As of January 1, small businesses must report who owns and controls the company to financial regulators or face stiff penalties. The disclosure is required under a new anti–money laundering law designed to curb tax fraud and terrorism financing.

But while mom-and-pop cafe and hardware store owners are now busy filling out the disclosure paperwork, many investment vehicles flagged by law enforcement agencies are exempted from those same disclosure rules after Wall Street firms spent millions lobbying on the matter.

Early versions of what became the Corporate Transparency Act did not include the special carve-out. But the final legislation had a line exempting pooled investment vehicles. That means venture capital funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds are not required to report their ownership information, even though the FBI has said such opaque entities are among those used in criminal money laundering.