Reported by John Pacenti

A federal law aimed at making anonymous business dealings in the United States essentially a thing of the past will go into effect on New Year’s Day, three years after becoming law.

The Corporate Transparency Act was a pet project of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who raised alarm at over $1 billion connected to top Venezuelan officials flooding the real estate market in Miami.

Some of those cases resulted in federal indictments and convictions, but the use of anonymous shell companies has long been a headache for law enforcement trying to track down the origin of questionable money and business dealings.

“Shell companies involved in shady activities are a big problem, especially throughout South Florida,” Rubio, a Florida Republican, told the Miami Herald in 2018, as he began pushing for the law.

In late December, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a branch of the Department of the Treasury, announced that key regulations connected to the law were finalized.

Starting on New Year’s Day, shell companies and LLCs that do business in the US will have to fully disclose who is behind them and who actually owns the assets.

Companies that have existed before Jan. 1, 2024 will have until Jan. 1, 2025 to report the information. Companies started after that date will have 90 days to file the disclosures with the federal government.

Those details will be searchable by banks and the federal government to prevent money laundering, tax evasion and to keep corrupt foreign politicians from avoiding US sanctions through anonymous real estate transactions.

Read full report: https://kbindependent.org/2023/12/31/law-banning-anonymous-shell-companies-goes-into-effect/