Page 49 of Head Room (Caught Dead in Wyoming #15)

“There are commercial registered agents who have to go through a process with the state. Some are attorneys or CPAs. Those aren’t, in general, the people we’ll talk about, either.

They have other professional standards they need to keep.

We’ll come back to the other commercial registered agents in a second, but first . . .

“The requirements to be a non-commercial registered agent are to have a physical address in Wyoming, be at least eighteen years old, keep basic information on the businesses they represent, and be available at the registered office address during business hours to receive legal papers and such.” I paused.

They all stared at me.

“That’s it? That’s all the requirements?” Diana asked.

“Yes.”

“Eighteen, have a physical address, keep certain information, and be there to receive legal papers—”

“If any come,” I inserted to Jennifer’s recap.

“—and that’s a job? What a racket.”

“They usually don’t charge a lot, say less than a hundred a year. So with ten clients—”

“But for doing nothing.”

“Where the money piles in is for the commercial registered agents. Five hundred businesses registered to one address in Lander, eight hundred to one address in Sheridan. Heck, Sheridan racked up almost seventeen thousand registrations in nearly a blink, when its population is less than twenty thousand.”

“A chicken in every pot and a business for every resident,” Mike said.

“Pretty close. Some of the registrations are for ordinary, legit businesses. Some are not.”

“Ah,” Mike breathed, “now we’re getting to it.”

Diana narrowed her eyes at me. “Maybe.”

Innocently, I said, “Some add another layer by using real addresses of real Wyoming businesses. Then, bam, the legit business gets a notice or a legal paper, and the onus is on them to prove they’re not this other company.

Owners of the legit Wyoming businesses are responsible for the time, expense, and hassle of proving the other business isn’t them. ”

“Nasty.”

“Oh, yes. A hair salon owner, a 95-year-old man, the town of Shoshoni, a college, and an empty lot, which happened to be behind the real business belonging to — you’ll love this — a state senator. All piggybacked by non-legit businesses.

“A few county assessors have helped residents who discover a stranger has claimed their address as their own, but it takes time and skill. Not all assessors have the resources and the will.”

“Cottonwood County?” Mike asked.

“Haven’t found evidence of that happening here yet.”

“Go on, Elizabeth,” Mike said. Did he sound strained? Or was that weariness?

“I thought you’d never ask. Remember, there are legit out-of-state businesses registering in Wyoming.

But there are also decidedly not legit businesses taking full advantage of this system.

Scammers — big, small, and in between. Especially cyber scammers.

Whether they go directly for money or peddle disinformation and get paid for that service, they like having a U.S. address to hide behind.”

“But these registered agents—” Jennifer started, then stopped abruptly as reality caught up with her idealism.

I nodded. “As one commercial registered agent said, they’re not in the business of policing their clients.”

“Doesn’t sound like anybody is,” Diana said.

“Nope. They’ve traced bad actors who attacked independent journalism outlets in Hungary and Somalia to LLCs registered in Wyoming.”

“Big-scale hackers here?” Now Jennifer sounded far too interested for my comfort.

“More like using Wyoming as a blind for activities headquartered in places like Romania or Vietnam or North Macedonia or Bangladesh.”

“What kind of activities?” Diana asked.

“You name it, they’re in it. In addition to attacking journalism outlets and being paid by strongmen, others run ransomware hacks, create fake Facebook groups they build up with fake followers then sell to the unsuspecting—”

“Or unethical,” Diana murmured.

“—or create websites pretending to represent the rich and famous or infamous, using plagiarized and AI content, while selling knock-off merch and soliciting donations—”

“People fall for that?” Jennifer asked.

“All the time,” I said.

“Not everyone’s as online savvy as you are, Jennifer,” Diana added.

“No one is,” Mike said.

Jennifer looked mildly pleased. I suspect her pleasure was only mild because it was true.

“But how does it help these scam companies to be registered in Wyoming?” Diana asked.

“Makes them look legit,” Jennifer said. “When the user checks the history of the account—”

The rest of us made sounds of skepticism.

“—well, everyone should check the history of the account. But in this case, even if they do, it shows Wyoming and they think, oh, nobody in Wyoming would ever try to scam me.”

“If that were true, I’d be out of one of my jobs,” I said.

“Don’t worry, Elizabeth,” Diana assured me, “Mike would still keep you on staff to investigate murders and help with hires.”

“But might reconsider if you don’t spill whatever else you’ve got,” he warned.

“You said no sign of people in Cottonwood County being scammed by these fake businesses piggybacking on real ones. And when you were listing places with lots of businesses registered to one address, you didn’t say Sherman, so I doubt a commercial registered agent’s racking up more business registrations than we have population. So, what is it?”

I didn’t answer directly.

“There’s another kind of registered agent. One who serves ten or fewer businesses. Perhaps a commercial registered agent in training. Or one who prefers to stay at that level. They’re less regulated—”

“Less? That hardly seems possible,” Diana said.

“Less,” I said firmly. “With ten or fewer businesses they can stay well under the radar.”

Diana narrowed her eyes. “How are you connecting this to Sergeant Jardos and the cabin fire?”

“Connecting is far too strong. Wondering about possibilities.”

“What possibilities? Specifically,” Jennifer said.

“That’s the problem with possibilities, isn’t it?

They’re not specific. Okay, let’s say a few potential connections — and lines of inquiry — occur to me.

Starting with Jardos being concerned about something, being somewhat involved in the negotiations between the vets and the museum, and asking James about registered agents. ”

“But how would one of these foreign scam companies be involved?” Jennifer asked.

I shook my head. “That’s way too concrete for these possibilities. Right now, we consider the happenstance of Jardos swimming in the same general waters.”

“Because he asked James about them?” Mike objected. “Isn’t that pretty thin?”

“Or it could be connected to the negotiations,” Jennifer said.

“James, who has no problem not answering but doesn’t lie, said it wasn’t,” I reminded them. “Plus, neither Mrs. P nor Clara seemed to feel there was a connection between whatever happened with Jardos and their negotiations with the vets.

“In the meantime, we have Jardos storing his wife’s quilts with Hannah, plus priming her to rescue his possessions.”

“And moving forward his schedule of helping the vets,” Diana said.

“The clear-cut,” Mike muttered.

“Walking past Connie,” Jennifer added.

“Exactly. All indications he was preparing for or concerned about something happening. There’s another aspect — Ron Sam Preet aka Nance having a financial background from his Army days.

And he and Jardos were seen having an intense, possibly contentious conversation.

Although Hiram was the witness, so . . . ”

“You’re saying Nance is involved with registering these companies? I thought you meant Jardos was,” Jennifer said. “I mean, it would fit with the fragments left from the forum. They didn’t mention registered agents, but the stuff about legal tools creating illegal somethings. So darned vague—”

“Possibilities, all possibilities,” I reminded her. “Along with the possibility that some or all of the other vets are involved. Jardos could have found out through helping them, especially with trying to buy the land. He could easily be privy to things he hadn’t known before.”

“Things to do with registered agents?” Jennifer asked.

“Maybe.”

She scowled.

“What do we do with these possibilities?” Diana asked.

“We follow up on them.”

“You want me to research registered agents more? See who is running that kind of business around here? Or look into scam companies?” Jennifer asked.

“All of the above, please. Mike and Diana, work your connections with people about registered agents. Both of you also see if anybody has had interactions with Nance, know who his associates are, or saw him and Jardos together.”

“Bonus points for intense or contentious mood,” Diana murmured.

“And you, Elizabeth?” Mike asked.

“I want to talk to the vets again. More of them this time, if possible. Find out more about Nance. Also check in with Connie again.” I expelled a breath. “If I have to, go back to Hiram.”

“Aren’t your parents coming tomorrow?” Not really a question, since Diana knew the answer.

“Late afternoon. I should have time before.”

But it reminded me I needed to do the foot-softening routine tonight. Before Mom’s inspection.