Joel Mowbray on New Iran Legislation

By Ilan Weinglass

Joel Mowbray points out that the recent round of Iran sanctions have left some serious gaps open. Namely that Iranian firms undertake joint ventures with western firms.  Plus the fact that the paper trail involving far-flung operations of multi-national firms can be very hard to follow - which is where the new Iran Transparency and Accountability Act would come into place:

The Iran Transparency and Accountability Act (ITA), which was introduced in the House last week, would force publicly traded companies to list in their regular filings all business dealings - including the revenues and profits - that their subsidiaries and affiliates have in Iran that could be covered by various sanctions. Already on board as co-sponsors are several top Republicans and Democrats from the Foreign Affairs Committee, but the author is someone in office just three months, Rep. Ted Deutch, Florida Democrat.

Given the complexity of far-flung multinational conglomerates, sometimes the only people who can document various investments are the corporate attorneys who submit Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) filings. Even then, the paper trail can be murky. But that is why such legislation would greatly advance the ability of government investigators to piece together who owns what and where.

Read the rest at the Washington Times: MOWBRAY: Sanction multipliers

Comments

[American Delight]

If the companies disclose business ties with Iran, wouldn't the companies be admitting that they're in already violation of the U.S. sanctions regime against Iran?