Story highlights Matthew Gardner: The problem of financial secrecy applies to the United States, too

That's especially in states where hiding behind a shell company is easy, he says

A study calls the U.S. the third-biggest offender when it comes to financial secrecy, tax evasion

Matthew Gardner is the executive director of The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, an arm of Citizens for Tax Justice, a public interest research and advocacy organization focusing on tax policies and their impact. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Anonymous shell corporations and secret bank accounts are vital resources for those engaged in tax evasion and money laundering. But this web of secrecy has started to crumble in recent years due in part to revelations from whistle-blowers embedded in this complex web of tax havens and fake corporations.

Matthew Gardner

The latest leak to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), dubbed the Panama Papers , reveals that a single law firm, Mossack Fonseca, facilitated the creation of more than 200,000 offshore entities.

The scope of the activity exposed so far is disturbing. Current and former heads of state have been implicated in the leaks, raising serious questions about the source of the money. The documents also connect celebrities and wealthy individuals to the Panama-based law firm.

Anonymous shell corporations are the lifeblood of illicit financial activities because they allow individuals to hide their identities, their activities and their source of financing behind a faceless corporate entity. But while Mossack Fonseca and Panama are each responsible for this tidal wave of financial skullduggery, neither the law firm nor the country is unusual.

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Firms in the United States play the same role as Mossack Fonseca, possibly on a larger scale, and they are doing so with the tacit blessing of our lax financial secrecy laws.