Clark Gascoigneâs entire career has been about ending anonymous shell companies.
Starting at Global Financial Integrity in 2009 and then at the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition, Gascoigne has been on a mission to inject transparency into the ocean of anonymously owned corporate entities that can hide all manner of financial malfeasance.
He and other advocates moved closer to success on Dec. 8, when the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act, with provisions that would establish a beneficial corporate ownership reporting regime and change other anti-money laundering laws. The Senate followed suit last Friday, marking significant legislative steps to make life harder for tax evaders, traffickers and counterfeiters.
The next phase of the decade-long fight over oil money disclosure
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
This week brought a new and maybe decisive turn in a high-stakes fight over how much oil and mining companies should reveal about payments to foreign governments.
Driving the news: The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 Wednesday to finalize disclosure rules required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law. But the panel s Democrats and human rights groups called it too weak.
Why it matters: The Dodd-Frank provision aims to create transparency to battle the resource curse.
That s the poverty, conflict, and government corruption in some resource-rich nations in Africa and elsewhere.
Clark Gascoigne’s entire career has been about ending anonymous shell companies. Starting at Global Financial Integrity in 2009 and then at the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition, Gascoigne has been on a mission to inject transparency into the ocean of anonymously owned corporate entities that can hide all manner of financial malfeasance. He and other advocates moved closer to success on Dec. 8, when the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act, with provisions that would establish a beneficial corporate ownership reporting regime and change other anti-money laundering laws. The Senate followed suit last Friday, marking significant legislative steps to make life harder for tax evaders, traffickers and counterfeiters.
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Many companies aren’t currently under any federal obligation to identify the true beneficiary of their operations. And many states’ rules enable owners to obscure their identities through shell companies or through agents who register companies on their behalf.
Proponents of more transparency have long said stronger beneficial-ownership disclosure rules will prevent terror groups, drug cartels and arms dealers from using shell companies to move money to support their operations. But some business advocacy groups have opposed the rules, saying they are too burdensome for small, legitimate companies.
What happens next?
The bill now awaits President Trump’s signature. Mr. Trump has said he would veto the bill over language that was unrelated to the anti-money-laundering rules.
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Presented by the Household & Commercial Products Association
With Daniel Lippman
SENATE SENDS NDAA WITH BAN ON SHELL COMPANIES TO TRUMP’S DESK: The Senate just sent this year’s massive defense policy legislation to President
Donald Trump’s desk, passing the NDAA with a veto-proof 84-13 majority amid Trump’s threats to tank the annual bipartisan bill. Included in this year’s measure is a provision that would “require millions of business entities to reveal their owners to the federal government in an attempt to deter the use of anonymous shell companies by criminals evading anti-money laundering rules,” a har