Financial Transparency Coalition

NEW YORK – The President announced his intention today to advocate for Congress to adopt laws requiring the disclosure of beneficial ownership for corporations at the time of company formation, an idea already proposed by Senators Carl Levin and Chuck Grassley in S. 1483, the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act, as well as a U.S. commitment to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), as part of the launch of the new government transparency initiative, the Open Government Partnership.

Today, NBC News reports that a Delaware company made a $1 million contribution to a PAC supporting Mitt Romney about six weeks after it was formed, and then dissolved two months later. This ripped-from-the-headlines story of a corporation that was created for the sole purpose of laundering massive political contributions highlights the need for a bill that was just introduced this week in the U.S. Senate. The company, called W Spann LLC, filed a certificate of formation on March 15 with no information about the owners or the business purpose of the entity. On April 28, the LLC made a...

Earlier this week, Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced a bill to “combat U.S. corporations with hidden owners” that would require disclosure of beneficial ownership information in the company formation process. This proposed legislation would facilitate the transparency of the financial system by making it more difficult for criminal organizations to hide behind front companies and shell corporations.

Reuters recently released the second feature in Shell Games, a series "exploring the extent and impact of corporate secrecy in the United States." The first special report in the series, "A little house of secrets on the Great Plains" dealt with shell companies established in Wyoming, generally recognized as a secrecy jurisdiction, and how some have been used to hide illict assets . The newest report, "China's shortcut to Wall Street" details how the reverse-merger process has allowed many Chinese companies to become publicly traded in the U.S., while bypassing many regulatory controls. The article details the process: