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A notice published Tuesday by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network indicates that companies may have the option of answering "unknown" when submitting a form on who owns and controls them to the bureau. The reporting form represents a small but critical step in FinCEN's years-long buildout of a national registry of beneficial owners as mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act, or CTA, in 2021. Once online—FinCEN has set a launch date of Jan. 1, 2024—the database should bring the U.S. closer to global standards and help detect the use of shell companies in financial crime. Most companies doing...