The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development is discussing beneficial ownership. As Elise Bean from the Senate Committee on Investigations says the problem is:

•U.S. states form nearly 2 million new corporations and LLCs each year, without knowing who owns them.

•The failure to collect ownership information invites wrongdoers to misuse U.S. companies for terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, or other crimes.

The Tax Justice Network got into mighty trouble last year for naming the US as the world’s premier secrecy jurisdiction. But the truth is that TJN was right.

And the US knows it.

There is a choice here and as ever it’s a simple one. Who matters more in this world? Crooks or honest people? The right to abuse or the right uphold the rule of law?

You’d think the answer was obvious, as indeed it is. But far too many support the crooks.

Including all the world’s secrecy jurisdictions.

Which is why the Task Force highlights this issue as key to tackling illicit financial flows.

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