The Trump administration’s surprise decision to stop enforcing a corporate transparency law threatens to undermine the fight against fentanyl by strengthening the veil behind which Mexican drug cartels and Chinese financiers engage in the drug trade.
The Treasury Department announced on Sunday that it will severely scale back its interpretation of a 2021 law establishing the nation’s first ever shell company registry, which forced all kinds of companies to start identifying their beneficial owners by providing government IDs. The change means that government investigators will only require the additional paperwork from companies based abroad, despite the fact that foreigners routinely create U.S. shell companies.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent labeled it as “part of President Trump’s bold agenda to unleash American prosperity by reining in burdensome regulations.”