(Washington) If small countries are often seen as major havens for hiding money from the tax authorities or laundering money, “huge amounts of illicit funds” end up in the American financial system, the US said on Thursday. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.
“There is reason to believe that at present the best place to hide and launder fraudulently acquired earnings is in fact the United States,” said Mr.me Yellen in a speech on Thursday at the Democracy Summit.
Switzerland and the Cayman Islands have long been in the crosshairs of tax authorities around the world. But the US minister took issue with the idea that funds emanating from corruption or illegal activities are only sent to “countries with soft and secret financial regulations,” saying they are more likely to “pass – or to land – in our markets ”.
She highlighted the anti-corruption strategy that President Joe Biden’s administration deployed this week.
We must “shine the spotlight” on “the gray areas” in the United States, she justified, citing some American states which allow the creation of shell companies without knowing who they really belong to. .
The United States Congress passed a law last January requiring American companies to declare their beneficial owners to the federal government, marking a departure from the United States, where the legislation in this area can be extremely flexible, for example in states like the United States. Delaware, home of President Joe Biden.
The proposal would create a database to record the “beneficial owners” of all businesses and many trusts, that is, anyone who owns 25% of a business or can make decisions for the business.
Similar regulations will apply to real estate transactions, “because many corrupt actors can hide their money in skyscrapers in Miami or Central Park,” Mr.me Yellen on Thursday, calling them “81 laundromatse stage “.
This “financial alchemy… makes fun of our free and fair institutions,” she also opined.
She finally denounced the “failing tax system in the United States, which allows the highest paid people and the largest companies to go unpunished in the event of fraud.”