Nevada cracking down on local offshore business?

We are heartened to see this news:

"Corporate entities registered in Nevada and the formation agents and registered agents representing those entities will be the focus of the new Corporate Ownership Fraud Task Force that was announced today by Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller. The Task Force will investigate registered Nevada business entities that are suspected of being involved in illegal activities including tax evasion, money laundering, securities violations, and the marketing of shell or shelf companies for fraudulent and/or deceptive purposes."

This partnership between Nevada authorities and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) represents important progress. We wouldn't be at all surprised if this wasn't prompted by Reuters' recent superb and penetrating investigations into shell companies in U.S. states, including in Nevada. In fact, we'd be surprised if it wasn't triggered by Reuters' digging. Exposure of rottenness can work wonders. It's interesting to see that this is Nevada itself taking an initiative. As remarked recently, it also seems likely that Reuters was instrumental in getting legislators in Wyoming to take this stuff seriously.

As regards Nevada, this is also encouraging:

“We have a unique law in Nevada which allows us to demand a list of beneficial owners of any entity registered in Nevada that is suspected of illegal activities,” said Miller. “We plan to use that law aggressively, which is why I’ve brought in a criminal prosecutor to be my liaison to the Task Force. Tera Ames has already launched investigations into some of these corporations, and with the assistance and resources of the other Task Force members we’ll be stepping up our pursuit of fraudulent activity.
. . .
we have in fact seen some individuals and entities falsely promoting Nevada as a safe haven for criminal activity. Some of these marketing campaigns are promoting illegal activity and we intend to work through the task force to bring them to justice.”

Plenty of negative stuff has been happening recently, but this - as long as it ends up showing teeth - would seem to represent important steps in the other direction.

And we do see early signs of teeth:

"The Secretary of State’s Securities Division has issued a cease and desist order to a Wyoming company doing business in Nevada to stop selling shell corporations registered with his office because it is a securities violation. Secretary of State Ross Miller says the sale of Nevada corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) includes the sale of stocks or shares, and is therefore regulated by Nevada’s securities statutes and regulations."

It is particularly interesting to see states cracking down on abuses operated out of other states. If only there were more of this kind of stuff.