Guest opinion: End anonymous shell companies for the sake of national security

I’ve been living in Idaho for only a few years now, but I have come to love it here. From the rambling Palouse where I live to the urban beauty of Boise to the great forests of the Sawtooths, I look forward to making a life here, and doing so knowing I’ll be safe and secure.

Or at least I’d like to. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which safety and security can no longer be taken for granted. The world has grown smaller – and the threats have, unfortunately, multiplied along the way. Extremist networks continue to target our country. Organized crime syndicates run drugs across borders with ease. Dictators abroad plunder their populations, leading to the kind of global instability we haven’t seen in decades.

There’s only so much that can be done from our state. But there is one clear step our legislators can take to assure the safety and security not only of Idahoans, but of Americans as a whole: ending anonymous shell companies.

At first blush, ending anonymous companies may not seem like an obvious step to address the myriad threats. But if there’s one thread connecting the terrorist networks, drug traffickers and kleptocratic states around the world, it’s a reliance on anonymous shell companies to hide the money that fuels their networks from those trying to track their finances and bring them to justice. From extremist groups in Afghanistan to cartels in Central America, from government officials in west Africa to the highest rings in the Kremlin, all have relied on anonymous shell companies to continue funding their operations — and continue financing the national security threat they pose.

The threats are clear, and the tools are obvious. Thankfully, there’s momentum toward finally ending this abuse of our incorporation laws, and a growing bipartisan awareness of the threat that anonymous shell companies present. In Congress, a piece of legislation called the ILLICIT Cash Act is moving forward. The bill will make it possible to do what we should have done a long time ago: end anonymous shell companies nationally.

The ILLICIT Cash Act has support from police, prosecutors and a growing number of national security experts. But opposition remains — mostly from those who discount the threat and ignore the growing consensus around the need to act.

Bipartisan agreement is rare in in this political environment, but, given the widespread support, the U.S. is at long last closer than it’s ever been to ending anonymous shell companies.

Idaho’s own U.S. senator, Mike Crapo, is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. He has held hearings to better understand the threats and has been outspoken on the need to effectively address those threats. I applaud his efforts and encourage him to continue to move the bill forward.

Now is the time to end anonymous shell companies, disrupt the world’s money laundering networks and protect the integrity of our financial system and our national security.