Hi members!
And for those of you in the US, a happy tax day to us one and all. This week’s field guide is tied a bit to the ides of April, as we’re looking at how the United States became just a terrific place to hide your money. I know what you’re thinking: “But, Sam, I thought that kind of secret account stuff happens in the Caymans or, if we were in the 1960s, Switzerland.”
Times have changed. A trio of states in the US—Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming—have made it ridiculously easy to register a corporation or LLC with little to no verification. That means vast sums of money can be stored with almost no information about who owns it, which can be a great assistance to drug lords, kleptocrats, tax evaders, and other malfeasants.
Our intrepid reporter, Max de Haldevang, centers his state of play memo around a deep dive into this murky bog of fiduciary opacity, interviewing state secretaries, legislators, and the fixers who will set up a company for just about anyone with a checkbook. Later this week, we’ll publish Max’s interview with US senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, who would like to see and end to the regulatory sleights of hand that prioritize revenues over rectitude, as well as a review of Moneyland, Olivier Bullough’s deep examination of kleptocracy and the systems and institutions which aid it.
We also have something completely different: a video interview with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has a new book out, Trillion Dollar Coach, on the value of a good advisor. Schmidt himself benefitted from great coaching, learning from former Intuit CEO Bill Campbell, who went on to mentor some of Silicon Valley’s greats, including Steve Jobs, eBay’s John Donohue, Twitter’s Dick Costolo, and even Al Gore in his post-political life.
This week also includes more travel strategies and analysis from Rosie Spinks, the latest dispatches from Private Key, and much more. And, of course, we’ll have our weekly video conference call on Friday at 11 a.m. ET/4 p.m. GMT, to talk with Max more about how money is hidden in the US from sea to shining sea. Click here to add the call to Google calendar, or join us at this link on Friday.
As always, we want to hear from you. Send questions, comments, and impenetrable webs of LLCs to members@qz.com.
Here’s to a rewarding day,
Sam Grobart
membership editor