Senate Panel Advances Bill to Crack Down on Anonymous LLCs Amid Fraud Concerns

A bill aimed at increasing transparency for Wyoming’s booming LLC industry cleared a Senate committee Friday, moving to the full Senate for consideration. The measure responds to growing concerns that commercial registered agents are enabling fraud and scams by allowing companies to form without disclosing who owns them.

Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, sponsored Senate File 82 after his district became an unlikely epicenter of the issue. A single 4,125-square-foot office building at 30 N. Gould St. in downtown Sheridan is registered as the home of hundreds of thousands of businesses. Local police and the Sheridan Press field constant complaints from people scammed by companies operating from that address.

“We really have a problem in the home country,” Crago told the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee. “Sheridan is the epicenter of LLC filings.”

Under current law, registered agents need only contact information for the companies they form—not ownership details. The bill would require agents to retain names and addresses of each entity’s owners, unless the company has more than 100 owners or maintains a physical business location in Wyoming. Those exemptions are designed to spare legitimate large corporations and in-state businesses.

Secretary of State Chuck Gray described the existing requirement as a “somewhat low” bar. But he warned the change could slash Wyoming’s lucrative LLC business. In Fiscal Year 2025, more than 830,000 filings generated nearly $60 million for the state’s general fund. Gray estimated filings could drop 35-40% if privacy-seeking companies take their business elsewhere.

The measure would align Wyoming more closely with the federal Corporate Transparency Act, which requires LLCs to report beneficial owners to the Treasury Department. Gary Kalman of Transparency International, which investigates transnational corruption, testified that relying on registered agents to hold information is “less efficient, less accurate, harder for law enforcement, easier to evade.”

Scott Meier, a Fremont County registered agent and lawyer, said the requirement would create privacy concerns but added, “I’m not sure it’s so overly burdensome that we couldn’t deal with it.”

The committee voted unanimously to advance the bill. Crago said he’ll ask lawmakers to study registered agent issues further during the interim between the 2026 budget session and 2027 general session.