We Need the Corporate Transparency Act to Stop Our Adversaries
By Craig Shirley
July 19, 2024
Criminals, terrorists, and rogue states alike agree that the United States is among the best countries in the world to hide their ill-gotten assets. These adversaries form anonymous U.S. shell companies and turn to U.S. professionals – often lawyers, accountants, wealth managers, and others – to help move and hide their money in the U.S. with ease. Each year, the United States attracts as much as $465 billion in dirty funds.
Why is this? Criminals and their enablers know their way around U.S. law and easily exploit the loopholes. For instance, until 2021, setting up an anonymous shell company in the U.S. required less identification than getting a library card. And the professional “enablers” who incorporate these companies and provide other important financial services, are, unlike every bank in America, not legally required to know who their clients are or perform any background checks on them.
Fanatic states like Iran have taken advantage of these simple facts. Iran used anonymous shell companies in the U.S. to hide its $500 million stake in a Manhattan skyscraper for two decades, in violation of U.S. sanctions. In 2020, Iran also funneled approximately $1 billion in frozen funds through anonymous companies registered in the U.S. and beyond. And now, there is a strong belief among top U.S. intelligence officials that the terrorist state of Iran is funding antisemitic, left-wing protestors on American college campuses. Secretive shell companies are a tool that Iran’s radicals have taken advantage of precisely because there are few safeguards in place to prevent them from using these entities to fuel dangerous rhetoric against American Jews and foment discord on college campuses.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/07/19/we_need_the_corporate_transparency_act_to_stop_our_adversaries_1045782.html
