Bessent Kills Shell Company Disclosure, Deletes the Database
FinCEN will erase millions of ownership records already filed — the same anonymity that moved the Epstein network's money.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent killed the law that made American shell companies name their owners. His Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule Wednesday permanently ending beneficial-ownership reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act — and said it will delete the ownership records millions of American businesses already filed.
"Treasury is eliminating a burdensome reporting requirement for millions of law-abiding business owners without compromising our national security," Bessent said in the announcement.
The law he ended did one thing: it put a human name on every company. Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act over Trump's veto on January 1, 2021, after decades of drug money, kleptocrat fortunes and sanctions-dodging cash moved through anonymous Delaware and Wyoming companies no investigator could open. The act required an estimated 32 million entities to file their real owner's name, birth date and ID with FinCEN — never published, never public, a database only investigators could query.
Bessent started the unwinding in March 2025 with an interim rule sparing every U.S.-formed company. Wednesday's rule locks it in permanently — and reaches further. Foreign companies registering in the United States still report their foreign owners, but never their American ones. Foreign pooled investment vehicles win a blanket exemption. The rule takes effect the day it prints in the Federal Register. And FinCEN will erase every record American filers already handed over.
Deleted.
