Last week, Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown issued a “Scam Alert” relating to deceptive mailings received by a number of Oregon businesses. The deceptive mailings are entitled “Compliance Filing Center – Annual Minutes Compliance Notice,” and include an invoice for the recipient business to pay $150.00.
In addition, several clients of our firm have received a number of very similar notices from “Corporate Records Service” in Salem, Oregon. These notices, entitled “2013 – Annual Minutes Form,” seek $125.00 for the supposed preparation of annual corporate minutes.
Despite the official looking appearance of these notices, these notices are not from the Oregon Secretary of State nor are they authorized by the Secretary of State’s office to send these notices on the State’s behalf. Neither the “Compliance Filing Center” nor the “Corporate Records Service” is listed on the Oregon Secretary of State’s website as having been authorized to do business in Oregon. The addresses of both companies appear to be private mail boxes and not legitimate business addresses. It is by no means certain that these companies will actually provide the services that they claim to offer, or whether these services are adequate to comply with Oregon corporate statues.
The Oregon Secretary of State’s website includes a page setting forth excerpts from Oregon corporate statutes relating to the requirement for corporations to hold an annual meeting of shareholders and other statutory corporate records requirements. Please feel free to contact us is you have any questions regarding these requirements.
