issued a report that criticizes the United States for failing to comply with a FATF standard on the need to collect beneficial ownership information and urged the United States to correct this deficiency by July 2008. In December 2016, FATF issued another evaluation of the U.S., which found that little progress has been made over the last ten years to address this problem. It identified the lack of timely access to adequate, accurate and current beneficial ownership information as a fundamental gap in U.S. efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist finance. (7) In response to the 2006 FATF report, the United States has repeatedly urged the States to strengthen their incorporation practices by obtaining beneficial ownership information for the corporations and limited liability companies formed under the laws of such States. (8) Many States have established automated procedures that allow a person to form a new corporation or limited liability company within the State within 24 hours of filing an online application, without any prior review of the application by a State official. In exchange for a substantial fee, 2 States will form a corporation within 1 hour of a request. (9) Dozens of Internet Web sites highlight the anonymity of beneficial owners allowed under the incorporation practices of some States, point to those practices as a reason to incorporate in those States, and list those States together with offshore jurisdictions as preferred locations for the formation of new corporations, essentially providing an open invitation to criminals and other wrongdoers to form entities within the United States. (10) In contrast to practices in the United States, all 28 countries in the European Union are required to have formation agents identify the beneficial owners of the corporations formed under the laws of the country. (11) To reduce the vulnerability of the United States to wrongdoing by United States corporations and limited liability companies with hidden owners, to protect interstate and