Who is that 943 years old minority shareholder of a Belgium-based business services firm?

2 comments

1. Here’s the full text (I just noticed there’s a paywall):

   ## Elsewhere in third-party audits

   Here is a [ report from Moody’s about shell companies](https://link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/click/34110962.211862/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubW9vZHlzLmNvbS93ZWIvZW4vdXMvYWJvdXQvaW5zaWdodHMvZGF0YS1zdG9yaWVzL2t5Yy1pbm5vdmF0aW9uLXNoZWxsLWNvbXBhbnktaW5kaWNhdG9yLmh0bWw/5f80c50a7304773c5e5a6dc8B176dece2). “Shell company” is a somewhat vague term, referring to “corporations without significant business assets or operations,” in Moody’s words. There is in general nothing particularly nefarious about having some spare corporations lying around, to optimize liability or ownership or debt subordination or jurisdiction or, yes, fine, of course, taxes. (When I was a young mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer I would occasionally form a bunch of Delaware shell companies for future use doing mergers, and I always got a tiny Bond-villainish thrill from putting my name on them.) But, says Moody’s, “these legal instruments can be abused by bad actors to launder money gained through illicit activities, such as trafficking and environmental crime. They can create a mask for sanctioned individuals to disguise their business ownership, and they can hide financial crimes, such as tax evasion, fraud, and bribery.” 

   So Moody’s analyzed a database of “more than 472 million companies” to identify red flags for when a company might be a *bad* shell company, or a shell company anyway? 

   >Moody’s industry practitioners say that a company that raises two or more flags may be at a heightened risk of being a shell company, that is to say, a corporation without active business operations or significant assets. The indication that an entity is a shell company gives customers the ability to further investigate whether the company is potentially being used for illicit activities.

   Red flags include “mass registration” (if someone forms 100 companies on the same day, they’re probably shells), “jurisdictional risk” (Panama), “financial anomalies” (“a China-based textiles and clothing manufacturer reported more than $2 billion in revenue in 2019 — and only one employee”), “dormancy,” “circular ownership” and “atypical directorships” (too many directors at a company, or one director being on too many boards). And: “By sector, the business services sector raises the most flags with approximately 3.6 million total,” which sounds right; if you’re going to set up a fake company it will probably be in the “business services” sector rather than, like, biotech. (“Wholesale” comes in second.)

   But the best red flag is director age. Directors of big public companies tend to be serious professionals chosen for their expertise and judgment, but directors of shell companies are often warm bodies chosen for their willingness to sign their names to documents. (Again, as a young mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer, I probably made myself a director of a few merger subs.) Directors of *shady* shell companies, then, have some propensity to be … cold bodies? People who signed fake names to documents? 

   >The average age of registered company directors in Moody’s database is 52 years. A director is typically appointed by the company’s shareholders or board of directors, and their name is listed on the public register of the company. In many jurisdictions, minors under the age of 18 aren’t eligible to be directors.
   Moody’s tool has revealed thousands of directors who are as young as zero or older than the world’s longest-living person on record. One listed director — at 943 years old — would have been born in the 11th century. This director is allegedly a minority shareholder and beneficial owner of a Belgium-based business services firm that incorporated in 2018.

   Har har har but also there are allegedly more than 30,000 shell company directors who are older than 100? Seems high.

2. honestly, this is 10000 times more likely to be a data entry problem than anything else…