The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released the first in a series of seven annual reports, mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act, evaluating the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) safeguarding of beneficial ownership information (BOI) received from certain legal entities. (GAO-25-107403)
The report focused on the extent to which FinCEN granted agencies access to BOI in compliance with the act and FinCEN's oversight of agencies' access to and use of the information. As of October 29, 2024, the following agencies were approved for access to BOI:
- the FBI,
- IRS-Criminal Investigations (CI),
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and
- U.S. Secret Service.
As described in the report, the four agencies were chosen because they were significant and experienced users of BSA data. "IRS-CI investigates complex and significant money laundering activity, including that related to terrorism financing and transnational organized crime," GAO noted.
According to the report, IRS-CI and the other three agencies received initial access to BOI under a pilot program which required the piloted agencies to:
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appoint an agency coordinator (the primary contact for managing BOI access and memorandum of understanding compliance);
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provide FinCEN with a signed memorandum of understanding establishing the terms and conditions under which the agency may obtain, store, use, and re-disclose BOI;
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submit an initial report describing the standards and procedures established to comply with access rule requirements for protecting BOI; and
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provide a certification signed and dated by the agency's head attesting that its standards and procedures comply with the access rule's security and confidentiality requirements.
FinCEN is developing policies and procedures to oversee BOI users, including:
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Annual audits and other inspections.
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Periodic submissions of semi-annual certificates of compliance with established criteria.
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Prompt notification of any compliance failure revealed in annual internal audits and any potential or actual BOI compromise or loss.
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Monitoring of query audit logs.
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