Biden administration unveils first anti-corruption plan

The Biden administration on Monday released the first-ever United States Strategy on Countering Corruption, which focuses on preventing bad actors using the U.S. and international financial systems to hide assets and launder money.

The 38-page plan to crack down on corruption was released ahead of the virtual Summit for Democracy, which the Biden administration is hosting on Thursday and Friday and will include over 100 participants from governments, civil society and the private sector.

Five pillars were announced to guide the implementation of the strategy, including modernizing the efforts to fight corruption by prioritizing intelligence collection and analysis and boosting coordination across industries. 

The pillars also include curbing illicit finance through steps like issuing beneficial ownership transparency regulations to identify bad actors and enacting first-of-their-kind regulations surrounding real estate transactions to reveal when real estate is used to hide ill-gotten cash or to launder criminal proceeds.

The release on the strategy follows President Biden in June declaring the fight against corruption a core U.S. national security interest, during which he directed his national security team to lead the creation of a comprehensive strategy.

The administration plans to hold corrupt actors accountable by elevating diplomatic efforts and leveraging foreign assistance resources to achieve anti-corruption policy goals.

It plans to make anti-corruption work a priority of diplomatic efforts and re-evaluate criteria for government-to-government assistance on corruption.