SCAM ALERT FROM THE
CALIFORNIA STATE BAR

The Business Law Section of the California Bar Association has just issued a warning bulletin.  A handful of companies are sending "illegal and untrue or misleading solicitations" to California corporations implying that the corporation must complete enclosed forms and pay a fee ($95 to $175) in order to "preserve its corporate status".  These solicitations come in envelopes and are on stationary designed to look like official correspondence from a government agency. 

The misleading solicitation usually requests information very similar to that required by the Annual Statement of Information as well as a couple of additional questions that are intended to make the corporation believe that official annual minutes will be prepared for the corporation.  In some instances, after paying the fee, the corporation may receive a form of annual minutes prepared for the corporation purporting to describe a fictitious meeting that allegedly occurred on a date usually randomly chosen by the soliciting company which provide for the election of the officers and directors of the corporation.

Well intended corporations who respond to one of these solicitations will at best receive a worthless set of minutes reflecting a meeting that never took place or, at worst, find itself suspended or subject to severe penalties for failure to make required filings because it mistakenly believed it has already done so. 

 The names of some of the companies making these solicitations include:

California Corporate Compliance
Annual Minutes and Compliance Services
Corporation Compliance Board
Corporation Compliance Recorder
Business Compliance Division
Corporate Minutes Headquarters
Corporate Minutes Compliance Service.

The California Attorney General's Office has filed several lawsuits against companies and the principals who engage in this misleading practice.  If you or one of your clients receive one of these solicitations, you can report the incident to the California Attorney General's Office by telephone at 800-952-5225, by facsimile at 916-323-5341, by email at piu@doj.ca.gov, or mail at California Attorney General's Office, Attn: Public Inquiry Unit, P.O. Box 944255, Sacramento, CA 94244-2550.