2026-05-26
9 分钟NPR.
In the late 1970s, a gleaming skyscraper was built on Fifth Avenue, just a couple blocks from Rockefeller Center.
It was a lot like all the other skyscrapers, kind of tall and boxy, a lot of windows.
Until...
Until in 1989, the nonprofit
that owned the building secretly transferred ownership to the Iranian government through a series of shell companies.
Stop and think about that for a minute.
The easiest place and safest place in the world for Iran to evade our sanctions is to buy property on Fifth Avenue.
I don't know what more you need to know about how easy it is to launder money in the United States.
Now, we have a fairly new law that could have prevented this.
It's called the Corporate Transparency Act,
and it makes it mandatory for most small businesses formed in the U.S. to submit information on their owners.
It had bipartisan support and passed under the first Trump administration.
It took effect in 2024. But just a year later, Trump's second administration basically put it on ice.
And now Republicans are trying to repeal most of it.
This is The Indicator from Planet Money.
I'm Waylon Wong, here with friend of the show, Sally Hersheps.
It is good to have you back, Sally.
Hello, hello.
Today on the show, the Corporate Transparency Act.