This article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on February 10, 2013. Note that the Attorney General is now involved.
Firm scamming Wisconsin
businesses, attorney general's office says
Feb. 10, 2013
Documents from attorneys general's offices
and court records suggest that the company, which does business in this state
under the name Corporate Records Service in Wisconsin, is a serial scammer. The
Mandatory Poster Agency has paid well over $100,000 in the past seven years to
settle allegations that it perpetrated other document scams under various other
names in at least 18 states.
In most of those cases, the state's
attorney general alleged that direct mail solicitations from the company's
aliases looked like government notices or created a false impression that
businesses had to pay for mandatory signs - such as signs reminding employees
to wash their hands - that were available from the government free.
The Michigan-based company has actively
been scamming businesses in Wisconsin out of $125 fees since at least Jan. 28,
the Wisconsin attorney general's office said in a news release Friday.
Corporate Records Service mails the
businesses a green envelope with two documents that look and feel like
government documents - a "2013 Annual Minutes Form" that contains the
business' corporation number and one page of instructions. The business is
asked to mail the form along with the fee to an address in Madison by a certain
deadline. Unknown to businesses, the address is for a UPS Store box and the
mail is forwarded to Lansing, Mich., where the Mandatory Poster Agency is
based.
Dana Brueck, a spokeswoman with the
Wisconsin attorney general's office, wouldn't say exactly how many Wisconsin
businesses fell for the scam, only that some paid.
George Althoff, a spokesman for the
Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, said his agency has received
about 250 inquiries about the form from state businesses since the agency sent
out a scam alert about it last week. At
the time, state officials and the Wisconsin Better Business Bureau told
businesses that despite the official look, the form was not required.
What may have tricked business owners is
that the form cites a
state statute out of context, which gave businesses the
impression that Wisconsin law requires them to file annual minutes.
"Rather, Wisconsin law provides that if
a corporation chooses to prepare minutes of its annual meeting, those minutes
must be retained permanently," the state's complaint against Mandatory
Poster Agency states.
The Department of Financial Institutions
doesn't require a corporation to file minutes of annual meetings. It does
require corporations to file an annual report with information about the
corporation and its activities and ownership, but the information on the form
wouldn't satisfy those requirements, according to the complaint.
Corporate Records Service offers to prepare
the business' minutes, but proper minutes would require someone to have
actually attended the meeting, and the company couldn't provide that based on
the information that businesses supply on the form, the complaint states.
In a news release Friday, the Wisconsin
attorney general's office called statements on the form and the envelope
"untrue, deceptive or misleading."
The state is seeking an injunction to stop
the mailings and civil fines of between $50 and $200 per violation plus
restitution to the victims.
The Mandatory Poster Agency has operated
under different names in different states, typically (state name) Mandatory
Poster Agency, (state name) Food Service Compliance Center, (state name) Labor
Law Poster Service, (state name) Labor Law Poster Company and (state name)
Healthcare Compliance Center.
Among the biggest enforcements against the
company: The
owners paid $50,000 to resolve claims of consumer fraud and false advertising brought by North Dakota's attorney general in 2008.
At the time, officials said there had been
at least 24 settlements between the Fatas and various state and federal law
enforcement agencies since 2001.
Other states where Mandatory Poster Agency
or its aliases have been in trouble for scams involving posters or signs
related to labor laws and health requirements, according to the attorneys
general documents and court records: Iowa, Illinois, Washington, Tennessee,
Michigan, North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Montana, Utah,
Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida and Vermont.
The company has also been criticized for selling
overpriced deeds at nearly $50 each in
Michigan when they were available for about $3 from county government.
Business owners who have questions about
the forms can contact the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions at
(608) 266-1622. Complaints can also be filed with the Better
Business Bureau.
The information
contained in this document is intended for the sole purpose of providing
general legal information and is not intended as legal advice of any kind. This
information may not apply to your specific issue, therefore, do not act upon
this information without consulting Zimmerman & Steber Legal Group, S. C.
or another qualified attorney.
