Wyoming
Wyoming Appears to Be in the Middle of an Economic Boom—of Corporate Malfeasance
(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)
Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin’ gets done and where the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount.
We begin in Wyoming which, our friends at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have been studying because it has become the Rocky Mountain equivalent of an offshore corporate haven, where hundreds of phantom corporations are based. And, in the latest installment of the Wyoming saga, the ICIJ reports that millions of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Act may have disappeared in that maze of corporate sleight of hand during the course of the pandemic.
In the spring of 2020, in an attempt to avert an economic collapse amid COVID-19 shutdowns, the U.S. government began dispensing billions of dollars in emergency loans to American businesses to maintain their payrolls. Among the millions that received the Paycheck Protection Program funds was a Wyoming-registered firm called the Alo Group*, which received $531,562 to support the wages of 36 U.S.-based employees the firm said it had, according to public records.
But it’s unclear whether the Alo Group was a legitimate business. The firm has no public profile, and on a state corporate filing it listed a disposable email address—vayapef199@homapin.com—at a domain name that has been used by scammers, according to the fraud detection firm IPQS. After it received the large COVID relief payment, the Alo Group switched its listed mailing address to a building in China, according to corporate records, before dissolving completely for failing to file required state paperwork.
The Alo Group traces its origin to a single-story storefront in Sheridan that is a hotspot in the state’s thriving corporate formation industry. The small building is home to the Sheridan office of Registered Agents Inc., a national corporate services firm; more than 266,000 companies incorporated using the address of this modest office between 2019 and 2024, according to an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists analysis of information provided by the data firm OpenCorporates.
According to the ICIJ, this storefront in Sheridan, Wyoming was, on paper, anyway, busier than 55 Water Street in New York City.
Companies registered at the Sheridan storefront are listed in a half-dozen criminal indictments of people across the country who allegedly stole millions in COVID relief payments from the federal government, according to an ICIJ analysis. Hundreds more companies that together received tens of millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans share the same Sheridan address: 30 N. Gould St. Some of these appear to be legitimate firms, but dozens, like the Alo Group, have little trace of aboveboard business.
And Wyoming is in the middle of an economic boom of corporate malfeasance.
The fraud indictments add to growing evidence that Wyoming is a major new destination for people outside the state—including criminals, suspected North Korean sanctions evaders, and those with wealth of dubious origin—to incorporate secretive limited liability companies, or LLCs, and other entities to hold and move cash. In December, ICIJ reporting showed that the state had overtaken Delaware in its rising per capita number of incorporations, leaving officials in the least populated U.S. state grappling with how to oversee a proliferation of anonymous shell companies.
[Ed. Note: *No relation to Alo Yoga]
Delaware dethroned!
Tara Berg, the county assessor for Wyoming’s Fremont County, told ICIJ that over the past several years residents have begun complaining about shell companies that, in an apparent attempt to appear legitimate, have falsely used the residents’ home addresses on corporate filings. “We have people bringing us stacks of mail that they’re getting for these companies at their addresses,” Berg said. “People are panicked.”
A single storefront at 30 N. Gould Street in Sheridan is the alleged home of 40 percent of the new incorporations registered in Wyoming in the last five years. And some of them are real prizes.
Such cases include that of Andrew Marnell, who pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering and was sentenced in 2023 in a Los Angeles federal court for using shell companies to obtain nearly $9 million in PPP loans for hundreds of fictitious employees. Marnell spent the proceeds on, among other items, Rolex watches, a Range Rover, and a Ducati motorcycle, according to federal prosecutors. One of the key firms in his scheme, Slatestone LLC, was registered at 30 N. Gould St. and received more than $1.3 million to support 75 people the firm claimed to employ, according to prosecutors.
According to a 2024 indictment and corporate records, a Florida-based man named Jared Dean Eakes established an array of shell companies—all registered at 30 N. Gould St.—that took in $4.8 million in fraudulent loans from the federal government. Eakes, a former Merrill Lynch financial adviser and broker, also allegedly used companies registered at the address to steal more than $2 million from people who transferred him funds believing he was a private wealth manager, according to the indictment. Eakes pleaded not guilty to the charges and the case is pending.
In August 2024, Andre Shammas, in San Diego, pleaded guilty to helping to set up shell companies, including one registered at 30 N. Gould St., to defraud the government’s emergency relief program and obtain more than 40 PPP loans with a total value exceeding $5 million.
Sheridan, Wyoming—the Caymans of the northern Rockies. Aren’t business-friendly environments great?
We move along to North Carolina, where the state’s Republicans simply cannot stop themselves from playing monkey-mischief with the state’s reapportionment processes. From the NC Newsline:
Experts say it would run afoul of the U.S. Constitution and long-established U.S. Supreme Court precedent, but that hasn’t deterred a group of Republican members of the state House from reintroducing an amendment to the state constitution that would dramatically alter how North Carolinians elect state senators. Under the proposal, each of the state’s 50 senators would represent two of the state’s 100 counties, rather than a roughly equal number of state residents, as is the case now. Rep. Jay Adams (R-Catawba), who is one of the measure’s chief sponsors, filed House Bill 234, which is entitled “Little Federal Model NC Edition,” on Feb. 26. Adams introduced the same proposal in 2023, but it died in committee.
Rep. Adams is nothing if not persistent, and he has a specific goal in mind.
The proposal would almost certainly have the effect of further expanding Republican dominance in the Senate—where it currently enjoys a 30-20 advantage—by allotting many more senators to conservative, rural areas. Wake and Mecklenburg counties, the homes of Raleigh and Charlotte, respectively, are the state’s most populous. They each have six senators representing portions of the counties in the 2025-2026 legislative session, according to the General Assembly’s website. Of these 12 lawmakers, only one is Republican: Rep. Vickie Sawyer, whose district covers part of Mecklenburg County and all of Iredell County.
If the proposed amendment were to become law, one senator would represent Wake and a neighboring county—the text declares districts must consist of “contiguous territory.” This means that instead of six Democratic lawmakers representing portions of Wake County, there would be only one, whose constituency would be comprised of North Carolina’s most populous county and an additional adjoining county.
I don’t think the Republicans in North Carolina have any intention of letting an election be decided on the square ever again. Issues? What are those?
And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, whence Blog Official Portuguese Man Of War Friedman of the Algarve brings us one small step short of faith healing. From Oklahoma Voice:
House Bill 1224, authored by Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, moved through the Health and Human Services Oversight Committee Monday with a 7-6 vote with bipartisan opposition. Around 30 health care providers from around the state gathered at the Capitol and filled the committee meeting to advocate against the bill. They said they were disappointed by the outcome of the vote. The legislation, which West said has been successful in a handful of states, could allow a physician, or an entire hospital, to choose not to offer procedures that conflict with personal beliefs. This excludes emergency care, although the bill does not define the parameters that create that situation. No specific procedures or types of care are outlined in the bill, meaning a health care provider, institution or payor could choose to stop offering STD testing, blood transfusions or elective procedures.
Naturally, because you want as much ambiguity as possible while you’re bleeding out on the floor of the ER.
This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.
Oil City News publishes letters, cartoons and opinions as a public service. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Oil City News or its employees. Letters to the editor can be submitted by following the link at our opinion section.
Wyoming Sun Bucks is a net gain for children, families
Dear Casper,
Rep. Ken Pendergraft’s recent column opposing the Sun Bucks program raises concerns about cost, but it does so in a way that risks giving readers an incomplete picture.
It is true that the Department of Family Services requested approximately $3.5 million for startup and operations. However, that figure represents a combined state and federal investment, split evenly. Wyoming’s share is half of that — and more importantly, those dollars are not intended to purchase food directly. They fund the administrative framework required to deliver federally funded benefits to eligible children.
Those responsibilities are not trivial. They include verifying eligibility, processing applications, maintaining technology systems, preventing fraud and ensuring benefits are accurately distributed. Without that infrastructure, the program simply cannot function, and no child would receive assistance.
The initial startup cost of $1.6 million covers one-time expenses such as building the IT system, setting up application processing, contracting with the EBT vendor that issues and loads benefit cards, and establishing temporary staffing and support systems to serve families statewide. This is not “an office for one person,” but the foundation of a program designed to reach roughly 32,000 children.
Once operational, the ongoing cost to Wyoming is estimated at about $483,000 per year in state funds. In return, the program would deliver approximately $3.84 million annually in federal food benefits to Wyoming children. That is a significant net gain for families across the state.
While the article emphasizes administrative expenses, it overlooks the scale of the benefit those costs unlock. The question is not whether administration exists — it must — but whether the outcome justifies the investment. In this case, a relatively modest state contribution enables millions in direct food assistance to flow into Wyoming communities.
Reasonable people can debate the role of government programs. But that debate should be grounded in a full accounting of both costs and benefits. When viewed in that light, the Sun Bucks program is less about bureaucracy and more about whether Wyoming chooses to participate in a federally funded effort to help ensure children have access to food during the summer months.
Mike Thompson, Chairman of the Department of Family Services Oversight Council
Evansville
Wyoming GOP endorsement of candidates
Dear Casper,
I have read about the plans for the Wyoming Republican party to endorse specific candidates in the upcoming primary election. It is my understanding that the state law currently prevents the Wyoming Republican party from officially endorsing a candidate. I agree with the party’s position that this is not in keeping with the party and its members’ First Amendment right to free speech.
However, I think that the party should be careful in exercising this right. As the purpose of the primary election is to select the candidate that the majority of the registered Republican party members feel is best suited for the position, it feels like there could be a conflict of interest in explicitly endorsing a specific candidate without receiving the input from all of the registered members of the party.
Without seeking the input of the entire Republican electorate, how will the party itself provide a fair and accurate endorsement of a candidate? I certainly hope that the party leadership is not intending to offer an endorsement on behalf of the entire party based simply on what they (the leadership) might believe. To offer such an endorsement without seeking the input from all of the party members would be anti-democratic and would invoke Orwellian images of the party which, rather than listening to and responding to the input from the party members, would tell the party members what they should think.
If the members of the party leadership wish to offer an endorsement, they should do so as individuals and should not presume to speak for the entire membership of the party, at least not before the entire Republican electorate has had a chance to provide input regarding a party-level endorsement.
To circumvent this problem, I would recommend that the Republican party hold a vote among all of its registered members to determine whom the party ought to endorse. Maybe we could hold an event where polling places are established, where party members can go to indicate their preference for that endorsement. This would provide a fair and democratic method to ensure that the Republican party’s endorsement reflects the will of the party members.
I think that there might be an event similar to what I have described scheduled for Aug. 18. Maybe the party could do more or less the same thing for their endorsement event — or just wait until then.
Carlos Buckner
Casper
Related
The 2026 Wyoming High School boys’ soccer season is close to its finish. Only three weeks remain. 4A teams will conclude the regular season, as they jockey for positions going into next week’s regional tournaments. Meanwhile, 3A schools have this week and next week left in the regular season. They are trying to reach the top four of the league standings, as those are the teams that qualify for the state tournament in two weeks.
WYOPREPS WEEK 8 BOYS SOCCER SCHEDULE 2026
Three matches this week feature ranked opponents squaring off. Sheridan will host Thunder Basin on Friday. In 3A on Saturday, top-ranked Cody is at No. 5 Mountain View, and four-rated Torrington goes to No. 2 Buffalo. Just like the ladies, you have some rivalry matches on the schedule with Rock Springs-Green River, Jackson-Star Valley, and Thunder Basin-Campbell County. Wednesday will bring new soccer rankings. This is the boys’ schedule for Week 8. Schedules are subject to change.
TUESDAY, MAY 5:
CLASS 4A
Final Score: #2 Sheridan 2 Campbell County 1 (conference match)
Final Score: Riverton 3 Natrona County 1 (conference match)
CLASS 3A
Pinedale at Rawlins – postponed to May 11 – changed to May 9 for boys’ match only!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6:
CLASS 4A
Laramie at Cheyenne Central – postponed to May 9
Cheyenne South at Cheyenne East – postponed to May 9
Read More Soccer News from WyoPreps
WyoPreps Boys Soccer Standings on 5-4-26
WyoPreps Week 7 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Soccer Polls 4-29-26
Nominate a Boys Soccer Player for WyoPreps Athlete of the Week
WyoPreps Week 6 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches & Media Soccer Polls 4-22-26
WyoPreps Boys Soccer Standings on 4-20-26
WyoPreps Week 5 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
WyoPreps Coaches & Media Soccer Polls 4-15-26
WyoPreps Week 4 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
WyoPreps Week 3 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
WyoPreps Week 2 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
WyoPreps Week 1 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
THURSDAY, MAY 7:
CLASS 4A
Final Score: #1 Jackson 8 Star Valley 2 (conference match)
Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 3 Campbell County 1 (conference match)
Final Score: Rock Springs 2 #5 Green River 1 (conference match)
FRIDAY, MAY 8:
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Cheyenne Central 6 Cheyenne South 0 (conference match)
Final Score: #2 Sheridan 3 #4 Thunder Basin 1 (conference match)
Final Score: #2 Kelly Walsh 6 Riverton 0 (conference match)
Final Score: Laramie 3 Cheyenne East 1 (conference match)
Final Score: Evanston 2 Natrona County 2 – TIE (conference match) – Red Devils scored with 1 second left for the draw.
CLASS 3A
Final Score: #4 Worland 1 Rawlins 0 (conference match) – Kobe Bradshaw scored the GW goal on a PK in the 1st half.
Final Score: Douglas 2 Torrington 2 (conference match) – Shootout = Torrington wins 4-3!
Final Score: #1 Cody Lyman (conference match)
Final Score: #2 Lander 3 Pinedale 0 (conference match)
Final Score: Powell 1 #5 Mountain View 0 (conference match) – Gianrey Dallesandro with the GW-goal, assisted by Ethan Frame.
Final Score: #3 Buffalo 1 Newcastle 0 (conference match) – forfeit win for the Bison.
SATURDAY, MAY 9:
CLASS 4A
Laramie at Cheyenne Central, 11 a.m. (conference match)
Evanston at #2 Kelly Walsh, noon (conference match)
Cheyenne South at Cheyenne East, noon (conference match)
Riverton at Natrona County, noon (conference match)
Rock Springs at Star Valley, 1 p.m. (conference match)
CLASS 3A
Pinedale at Rawlins, 11 a.m.
#1 Cody at #5 Mountain View, noon (conference match)
Powell at Lyman, noon (conference match)
Torrington at #3 Buffalo, 2 p.m. (conference match)
#4 Worland at Douglas, 2 p.m. (conference match)
Final Score: Rawlins 1 Newcastle 0 (conference match) – forfeit win for the Outlaws.
Cheyenne Central vs. Cheyenne East HS Softball 2026
The Indians faced the rival Thunderbirds on April 15, 2026
Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com
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