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Comment by somenameforme | Hacker News Reader

In what scenario is this incredibly frustrating? I can't recall in my life ever once particularly caring who happened to own an LLC, and I think this is true of most people? I find LLC anonymity pretty useful for one important reason - there's lots of crazy people out there - probably at least loosely related to why you're Scubabear68 instead of JasonWilliamsFresno68. I also think it fits the legal and practical definition of an LLC relatively well where you're dealing with that 'entity' even if, of course, all any business is, is just a group of people.

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It's frustrating if you are trying to rent a place. Prospective tenants should have the ability to easily look up that 123 Main Street LLC is partially owned by a slumlord whose other rental LLCs have accumulated hundreds of complaints.

Add builders and contractors to that

This example doesn't feel contrived to you? The odds of somebody setting up a bunch of LLCs for each property, maintaining completely anonymity, and somehow these places all avoiding a million complaints visible with e.g. a simple web search just seems, to me, to be difficult to imagine.

It's important if you're hiring someone to do something important and you want to verify the owners haven't been named in any other lawsuits, don't have a conflict of interest, etc.

In such case, why not simply ask who the owner(s) are, and/or include such conditions in the contractual negotiations? If the company is not new, there will generally be sufficient information available out there about them. If they are new, then you have every reason (and the leverage) to be particular inquisitive during your due diligence.

Due diligence would be a lot easier if you could get straight answers just by asking nicely!

Hahah indeed, but having minimum information requirements and penalties in the contract for breach makes this all, more or less, academic IMO.

The point I'm making overall is that demanding there be no anonymity is asking everybody to give up an exceptionally valuable freedom, and what we're getting in return just ranges between nothing for the overwhelming majority of the population, to things with relatively easy solutions for the small percent of people that are affected.

And what if the company is new? Or the company lies about ownership?

You seem to think people should randomly trust any old LLC to be honest with the public. Why?

Going with a brand new company without any reputation is always a major risk for anything that matters, and generally not one I'd be willing to take. You act like you're being forced to do business with brand new completely anonymous companies. It's a choice.

As for lying, this is why you have contracts, and in those contracts you have penalties above and beyond losses as penalties. Incidentally it would also generally be a crime. Fraudulent representation of ownership or identity would certainly be prosecutable as fraud and likely other charges. If any money changes hands, you're also setting the stage for wire fraud charges which are particularly nasty, and what really packs on the decades for basically every white collar conviction.

It is frustrating if you are trying to research an LLC for any reason at all.

A non exhaustive list of examples: an LLC trying to do business with your town; an LLC filing permits for construction or some business venture; LLC bidding on public projects; an LLC filing for eminent domain privileges at the muni, State or Federal level.

Etc etc.

In general, hiding ownership of LLCs is not done for benign reasons.

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