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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

And then I realized, the government gets all of the ID information they need about the corporation the moment the entity needs to open a bank account.

Only if the corporation has a US bank account. A Cayman Islands bank account, not so much.

There's too much tolerance of anonymous corporations. In California, it is a criminal misdemeanor to ask for a credit card number on line before the actual name and address of the business has been given to the consumer. BPC § 17538. Useful to know if you have a dispute.

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There is absolutely _not_ too much tolerance of anonymous corporations. If anything, there's not enough. The majority of them are likely used for lawful reasons. What an absurd, anti-privacy statement.

it's good to hear there are legitimate use cases. Care to share some examples? For me, and likely many others, the nefarious ones are the first that come to mind.

Assuming incorporation benefactor details would be kept private by the state, the only legit use-case I can think of is protection from politically motivated actions by public bodies.

Or is the fear that no list can truly be kept private, even by the state, and it would eventually be hacked or leaked, violating privacy?

Corporations are not entitled to privacy as a right.

> In California, it is a criminal misdemeanor to ask for a credit card number on line before the actual name and address of the business has been given to the consumer. BPC § 17538. Useful to know if you have a dispute.

Interesting, never seen anybody doing this..

California prosecutors sometimes charge companies under that when they've done something else that's harder to prove.

> Only if the corporation has a US bank account. A Cayman Islands bank account, not so much.

Yes but usually the purpose of the nefarious shell companies is to “anonymously” transfer the proceeds of illegal activities to the Cayman Islands. A drug lord or a terrorist can’t just wire the money from their own account.

It’s a moot point anyway. C-Corps aren’t the primary vehicle for laundering money anymore, trusts are. Usually a trust with one or more shell corporations or LLCs as trustee.

For the Cayman Islands, FACTA exists, so they probably in actuality get more data about the company.

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