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Warren Plans to Crack Down on U.S. Shell Companies, Tax Evasion

Warren Plans to Crack Down on U.S. Shell Companies, Tax Evasion

(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren says she would make tackling financial corruption a worldwide effort if elected president, announcing a new set of policy proposals Tuesday that would crack down on offshore companies and tax evasion to end “the flow of dark money” around the world.

In a Medium published on Tuesday morning, Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, argued that establishing a shell company to launder money is “easier than getting a library card” in some U.S. states. She would encourage Congress to increase oversight for shell companies, including a requirement that “every legal entity created across the country” disclose information about the beneficial ownership of the business.

She said she would stem the international flow of illicit money by issuing rules that would hold lawyers, financial service providers, accountants and real estate services providers accountable if they are deemed “dark money enablers.”

“The Trump administration has largely looked the other way on these issues,” Warren wrote in the Medium post. “That ends when I’m president”

Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, would impose rules that would require financial institutions in the U.S. to report information about cross-border payments. She would also require foreign investors, if they purchase real estate in the U.S., to identify the owners of the properties.

As president, she said, she also would work with Congress to toughen anti-bribery laws, including strengthening the government’s authority to go after foreign officials who extort American companies. She vowed to close a “loophole” that allows foreign-owned companies to contribute to political campaigns.

Warren also said that she would seek to work with foreign officials and allies to increase financial transparency across borders, including offering assistance with “model laws and policies, training on the ground, and continued monitoring.”

As leverage, the U.S. would keep a scoreboard, she said, of the “standards that countries must have in place to receive preferential treatment from the U.S. government in trade and other agreements.”

(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Wendy Benjaminson, John Harney

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