The United States of Money Laundering
By refusing to enforce the Corporate Transparency Act, the Trump administration has gutted key protections against money laundering and financial crime. The message to kleptocrats worldwide is clear: the US is open for anonymous shell company business.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi during a cabinet meeting at the White House on March 24, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Jabin Botsford / the Washington Post via Getty Images)
For years, the US financial system has served as a major destination for dirty money, due to glaring gaps and loopholes in the federal regulatory apparatus. The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), introduced in 2020, was designed to close the gaps by establishing national standards to combat illicit finance and money laundering — bringing the United States up to speed with the rest of the world.
Before it could go into effect, however, the Trump administration announced last month that it would halt any enforcement of its beneficial ownership reporting requirements against US citizens or domestic companies, rendering it effectively moot.
This is not the first hurdle that the CTA has faced. Originally passed as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act — legislation that then president Trump vetoed before Congress overrode him — the CTA came into effect on January 1, 2024, with its first reporting deadline set for January 1, 2025. That deadline was later extended to March 21, 2025, due to ongoing arguments concerning its constitutionality.
In the meantime, the Trump administration has simply decided to not enforce the law. The interim final rule published on March 21 effectively exempts over 99 percent of companies from obligations to report beneficial ownership — the individuals who ultimately control a company — undermining the law’s entire purpose. Instead of deterring financial crime, the revised policy practically rolls out the red carpet for criminals to set up anonymous shell companies in the United States and run wild.
Watchdog to Welcome Mat
Naturally, this decision provoked outrage from civil society organizations dedicated to fighting corruption and financial crime. For example, the FACT Coalition stated that the proposal “benefits money launderers” and that the gutting of the CTA is “unlikely to withstand judicial scrutiny.”
Contrary to Treasury officials’ assertions that the requirements place undue burden on small businesses, the majority of small businesses find the reporting process easy. Indeed, the only people who benefit from decreased transparency are those with something to hide.
The total disintegration of the anti–money laundering and anti-corruption framework in the United States is set to come under international scrutiny. Next year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — the global watchdog on illicit finance — will review the country’s compliance. According to Transparency International, the Trump administration’s policies will likely lead to a noncompliant designation and potential inclusion of the United States on FATF’s “grey list,” which will cement its reputation as an international disgrace.
The torpedoing of the CTA is just one of many recent policy decisions that serve corrupt actors at the expense of the public interest. At the beginning of February, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the closure of the Department of Justice’s Kleptocracy Initiative and its associated task force. Days later, the White House paused the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, narrowing its scope to bribery tied to cartels and transnational crime. These actions, or pledges to inaction, will not just allow for odious public officials around the world to plunder state resources at the expense of the citizens they purportedly serve, but will encourage them to launder their corrupt proceeds in the United States.
In essence, the US government has abandoned any commitment to justice and emerged on the side of corruption. Even more insidiously, the Kleptocracy Initiative’s forfeiture fund — a multibillion-dollar repository of recovered assets meant to be returned to victim countries — will reportedly be shifted to “other” law enforcement purposes, which could include bankrolling detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and Texas.
Impunity by Design
Donald Trump’s ties to corruption and global kleptocracy are well documented. As a recent Washington Post investigation noted, the work of the Kleptocracy Initiative was instrumental in uncovering the misdeeds of Paul Manafort — whom Trump later pardoned for committing tax fraud on Trump’s behalf — as well as other close associates. The Trump campaign has repeatedly laundered money through shell companies in violation of campaign finance law, and over the years, his real estate ventures largely depended on shady sales to buyers using shell companies — often beneficiaries of Russian oligarchy and organized crime. These are precisely the same actors who stand to benefit from the government’s sabotage of its own enforcement capacity.
The news isn’t all terrible. Even as the federal government woefully abandons its mandate, the New York LLC Transparency Act — which was modeled after the CTA — is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026. This act would close loopholes that have long allowed the uber-wealthy to launder ill-begotten funds in luxury Manhattan real estate through anonymous LLCs, driving up prices and destabilizing the housing market.
But the broader consequences of the federal government’s retreat are difficult to overstate. The US’s abandonment of corporate transparency and its growing complicity in money laundering and bribery will have dire effects on global anti-corruption efforts for years to come. One can only hope that public outrage over the encroachment of oligarchy and dirty money into American political life will extend to these intertwined policy choices — and that some legislators and prosecutors will have the resolve to stand against corporate greed and malpractice.