Corporate ownership transparency is important for national security. However regulators should not be naive. Russian organized crime groups can set up corporate 'ownership' in ways that are still intransparent. For example, they can put ownership of a corporation in the name of a person and they can control that person by threatening him. In that situation, even with transparency registries, the government still will not know who really controls the corporation.
Absolutely. That's why when I teach this, I stress how important it is to look at who owners are linked to and how many hops away they are from illicit actors.
Corporate ownership transparency is important for national security. However regulators should not be naive. Russian organized crime groups can set up corporate 'ownership' in ways that are still intransparent. For example, they can put ownership of a corporation in the name of a person and they can control that person by threatening him. In that situation, even with transparency registries, the government still will not know who really controls the corporation.
Absolutely. That's why when I teach this, I stress how important it is to look at who owners are linked to and how many hops away they are from illicit actors.