America’s New Beneficial Ownership Reporting Regime

On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “AMLA”) to combat money laundering and terrorist financing by expanding the regulatory power of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), a financial intelligence bureau within the U.S. Treasury Department created to support law enforcement. Included within the AMLA is the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”), which requires certain companies, including those with fewer than twenty (20) full-time employees and fewer than US$5 million in annual gross receipts, to disclose company identifying information and information identifying individuals and entities who ultimately own or control an interest in such companies (also called beneficial ownership information (“BOI”) to FinCEN. The CTA requires FinCEN to maintain such BOI in a secure, non-public database that, once created, will be made accessible for limited use by national security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies, U.S. federal regulators, and international partners.