effective in January, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) will be implementing the Corporate Transparency Act which requires to submit info about owners of companies. The U.S. Treasury Department decided that banks and law enforcement officials may have access to the database.
FinCEN will also give access to federal agencies engaged in national security, intelligence or law enforcement; state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies with court authorization; foreign law enforcement agencies and other authorities that meet certain criteria; certain supervised financial institutions that have customer due-diligence requirements, provided they have the consent of their customers; and Treasury Department officers and employees. Each category of recipients will be subject to security and confidentiality protocols, FinCEN said.
For example, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies will be able to access the database with only a court authorization for a criminal or civil investigation, a change from the original proposal, which would have required FinCEN approval before accessing the database’s contents.
Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers under the SEC, CFTC and FINCEN whistleblower programs. Whistleblowers who provide original information to these agencies through counsel, may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC, CFTC OR FINCEN and the names and identification of the whistleblowers are not revealed. Jeff Newman can be reached at Jeff@Jeffnewmanlaw.com or at 617-823-3217
