Trump Treasury Is Deleting an Anti-Corruption Database
Donald Trump’s Treasury Department doesn’t want law enforcement to be able to “follow the money.”
The Treasury Department https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-16576.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">announced Friday that it would destroy the government’s registry on shell-company ownership, a database law enforcement uses to investigate money laundering and corruption, https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-gift-to-the-money-launderers-database-treasury" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Bulwark reported.
In addition to scaling back requirements for shell companies to submit basic information to the federal government, the new rule will also destroy all the data it has already collected.
The Corporate Transparency Act, passed in the final days of Trump’s first administration, legally requires the Treasury Department to maintain this registry.
Trump had previously https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-26-107967-highlights.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">exempted domestic companies and U.S. citizens—99 percent of the entities previously required to report—from data collection under the CTA. The Treasury Department’s latest move has made that decision permanent.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is already https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0603" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">selling the decision as a favor to small businesses.
“Today’s action is a victory for common sense and American small businesses,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement. “President Trump promised to cut red tape, and this final rule delivers.
Treasury is eliminating a burdensome reporting requirement for millions of law-abiding business owners without compromising our national security.”
Before the CTA was passed, the United States stood at the center of the world of offshore finance, being the primary location where narco-traffickers, arms dealers, and others chose to wash their illicit money clean.
Now, Trump wants to bring all that back.
Trump isn’t alone in delivering a massive gift to grifters, cartels, and kleptocrats.
Republicans are https://newrepublic.com/article/211855/republicans-making-world-safe-kleptocrats" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">in on it, too.
In April, Trump’s allies on the House Financial Services committee https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/house-committee-votes-to-gut-corporate-transparency-act/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pushed through a measure that would repeal the requirement that U.S. shells divulge their true owners.
In May, Senate Republicans introduced https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/senate-bill-takes-aim-at-corporate-transparency-act/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">similar legislation, aiming to attach it to the broader defense bill set to be passed later this year.
Neither bill has passed a full vote.
Since reentering office, Trump has only made it harder for law enforcement to crack down on certain financial crimes.
In addition to https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-administration-ends-biden-era-task-force-aimed-at-seizing-russian-oligarchs-assets" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">eliminating the task forces on kleptocrats, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/pausing-foreign-corrupt-practices-act-enforcement-to-further-american-economic-and-national-security/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pausing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and https://newrepublic.com/article/213948/donald-trump-made-world-safe-kleptocrats" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">gutting the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the president has also https://www.cato.org/blog/embarrassment-riches" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pardoned dozens of white collar criminals.