Come to Las Vegas to Hide Your Wealth: Not Panama

Las Vegas, Nevada. 9 April (Asiantribune.com):

For the wealthy, here in the United States and abroad - Sri Lankans included - looking to veil their assets and shield some of their income, need not go to Panama: a shell corporation can be established in Las Vegas, Nevada with ease and no hassle.

If you want to be away from this 'entertainment city' or 'Sin City' we call, the wealthy can establish such shell corporations in the states of Wyoming or Delaware, the U.S. vice president Joe Biden's home state.

“Why incorporate in Nevada?” the state’s website advertised in 2007. “Minimal reporting and disclosing requirements. Stockholders are not public record.”

“If somebody is conducting an investigation and it comes back to a Delaware company and you want to find who or what is behind that company, you basically strike out,” John A. Cassara, a former special agent for the Treasury Department said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the F.B.I., at the federal level, state or local. Even the Department of Justice can’t get the information. There is nothing you can do.”

He recalled a case where investigators ended up abandoning their inquiry of a Nevada-based corporation that had received more than 3,700 suspicious wire transfers totaling $81 million over two years.

http://asiantribune.com/node/88823