NPR. In the late 1970s, a gleaming skyscraper was built on Fifth Avenue, just a couple

blocks from Rockefeller Center. It was a lot like all the other skyscrapers, kind of tall and boxy, a lot of windows.

Until...

Until...

Until...

In 1989, the nonprofit that owned the building secretly transferred ownership to the Iranian government

through a series of shell companies.

I mean, stop and think about that for a minute.

The easiest place and safest place in the world for Iran to evade our sanctions is to buy

property on Fifth Avenue.

I don't know what more you need to know about how easy it is to laundering the United States.

Now, we have a fairly new law that could have prevented this.

It's called the Corporate Transparency Act.

And it makes it mandatory for most small businesses formed in the U.S. to submit information

on their owners.

It had bipartisan support and passed under the first Trump administration.

It took effect in 2024. But just a

year later, Trump's second administration basically put it on ice. And now Republicans are trying

to repeal most of it. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong here with

friend of the show, Sally Hersheps. It is good to have you back, Sally.

Hello, hello. Today on the show, the Corporate Transparency Act. What is it? How's it supposed to work?

And what happens if the law is repealed? So to create a new company, you're often asked for less information than you need to get a library card.

...