Maine is joining nearly 20 states in suing to stop the Trump administration from gutting an anti-corruption law.
Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act, which requires corporations, LLCs and other entities to report identifying information about their beneficial owners to the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
That is meant to stop shell companies from hiding financial transactions from law enforcement, who can use the data to trace dirty money, track down stolen assets and uncover bribes and political corruption, according to the Maine attorney general’s office, which announced the lawsuit Thursday morning.
President Donald Trump vetoed the bill in the waning days of his first administration. The House and Senate overrode his veto.
On March 26, 2025, the Treasury Department issued a rule that exempted 99.9% of businesses from the law, according to the attorney general’s office. The financial crime office has said it will delete all data previously reported to it.
The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration is violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the separation of powers and take care clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
“It is inexplicable that the Trump Administration wants to change the rules to make it harder to catch and prosecute white collar crime,” Attorney General Frey said in a statement. “The bipartisan law the Administration is trying to dismantle is an effective mechanism for law enforcement to uncover illegal financial schemes and hold wrongdoers accountable. The American people deserve a system where people and corporations are accountable to the law.”
The coalition of states wants a judge to vacate the Treasury’s new rule and declare it unlawful and prevent the financial crime office from purging its database.
Frey joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.