Confirmation Hochul Veto Has Wrecked Key NYS Anti-Money-Laundering Law

In December 2025, Governor Hochul vetoed a bill amending the NY LLC Transparency Act so it no longer depended on U.S. Treasury regulations cancelled by the Trump administration. Reinvent Albany strongly supported the amendments (A8662-A (Gallagher) / S8432 (Hoylman-Sigal) because we knew that without them, the New York State law would be functionally nullified.

Unfortunately, we were right, as the NYS Department of State recently issued guidance confirming that only foreign-owned LLCs must disclose to the state the human who actually owns them. Reinvent Albany supported this legislation because there is massive evidence that LLCs, commonly called “shell companies,” are one of the main tools used by global narco-traffickers, terrorists, online fraudsters and other criminals to launder their money – especially by purchasing New York City real estate.

Before its demise at the hands of Hochul and Trump, the LLC Transparency Act required all LLCs doing business in NYS to report their beneficial owners to the state. New York’s law was inspired by the federal Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which was enacted after Congress overrode Trump’s veto in 2020. Unfortunately, the second Trump administration gutted the law to require only foreign-owned LLCs to register. The federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) estimates that because of this, the number of LLCs required to disclose beneficial owners will drop from 32,500,000 to 11,667.

More than 20 watchdog groups and unions urged Governor Hochul to sign the bill amending, and Trump-proofing, the New York law. Instead, she vetoed it, protecting money launderers, tax cheats, and the lawyers, real estate developers, and others who profit from them.