Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the government began cracking down on hidden transfers of wealth. The purpose was to prevent money laundering that might finance terrorism. Some of this was codified in the USA PATRIOT Act. After the financial collapse of 2008, other safeguards were added. All this strengthened the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), with the side benefit of helping regulatory agencies track down other uses of concealed wealth, whether or not they are related to national security. But in the ensuing quarter-century, extreme wealth became ever more concentrated, and oligarchs became ever more crafty at hiding the true ownership of wealth through trusts and corporate forms that are utterly opaque to financial regulators, the IRS, and the national-security establishment, much less the public.” (10/07/25)
https://prospect.org/economy/2025-10-07-how-scott-bessent-enables-oligarchy/