Stop Trump Admin From Shielding Anonymous Shell Companies

Trump’s Treasury Department just made it easier for criminals, corrupt officials, and money launderers to hide behind anonymous shell companies.

Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act so federal financial-crime investigators could learn who actually owns or controls many companies. The goal was simple: make it harder to use layers of anonymous businesses to launder dirty money, conceal fraud, evade sanctions, or hide corrupt dealings.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) just gutted that safeguard. FinCEN has exempted every U.S.-created company — and its beneficial owners — from the law’s ownership-reporting requirements. And records of corporate crime are now on the verge of being deleted.

They're opening a massive loophole in a system designed to help investigators follow the money. And we need to fight back before corporate criminals escape accountability.

Tell Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and FinCEN: Stop protecting anonymous shell companies. Reverse this rollback, preserve the ownership records already collected, and restore meaningful transparency.

Criminals and corrupt actors should not get a government-backed hiding place.

Shell companies can give fraudsters, money launderers, traffickers, corrupt officials, and other bad actors another layer to hide behind. When investigators cannot easily determine who controls the company moving the money, following the trail becomes harder and accountability becomes easier to evade.

Treasury says these reporting requirements are too burdensome for American businesses. But easing compliance is one thing. Exempting virtually every company created in the United States is another. Even FinCEN has described beneficial-ownership transparency as a tool for preventing criminals from disguising illicit activity and laundering their proceeds.

Congress must close this loophole and make clear that an administration cannot gut a financial-transparency law through sweeping exemptions.

But we can't wait for Congress to act. We need to put pressure on the Treasury Department to reverse course before corporate criminals unleash more havoc on our economy.

Add your name now and demand that the Treasury Department restores beneficial-ownership reporting and preserve the information already collected while Congress acts.

The petition to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reads:

“Require U.S.-created companies to disclose who truly owns and controls them. Preserve the beneficial-ownership records FinCEN has already collected, and restore strong transparency rules so criminals, money launderers, and corrupt actors cannot hide behind anonymous shell companies.”