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But just how easy is it to establish a bogus, anonymously owned shell entity in the United States that could be used to funnel money offshore to evade taxes or finance terrorism or crime? I decided to see for myself.If I were a real crook or bagman, experts I spoke with advised, I'd "layer" my money laundering network by setting up a firm in one haven and subsidiaries of it elsewhere. I started out in Delaware, where secrecy rules are as tight as anywhere in the world. My initial choice as registered agent—the company that files the requisite paperwork, collects fees to be paid to the state, and sometimes appoints "nominee" directors—was CT at 1209 Orange Street in Wilmington. That's the listed address for more than 200,000 companies, from corporate giants like Google, Coca-Cola, and General Motors to countless anonymous shell vehicles like the one I planned to create.If I were a real crook or bagman, experts I spoke with advised, I'd "layer" my money laundering network by setting up a firm in one haven and subsidiaries of it elsewhere.
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It took us about an hour to fill out the paperwork. Then we emailed two pages to my friend in Washington for her to sign and return. "You're not hiding from the law, are you?" McGuffey said with a chuckle after I'd asked, for roughly the tenth time, for confirmation that my name wouldn't appear anywhere in the shell firm's records."No, it's just a matter of privacy,"I replied. "It's a long story." She didn't ask for details and I was soon out the door.Two days later, I checked the Nevada Secretary of State's website and was pleased to see that Seabasstian Consulting, LLC, named in honor of my daughter's pet Siamese fighting fish, was now a legitimate shell firm, operating from CSG's address and managed by MCSE, the Delaware shell. All this had been accomplished in less than a week and for under $1,000.With Seabasstian Consulting and MCSE I was positioned to go into business as a drug trafficker or arms trader or dictator's bagman. But Heather Lowe, head of Global Financial Integrity, told me that I'd probably want to create several more subsidiaries offshore to put a few extra layers between me and my American shell companies. After that, I could open a foreign bank account that would be very hard for the IRS or international law enforcement to trace. "You might have to look around a little, but you would be able to find a foreign banker who'd open an account for you," she said.The possibilities were virtually endless, and I could do it all without straying far from home. I could, for example, set up a Seabasstian Consulting subsidiary on Nevis, the Caribbean island that provides "complete secrecy" for company owners, according to a US-based firm called Offshore Corporation (which helps clients set up shells online or at its offices in Santa Clarita, California or Coral Springs, Florida). The Nevis shell could then be used to set up yet another dummy company in, say, Liberia, which may be a failed state currently being ravaged by Ebola but has a highly efficient, loosely regulated corporate registry that operates out of Vienna, Virginia, in the DC suburbs.But if I really wanted to secretly funnel my money offshore, I'd make an appointment with Mossack Fonseca and fly down to Panama City. It would cost a little bit more, but why deal with second-rate competitors when I could go straight to the top of the international shell-company incorporation racket?Ken Silverstein is an investigative reporter for the Intercept.With Seabasstian Consulting and MCSE I was positioned to go into business as a drug trafficker or arms trader or dictator's bagman.