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Shell Companies Present Customer Identification Difficulties for Banks
By Selina Roman
printMichael McDonald and Steven Smith needed 10 days, $2,190 and a formation agent to create three corporations-one each in New York, Florida and Panama. With the agent's help, the two men, both former IRS investigators, set the companies up anonymously. None of the companies -- Greenlink Ventures in New York, Grant Franklin & Associates in Florida, and Griffin Internacional S.A. -- has a physical office, or even a fax line. But within days of their creation, McDonald and Smith wired about $12,000 among the U.S. companies through an Internet bank account without revealing their identities. Smith and McDonald, who owns...
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