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Treasury Official Calls For Tougher Beneficial Ownership Rules
By Colby Adams
printThe exploitation of shell companies by arms traffickers, terrorist financiers and other criminals represents a serious danger to U.S. national security, a high ranking U.S. Treasury Department official said Thursday. The comments, by Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing David Cohen, came before the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in support of a measure that would require states to collect and maintain records on the beneficial owners of corporations. Under the bill, investigators could obtain the data with subpoenas. "Information on the true beneficial ownership of a legal entity, at the time a business is formed, as ownership changes…and...
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A U.S. trial against alleged Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout could shed new light on how proceeds derived from his smuggling network moved through U.S. banks, say analysts.
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