Anonymous shell companies are one of the most commonly used methods that the criminal and corrupt – think money launderers, sex traffickers, tax evaders, corrupt government politicians – use to move and hide money. What makes them anonymous? The person who owns the company can hide their identify behind a veil of secrecy, even listing someone else as the owner! Making matters worse, in all 50 U.S. states, more information is required to get a library card than to set up an anonymous shell company.
Sound absurd? It is.
To illustrate just how absurdly easy it is to set up an anonymous shell company in the US, we created this handy cheat sheet. You know, in case you want to get in on the action or, better yet, get as angry as we are and tell your Senators to do something about it.
