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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A Little House of Secrets on the Great Plains

The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne, Wyoming.

At a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people, more than 2,000 companies are registered. The building, 2710 Thomes Avenue, isn't a shimmering skyscraper filled with A-list corporations. It's a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn, a few blocks from the State Capitol.

Neighbors say they see little activity there besides regular mail deliveries and a woman who steps outside for smoke breaks. Inside, however, the walls of the main room are covered floor to ceiling with numbered mailboxes labeled as corporate "suites." A bulky copy machine sits in the kitchen. In the living room, a woman in a headset answers calls and sorts bushels of mail.

A Reuters investigation has found the house at 2710 Thomes Avenue serves as a little Cayman Island on the Great Plains. It is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, a business-incorporation specialist that establishes firms which can be used as "shell" companies, paper entities able to hide assets.

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1 comment:

lmclain said...

I'm SURE it's legal and all the bribes have been properly paid to those who made the laws that allow it, but as a citizen, I'm outraged that the IRS and state tax agencies will go after EVERY DIME a normal citizen owes, and disallow (with severe penalties and interest) the slightest questionable deduction, but WILL allow this OBVIOUS scam designed to cheat the tax laws and hide assets (to avoid taxes). And the average citizen is supposed to "respect" the system?? And the lawmakers who put these laws in place? Well, somehow, on their salary, they have acquired the finer things in life ---mansions, expensive cars, the best colleges for their kids, vacations and trips to exclusive places. But THAT is also not a problem for the IRS?