NEW: @FSCDems & @RepMikeQuigley released their FY22 approps bill, to be marked up soon.

Includes the $191 million for FinCEN requested by Biden, a 50% boost.

This is great news—would be Congress’s strongest anti-corruption appropriation this year! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/AP…
Credit also goes to @RepSpanberger, @RepAnnWagner, @RepMalinowski, @RepAGonzalez, & 34 others who urged appropriators to "significantly increase funding for FinCEN for FY22 ... to cost-effectively combat the illicit financial transactions that [threaten] U.S. national security."
If anything, the House approps markup and Senate process should push the number even higher. Gary Kalman and I argue in @ForeignPolicy to keep it simple and follow Rep. Charlie Wilson's famous order about funding CIA operations in Afghanistan: "Double it." foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/01/fin…
To illustrate how key and underutilized FinCEN is to Treasury’s anti-corruption mission, note that my research providing a whole-of-Treasury strategy only mentions OFAC (issuing sanctions) 16 times but refers to FinCEN (spotting financial crime) 110 times. securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/treasurys-war-…
FinCEN was woefully underfunded—running on too few bodies and computers from the 1980s—even before the NDAA tasked them with building a beneficial ownership registry and *50* other mandates, so now they’ve had to put everything optional on hold, a grave national security danger.
So, kudos to @FSCDems and @RepMikeQuigley, and now let’s make sure House appropriators and Senators see this through! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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More from @JoshRudes

24 Jun
Here are a half-dozen ways Congress can shore up U.S. defenses against Chinese malign finance. 🧵
1⃣ There's a provision in #S1 to broaden the definition of an in-kind political contribution to cover dirt on opponents or polling data (think Russia-2016), but it would not cover requests for investigations into opponents or trade targeted toward swing stages (think China-2020).
2⃣ 501c3's should have to disclose foreign funders. China has used proxies to set up friendly think tanks (in Australia) or US-based 501c3's (to facilitate bribery schemes and buy influence for the Belt and Road as far West as Czechia and Africa). See @Lancegooden's bill.
Read 7 tweets
23 Jun
"FinCEN is tasked with building a massive database that collects and secures beneficial ownership information, but Congress has not yet provided any funding to do it."

You tell 'em, @SecYellen! 👏👏👏
Dramatically increasing funding for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is by far the single most important thing Congress can do this year to fight corruption.
Here's a letter from @RepSpanberger, @RepAnnWagner, @RepMalinowski, @RepAGonzalez, and 34 others urging appropriators to "significantly increase funding for FinCEN for FY22 ... to cost-effectively combat the illicit financial transactions that [threaten] U.S. national security." ImageImage
Read 6 tweets
23 Jun
Terrific new paper on how foreign powers spend money undermining EU democracy, with a dozen citations of #CovertForeignMoney.

As with my two expert testimonies, this work was requested by @EP_Democracy, which is shoring up EU democracy while the US Senate is gridlocked over #S1. Image
Here's Tom Morley and my research report on #CovertForeignMoney, which surveys more than 100 cases of malign finance, buckets the activity into the seven most common legal loopholes, and presents policy solutions we developed with almost 100 top experts.⬇️securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/covert-foreign…
Six of our proposed solutions are covered within #S1, and five are included @Sen_JoeManchin's proposed selection of voting rights protections:

✅ SHIELD Act
✅ Honest Ads Act
✅ PAID AD Act
✅ DISCLOSE Act
✅ CEOs certify no foreign donations funneled
❌ FEC structural reform
Read 5 tweets
8 Jun
The key to seeing whether Biden stands up to Putin from a position of strength won't be gleaned from next Wednesday's summit itself.

It'll be whether this next week succeeds at sending Biden into Geneva at the head of a strong, productive, and reunited transatlantic alliance. 🧵
When facing down Putin behind closed doors and standing next to him afterward, it's safe to assume that Biden won't take the Kremlin's side against America's own intelligence community or get duped into signing up for an "impenetrable Cyber Security unit" (whatever that meant).
Rather, the key is whether Biden's engagements w/ allies in England & Belgium start delivering results showing that democracies are more capable than autocracies at meeting challenges and are sufficiently united to stand together against modern threats. Seven questions stand out:
Read 13 tweets
7 Jun
Boom—@PowerUSAID announces at #DIA_ZCC she'll create a task force to elevate, strengthen & integrate anticorruption across @USAID, plus a $50 million rapid response effort.

Strong way to sustain last week's anticorruption momentum & stand by Ukraine before Biden-Putin next week.
"President Biden issued a presidential memorandum last week identifying corruption as a core national security priority. This is the first time a US president has ever elevated this issue in this way. whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
"The President’s memo recognizes what everyone here knows: Corruption cripples societies, steals from the pockets of tax-paying citizens, breaks down public trust in governing institutions, and undercuts the world's decades-long investments to improve lives across human society.
Read 13 tweets
15 Apr
Two new sets of Russia sanctions are reportedly coming today:

1⃣ Designations of 20-30 entities (plus a dozen individuals and 10 PNGs)

2⃣ Executive order barring US financials from buying ruble sovereign debt after June 14

In both cases, the severity depends on the details. 🧵
Bloomberg says the designations hit "about dozen individuals, including gov't/intel officials, and roughly 20 entities ... The US is also expected to expel as many as 10 Russian officials/diplomats." CBS says it's "more than 30 Russian entities" & 10 PNGs. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
More important than the number is whether the 20-30 entities are obscure and isolated entities that directly perpetrated the malign activity (usually not costly) or Kremlin-tied companies with international supply chains and financing (could be costly). ⬇️
Read 27 tweets

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