Corporate News: A Legal Update

You are likely now aware of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FINCEN) new Corporate Transparency Act in effect as of January 1, 2024, that requires domestic entities (and foreign entities qualified to do business in the United States) to file a Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOI) with FINCEN. In addition, you are also likely aware of your deadlines for filing these reports and FINCEN's potential fines and possible imprisonment for willfully failing to file or update a BOI. 

On March 1, 2024 in the case of National Small Business United v. Yellen 5:22-cv-01448-LCB the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama declared the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional stating in part that it “exceeds the Constitution’s limits on the legislative branch and lacks a sufficient nexus to any enumerated power to be a necessary or proper means of achieving Congress’ policy goals.”

On February 7, 2024 FinCEN issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would require certain professionals involved in real estate closings and settlements to report information to FinCEN about non-financed transfers of residential real estate to legal entities or trusts. FinCEN’s proposal targets residential real estate transfers considered high-risk for money laundering.

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on September 27, 2023 to amend the final Beneficial Ownership Information (“BOI”) Reporting Rule to extend the deadline from 30 to 90 days following formation or registration for reporting companies created on or after January 1, 2024 to file BOI reports. The purpose of requiring BOI reports, which disclose companies’ beneficial owners to law enforcement agencies, is to help them combat money laundering and other crimes. The purpose for this extension of the filing deadline is to provide additional time for reporting companies to understand the reporting rules and, in turn, increase compliance.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published its guidance materials on March 24, 2023, to help companies understand the requirements of the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Rule, which will become effective on January 1, 2024. The rule was implemented under the Corporate Transparency Act to assist regulators in combatting crime and fraud.

On March 21, 2022, in an effort to provide consistent, comparable, and reliable data for investors to enable them to make informed judgments about the impact of climate related risks on current and potential investments the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) proposed for public comment amendments to its rules under the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”). Known as the Climate Risk Disclosure Act (S. 1217; H.R. 2570) the rules would require domestic and foreign public registrants to provide climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports. The proposed rules would require information about a registrant’s climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on its business, results of operations, or financial condition. The required information about climate-related risks would also include disclosure of a registrant’s greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”)(“Scope 1”), indirect emissions from purchased electricity or other forms of energy (“Scope 2”), and GHG emissions from upstream and downstream activities in its value chain (“Scope 3”) which have become a commonly used metric to assess a registrant’s exposure to such risks. In addition, under the proposed rules, certain climate-related financial metrics would be required in a registrant’s audited financial statements.