According to the Treasury Department terrorist groups and drug cartels use U.S. companies created to hide and launder their money.
Every terrorist threat we track, either from foreign terrorists, drug cartels, sanctioned regimes or hackers, our investigations always run into U.S. shell companies used to hide or transfer the money,”
said Adam Szubin, head of Counterterrorism from the Treasury.
Last month, the Treasury Department proposed a bill for the owner of a company to be identified in any state in which the firm has been established. Currently, several states allow the creation of companies under absolute anonymity.
That gives U.S. companies the dubious privilege of being the only method of laundering money given by a government entity,”
wrote Szubin.
The official recalled that the Congress has supported the objective of stopping money laundering. However, “interested parties” have systematically prevented the approval of a law similar to the one the Treasury wants now.
The United States and other countries decided to take actions after the disclosure of the documents known as “Panama Papers”, which revealed the systematic use of shell companies to evade taxes worldwide.