury, despite collectively producing more oil and gas domestically than abroad.