Why banks are being so careful?

[NotaPEP]

I am an European citizen living in the EU. I am a middle manager in the government of my country. I don't meet the definition of a PEP since my role at work is minor, and therefore I am not on any international database including on World-Check. Nevertheless, whenever I try to open a bank account in a country without public records, and/or with the use of nominees, banks refuse due to my current position.

The only reason I want to keep some privacy is that I am not supposed to have a private company when working for the government and I am not willing to resign from my job at this stage. My business is perfectly legal, not controversial (not adult content etc.) and I am willing to be identified as the UBO and pay taxes. It is a serious and professional business and therefore I would like to avoid dodgy set ups.

I would appreciate your advice on what would be the best setup, taking into account the following:

• I need a company without public records and with a bank account to issue invoices in USD
• the company and bank account should be based in a reputable country and look legit (preferably the EU, UAE, etc rather than BVI, Marshall, Cayman or Nevis)
• I would prefer to avoid nominees as I have found difficult to find professional ones that I can trust in Bulgaria and Romania or Bahamas. Similarly, I am not keen on darks
• My budget is rather small, so I excluded options like setting up an anonymous society in Swizerland, which requires blocking CHF 100'000
• I cannot relocate and my business is fully done online, so prefer to set up a company in a country where taxation is small when business is done outside the country
• New Mexico or Wyoming LLC not ideal as 50% of my clients are in the US and therefore I would have to pay taxes in the US. The other half of my clients are based in Europe and Asia

At the moment I am considering Dubai but would appreciate your advice as experts. Thank you very much.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Why don't you setup an Italian srl?
Using Italian nominees. You can find plenty around.

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[Houdini]

You are a brave man when you try to keep a company of yours a secret from a public employer.

 

[NotaPEP]

Thanks. My issue is finding reliable nominees. Nominees who can answer questions if my employer contacts them out of the blue. I am sure you can understand that this is not easy.

So I would prefer a company in my name but my employer cannot access this information because there are no public records available or records are only available in very limited conditions (money laundering, fraud etc.)

 

[JohnnyDoe]

You can't do what you ask. You must either use nominees or darks.

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[Martin Everson]

NotaPEP said:
The only reason I want to keep some privacy is that I am not supposed to have a private company when working for the government and I am not willing to resign from my job at this stage.
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You really don't want to do this then. Plus anyone providing you a service will more than likely end up blackmailing you and running off with your money. I mean who will you complain to if things go sour as your doing something your not suppose to be doing.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[Fred]

I'm not surprised about the outcome taking in consideration your background and the recent years development in old fashioned caribbean tax heavens after Panama and Paradise Papers.

You are looking in the right direction with Dubai as you need for your purpose for sure nominees across any EU Company Setup and there are only providers with shady nominee services (pick up guy from street), nominees used for couple of hundred Companies already and blacklisted everywhere (Cyprus especially - just recently onboarded a client I was just asking about the nominee and it did turned out to be the same guy aged 70+ then back in 2018) or you have high end law firms doing legit nominee service but with second layer transaction monitoring so it takes 2-3 Business Days if not more to have a payment pushed through which again makes day to day business almost impossible and is more suitable for wealth management structures.

Coming back to your budget and what you are looking for there is basically only Dubai left making a tick on every single point you have mentioned. US LLC is NO NO with strong US client base talking about the disregarded passthrough single member LLC and of course no real Banking and only Mercury and such a likes - there compliance is lately going crazy with transaction limits etc. The equal of this setup is a HK Company with a HK based EMI like Neat and AirWallex again no real Banking, accounting requirements (potentially even corporate tax) and of course a public company register.

I don't think any high risk offshore structure in Marshall Islands, Nevis or Samoa with some old fashioned high risk bank in the caribbean makes any sense here as the risk is by far too high to have money stuck, lost or the whole bank is changing correspondence banks quarterly or loosing them entirely (see Caye Bank, Hamilton Reserve and Hermes Bank here in the forum to get an understanding what I'm talking about) and even a bit more reputable Banks like in Mauritius NOT talking MCB, Bank One or Maubank but ABC Banking Corporation who is indeed still Banking Seychelles, Belize and this kind of Companies but with payment compliance no one can imagine - talking about 30 minutes Skype Call explaining some local Mauritius lady your business again and again - only to schedule such a call a half week can easily pass. And of course which Residence to provide all this Banks? Your current EU one and you get reported at the end of the year via CRS.

Dubai get's you the job done and in 1 month from now everything is setup and running including Business Bank Account.

Last edited: Jan 29, 2023
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[NotaPEP]

Thank you. Indeed the only trustworty nominee would be a lawyer that would put his name instead on mine on the company records. I have explored that as this would give me attorney-client privilege privacy. This is possible in Wyoming but then I have only access to banks such as Mercury, Wise etc. and have complex taxation to deal with.

If I had to choose, I'd still rather take the Wyoming LLC over the HK company, in terms of ease of setting up and lack of public records.

My government will not go to courts to find out my name, because I will not be involved in any illegal activity. However, my employer might give phone calls/send letters to my registering agent/the state where the company is based to check if I am behind this business. All banks where I would be identified as UBO are supposed to keep my name private. I know what I am doing is risky, but I am 4 years close to retirement so I just need to hide for a limited period...

I could also do a mix of Wyoming LLC + Dubai company but not sure this is much added privacy protection.

 

[Fred]

NotaPEP said:
I could also do a mix of Wyoming LLC + Dubai company but not sure this is much added privacy protection.
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Can't see any sense in this beside of more complex taxation - UAE Corporate Shareholders triggers again C-Corp Tax Liabilities and this in addition with 50% US Client base.

IRS doesn't seem to enforce much on non-resident LLC's from what I see from clients side.

Still US is the last country I would play around when it comes to taxes.

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[anotherone]

NotaPEP said:
Thank you. Indeed the only trustworty nominee would be a lawyer that would put his name instead on mine on the company records. I have explored that as this would give me attorney-client privilege privacy. This is possible in Wyoming but then I have only access to banks such as Mercury, Wise etc. and have complex taxation to deal with.

If I had to choose, I'd still rather take the Wyoming LLC over the HK company, in terms of ease of setting up and lack of public records.

My government will not go to courts to find out my name, because I will not be involved in any illegal activity. However, my employer might give phone calls/send letters to my registering agent/the state where the company is based to check if I am behind this business. All banks where I would be identified as UBO are supposed to keep my name private. I know what I am doing is risky, but I am 4 years close to retirement so I just need to hide for a limited period...

I could also do a mix of Wyoming LLC + Dubai company but not sure this is much added privacy protection.
Click to expand...

Wrong, Never trust a lawyer. The most trustworthy nominee is a retired person with a little pension.
Once again, never trust lawyers. I spent maybe 10000 euros on lawyers and I almost got scammed, this money was pure sunk cost and I found that in the end, i was always legally responsible for my acts.
Lawyers are not trustworthy just because they are lawyers.