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Treasury Official Calls For Tougher Beneficial Ownership Rules
By Colby Adams
printThe exploitation of shell companies by arms traffickers, terrorist financiers and other criminals represents a serious danger to U.S. national security, a high ranking U.S. Treasury Department official said Thursday. The comments, by Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing David Cohen, came before the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in support of a measure that would require states to collect and maintain records on the beneficial owners of corporations. Under the bill, investigators could obtain the data with subpoenas. "Information on the true beneficial ownership of a legal entity, at the time a business is formed, as ownership changes…and...
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Draft U.S. Treasury Department rules on customer due diligence requirements for financial institutions would not prevent criminals from exploiting shell companies, according to Elise Bean, former staff director and chief counsel of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
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A U.S. Treasury Department proposal that asks banks to identify corporate owners could also end up shining a light on the often murky hedge fund sector, say attorneys.
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A U.S. trial against alleged Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout could shed new light on how proceeds derived from his smuggling network moved through U.S. banks, say analysts.
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