It's much worse than you'd think. I don't have proof or specific details, but I've heard from someone in the know that it is common for IV to set up a chain of 20-or-so companies, owning each other, transferring property, etc -- and all in different jurisdictions (counties, states, contries!).
It's a legal "obscurity amplifier" - setting up these structures is relatively cheap and easy ($1K/year/shell, so $20K/year or so if you're not versed in the processes; IV can probably do that for a quarter of the price).
Piercing this structure is likely to cost >$100K and perhaps even >$500K - you have to file for piercing in each jurisdiction independently, and you cannot file in one jurisdiction until you've been granted in the previous one -- you don't even know which jurisdiction it is going to be!
Comments
It's much worse than you'd think. I don't have proof or specific details, but I've heard from someone in the know that it is common for IV to set up a chain of 20-or-so companies, owning each other, transferring property, etc -- and all in different jurisdictions (counties, states, contries!).
It's a legal "obscurity amplifier" - setting up these structures is relatively cheap and easy ($1K/year/shell, so $20K/year or so if you're not versed in the processes; IV can probably do that for a quarter of the price).
Piercing this structure is likely to cost >$100K and perhaps even >$500K - you have to file for piercing in each jurisdiction independently, and you cannot file in one jurisdiction until you've been granted in the previous one -- you don't even know which jurisdiction it is going to be!