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Over 2k shell companies have directors aged 123 years or older
- intellectronica 3y agoProof that having a lucrative job where one doesn't need to do any work at all is the key to longevity!
- huijzer 3y agoNot any work? You are probably required to join at least 4 mandatory meeting per year! It’s a lot of work to get on shore from your yacht and into a board room. And that 4 times a year.
- leereeves 3y agoThat's no joke when you're 942 years old.
- simulosius 3y agoNicolas Flamel would disagree.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoI was going to say the same... that would be literally more impressive than anyone ever on HN.
- toyg 3y agoWhat boardroom? Phones exist. Say "yes" a few times and then back to the champagne bottle.
- alexchamberlain 3y agoWe should be embarrassed to be at the top of the list in the UK. That being said, change is coming to the law in the UK[1] - I hope it's enough to turn the tide. [1]: https://changestoukcompanylaw.campaign.gov.uk/ https://changestoukcompanylaw.campaign.gov.uk/
- switch007 3y agoOh lots of changes to make it harder for small companies to register and file. I’m shocked… Getting rid of web filing in favour of software filing seems retrograde
- skywal_l 3y agoDoes this apply to the City of London[0]? My understanding is that it has its own rules with regards to transparency for example. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London [1] https://platform-production.s3.amazonaws.com/therules-134-City_of_London_Campaign_FAQ.pdf https://platform-production.s3.amazonaws.com/therules-134-Ci... EDIT: Added a reference.
- alexchamberlain 3y agoNot sure exactly what you're referring to. There are additional rules if you're listed on the London Stock Exchange (both legal as a PLC and contractual with the exchange itself, if I understand it correctly), but that's not the City per se?
- flipbrad 3y agoAFAIK these are changes that apply to any company in the UK (whether or not theyre LSE-listed). This also wouldn't depend on whether they operate within the City of London.
- walthamstow 3y agoThe City isn't a seperate legal jurisdiction in this way. The Corporation of London has special rules regarding itself only, as a local authority. The City, as a place, hosts companies who offer services that can move your funds to seperate jurisdictions, but these companies are subject, AFAIK, to all England&Wales law. Lastly, the tax dodged in the City was often not going to the UK Exchequer anyway, usually it was diverted from the treasury of a developing country. We slap a fee on that work and call it an economy.
- asystole 3y ago
- radicalbyte 3y agoWhen I was in a teenager I worked in a bank doing data entry of bank account applications. A couple of years later I spent a LOT of time doing ETL and digging into older databases. So I have enough experience to be able to say this: This example is clearly a data entry error - 2024 - 942 = 1982. Errors like this are super common, loads of people have the writing ability of toddlers with ADHD so you see a lot of mistakes around especially around these numbers: 0/8/9, 2/7, 4/9 and 1/7 "One listed director — at 942 years old — would have been born in the 11th century."
- forinti 3y agoThe poor fella might be guarding an ark somewhere.
- vsnf 3y ago> 2024 - 942 = 1982 My math is rusty to be sure, but I'm pretty sure 2024 - 942 = 1082. In this case, I suppose the data entry error is that someone somewhere accidentally entered a birth year as 1082, instead of 1982, corrupting the 9 for a 0 because they can look similar when sloppily written and also because they are adjacent on a keyboard.
- rad_gruchalski 3y agoThe original problem being that it should have been 2024 - 42.
- dotancohen 3y agoYes, that is exactly the mistake that GP is elucidating.
- edvards 3y agoGP?
- whilenot-dev 3y agoGP = Grandparent / reference to the poster of the comment 2 levels above
- CarRamrod 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cies 3y agothese are used by the rich people to evade taxation. so it's not a problem. try lying to the govt as a commoner, especially when it comes down to taxation.
- Halan 3y agoVampires exist
- dmarchand90 3y agoI wanted to write this!
- layer8 3y agoThis also proves that we are not the mirror universe.
- dgellow 3y agoDoes that mean those companies are managed by vampires in their teenage years? I would expect adult vampires to be older than 120 years old!
- feverzsj 3y agoYes, reptilians can live up to 200~300 yrs old.
- f6v 3y agoOk, Mark.
- quickthrower2 3y agoAnd the pyramid eye thing makes sense now too.
- xenator 3y agoMost lovely genre: uneducated journalists trying to understand numbers and making bold assumptions.
- airstrike 3y agofrom TFA > Moody’s Analytics has found 21 million “red flags” associated with shell companies that could be used to enable financial crimes, from ancient directors to dubious addresses.
- q1w2 3y ago"red flags" just means data entry errors, not intentional fraud. Anyone who has worked in ETL knows data-in is usually garbage.
- hermitcrab 3y agoYes, but there is a big difference between filling in some survey you don't care about and registering a company, where you might be criminially liable for any mistakes. I make damn sure any filings related to my company are correct.
- q1w2 3y agoIt's not the founders of the companies that are making these errors, it is the bank's data entry employees typing in the data from hand written forms. Most of these accounts were opened before online form submissions. Not to mention the ambiguity between date formats causing all sorts of issues. ...apostrophes in names, etc... Data quality issues have a variety of causes.
- hermitcrab 3y agoIn the UK company information is filed online with Companies House, by the company (or possibly a professional representative). Not by a bank data entry person. And if the bank needs that data it should be able to download it. So I don't understand where bank data entry comes in. However I only skimmed the article.
- thriftwy 3y ago"It's incorrect to say that homeless are poorly integrated into society. I know one hobo from the central station who is a director of a dozen companies!"
- thriftwy 3y ago"It'd not true that newcomers have hard time in Moscow. Jusy lose your ID on the railway terminal and you will become a director of a dozen companies real quick"
- jongjong 3y agoIt's interesting because years ago, I was discussing the possibility that corporations might use shell companies to launder money to themselves. My guess was that shell companies would be taking out loans, raising as much money from investors as possible, spending all the money on corporate services and then letting themselves go bankrupt. Then, if the founder managed to stay out of jail, they would get a well paid job at the big corporation.
- RobotToaster 3y agoI'm not saying it's aliens...
- dontupvoteme 3y agoThey should cop to it and name them Methuselah.
- yieldcrv 3y agoI’m also going to go with data entry errors There are legitimate areas of malfeasance, as well as outstanding areas where transparency is non-existent, but this reporting is missing all that and conflates it all
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]