TIRANA, Dec. 8 – The Delaware Secretary of State Office confirmed to local media on Friday that it has begun investigations to find out whether the Dunwell Haberman company or any of its officials are involved in illegal activities, fraud or forgery.
Dunwell Haberman is the mother company of Albanian construction firm DH Albania, which won the government’s tender bid for a part of the Great Ring road project currently being renovated in capital Tirana.
The tender won by DH Albania, run by a 26-year-old with no previous experience in the construction sector, is worth around 20 million euros.
The firm is alleged to have committed two major frauds to win the Albanian tender.
For starters, it seems to have falsified its foundation act; in Delaware, the company first appeared on record six months ago, on 25 June 2018, while the documents it filed in Albania show as if it existed since June 1998.
The second document allegedly forged is a certificate from the Delaware Secretary of State that this company has no fiscal obligations to the state. Secretary of State spokesman Doug Denison told the Voice of America that there was no request from the firm for the certificate and no documents were issued.
The forged documents appeared for the first time on Thursday night, at News 24 TV show “The Unexposed.”
According to Denison, the case is expected to go through criminal investigations at the General Prosecutor’s Office in Delaware, headed by Matt Denn. If the authorities find a violation, the firm may be annulled as a registered business in that country and criminal charges may be brought against it.
Since the company is active in a country outside the US, the case may also be referred to the Washington Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, Delaware is known as a state with favorable corporate laws. Thousands of US companies are registered in this country to benefit from its tax laws. Delaware is also known as a “fiscal heaven” because it does not collect taxes from corporations that, although registered there, do not exercise their activity in the US.
Under state law, corporations registered in Delaware are not obliged to publish the company’s executives or its shareholders. In Delaware, company registration can be achieved even without being physically present and there are special firms that perform this for the client.
Based on the documents submitted in Delaware, Dunwell Haberman has been registered through the firm “Apex Resident Agent Services”.
