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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   28337 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 11, 2023

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The FinCen summary kinda glosses over how broadly applicable this rule will be. It requires reporting within 30 days for identifying information related to any beneficial owner, where one category considered "beneficial owners" are anyone with "substantial control" over the company, which in turn is defined as :

Proposed 31 CFR 1010.380(d)(1) set forth three specific indicators of ‘‘substantial control’’: service as a senior officer of a reporting company; authority over the appointment or removal of any senior officer or a majority or dominant minority of the board of directors (or similar body) of a reporting company; and direction, determination, or decision of, or substantial influence over, important matters affecting a reporting company. The proposed rule also included a catch-all provision to ensure consideration of any other forms that substantial control might take beyond the criteria specifically listed.

Emphasis added. In theory this is just one prong of the calculation, but it's also explicitly meant to cover anything that FinCen wants. I'd expect that it doesn't get applied at a broad scale by its strict terms, but it's the sorta thing that makes an excellent 'throw the book at them' tool, or to motivate on unrelated matters.

At least in the immediate term, in addition to the privacy concerns there are some serious criminal penalties attached to potentially trivial faults.

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