shell corporations
Empty business entities
Shell corporations are companies that exist on paper but have no significant assets, operations, or employees.
They serve primarily as legal structures—holding assets, managing transactions, or obscuring ownership.
Legitimate uses include facilitating mergers or protecting intellectual property.
But shell corporations are frequently associated with tax avoidance, money laundering, and hiding the identity of true owners: The investigation traced payments through a maze of shell corporations registered in the Cayman Islands.
- beneficial ownershipWho truly holds assets
- straw manFake version to demolish
- tax evasionIllegally avoiding government dues
- legal entityOrganization with rights
- tax havenZero-rate wealth jurisdiction
money laundering · dirty money · Russian oligarchs · anonymity · front companies · white-collar crime · tranches · Panama Papers · offshore accounts · numbered accounts · forensic accounting · paper trail · follow the money · due diligence · file · financial crime · layering · hidden assets
shell corporationstrading companies
Businesses conducting commerce
service providers · employers · factories · family businesses · multinational corporations
shell corporationscooperatives
Member-owned collective enterprises
nonprofit organizations · government agencies · credit unions
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