Trump's lawless rules on LLCs will help criminals and money-launderers thrive

The presidential power grabs keep coming. This time, the administration has essentially gutted an act of Congress using an agency regulation — the very sort of maneuver the Trump-friendly Supreme Court majority has staunchly rejected. On August 14, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is a part of the U.S. Treasury Department, issued a final rule deactivating the bulk of the reporting requirements enacted by Congress under Corporate Transparency Act. Although this may sound like wonky legalese, the constitutional implications are enormous.  Consider a hypothetical. Imagine a fentanyl trafficking organization that uses dozens of anonymous limited liability corporations to buy a panoply of businesses — such as apartment buildings, restaurants, and car washes — that are designed to launder money. Drug proceeds are mixed with legitimate revenue while the shell businesses provide a veneer of legitimacy to the entire enterprise. The common LLC structure hides the ultimate owners behind layers of corporate entities. Meanwhile, mom-and-pop business owners are forced to compete against companies whose capital is seemingly unlimited and comes from illegal activity. Because a shell company does not have a human face, in 2021 Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act to help law enforcement pierce LLC structures when necessary to identify who is actually financing criminal enterprises.  The statute requ…