Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law this week legislation designed to make limited liability companies more transparent, much to the chagrin of supporters who opposed Hochul’s cutting from the bill a searchable public database with LLC ownership information.

The amended LLC Transparency Act will now reveal only to law enforcement officials and government agencies the identities of owners of LLCs to help them prevent unlawful activity, including wage theft, money laundering and tenant mistreatment.

“For far too long, bad actors have been protected by the loose disclosure requirements of LLC ownership,” Hochul said. “The new LLC Transparency Act will give law enforcement and state regulators the tools they need to hold bad actors accountable.”

Sponsored by Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher and Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the bill is expected to help curtail money laundering in Manhattan’s high-end residential real estate market by revealing ownership details and promoting transparency. The bill was also supported by some district attorneys, and a coalition of tenants’ rights, social justice, labor unions and watchdog groups, as well as the government-reform group Reinvent Albany. But New York City’s real estate industry, which is a major campaign donor to Hochul and other top state politicians, opposed letting the public know the identity of LLC owners.

Citing privacy concerns, Hochul issued a “chapter amendment” that the Legislature’s leaders approved, which will keep the database of LLC owners from the public.

“The core element of the LLC Transparency Act was the public database of the owners of limited liability companies,” said John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany.

“Without a public database of LLC owners, the public will never know if LLC owners are following the law or the state of New York is enforcing it,” said Kaehny.

While talking to The Buffalo News last week, Kaehny had expressed concerns over Hochul possibly amending the bill.

“It will be extremely hard from the outside to be able to monitor the progress because it’s a private database,” he said.

If Hochul had not issued the chapter amendment, New York would have been the first state to require public disclosure of the owners of LLCs, in addition to making the information available to government agencies.

“We think that New York had a big chance to do something right here and the governor squandered that opportunity,” Kaehny said.