Welcome to the bizarre world of anonymous shell corporations.
The average American likely knows very little about them. But your average terrorist, drug-trafficker, tax evader or money launderer is well versed in the art of legal anonymity. Every day they make or move illicit money, and America’s lax incorporation laws make it easy to hide the money behind anonymous shell companies and launder it through U. S. and foreign banks and their branches.
Take, for example, the case of Michel De Jesus Huarte, who defrauded Medicare of more than $4.5 million using a fake AIDS clinic in Miami and 29 other anonymous shell companies. It took years for law enforcement to cobble together the web of fraudulent companies that was spread across several states, and it confounded investigators…
Anonymous U.S. shell companies shielded the Iranian ownership of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper in a scheme designed to skirt U.S. sanctions and funnel money from the United States to Iranian agents around the world. Ironically, it was corporate records maintained by the UK’s Isle of Jersey that provided the key break in the case. That’s right, the Isle of Jersey — a jurisdiction many in this country consider a “tax haven” — has incorporation laws with greater transparency than those in our own country. Small wonder that many foreign jurisdictions accuse the United States of hypocrisy when it comes to international banking standards.
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