Four of Ten - The Missing Person Trilogy Concludes
Should Be/Could Be
I challenged myself this week to write ten blog posts in ten days. In the intro post, I noted that I had a few things in the bag for blogging. One was writing about a recent case that demonstrated on the value of pulling litigation records in background research. The other was part three on my missing person trilogy.
A few week ago, I started this series with an episode about not finding someone. I then contrasted this when looking at a public company, showing the many ways public company research leads to less missing persons. It stems from this. I am often just given a company, but to understand a company, one must also understand who their executives or owners are. In that first post, I told how I go about trying to identify who I feel are the people most worth looking at when I look at a company. In the second post, I talked about how that information is more clear-cut when it is a public company. What I had put off for a ten in ten dare was, what if it is not so clear-cut.
I said in my post a few weeks ago, that I generally start with a website. Almost every company has a website, and almost every company lists its management or players on its website. Yet, almost is not every, and not every company lists its management on its website, and not every company has a website. How do we identify people associated with a company if we do not have an About Us website page?
There are two sets of places we look. There are records that should show people associated with a company and there are records that could show people associated with a company.
Let’s get this out of the way. Something I have to say all the time. For run of the mill companies, companies not publicly traded, your friendly neighborhood limited liability companies and basic S corps, there is no requirement that owners be made public. Whatever we find, we are not necessarily finding the owners.
In this post, I go over the five likely forms a business will take in the US. It is important, as I note, in this post to know what kind of company you are looking at, because that will tell you where to look and what you will find. Every company must register something, somewhere. What is filed and where it is filed depends on the type of business and the state where it is doing business.
For anything beyond a sole proprietorship, when a company registers, they must name two things. First, they have to have a registered agent; this is an entity that will accept service of process so the company can be put in legal jeopardy. Second, they must disclose one or more officers, directors, members, managers, etc. I think I am safe in saying, that with a limited liability company, most states require only one person disclosed. With corporations, different states have different requirements both on the amount of executives/directors required and the amount that have to be publicly disclosed. In other words, the people listed on a Secretary of State record do not have to be all the people associated with a company.
Are you picking up the gist. Companies generally are not required to disclose their owners, and companies do not generally need to disclose all their key people. Thus, all the records that should show people, may not be enough. We may often need to look at records that could show. The following are places I often go to when trying to find people associated with a company:
LinkedIn - People’s profile’s will show which company they work. If you have a premium account, you can see all the employees at a company. Without said subscription there are still chances you can search it up
UCC filings - Prospective lawyers almost always have to learn the basics of secured transactions to pass their bar. They then promptly forget as it is not something most come across “in real life.” The people who most pay attention to UCC filings (well maybe not most) is business researchers. And I bet you 75% or more of the people findings these records have no idea what UCC stands for or what the filings really mean. What we do know is that if you’re a co-debtor with a company, you’re probably associated with a company.
Real estate - UCC filings represent loans secured by personal property, and personal property is basically anything that is not real estate. Real estate has its own set of records, and if a company owns real estate or obtains loans with real estate as security, there are often individuals also listed. Not the least, who signs those documents? A great way of finding individuals associated with a company are real estate records.
Lawsuits - If a company is being sued, who else is being included?
Social media - A company’s Facebook page may link back to an individual. More likely, it takes a little poking, like who likes all the Facebook posts or who follows the Twitter feed.
All of those sources may show you individuals associated with a company that you did not know, but you are reliant on the existence, firstly of litigation, UCC filings, real estate ownership, etc., and secondly even if such records exist, they do not have to have the contacts you seek. I’ll end with these two other ideas when you remain stumped. First, some companies, even private ones, have to disclose information to government bodies; there are businesses that are regulated liked insurance companies and broker/dealers, and there are companies that are government contractors or such and have to provide disclosures. Second, there is “link analysis”, that’s taking what you know about one company and trying to find other companies, and then drawing inferences between the companies. For instance, you target company is at an address, at the same address are five other companies. Ms. X is associated with those five other companies. It may be inferred or at least suggested, that Ms. X is also associated with your target company. Again, these are things to try, not things that will always find your person.
I hope you see why I call this the Missing Person Trilogy.