For years, Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have sponsored a bi-partisan bill to eliminate anonymous shell corporations only to see their measure go nowhere. This year, their annual Sisyphean effort is getting support from the unlikeliest of places: Delaware.

Pretty odd because Delaware has long been criticized for its welcome embrace of corporate secrecy and, in fact, is one of the targets of the Levin-Grassley bill. The tiny state is perennially at the top of the list of global tax havens and has gained a reputation as place where those with something to hide – embezzlers, arms merchants, money launders, drug dealers and the like – can set up shop, no questions asked. This is thanks to Delaware laws that allow the true owners of a corporate entity to remain a secret.    The End of Shell Corporations in Delaware