President Donald Trump's administration seems to be on a warpath to destroy government data, and one analyst thinks they have figured out why.
Catherine Rampell, economic editor at The Bulwark, wrote in a new article on Thursday that many of the recent moves the Trump administration has made can be understood as efforts to protect the right to commit fraud. She pointed to the administration pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, suspending data collections under the Corporate Transparency Act, and pardoning fraudsters left and right.
"They’re effectively salting the earth, so that sex traffickers, scam artists, drug lords, money-launderers, and tax cheats can roam free not only through the end of Trump’s time in office but long after he’s out, too," Rampell wrote.
Trump's efforts to gut corporate data collections serve as a startling example of his efforts to make it easier to commit fraud. The administration recently made permanent a set of rules that exempted "99 percent" of companies from corporate data disclosures "while also pledging to destroy any existing data," Rampell wrote.
"Treasury says it still mandates disclosure of ownership of foreign shell companies," Rampell noted. "This may be technically true as a matter of following the letter of the law, but the administration crafted loopholes big enough to drive a cocaine-packed Mack truck through."
She also noted that the Trump administration's relaxed rules around shell companies could make it easier for drug cartels to launder money by buying private jets, Rampell noted.
"Instead Trump has declared he will, for all intents and purposes, ignore the law and delete any data collected while the law was still being enforced under his predecessor," she wrote. "The result, financial experts say, is that law enforcement officials will have fewer leads available when tracking down fraudsters and cartels."
