Washington – What is the best country for money laundering? United States of America.
An alarm sounded by the same US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, during the first day of the democracy summit promoted by Joe Biden.
“There are reasons to believe that the best place now to hide and launder fraudulent earnings is the United States,” he said.
Switzerland or the Cayman Islands have often been targeted over this issue. But the US secretary took issue with the idea that money from corruption or illegal activities is transferred “only to countries with weak financial regulations,” saying it is entirely vulnerable to “passing through or landing in our markets.”
Yellen outlines the new anti-corruption strategy of the Biden administration, in which she argued that we should “highlight” the “gray areas” in the United States, citing some US states that allow the creation of shell companies that hide the identities of owners. In January, Congress passed a law requiring US companies to declare their beneficial owners to the federal government, marking a turning point in the US, where relevant legislation can sometimes be very lax, as in Delaware, Joe Biden’s state.
Yellen warned that a similar regulation now exists for real estate transactions in large urban areas, “because many corrupt actors can hide their money in a Miami skyscraper or Central Park.”
