| Firms like Registered Agents file official paperwork on behalf of businesses and, in doing so, can be used to help mask the true owners. Registered Agents told ICIJ that it works closely with law enforcement and does not have extensive ties to the firms it helps administer. "Our address and business name appear as a registered agent on thousands of business entity records with the Wyoming Secretary of State, which has been misconstrued as us having a controlling interest in, or extensive relationship with, those entities," Dan Mahoney, a spokesperson for the company, said in an emailed statement. "This is simply not the case." In recent years Wyoming, the country's least populated state, has emerged as the nation's leading tax haven. The fraud indictments add to growing evidence that Wyoming is a major new destination for people outside the state — including criminals, suspected North Korean sanctions evaders, and those with wealth of dubious origin — to incorporate secretive limited liability companies, or LLCs, and other entities to hold and move cash. Tara Berg, the county assessor for Wyoming's Fremont County, told ICIJ that over the past several years residents have begun complaining about shell companies that, in an apparent attempt to appear legitimate, have falsely used the residents' home addresses on corporate filings. "We have people bringing us stacks of mail that they're getting for these companies at their addresses," Berg said. "People are panicked." Read more here.
MASS IRS FIRINGS IMPERIL AUDITS OF ULTRA-WEALTHY
Some audits of rich individuals and corporations are at immediate risk of being closed prematurely due to a lack of personnel, several current IRS employees told ICIJ. Closing those audits could amount to millions of lost dollars in public revenue.
E.U. SANCTIONS CRYPTO EXCHANGE GARANTEX
The Council of the European Union sanctioned Garantex for being "closely associated with EU-sanctioned Russian banks," nearly a year after an investigation by Eesti Ekspress and ICIJ found that a firm with multiple connections to Garantex co-owns a debt-collection business with a convicted gang leader and has ties to Rosneft, the Kremlin-tied oil firm.
ICIJ COLLAB WINS THIRD FOR ASU'S SHAUFLER PRIZE
The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism recognized "Cargo trucks: a trap for migrants," and April cross-border investigation led by Noticias Telemundo and the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) that documented migrant journeys to the U.S. border under dangerous conditions.
AN ALLEGED 'STRAW DONOR' TO NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS LINKED TO RUSSIA
A New York luxury landlord named among the alleged "straw donors" in the criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams has ties to the Uzbek owner of a billion-dollar energy company once co-owned by a Kremlin-run bank.
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Carmen Molina Acosta
ICIJ's digital producer
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