State Makes Business Laws Lax [AUDIO]

A lawyer for the Cheyenne company that was the subject of a Reuters report released Monday says the report was generally accurate but incomplete. Attorney Graham Norris Jr. said in a Wednesday interview that the pre-established corporations offered by Wyoming Corporate Services in Cheyenne are legal, and the older an incorporation date, the more credibility the business seems to have. He also said that Wyoming is intentionally business friendly.

Wyoming welcomes businesses:

"Wyoming laws are lax by design. Wyoming has made the decision to do that in order to entice businesses to come to Wyoming and as a consequence, people can create businesses that can be used for good purposes or for bad purposes. And they can do so, in either case, without ever setting foot in Wyoming."

Mr. Norris said there are legitimate reasons a business owner wouldn't want his or her name in the public record, for example, a law enforcement officer not wanting his business targeted by people he's arrested. The implied shadiness, says Norris, comes from those who abuse the system.

For good or for ill, mostly good:

"And if we black-mark a particular method of incorporating or a particular type of business entity simply because people are able to use it for ill as well as for good, then we're going to put a lot of innocent and harmless, hardworking Americans out of business simply because they can't afford to conduct business any more."

And there isn't a total lack of accountability, says Norris, since the legal system does pierce the corporate veil if there is fraud or harm.

Anonymity doesn't dodge accountability: