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Nestled at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains, Sheridan, Wyoming, is the sort of place where an out-of-towner can pick up a pair of cowboy boots to sport at a nearby rodeo. But a new commodity has been rivaling the popularity of the area’s Western wear: cheap company incorporations — with no travel necessary for far-flung customers.In the spring of 2020, in an attempt to avert an economic collapse amid COVID-19 shutdowns, the U.S. government began dispensing billions of dollars in emergency loans to American businesses to maintain their payrolls. Among the millions that received the Paycheck Protection Program funds was a Wyoming-registered firm called the Alo Group, which received $531,562 to support the wages of 36 U.S.-based employees the firm said it had, according to public records.But it’s unclear whether the Alo Group was a legitimate business. The firm has no public profile, and on a state corporate filing it listed a disposable email address — vayapef199@homapin.com — at a domain name that has been used by scammers, according to the fraud detection firm IPQS. After it received the large COVID relief payment, the Alo Group switched its listed mailing address to a building in China, according to corporate records, before dissolving completely for failing to file required state paperwork.The Alo Group traces its origin to a single-story storefront in Sheridan that is a hotspot in the state’s thriving corporate formation industry. The small building is home to the Sheridan office of Registered Agents Inc., a national corporate services firm; more than 266,000 companies incorporated using the address of this modest office between 2019 and 2024, according to an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists analysis of information provided by the data firm OpenCorporates. ...The fraud indictments add to growing evidence that Wyoming is a major new destination for people outside the state — including criminals, suspected North Korean sanctions evaders, and those with wealth of dubious origin — to incorporate secretive limited liability companies, or LLCs, and other entities to hold and move cash. ...
