[arin-ppml] Of interest?

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <AA5C1AC3-9338-4FEB-9F1F-A092449CABB7 at delong.com>, 
Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:

>> You're supposesd to formally register to do business in each and every
>> state where you have a physical nexus, even if it is only a rented mailbox.
>
>It's pretty common these days to not have a physical nexus in lots of states
>where you still conduct business.

Absolutely correct.  And indeed, Amazon is, I think, *not* registered
to do business in *many* states that it accepts orders from.

But everywhere that it has a tangible physical footprint, it *is*
registered, as it must be, under the law.

>Certainly
>they should register as a foreign corporation wherever they do place
>their HQ,

That was my point.  Thse sock puppet companies that were registered
as part of this overall Micfo fraud were *not* even bloody registered
in the states they claimed to be headquartered in, either now or,
EVEN AT THE TIME WHEN ARIN WAS ISSUING THEM RESOURCES.

So, this was and is quite clearly and unambiguously an abject failure
of ARIN's vetting process, and a glaring one at that.  I man this
is really a no-brainer... just check to see if a corporate entity
that claims to be in state X really exists, legally in state X.

This isn't rocket surgery, and if ARIN isn't doing this simple check
on a routine basis, then it needs to start doing so.  The failure
to do this simple check is as inexcusable as it is inexplicable.

>but there are varying levels of diligence that are common for that.
>Lots of small businesses get away with that routinely.

We wern't talking about what people can get away with.  We were talking
about what's right, what's legal, and what sort of simple and reasonable
steps ARIN should be taking in order to try to thwart fraud.  I'm quite
sure that if I put my mind to it, *I* could "get away with" dumping 55
gallon drums full of toxic waste into some nearby river in the dead of
night.  That doesn't make it right and it doesn't make it something
that the likes of ARIN should be either condoning or fostering or even
looking the other way about.  But clearly, as the evidence shows in this
Micfo case, ARIN quite cleasly has been looking the other way and allowing
its members to get away with state-level tax fraud.  Well, so this time
the joke is on ARIN, and this time the fraud was not JUST perpetrated
against state tax authorities but also against ARIN itself...

... and it all could have been prevented by some fast and simple checking.
Honestly, all 50 states have their corporate registries online and anyone
can check what is registered and what isn't.  It takes a grand total of
about 30 seconds to do:

   https://www.danhatesspam.com/sos.html

So why the *&%^%$#@ isn't ARIN doing it??  I mean it's not as if it costs
money do to this simple thing.  It doesn't.

>> State officials are, in general, fairly persnickety about enforcing this
>> simple rule because, you know, taxes.  They want their cut.
>
>It's not at all uncommon as a result of this for a company to do very little
>business at it=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9CHQ=E2=80=9D location and to avoid 
>having physical nexus in any
>of the states where it does significant business.

Yes.  Amazon.

But again, you're digressing from the point, which is that every company
is these United States *must* be registered in at least one state... or
the District of Columbia.  Otherwise, it isn't actually an American
company.

This whole convoluted and elaborate Micfo fraud would have totally
fallen apart before it even got off the ground if the folks who are
responsible for doing "vetting", such as it is, in ARIN had simply
checked to see if any of the companies actually and legally existed
where they claimed to be headquartered.


Regards,
rfg