Trump administration sued over rollback of corporate ownership reporting rules

Twenty-one US states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its recent rollback of reporting requirements established under a 2021 law designed to combat illicit finance. The administration's August 2023 rule exempted US companies and individuals from reporting beneficial ownership information to the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit, effectively nullifying the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act's provisions.

The coalition of Democratic-led states argued before a federal court that the executive branch cannot repeal a law via rulemaking, rendering the Trump administration's action unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Oregon, claimed that the administration had effectively undermined the 2021 law by exempting over 99.9% of companies originally required to disclose owner information.

The suit named US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Department of the Treasury, and its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as defendants. Treasury Secretary Bessent had endorsed the rule at the time, describing it as eliminating a "burdensome reporting requirement for millions of law-abiding business owners" without threatening national security.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with 20 other state attorneys general, expressed concern that the rule would allow the true owners of both domestic and foreign shell companies to remain anonymous, posing risks of sanctions evasion, fraud, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and organized criminal activity.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, previously warned that rolling back the reporting requirements would heighten the risks associated with criminal and illicit activities, including sanctions evasion, fraud, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and organized crime.