https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/congress-can-block-money-laundering
Every year, financial institutions spend billions of dollars to prevent and detect money laundering. Such efforts can debilitate those engaged in organized crime, terror financing, human trafficking, kleptocracy, and other offenses, and thwart those seeking to avoid sanctions.
Yet those efforts are often frustrated in the United States, as our laws currently allow criminals to hide behind a corporate veil by keeping their ownership secret from law enforcement, national security, and banks tasked with doing due diligence on their clients.
Anyone in the world looking to disguise the source or ownership of their funds can establish a U.S. shell company and keep the ownership of that company anonymous. In some cases, those wishing to incorporate a company can provide less information than is required to obtain a driver’s license. Real estate, diamonds, artwork — all the favored assets of the worst people in the world — can be safely housed under the U.S. corporate umbrella.
And that anonymity serves as a wall for law enforcement and national security officials tasked with safeguarding our system. Sophisticated criminals operate through multiple shell companies, whose linkages are not clear. Piercing the veil of each is extremely difficult and time-consuming, and as a result, dots often cannot be connected.
Legislation pending in both Houses of Congress — H.R. 2513, the Corporate Transparency Act and S. 2563, the ILLICIT CASH Act — would effectively end all shell companies with anonymous ownership. Congress, which finds it difficult to agree on many issues, has found bipartisanship on this legislation. That bipartisanship is reflected in the wide and diverse range of groups to endorse this legislation, including our own groups.
Our organizations — the FACT Coalition, Bank Policy Institute, and the National District Attorneys Association — have been joined by the law enforcement community, national security experts, and conservative think tanks in seeking a common-sense way to allow law enforcement and national security experts to protect this country. As the Fraternal Order of Police said in a Congressional letter, “This is a well-documented problem for our institutions and for law enforcement as we work together to shut down these criminal enterprises.”
Some have argued that this information should not be provided to the broader public. Our organizations may disagree on that point, but we all agree that it is difficult to imagine any valid reason why corporate owners would want to keep their ownership secret from law enforcement, or in cases where that company seeks to establish a U.S. banking account, from a bank that is required by law to determine who owns it.
The House of Representatives, which will consider this legislation on the floor this week, can take the first step with a strong bipartisan vote, sending a signal that the United States will no longer be a safe haven for criminal proceeds. In a world of intensifying global threats and with the need to protect our homeland, Congress cannot afford to delay action. Just as our law enforcement community and national security officials serve on the front lines every day to stop threats to our country, Congress can provide a front-line defense by ending the flow of illicit funds through the use of anonymous shell companies.