Though it may seem fanciful, there is a powerful tool that is tailor made for simultaneously combating North Korean nukes, Russian aggression, Chinese influence, and Iranian maleficence. This tool is beneficial ownership. In practice, existing beneficial ownership rules in the United States require compliance departments to collect, verify, and store data on clients, all at a cost to the consumer.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled sanctions against five Iranian individuals Tuesday for providing “ballistic missile-related technical expertise to Yemen’s Huthis,” the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition warned that the United States has failed to equip itself with the tools to enforce those sanctions.
Quotes from prominent national security experts explaining the problems with anonymous shell companies.
Anonymous shell companies are the vehicle of choice for a wide variety of bad actors. Drug cartels and human trafficking operations have long understood the benefits of corporate secrecy to launder money. Terror groups have learned these lessons, and today illicit financing and evading sanctions are as much a part of their strategy as any bombing or attack. Corrupt leaders in nations around the world steal public funds to prop up their regimes, undermine democratic institutions and ideals, and create internal and regional instability.
With every passing week we have new evidence of the threat that Vladimir Putin’s kleptocracy poses to our democracy, our national security, and the entire liberal world order. Putin’s regime—something akin to an organized crime ring masquerading as a state—has looted the wealth of Russia, subjugated its people, attacked neighboring former republics of the USSR, annexed Crimea, and hacked the electoral process in the United States and other Western democracies.
Last week, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster conceded that, “We have failed to impose sufficient costs… [on Russia for the Kremlin’s use of]…new and old forms of aggression to undermine our open societies.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of Russia’s Internet Research Agency and related individuals, made clear the extent of the operation attacking our country’s elections and institutions. And yet, more than a year after the 2016 presidential election, and with mid-term elections looming on the horizon, little has been done to increase America’s defenses against the threat of foreign interference in our democracy or impose costs on those who do.
