(Michael Chamberlain/Nevada Business Coalition) – As Secretary of State Ross Miller embarked on his crusade against businesses claiming the home-based exemption, his office issued a press release discussing the efforts. In it, Miller lashed out at an organization that has had the unmitigated gall to challenge the new requirements.
“We’ve either got a whole lot of people who are engaged in fraudulent filings and are lying about the nature of their business, or we do in fact have shell companies that serve little legitimate purpose in terms of commerce. A narrow special interest group, the Nevada Registered Agents’ Association, has indicated that they intend to institute legal proceedings to prevent my office from verifying the legitimacy of these exemptions. They seem intent on ensuring that out of state shell companies can continue to game the system.” [emphasis mine]
Now who is this nefarious group of ne’er-do-wells who are out to undermine all the proper and necessary efforts of the Secretary of State to root out fraud and corruption in Nevada? Surely this dastardly organization is on some watch list warning unsuspecting business owners of its attempts to support unethical activity.
Nevada has the only state association of incorporation professionals that continually works to improve and strengthen Nevada’s incorporation laws. Nevada Registered Agent Association
Say it ain’t so! “[I]mprove and strengthen”?! What about the “narrow special interest group…intent on ensuring that out of state shell companies can continue to game the system”?
Not only this praise but presented on a page entitled “Unique Advantages” as if there were something special about the NRAA’s efforts that helps Nevada, sets the state apart and makes it more attractive to legitimate businesses.
This can’t be the same dishonorable organization that is working so hard to shamefully undermine the efforts of the Secretary of State. Can it?
There must be some mistake. We must dig harder for the dirt on the NRAA.
SOS/RA’S TEAM UP ON BEST PRACTICES
Certainly this discusses efforts to work with legitimate Registered Agents to disassociate themselves from the “narrow special interest group.”
In December, 2008 the Secretary of State and the Nevada Registered Agents Association presented seminars in Carson City and Las Vegas to introduce registered agents and the public to an important document entitled “Best Practices Recommendations to Prevent the Exploitation of Nevada Business Entities for Criminal Activities and for the Protection of the Nevada Registered Agent Industry.”
[…]
The Secretary of State supports the efforts of the Nevada Registered Agents Association in its development of these “Best Practices.” For more information on the Registered Agents Best Practices Document, please visit www.nraa.biz.
Why, it does nothing of the sort. In fact, there’s more praise for the NRAA. And the Secretary of State was actually working with them!
Somewhere along the line the NRAA transitioned from an “association of incorporation professionals that continually works to improve and strengthen Nevada’s incorporation laws,” at least some of whose efforts Miller “supports,” to a “narrow special interest group… intent on ensuring that out of state shell companies can continue to game the system.” Could it be this transition occurred the instant the NRAA challenged Miller’s decisions?
(Michael Chamberlain is Executive Director of Nevada Business Coalition.)