“Just the FACTs” is a round-up of news stories and information regarding efforts to combat corrupt financial practices, including offshore tax haven abuses, corporate secrecy, and money laundering through the financial system.
Send feedback or items for future newsletters to Thomas Georges at tgeorges@thefactcoalition.org
State of Play
On October 23, FACT will launch a new report analyzing the tax disclosures of 11 U.S. oil and gas multinational companies, and calling for the elimination of harmful subsidies for extraction abroad. According to new disclosures, U.S. oil and gas companies pay significantly more tax to foreign governments – including those commonly thought of as petrostates – than to the U.S. federal government, despite collectively producing more oil and gas domestically than in all other countries combined.
This is the result of a number of industry-specific tax breaks, including policies that specifically subsidize drilling abroad. These tax subsidies cost taxpayers billions each year, exacerbate the climate crisis, harm public health, and fail to secure low energy prices for consumers or good-paying American jobs. This report calls for the repeal of the preferential tax breaks that undermine U.S. interests and harm the planet.
RSVP for the hybrid in-person and virtual launch event here.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Calls for Comments on Investment Adviser Rule Delay
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has called for public comments, due Wednesday, October 22, on its proposal to postpone and revise a long-overdue rule introducing anti-money laundering safeguards in the U.S. private investment sector. The rule – subject to potential revisions – is now set to take effect on January 1, 2028, nearly two years later than prescribed. Unlike banks, broker-dealers, commodities brokers, and other financial institutions, the private investment industry is currently the only major U.S. capital market actor without a legal obligation to know their clients or perform due diligence.
Following FinCEN’s announcement earlier this year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Andy Kim, and Rep. Maxine Waters questioned the decision to delay the rule in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, noting that, “The decision to delay compliance leaves American national security and economic stability vulnerable.”
FACT urges coalition members and allies to submit comments. Comments could express concern that the delay may harm U.S. national security by leaving a long-standing money laundering vulnerability unaddressed, and call on FinCEN to maintain the original scope of the rule, covering Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) and Exempt Reporting Advisers (ERAs). Maintaining the rule’s original scope is crucial to a risk-based anti-money laundering approach, as Treasury has already identified significant money laundering risks for transactions through RIAs and ERAs.
Latest from FACT
FACT Defends Australia’s Tax Transparency Framework in Letter to U.S. Treasury
In a recent letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, several U.S. business groups expressed concern over Australia’s landmark public country-by-country tax reporting framework and called for the Administration to put pressure on Australian tax authorities to address the perceived infringement on U.S. companies. FACT defended Australia’s tax transparency framework in its own letter to Secretary Bessent, which reaffirmed the law’s alignment with the demands of investors, and emphasized that it is a legitimate exercise of Australia’s tax sovereignty. Public country-by-country reporting standards are supported by a broad range of investors, collectively managing more than $10 trillion in assets.
From FACT’s letter: “As the Trump administration has insisted that other nations respect the tax sovereignty of the United States, so too should the administration respect Australia’s sovereignty in this regard.” The letter was covered by the Accounting Times, International Tax Review, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Blog: Beyond Boundaries – Rethinking Conservation in the Age of Environmental Crime
A new blog from former FACT policy fellow Isidoro Hazbun calls for a new environmental conservation paradigm – one that goes beyond establishing new protected areas to addressing the environmental crimes that threaten their very existence.
As Hazbun notes, “organized crime is rewriting the rules of conservation and exposing why protecting land on paper means little without dismantling the profits driving environmental destruction.”
Hazbun calls for stronger beneficial ownership transparency rules to address shell companies, tougher anti–money laundering oversight, and more rigorous due diligence on risky commodities.
FACT in the News
ICIJ: FinCEN plans to delete data on U.S. companies from beneficial ownership database
FACT’s Ian Gary was quoted by the International Consortium of Independent Journalists in their coverage of the rollback of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The latest step in this process has been FinCEN’s announcement that it plans to delete ownership information submitted by U.S. companies under the CTA. Such a decision would be “doubling down on Treasury’s unlawful gutting of this statute,” Gary said.
“It’s certainly a contradiction between the stated priorities of this administration. Law enforcement needs more tools, not fewer, to tackle drug trafficking, human trafficking and other issues that are harming Americans.”
Mongabay: Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says
Mongabay covered FACT’s latest report, “Addressing Illegal Gold Mining in the Western Hemisphere: New Approaches for the U.S. Policy”, and quoted FACT’s Julia Yansura and Isidoro Hazbun in relation to illegal gold mining and criminal networks operating in Venezuela.
“What we are urging the U.S. to do is to employ new tools from the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing toolbox. By cutting off profits to these criminal and terrorist groups, and denying them financial safe haven in the U.S. financial system, we can significantly weaken them.”
From Our Members and Allies
Human Rights Watch: Sri Lanka – Ruinous Tax Policies Stoke Inequality
A new report from Human Rights Watch reveals the role of tax policies in Sri Lanka’s devastating 2022 economic crisis. The report, titled “Tax Giveaways, Struggling Schools: How Low Taxes Drove Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis and Squandered its Education Lead,” describes how Sri Lanka’s governments have adopted policies that resulted in inadequate revenues, and contributed to the chronic underfunding of education and other public services.
From the report: “To uphold the economic and social rights of Sri Lankans, including to education, the government should institute tax reforms to increase revenues through progressive measures and curtail regressive taxes, including by increasing tax revenues from personal income and wealth. It should also end corporate tax incentives that are not tied to a specific and compelling policy rationale and subject to public cost-benefit analysis.”
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: Well, That Was Fast: Trump Tax Law’s New Corporate Breaks are Already Worsening the Deficit
A new blog from ITEP’s Matthew Gardner breaks down the Congressional Budget Office’s finding that the Administration’s latest corporate tax cuts, enacted earlier this summer, are already worsening the federal budget deficit.
From the blog: “Evidence so far suggests that the companies enjoying the biggest tax breaks include some of the large multinationals that were already paying close to zero before this latest tax cut was passed.”
Recent and Upcoming Events
European Parliament hearing: Tax implications of the Trump administration’s policies
On September 23, the European Parliament’s FISC Subcommittee on Tax Matters held a public hearing focused on how recent U.S. tax policies affect international tax frameworks such as the globally agreed minimum tax regime, also known as Pillar Two. Expert witnesses at the hearing called for enhanced international cooperation on global tax policy, including the preservation of global minimum tax efforts.
September 29: UNICRI Journalist Training
From September 29 to October 1, FACT co-hosted a specialized training to equip journalists and communication professionals with the tools to investigate environmental crime, in collaboration with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and the Nature Crime Alliance.
Journalists are on the frontline of the fight to expose environmental crimes that fuel corruption and devastate ecosystems. This training empowered over 100 participants to follow the money, trace criminal networks, and report with accuracy and integrity through evidence-based storytelling that drives accountability.
ICRICT Paris Week: Advancing Global Tax Justice and Progressive Democracy
From September 30 to October 3, 2025, the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) convened in Paris to bring debates on tax fairness, democracy, and sustainable development to the forefront. FACT’s Zorka Milin, after recently joining the steering committee of ICRICT, attended the convening.
October 13-14: A climate for change: Towards just taxation for climate finance
On October 14, Zorka Milin spoke at an international policy research conference hosted by Tax Justice Network in Campinas, Brazil. The conference, titled “A climate for change: Towards just taxation for climate finance”, brought together campaigners, researchers, and policymakers to discuss how reclaiming tax sovereignty can unlock the trillions needed for a just, people-centred transition to green energy.
“The fossil fuel industry is still being rewarded for driving the climate crisis. We must end fossil fuel tax subsidies, reform international tax rules, & strengthen transparency. Our opponents are powerful — we can’t afford to be divided.”
@zorkamilin.bsky.social @factcoalition.bsky.social
— Tax Justice Network (@taxjustice.net) October 14, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Milin’s panel focused on the ways in which fossil fuel subsidies stifle the mobilization of domestic resources needed to address the climate crisis. She also addressed the need for reform of international corporate taxation to facilitate global climate justice.
Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum: Follow-the-Money Working Group
On October 15, Julia Yansura and Isidoro Hazbun presented on illicit financial flows related to illegal gold mining in the Amazon basin and their ripple effects in destination countries, including a case study from Colombia. This event is a part of the Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum’s Follow-the-Money Working Group, and focuses on FACT’s latest report, “Addressing Illegal Gold Mining in the Western Hemisphere: New Approaches for the U.S. Policy”.
About the FACT Coalition
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition is a non-partisan coalition of more than 100 state, national, and international organizations working toward a fair and honest tax system that addresses the challenges of a global economy and promotes policies to combat the harmful impacts of corrupt financial practices.
For more information, visit www.thefactcoalition.org.