Scammers use registered agent site because of tax benefits, legislative loopholes

SHERIDAN — When Pam Jessen placed an online order through the company DeFlorance, she expected a new pair of running shoes to arrive near the front door of her Colorado home. What she wasn’t expecting was more than 56 email exchanges, 12 left messages, dozens of supposed “deliveries” and no shoes to show for it. 

“It says (the package) is out for delivery, and then the same day, they say, ‘We regret to inform you we were unable to reach you near delivery,’” Jessen explained. “And it goes on and on.”

Jessen said she spent hours trying to reach a real person when contacting DeFlorance and its supposed delivery company. But most of these inquiries led to dead ends. She threatened legal action against the company and accepted that she had fallen prey to an illegitimate company. 

Then she received a promotional email from the company listing a physical address of 30 N. Gould St., Sheridan.

“All of a sudden, it had that address listed in Wyoming,” Jessen said. “It’s never been there before.”

30 N. Gould St. — a 4,125 square-foot office building one block from Main Street — isn’t home to just DeFlorance. It’s home to hundreds of thousands of businesses that use the site as a commercial registered agent for their limited liability companies. 

It’s a legitimate business model, often used by small businesses looking to separate business assets from personal assets, or to avoid listing home addresses on public records. 

But starting an LLC in Wyoming and using a registered agent at a physical Wyoming address allows companies to use Wyoming’s privacy laws and tax breaks without doing business in the state — thus paving the way for companies that aren’t legitimate businesses to take advantage of this system.

Taxes and anonymity

Wyoming has no corporate taxes, meaning businesses can retain a larger percentage of their profits with a higher rate of returns for investors. Wyoming also has no individual income tax, so businesses identifying as LLCs avoid being taxed on their businesses twice. These policies are part of the reason why Wyoming has the most business-friendly tax climate in the state, according to a 2024 report from the Tax Foundation. 

What is an LLC?

An LLC allows companies to separate personal assets from business debts and lawsuits. This system gives business owners the flexibility to have multiple members and set unique profit distribution rules between owners.  LLC owners also have pass-through taxation, meaning the business is taxed at the individual level instead of the corporate level. In a state with no income or corporate taxes, like Wyoming, this can be incredibly advantageous for companies. 

Registering an LLC in Wyoming requires developing a business name, finding a registered agent and filing the Articles of Organization through the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office. The registered agent's name, contact information and location must be listed on this paperwork, but not the business owners’ addresses or contact information.

Wyoming charges a one-time filing fee of $100 plus processing fees. Annual report fees start at $60 and increase based on the LLC’s assets.

“An entrepreneur may decide to register their business with the state of Wyoming as an LLC,” explained P.J. Burns, regional director of the Wyoming Small Business Development Center Network. “What that really does for the entrepreneur is it separates the business from them personally, liability-wise… the only things that would be liable would be the assets of the business and not necessarily their personal assets.”

The Wyoming Limited Liability Company Act outlines the terms and regulations imposed on LLCs. 

Registered agents are a legal liaison and contact point for an LLC, acting as its official address for all legal documents, state filings and government notices. Burns said a registered agent can be the business owner themselves, an attorney, or a commercial company — like many that operate out of 30 N. Gould St.

The state of Wyoming Secretary of State Business Division lists several commercial registered agent businesses under the 30 N. Gould St. location, including Registered Agents Inc., Registered Agent Services LLC, Registered Agent Warrior LLC, Business Anywhere, Wyoming Nexus LLC and Best Wyoming Registered Agent.

“We understand there’s local concern around how 30 N. Gould is used and the confusion it can create for community members,” a spokesperson for Registered Agents Inc said in an August statement to The Press. “What’s sometimes lost in the conversation is that this setup isn’t unique to Sheridan, it’s a common and legal structure used in nearly every single state that markets itself as business-friendly.” 

 The spokesperson, who is a member of Registered Agent Inc.’s representative public relations firm, said Registered Agents Inc’s company alone represents thousands of businesses each year, all using the same 30 N. Gould St. address as their business’s location. 

“We cannot know a person’s intent when they are in the process of forming a new business,” the spokesperson said.

According to data collected by the corporate transparency site OpenCorporates, the appeal of establishing an LLC in Wyoming doesn’t stop at tax benefits. 

Wyoming LLCs also provide a great amount of privacy and security, as LLC owners have lower startup costs and strong asset protection laws with the ability to have an unlimited number of LLC owners and transfer this ownership at any time. Wyoming LLCs do not have to list their members with the state — all that is required is the address of the registered agent. Owners of these LLCs do not have to be citizens of Wyoming or citizens of the United States.

Wyoming LLC laws vs. neighboring states

Montana

LLCs formed in Montana have lower initial filing fees than Wyoming, according to Nevada Corporate Headquarters, LLC Experts. Montana’s initial filing fee is $35, and annual report fees can be as low as $20. Montana has a higher corporate income tax (6.75%) and personal income tax (1-6.75%). Unlike Wyoming, Montana does not offer anonymous ownership

Colorado

LLCs formed in Colorado have chapter LLC filing fees, according to Nevada Corporate Headquarters, LLC experts. Colorado’s initial filing fee is $50 with a $10 annual report fee. State income tax is higher, ranging from 4.63-5.7%. Colorado also does not offer anonymity, as members’ names must be included in public filings.

According to OpenCorporates, 93% of Wyoming’s business filings in 2023 were LLCs, with the most per capita corporations in the country at 378 per 1,000 adults. Despite this small business growth, OpenCorporates reports there is no correlation between the increase of LLC incorporations in the state and Wyoming’s gross domestic product — meaning the increase of LLCs has not led to the growth of Wyoming’s economy.

“The Secretary of State is realizing the $103.75 that it costs to register (an LLC in Wyoming),” Burns said. “And then each year (the business owners) have to submit their annual report, which is at the very least $60 a year for each of those businesses to keep their LLC active. So the Secretary of State is realizing income, but it’s not adding to our state’s economy.” 

In 2023, 166,960 LLCs were formed in Wyoming. That year, the Secretary of State’s office collected more than $17 million from registration costs alone.

Time and resources

At the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce, CEO Teresa Detimore said her office continues to field phone calls and emails from people complaining about businesses associated with 30 N. Gould St.

The Sheridan Press office also receives weekly messages from people who have been scammed by a business with an address at this site, experiencing everything from missing shipments, fake prescriptions and faulty products to impersonations, identity theft and fraud. Because the only contact point for these companies is through the registered agent at 30 N. Gould St., these businesses are hard to track down, and Wyoming LLC laws make it simple for businesses to shut down or switch ownership quickly. 

Jessen said she wasn’t expecting to fall victim to a scam. As a former investigative reporter, she had spent many years of her career looking into fraud and business scams. But she said it can happen to anyone. 

“I think because there are no consequences and nobody is trying to curb it, it has exploded,” Jessen said. “I think it’s probably worse than ever, with the internet and social media.” 

In recent years, Jessen believes the lack of accountability and legal action taken nationwide is giving scammers an incentive to continue.  

“The reason they continue to do it is because it works, and there’s no penalty,” she said. “I would love for the federal and state governments to work together to protect consumers.” 

The Wyoming Secretary of State’s office, Wyoming Attorney General's office and the Better Business Bureau serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming did not respond to repeated requests for comments about their vetting processes for LLC businesses, but Burns said the Secretary of State’s office does not vet all the LLCs filed in Wyoming.

“I’m not sure it has the capacity to do that,” she said.

As regional director with the SBDC, Burns said she receives many requests from businesses based at 30 N. Gould St., asking to use the trainings, programs and services offered through the SBDC. She said the office has to assess what companies are actually based in Wyoming and contributing to the state’s economy. 

“We get funding through our state to help businesses that are located in our state. So it makes it difficult for us to utilize those resources for businesses that aren’t actually located here,” Burns said.

Outside of state resources, illegitimate businesses with Wyoming LLCs also create problems on the international level. OpenCorporates reports that Wyoming LLCs have been linked to computer hacking and money laundering.

“Features (of Wyoming LLCs) are attractive for lots of people, but they are essential for organized crime, money launderers, foreign states evading sanctions or financing terrorism,” OpenCorporates wrote in a December 2024 report. “The result can be mass-incorporation by bad actors, bringing in millions in filing fees but costing tens or hundreds of billions in losses.”

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray said his office has taken a number of steps to dissolve businesses that have filed fraudulent documents with the Secretary of State. He did not respond to follow-up questions regarding how his office vets and dissolves these businesses.

“Our office has taken action against a number of bad actors, including foreign adversaries like North Korea,” Gray said in an email to The Press. “We have also markedly increased complete, in-person audits of commercial registered agents from previous administrations, resulting in a number of active investigations and findings to ensure compliance with Wyoming law.”

Legislative setbacks

Members of the Wyoming legislature have proposed legislation to increase regulations placed on LLCs, but a number of these initiatives did not come to fruition. 

In 2024, state senator and lawyer Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, proposed a House bill to modify the duties of registered agents and require registered agents to “maintain the names of all owners of each entity.”  

Unlike the Corporate Transparency Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2021, this proposed legislation would not require companies to file beneficial owners to the government. Instead, it would require companies to report this information to their registered agent, Crago explained to The Press in November 2024. 

The Wyoming House of Representatives did not consider the bill for introduction in 2024. It was not proposed during the 2025 Legislative Session. Crago did not respond to The Press for an update on this legislation.

Gray said the Secretary of State’s office testified in favor of Senate File 55 and 56 during the 2025 legislative session. 

Senate File 55 required commercial registered agents who filed 10 or more documents with the Secretary of State in one year must verify their identities through a state-issued driver’s license or identification card. 

“It passed the Wyoming State Senate, but ran out of time in the Wyoming House,” Chuck Gray said in an email to The Press. “This is an issue that needs to be addressed via a bill and we’re doing all we can to ensure that the legislature addresses it.”

Senate File 56, which was signed into law by Gov. Mark Gordon on Feb. 28, 2025, allows the Secretary of State’s office to dissolve businesses that have provided false or fraudulent information to a registered agent. The Secretary of State can determine this through an examination of records or if it is notified of this incorrect information by the LLC’s registered agent.

Gray said the office has already used this Legislation to dissolve fraudulent LLCs. 

Burns said she would like future legislation to promote Wyoming-based LLCs and not out-of-state ones.

 “I would like that, if they are using a registered agent in the state of Wyoming, that they are also physically located here, but it’s not a requirement of the Secretary of State at this time,” she said. “If they were actually located here, they’d be adding to our economy. And that’s what myself, my organization and other economic development organizations across the state want to happen — they want more businesses located here physically and adding to our economy and employing Wyoming people.”

The Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce said stronger methods of verification and enforcement are also necessary for future legislation. 

“Some fraudulent entities are profiting millions while facing minimal consequences. A small fine is hardly a deterrent,” the chamber said in a statement to The Press in November 2024. “At the same time, it’s crucial to strike a balance that promotes openness and protects consumers without overburdening small businesses or stifling economic growth.”

This story was published on Nov. 24, 2025.