WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the news stories about Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker receiving payments from an anonymous company called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, which has called for greater transparency and an end to anonymous companies, put out the following statement.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 60 institutional investors and academics called on regulators Tuesday to require more transparency in corporate filings — including information on offshore tax practices. The petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is part of a broader effort to align disclosure frameworks with an investment environment focused on long-termism.
Let’s strike back at the attackers by heeding the informed advice of those attacked. Let’s end the use of anonymous companies.
Over the past two weeks, Americans have been treated to one of the most astonishing tales of grand corruption in our republic’s history. The trial of Paul Manafort – former Trump campaign chairman and lobbyist for some of the sleaziest regimes of the past quarter-century – has given us a remarkable look at the tools, the tactics and the trade craft of kleptocratic overseas regimes, and how their Western enablers have abetted America’s transformation into a thriving offshore haven.
The trial, of course, is about much more than Manafort. As the Atlantic’s Franklin Foer has written, the proceedings against the ex-lobbyist, who made tens of millions from his consulting work for then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, have offered “an occasion for the United States to awaken from its collective slumber about the creeping dangers of kleptocracy.”
Are we getting the message?
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bipartisan group of more than twenty state attorneys general urged Congress on Thursday to help them counter money laundering, corruption, and terror financing by passing legislation to end the incorporation of anonymous shell companies in the United States.
It is time for Congress to start fighting for something larger than its component pieces. New beneficial ownership legislation, and new anti-corruption laws in general, should be framed as a pillar of a grand struggle to restore American global leadership, expand and spread American prosperity, and create space for new international opportunities with countries that want to play by the rules.
