For decades, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals have been able to shield their identity and avoid having their true name and home address posted in county registries by using LLCs to own their homes. However, Robyn A. Friedman at The Wall Street Journal reports that the times they are a-changin.
- What has happened? New laws designed to crack down on money laundering and tax evasion won’t protect buyers’ personal information from disclosure these days even if they use an LLC.
- Why the change? Ian Gary, executive director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition tells The Wall Street Journal, “Anonymous shell companies have been used to launder money by a variety of nefarious actors, and it’s been identified as a key national security and corruption risk,”
Surprisingly, this might not be as impactful as some think. The Corporate Transparency Act does require disclosure to FinCEN, but there is no requirement for public disclosure. Erica Hanichak, government affairs director for The FACT Coalition, told The Wall Street Journal “Assuming the individual isn’t up to some nefarious purpose, they shouldn’t have any qualms about having their beneficial ownership information in a nonpublic database accessible to law enforcement,”