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Pandora Papers: The Gatekeepers Who Open America to Shell Companies and Secret Owners
PANDORA PAPERS | A GLOBAL INVESTIGATION
THE GATEKEEPERS WHO OPEN AMERICA TO SHELL COMPANIES AND SECRET OWNERS
With scant oversight, registered agents have long been seen as a weak point in the U.S. financial system
By Debbie Cenziper, Will Fitzgibbon, Emily Anderson Stern, Michael Korsh and Alice Crites
April 5, 2022
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The clapboard house sits off a gravel road on the outskirts of town, partly hidden behind a fence and a heaping pile of trash. Here, amid grassland that stretches for miles, 77-year-old Cyndy Jackson is the official gatekeeper for more than 350 companies that operate in the United States and around the world.
The state doesn’t require any training for company representatives like Jackson, known as registered agents. She said she uses the Internet and gut instinct to size up the owners she represents, but has no formal procedures for examining their backgrounds. The state doesn’t require that, either. ... “You just have to kind of go on trust,” said Jackson, an agent for 30 years. “Nobody knows who anybody is anymore.”
Few facilitators in the U.S. financial system operate with as little oversight as the thousands of registered agents who often serve as the only publicly known contact for companies with anonymous owners. ... Oligarchs, criminals and online scammers have reaped the benefits. ... Jackson, for example, has represented companies tied to a disbarred lawyer convicted in California of “pimping and pandering” at massage parlors, a felon who served time in New York for defrauding investors, and a Ukrainian tycoon accused of stealing billions of dollars from one of his nation’s largest banks.
Cyndy Jackson's operation on the outskirts of Cheyenne. The registered agent says of vetting clients: “You just have to kind of go on trust. Nobody knows who anybody is anymore.” (Stephen Speranza For The Washington Post)
Their names and others turned up in an extensive examination by The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) of thousands of company records filed with the state of Wyoming, one of America’s most secretive tax havens. The records came primarily from limited liability companies (LLCs), a business structure that offers tax breaks, legal protections and privacy safeguards.
{snip}
Melodie Hill operates as a registered agent in a camper 30 miles outside Cheyenne. She says she represents over 250 companies, including clients in Brazil, Germany and India. (Stephen Speranza For The Washington Post)
________________
About this story
Will Fitzgibbon is a reporter at the ICIJ. Emily Anderson Stern and Michael Korsh are graduate students in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill Investigative Lab. Design and development by Frank Hulley-Jones.
Media partner Dominika Maciejasz of Agora (Poland) contributed to this report, along with Jordan Anderson, Dhivya Sridar, Eva Herscowitz, Quinn Clark, Hannah Feuer, Grace Wu, Linus Hoeller, Henry Roach and Michelle Liu from Northwestern’s Medill Investigative Lab and Delphine Reuter, Miguel Fiandor, Karrie Kehoe and Kathleen Cahill at the ICIJ.
The Pandora Papers is an investigation based on more than 11.9 million documents revealing the flows of money, property and other assets concealed in the offshore financial system. The Washington Post and other news organizations exposed the involvement of political leaders, examined the growth of the industry within the United States and demonstrated how its secrecy shields assets from governments, creditors and those abused or exploited by the wealthy and powerful. The trove of confidential information, the largest of its kind, was obtained by the ICIJ, which organized the investigation. Read more about this project.
Debbie Cenziper
Follow
Debbie Cenziper is a Pulitzer Prize-winning contributing reporter on the investigative team. For 25 years, Debbie has explored social issues, including affordable housing, education, voting rights and mental health care. At The Post, she has focused heavily on Washington, D.C., writing about development issues that affect poor neighborhoods.
Alice Crites
Follow
Alice Crites is a researcher and librarian who specializes in government and politics and has covered elections since 1994. She was a member of the team that won 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for the coverage of Roy Moore and the subsequent sting attempt on the Post.
THE GATEKEEPERS WHO OPEN AMERICA TO SHELL COMPANIES AND SECRET OWNERS
With scant oversight, registered agents have long been seen as a weak point in the U.S. financial system
By Debbie Cenziper, Will Fitzgibbon, Emily Anderson Stern, Michael Korsh and Alice Crites
April 5, 2022
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The clapboard house sits off a gravel road on the outskirts of town, partly hidden behind a fence and a heaping pile of trash. Here, amid grassland that stretches for miles, 77-year-old Cyndy Jackson is the official gatekeeper for more than 350 companies that operate in the United States and around the world.
The state doesn’t require any training for company representatives like Jackson, known as registered agents. She said she uses the Internet and gut instinct to size up the owners she represents, but has no formal procedures for examining their backgrounds. The state doesn’t require that, either. ... “You just have to kind of go on trust,” said Jackson, an agent for 30 years. “Nobody knows who anybody is anymore.”
Few facilitators in the U.S. financial system operate with as little oversight as the thousands of registered agents who often serve as the only publicly known contact for companies with anonymous owners. ... Oligarchs, criminals and online scammers have reaped the benefits. ... Jackson, for example, has represented companies tied to a disbarred lawyer convicted in California of “pimping and pandering” at massage parlors, a felon who served time in New York for defrauding investors, and a Ukrainian tycoon accused of stealing billions of dollars from one of his nation’s largest banks.
Cyndy Jackson's operation on the outskirts of Cheyenne. The registered agent says of vetting clients: “You just have to kind of go on trust. Nobody knows who anybody is anymore.” (Stephen Speranza For The Washington Post)
Their names and others turned up in an extensive examination by The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) of thousands of company records filed with the state of Wyoming, one of America’s most secretive tax havens. The records came primarily from limited liability companies (LLCs), a business structure that offers tax breaks, legal protections and privacy safeguards.
{snip}
Melodie Hill operates as a registered agent in a camper 30 miles outside Cheyenne. She says she represents over 250 companies, including clients in Brazil, Germany and India. (Stephen Speranza For The Washington Post)
________________
About this story
Will Fitzgibbon is a reporter at the ICIJ. Emily Anderson Stern and Michael Korsh are graduate students in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill Investigative Lab. Design and development by Frank Hulley-Jones.
Media partner Dominika Maciejasz of Agora (Poland) contributed to this report, along with Jordan Anderson, Dhivya Sridar, Eva Herscowitz, Quinn Clark, Hannah Feuer, Grace Wu, Linus Hoeller, Henry Roach and Michelle Liu from Northwestern’s Medill Investigative Lab and Delphine Reuter, Miguel Fiandor, Karrie Kehoe and Kathleen Cahill at the ICIJ.
The Pandora Papers is an investigation based on more than 11.9 million documents revealing the flows of money, property and other assets concealed in the offshore financial system. The Washington Post and other news organizations exposed the involvement of political leaders, examined the growth of the industry within the United States and demonstrated how its secrecy shields assets from governments, creditors and those abused or exploited by the wealthy and powerful. The trove of confidential information, the largest of its kind, was obtained by the ICIJ, which organized the investigation. Read more about this project.
Debbie Cenziper
Follow
Debbie Cenziper is a Pulitzer Prize-winning contributing reporter on the investigative team. For 25 years, Debbie has explored social issues, including affordable housing, education, voting rights and mental health care. At The Post, she has focused heavily on Washington, D.C., writing about development issues that affect poor neighborhoods.
Alice Crites
Follow
Alice Crites is a researcher and librarian who specializes in government and politics and has covered elections since 1994. She was a member of the team that won 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for the coverage of Roy Moore and the subsequent sting attempt on the Post.
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