"RE: True Incorporation Transparency for Law Enforcement (TITLE) Act (S. 1454)", 28 June 2017

Criminals often layer anonymous corporations, with one owning another and so on, to make it even harder for law enforcement to “follow the money” to figure out who is directing the company’s activity — i.e. the identity of the real criminal. These tactics enable criminals to disguise their identities behind the anonymity provided to U.S. companies and to launder dirty money through the U.S. financial system. The lack of transparency also allows corrupt foreign official to divert resources from public treasuries and destabilize the economies of developing nations Anonymous companies have been set up in states across the U.S. to commit crimes and hurt Americans throughout the country. Some examples include:

• A gang used anonymous companies from Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio to trick victims from overseas in a $6 million human trafficking scheme
• A crime syndicate opened fake health clinics across the country in the names of anonymous companies from states including Alabama, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas to steal at least $35 million from Medicare

As momentum builds globally to solve the problem of anonymous companies, the U.S. needs a policy solution that will address our role in it. Congress should pass legislation that requires all companies to disclose their ultimate owners to the government when they incorporate and to keep that information up to date. The government entity collecting the information should then make it available to law enforcement.