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The Panama Papers isn't just "over there." When it comes to preventing criminals, terrorists and the corrupt from setting up anonymous shell companies to launder their money, the United States has a critical role to play. And as a pastor, I can't understate the urgency of this struggle in lifting up the human dignity of the poorest and most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters around the world.

Terrorists, drug traffickers, arms dealers, corrupt foreign politicians and other criminals regularly set up "shell companies" here and elsewhere to launder ill-gotten revenues and use that money for further criminal activities.

A trove of more than 11 million documents from a Panamanian law firm leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) this week shows the deadly, devastating toll that anonymous companies take on the world, highlighting the need for U.S. action.

I am flying to Washington next week as an unpaid volunteer lobbyist, along with religious leaders and other small business owners from around the country, to talk to my congresswoman, Rep. Mia Love, and our two senators — Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee — about ending the abuse of anonymous companies as part of a national event organized by the religious anti-poverty organization Jubilee USA and the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.

As constituents and in my case as a faith leader, we are asking Congress to pass a law to stop the creation of anonymous shell companies that facilitate crimes that victimize hardworking citizens, while providing legitimacy to criminals and tax evaders. Right now America is one of the easiest places in the world to form these companies set up to hide the true identity of those who profit from its operations.

Much of what these companies do through hidden subsidiaries is illegal or, at least not in the public interest. For example, an anonymous Delaware company is alleged to have purchased property tax liens in several states and forced vulnerable homeowners into foreclosure.

In New York, an anonymous company invested in a Manhattan office building and used rents to funnel millions of dollars illegally to the government of Iran, slipping through sanctions then in force by the U.S. and other governments.

Beyond facilitating terror and criminality in the United States, these phantom firms are part of a web of offshore tax haven secrecy that illicitly drains more than a trillions per year from developing and emerging economies — undermining poverty-alleviation efforts in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Scores of media outlets collaborating with the ICIJ have begun publishing a series of stories based on documents leaked from the prominent Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. This so-called "Panama Papers" investigation shows how secretly owned companies, many of them based in Nevada, Wyoming and the U.K.'s tax havens, can act as getaway cars for terrorists, dictators, money launderers and tax evaders all over the world.

The time has come to take away the keys, by requiring the collection of information on who really owns and controls these companies. This would make it much harder to launder dirty money and leave the rest of us safer.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Peter King, R-N.Y., and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has introduced legislation requiring every company to disclose their true owners when they incorporate and to update that information regularly.

As influential members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — where the bill is being considered — Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee can both be leaders in ensuring the passage of this commonsense measure.

Likewise, Rep. Mia Love holds an important position on the House Financial Services Committee, where she can work to move the companion bill forward.

The abuse of anonymous companies is a systemic problem that hurts us all. Our congressional delegation has been given the opportunity to champion this measure to protect the American people from terrorists and drug cartels. Let's seize the moment.

Transparency, after all, must be a cornerstone of our financial system. Let there be light.

Rev. David Nichols is pastor of Mount Tabor Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City.