shell company

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English

Noun

shell company (plural shell companies)

  1. (law, business) A company that engages in no substantive business activities, but instead exists as a vehicle for legal or financial transactions, typically to shield another party from liability or other issues.
    Synonyms: shell corporation, letterbox company, mailbox company, front company
    • 2003 November 15, Tony Levene, “Capital letters”, in The Guardian:
      It was a shell company and, the SEC alleges, never had researchers, research plans or any scientific resources.
    • 2018, Oliver Bullough, chapter 2, in Moneyland, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 19:
      This luxury-loving and profligate shell company is registered at a betting shop on the Caledonian Road, an unlovely thoroughfare in North London on which you'd be more likely to find amphetamines than a top-notch lawyer.

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