Levin, Grassley Introduce Bill to Combat U.S. Corporations with Hidden Owners

Press Release

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, this week introduced the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act to combat acts of terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, and other wrongdoing facilitated by U.S. corporations with hidden owners. The bill would end the practice of the 50 States forming corporations for unidentified persons, and instead require the States to obtain the identities of the persons behind the corporations.

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"Today, it takes more information to obtain a driver's license or open a U.S. bank account than it does to form a U.S. corporation," said Levin. "Our States don't require anyone to name the owners of the corporations being formed under their laws, practically inviting people to misuse our corporations. A single State can't solve the problem on its own, because if one State starts requiring names, people seeking to use corporations for nefarious purposes can switch to another State with weaker requirements. That's why federal legislation is needed to level the playing field among the 50 States and get them to obtain corporate ownership information so it is available to law enforcement investigating corporate wrongdoing. It is past time to stop hamstringing our law enforcement by forcing them to chase U.S. corporations with hidden owners."

"Prosecutors of financial crimes follow the money," Grassley said. "It's hard for them to do that when the owners of shell corporations are able to hide their identities so easily. Setting consequences for submitting false ownership information would help law enforcement by imposing a hardship on the Ponzi schemers, money launderers and tax cheats who use shell corporations to conceal their fraud."

States form almost two million corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) within the United States each year without asking for the identity of the owners. The Levin-Grassley bill would require the States to add a single question to their existing incorporation forms requesting the names of the natural persons -- the beneficial owners -- behind the corporations being formed. States would not be required to verify the information, but penalties would apply to persons who submitted false information. Law enforcement would be given access to the information upon presentation of a subpoena or summons. Corporations bidding on federal contracts would have to provide the same beneficial ownership information to the federal government to ensure the United States knows with whom it is doing business. Regulated corporations whose ownership is already known, including publicly traded corporations, banks, and securities firms, would be exempt from the disclosure requirement.

The bill is supported by a number of law enforcement groups including the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, Fraternal Order of Police, Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, and National Narcotic Officers' Associations Coalition. In addition, it is endorsed by small business and public interest groups, including the Main Street Alliance, Sustainable Business Network of Washington, Business for Shared Prosperity, Global Financial Integrity, Global Witness, Public Interest Research Group, Project on Government Oversight, Jubilee USA, Citizens for Tax Justice, Tax Justice Network USA, and the FACT Coalition.

This is the third time the bill has been introduced. When the bill was introduced the first time in the 110th Congress, and he was a member of the U.S. Senate, President Obama was an original cosponsor.

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