A vigilant reader in North Carolina received an “Annual Minutes Requirement Statement” from Corporate Compliance Services. We have seen a similar scam in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, Ohio, and Texas.
The very official document cites North Carolina General Statute §55-16-01(a) with the requirement that a corporation must keep a permanent record of all meetings of its incorporators, shareholders and board of directors, and all actions taken.
This form does not act as a record of the meetings, but is merely a list of the directors, officers, and shareholders. It does not even meet the requirement of the statute it cites.
North Carolina General Statute §55-16-01(c) requires a corporation to maintain a record of its shareholders in a form that permits preparation of a list of the names and addresses of all shareholders, in alphabetical order by class of shares showing the number and class of shares held by each.
The form provides a list of shareholders and the number of shares, but does not record the class of shares. That appears to make the form defective and would not meet the requirements of the statute.
In fairness to the Compliance Services, the form and the company’s website both state that they not connected with any government agency. Throw their form in the garbage and check with your attorney to make sure the proper corporate procedures and record-keeping are in place.
According to a source at the North Carolina Department of Justice, anyone who has lost money to this Raleigh, NC version of the scam is invited to contact Jennifer Pulley of the NC Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, tel. 919-716-6000.
See a larger image of the form.
I checked with the Department of State and they said ‘You don’t need to do anything with it’. I would add – burn it for wasting my time!
Does anybody have any experience with these North Carolina Lawyers ?
This is making the rounds again. I received one date May 18, 2011 with a June 15 required date asking for $125.00 fee.
I was just about to fill this form out & write out a check for $125.00 ASAP after seeing that I needed to reply by June 15, 2011. I read the portion in BOLD, that says: “THIS IS AN OFFER OF COMMERCIAL SERVICES. IT IS NOT APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY”.
After reading thIS, I googled COMPLIANCE SERVICES and found out that this is a scam. This is horrible! I see that this same co. has been doing this in other states for quite a while now, WHY IS THIS COMPANY ALLOWED TO CONTINUE TO TRY & SCAM US? WHY IS NOTHING BEING DONE TO STOP THESE MAGGOTS!!!!
I just got this in the mail and cannot believe that this has been allowed to go on for over four years now.
I received a very official document saying that I needed to order a ‘compliant Employment poster for labor laws relating to companies who had employees. Luckily I am the only employee – and the owner – otherwise I might have fallen for their scare tactics.
Why isn’t the Postal Inspector cracking down on this mail scam?