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When the average shadowrunner thinks of corporations, they think of the Big-8. Ares. Novatech. MCT. Saeder-Krupp. But how many times in their careers will they ever actually deal with the Big-8 face to face? Not as often as you might think. Rather, for that extra level of plausible deniability, the vast majority of times the runners will be dealing with dummy corporations and holding companies.

>By the way, everyone say thanks to The Marketeer for uploading this little bit.
>St. Stan

Dummy Corporations
Dummy corps are pretty simple. File an application to do business with the local authorities and you've got it. Don't bother filling out your real name, don't give a real address (or at least not your address). File the fee (typically between 1000-5000n�, depending on the jurisdiction) and you are done. That's basically it; there's actually more detail to it, but it's not really relevant. Or interesting.

>Shadowrunners don't generally have much use for dummy corps. You really can't do a whole lot with them. They basically function as a front, a facade, that a LOT of Johnson's use when hiring shadow assets.
>Nazdack

Holding Corporations
Holding corps are far more interesting to the average runner. Actually, make that the well-to-do runner. Probably the best option for money laundering is to set up a holding corporation and have it deal with all your money. This can work for everything from simple laundering to retaining thousands, even millions of nuyen when the owner needs to "die" or disappear.

>I set up a fake death for a runner, about two years ago. Needed to disappear. The problem was, he was rolling in the nuyen. Millions. And if he died, most of his bank accounts would freeze up. So I set up a holding corporation in Singapore and slowly siphoned off his money, laundering it, turning it into stocks. He lost about 10% of it in the various transactions, but the rest ended up in his holding corp, for him to spend after he had "died." Slickest job I've ever done.
>Shaimus

The entire purpose of a holding corp is to hold onto something for someone else. Holding corps can own stocks, bank accounts, mutual funds, bonds, real estate, futures, or virtually any kind of investment. That's about the limit though.

The real reason behind holding corporations is because the owner of the holding corp doesn't want the world to know that they own those stocks, or property, or whatever. In certain jurisdictions, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, there are no ownership reporting laws. Which means no one, without a lot of detective work, can find out who really owns that holding corp. And that's the real attraction; anyone from corps to shadowrunners can own millions in investments and no one else needs to know. It should be noted that holding corps exist in almost every jurisdiction, but the reporting laws are typically much stricter; in the UCAS detailed statements must be filed.

>Switzerland, the Scandinavian Federation, the Carib League and Kazakhstan are also pretty good places to set up a holding corp. Their laws are pretty lax, but do require you to actually show up to apply.
>Golden Exec

So how do you do it?
The jurisdictions with the most lax reporting laws, Hong Kong and Singapore, also allow electronic applications. Most other jurisdictions require a physical application at the appropriate local office.

Fill out the application in full, then when you turn it in, either virtually or physically, make sure the proper nuyen is transferred with it. The UCAS ands CAS typically charge about 5,000n� for the business application. Both Hong Kong and Singapore charge 15,000n�. Between every 3 to 5 years, the application must be renewed.

Now you need to have an office of some sort, or at least an address. The price of office space varies wildly, but most jurisdictions allow for an alternative. In the UCAS, a post office box can be rented for the holding corp for 5,000n� a year. Both Singapore and Hong Kong offer a decidedly more advanced version of that. For between 15,000n� and 30,000n� a year, depending on the level of security, you can rent a "virtual office." You may not have a real life address, but the holding corp will have a matrix presence.

The final step is to set up a bank account. The holding corp, if it is to have cash at any point in it's life (such as from selling stocks), it needs to have a corporate account. Most banks charge a minimal fee of 1,000n� a year for the account and a corporate credstick. Additional credsticks may be had for about 500n�, depending on the bank.

Other frills, such as business cards, secretaries, phones and the like that are necessary for real businesses are optional for most holding corporations. These items are typically added for additional depth and to provide a strong cover.

>The perfect set-up is to rent an office and actually staff it with a secretary and a computer (for the matrix presence). Figure the secretary, who will do next to nothing, gets paid between 15 and 20K. Office space about that every year. Plus your computer (about 10,000Mp for a viable Matrix presence, plus allow for business transactions.). Get it all set-up and you've got a holding corp that will be almost impossible to crack.
>Nazdack

>Yeah, well, it all comes down to the fact that only the wealthy runners can pull this sort of stunt off. Runners like me haven't got the 30K+ to set up a Hong Kong operation. Not many runners that I know have that free cash either.
>Hamster

>Which is exactly the point. Only those runners with bank accounts over about 100K can really use holding corps. They've got the cash to set it up and they are the ones who stand to really lose a lot of nuyen to laundering. I mean, ten percent of 10 grand isn't much. Ten percent of 100 grand is. Launder your money through your holding corp and you don't lose that percentage. Of course, you do have to shell out a pretty penny every year just to keep the facade up.
>Nazdack

>One word to wise though. If you, as a shadowrunner, start waving around a corporate credstick, that whole facade you spent thousands to build up will come crashing down. Better to dump your needed nuyen onto certified sticks, just like everyone else in the shadows. A little less obvious.
>Wildsmasher

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