Sen. Elizabeth Warren says a new Treasury rule ending corporate ownership disclosure requirements is “a gift to cartels, criminals, and U.S. adversaries,” and she wants Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to explain the decision to Congress.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s final rule, issued on Tuesday, permanently ends the requirement for US companies and their owners to disclose who controls them under the Corporate Transparency Act. FinCEN also said it will delete the ownership information US companies had already filed. Foreign entities registered to do business in the US still have to report.
The Corporate Transparency Act passed in December 2020 as part of that year’s defense policy bill, clearing the Senate 84-13 and the House 322-87 when Congress overrode a Trump veto cast over unrelated provisions in the broader legislation. Its stated purpose was to help law enforcement and national security agencies counter money laundering and terrorism financing by ending the use of anonymously owned shell companies.
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Former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who was in the House when the law passed, said Trump’s Treasury Department “is doing this to help criminals.”
Erica Hanichak, deputy director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, warned last year, as FinCEN previewed the change, that it was “violating the intent of Congress and tying the hands of law enforcement.”
Bessent said in a statement that the new rule “is a victory for common sense and American small businesses.”
The rollback follows years of pressure from industry groups. Rep. Warren Davidson and 86 other House members had urged FinCEN toward a narrower rule months before Tuesday’s final version, and the National Federation of Independent Business had specifically pushed for the data deletion FinCEN carried out.
