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Search Results for financial crime

Just the FACTs: July 18, 2018

After 2 years of bipartisan negotiations, without warning or fanfare, the leadership of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee stripped beneficial ownership provisions out of a bipartisan anti-money laundering bill and planned a Committee vote.

A decision was made to drop beneficial ownership because it was thought to be controversial and a stripped down bill would “pass easily.” However, as FACT’s executive director describes in this op-ed in the American Banker, that was simply not the case.

ICIJ: Michael Cohen scandal a reminder that the U.S. is a tax secrecy paradise

Fresh disclosures that President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen used a shell company to receive huge payments from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch as well as two multinational corporations have highlighted the United States’ position as a leading global enabler of corporate secrecy.

Priced Out: How Anonymous Companies Contribute to the Rising Cost of Housing

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Home ownership is a quintessential part of the American dream. Now, nearly a decade after the housing market crash this dream for many Americans is still just that: a dream. Housing costs are rising far faster than wages—burdening renters.   Residential properties are becoming prohibitively expensive—forcing out residents who may have called them home for decades.

To add insult to injury, the loss of affordable housing has been spurred by the use of anonymous shell companies. Bad actors or rich speculators use these companies to bid up prices on properties and then use them as a “bank” rather than a home—all without identifying who they are or where the money came from to purchase the property.