including minerals and wildlife. To counter corruption effectively around the globe, the U.S. Government must, at home and abroad, combat money laundering, illicit trafficking, and other forms of criminal activity that fuel corruption and allow criminal actors to launder and shelter the proceeds of their illicit activities. As the largest economy in the international financial system, the United States bears particular responsibility to address our own regulatory deficiencies, including in our AML/CFT regime, in order to strengthen global efforts to limit the proceeds of corruption and other illicit financial activity. We will therefore address deficiencies in the U.S. anti-money laundering regime (Strategic Objective 2.1), including by effectively collecting beneficial ownership information on those who control anonymous shell companies, and by increasing transparency in real estate transactions. Recognizing how quickly money and other commodities move across borders, we will also work with allies and partners to address governance weaknesses and other deficiencies (Strategic Objective 2.2), tighten global regimes, increase information sharing and law enforcement cooperation, and prevent the establishment of new safe havens as we work to close old ones. Example LOEs that will advance these strategic objectives include:
Finalizing effective beneficial ownership regulations, and building a database of the beneficial owners of certain companies, in order to help domestic and international partners identify bad actors;
Promulgating regulations targeting those closest to real estate transactions to reveal when real estate is used to hide ill-gotten cash or to launder criminal proceeds;
Prescribing minimum reporting standards for investment advisors and other types of equity funds;
Using existing authorities, and working with the Congress to expand authorities where necessary, to make sure that key gatekeepers to the financial system—including lawyers, accountants, and trust and company service providers—cannot evade scrutiny;
Bringing aggressive enforcement action, including relevant tax enforcement, against money launderers and those who enable launderers as appropriate, considering new legislation expanding criminal substantive law as needed, and expanding investigative tools as well as new information generated by whistleblower programs and enhanced beneficial owner information disclosure obligations; and,
Working with partner countries, through diplomatic engagement, law enforcement cooperation, and capacity building, to strengthen their regimes.
PILLAR THREE: Holding Corrupt Actors Accountable As the U.S. Government works to address deficiencies and decrease the ability of corrupt actors to launder the proceeds of their activities through global markets, we will also hold accountable
UNITED STATES STRATEGY
ON
COUNTERING CORRUPTION
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