A group of lawmakers recently encouraged the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to implement a beneficial ownership reporting system as a means of addressing money laundering and international corruption.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) recently forwarded comments to FinCEN personnel regarding the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) required action.
“[T]he CTA is the product of a sensitive and painstaking legislative process, and its passage represents perhaps the most important anti-money laundering reform of the past decade,” the legislators wrote. “Despite the legislative success, this achievement can only be realized if the system works in practice. As such, we encourage FinCEN to implement a straightforward, efficient, and effective system and to do so promptly.”
The lawmakers maintain FinCEN must properly implement the system to reflect Congress’s intent while avoiding the creation of loopholes and hurdles potentially delaying law enforcement’s access to beneficial ownership information.
The legislators noted FinCEN’s failure to act would further enable global violators to abuse America’s legal and financial institutions.
Whitehouse has described the matter as a clash of civilizations between rule-of-law nations and those governed by autocracy, kleptocracy, and criminality. The circumstance is one in which rule-of-law nations aid and abet adversaries by providing sanctuary for stolen wealth.