Authorities in the United States have more information about library card holders than the owners of registered companies, according to a bipartisan group of U.S. senators behind a bill that would overhaul the country’s dated anti-money-laundering laws.

The senators, members of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, are seeking to enact The Illicit Cash Act, which would empower regulators to force shell companies to disclose their true ownership for the first time.

The draft bill was introduced on June 10. Key proponent, Senator Doug Jones, a Democrat from Alabama, said that as a former U.S. Attorney he was “all too familiar with criminals hiding behind shell corporations to enable their illegal behavior.”

“Our anti-money laundering laws have not kept pace with the increasingly sophisticated means by which criminals and terrorist organizations use our financial system to move their money around the world,” he said in a joint press release. Lack of transparency….ICIJ.org/Investigation

by Andrzej Krauze