Financial Transparency Coalition

Late last year, we wrote about how an anonymous company incorporated in Delaware purchased Nevada’s largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The move left the paper’s staff, its readers, and even presidential candidates, puzzled. We finally found out who was behind that takeover, but today we have yet another example of how corporations can be used to hide one’s identity. Instead

At first glance, there’s nothing too remarkable about Delaware – a small, seemingly sleepy state on the US north-eastern coast. If people have heard of it at all, it’s probably in relation to being the home of chemical company DuPont or US Vice-president Joe Biden.

Last November, a former special agent for the Treasury Department, John Cassara, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times with the headline “Delaware, Den of Thieves?” Cassara described how the state of Delaware (along with Wyoming and Nevada) has become “nearly synonymous with underground financing, tax evasion and other bad deeds facilitated by anonymous shell companies”. He told of his frustration as a law enforcement officer trying to get information out of Delaware about the real owners and controllers of companies registered in the state. This week, a debate has started in Delaware about...

Civil Society Experts Call on Delaware to Create Public Registry of Beneficial Ownership Information

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) and Global Witness expressed disappointment that the Delaware House of Representatives passed two bills this evening that do little to stop criminals from using Delaware companies to launder their illicit proceeds. The two pieces of legislation are House Bill 327 and House Bill 328, which would establish a chain of people that need to be consulted, in turn, in order to identify a person at a limited liability...