- What up guys. Clint Coons here.
And in this video, we're going to talk
about something that's in the recent headlines
because it ties so much back
into what I cover on my channel.
I couldn't ask for a better example
of how not to do something.
Now, if you've been watching my channel for a while
you know that when it comes asset protection planning,
one of the things that I'm very strong about
that I talk about is the importance
of anonymity in your planning.
When it comes to setting up limited liability companies
or owning real estate, there are ways to set this up
so if somebody is doing a record search
or trying to determine who the owner of an entity
or property is, they're not going to find your name.
And in fact, in March of this year,
I cut a video on how to set up an LLC anonymously
to protect it from creditors.
And I went through multiple steps that you can do to
ensure that people can't tie an entity back to you.
Well, unfortunately the person I'm referring to
created quite the media storm when she recently
purchased a property in Los Angeles,
and the individual I'm referring to is Patrisse Cullors,
a Black Lives Matter activist who bought this
$1.4 million home in Topanga Canyon, LA.
Now of course, what happened is a reporter found out
about it and then reported on it.
You , how could this person buy this property,
given her position?
I'm not here to talk about anything political
and far from it.
What I want to show you is the reason why someone
was able to figure this out and how you can buy property
and not have someone come behind you
and figure out that you're the actual owner of it.
If only she'd watched one of my videos,
maybe this would have turned out a little different.
So where does this story begin?
Well, it begins with the filing of an entity.
So she created a limited liability company
in California called Abolitionist Entertainment, LLC.
And as you can see here, here is the filed articles
that she submitted to create her limited liability company.
As you're looking down there, it has her information there,
her name's all over it.
All right, big red flag mistake.
You know that when you create LLCs
you shouldn't be your own registered agent
because if you're your own registered agent
then it ties you right back to that company.
By all means, you should not be the incorporator
of your entity, which she was not.
But then you also shouldn't be the manager
or member because all of this associates you
to that company, and there's ways to set it up
so that this will not be made public record
if you do it the right way.
You know most of my techniques utilize
land trust, privacy trust or a Wyoming LLC
as a holding company.
None of this was employed in this situation
to create this company.
So the other mistake that you see here
potentially is the address.
So when you set up the LLC, you have to
provide yourself an address.
That is, the state wants to know if you're going to be
a registered agent, where is that registered agent located?
Now you can see that address that's on the screen there.
I actually went, I Googled it to figure out
where is that property located?
Hopefully this wasn't going to be another property
that she owns.
Well, fortunately it isn't.
It actually happens to be a UPS store.
So she's using a box inside of a UPS store
for her business address and in the RA address.
Well, unfortunately, what she's not aware of
is that in California and many other states, you
cannot use a UPS store as your registered agent's address.
So this is a problem for her LLC.
She's going to need to change this.
Now, if they catch it, it's not a, you know
I doubt it's going to happen.
It would probably come up though in a lawsuit.
An attorney would bring this up
if they were coming after her.
So that's definitely something
that's going to need to be fixed here.
But so here you are, as a reporter
you know that she's created a limited liability company.
And if you want to determine
does this LLC own any property?
All you have to do is go to a website
such as datatree.com and put in her information,
put in her name or put in the limited liability company
like I did, and you'll then find out whether
or not that LLC has purchased any property.
Now, I'm not going to show you the property address.
If you're interested and you want to know
where someone lives, you can look it up on your own,
but I do want to show you the type
of information that is available.
And this is what I was able to find
and a lot more on this purchase.
And that is, I see right here that Abolitionist
Entertainment LLC bought this property
and it is the owner of it.
It tells me that it was paid for in cash.
There is no debt on the property
and there's a lot more information
that comes from these reports.
And of course, they're all public record.
So if you're buying property or you currently own property
or you're setting up a business entity
and you don't want people to know that you have it,
then most definitely what you're going to want to do
is set it up the right way
and this really goes to show you.
I'm sure she has good attorneys that she's worked
with in the past, that not everyone looks at it
from the perspective of which we do as real estate investors
or people who want to keep our ownership private.
If you know how to set it up the right way
you can definitely do it.
And there's some tweaks to it.
And watch my other videos.
I got a lot of videos talking about privacy
and then hopefully of course, you'll never end
up on a Twitter feed and creating a whole bunch
of media firestorm about your real estate purchases.
Hey guys, if you liked the video, give me a like.
Listen, leave off all the political comments on here.
This is not about that.
This is strictly about how not to do something when it comes
to setting up entities or owning property.
Take care, everyone.
(upbeat music)