The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, which is part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (“NDAA”) and includes the Corporate Transparency Act, became law effective with Congress’ override on January 1, 2021 of former President Trump’s veto of the NDAA. The Corporate Transparency Act requires certain business entities (each defined as a “reporting company”) to file, in the absence of an exemption, information on their “beneficial owners” with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) of the U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”). The information will not be publicly available, but FinCEN is authorized to disclose the information:
- to U.S. federal law enforcement agencies,
- with court approval, to certain other enforcement agencies,
- to non-U.S. law enforcement agencies, prosecutors or judges based upon a request of a U.S. federal law enforcement agency, and
- with consent of the reporting company, to financial institutions and their regulators.
