The US was on the verge of major anti-corruption reform. Then Trump took office.

After years of serving as a top destination for the world’s dirty money—stashed in untraceable LLCs, impenetrable trusts, and anonymously-owned properties—the United States was on the cusp of turning a corner. Congress had passed bipartisan legislation compelling shell companies to divulge their owners to the Treasury Department, which has also imposed new rules to bring similar transparency to the real estate and private equity sectors, two of the most popular havens for illicit wealth. But President Donald Trump’s return to power has cast doubt on the future of the most monumental anti-kleptocracy reform push in decades.

Increasingly, the United States has become the epicenter of the multitrillion-dollar offshore economy. Much of that was due to the nation’s willingness to provide anonymous shell companies to anyone who wanted one, with states such as Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming one-upping each other with permissive laws designed to entice corporate clients to their states. The World Bank reported in 2011 that the US had formed more anonymous companies than the 41 leading tax havens combined. And that trend only accelerated in the years that followed.

In 2021, however, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act, which required limited liability companies to disclose their owners effective this year. The rules are hardly onerous. The paperwork takes minutes to fill out and, unlike shell-company registries in other countries, the US database is visible only to federal authorities. Still, anti-corruption watchdogs heralded the law as a sea change.

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