Dummy company

A dummy corporation or dummy company is an entity created to serve as a front or cover for one or more companies. It can have the appearance of being real (logo, website, and sometimes employing actual staff), but lacks the capacity to function independently. The dummy corporation's sole purpose is to protect "an individual or another corporation from liability in either contract or import".

Typically, the dummy companies are established in an international location, usually by the "attorney or bagman" of the creator in order to conceal the true owner of the often-illegitimate and empty company.

The international security corporation Blackwater Worldwide were reported to have obtained over thirty dummy corporations in order to secure million dollar contracts from the United States government. After the backlash from Blackwater's "reckless misconduct" in Iraq, the security corporation successfully obtained lucrative American contracts under several subsidiaries.

Walt Disney World Company's use of Compass East Corporation, created in Delaware in 1964, is an example of a dummy corporation established in order to purchase land. On September 30, 1966 Latin-American Development and Management Corporation; Ayefour Corporation (a pun on Interstate 4); Tomahawk Properties, Incorporated; Reedy Creek Ranch, Incorporated; and Bay Lake Properties, Incorporated; all Florida corporations, were merged into Compass East Corporation. These corporations collectively purchased large masses of land in Florida that would eventually become the Walt Disney World Resort. The dummy corporations were established in order to prevent "unknowing landowners" from increasing prices of the land by disguising the true plans and owner of the purchased acres. While Disney's use of dummy corporations are within the confines of the law, the debate of whether the land was fairly obtained is still argued. Disney was also criticised for persuading the Florida government to waive municipal jurisdiction over the acquired land, allowing Disney to create anything on the land with little legal restriction.

The now-defunct Japan Asia Airways (JAA) was created in 1975 as a fully owned subsidiary company owned by Japan Airlines (JAL) designed to specifically fly the Japan-Taiwan route. As the Chinese government threatened to eliminate Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.'s (JAL) airport traffic rights coming to and from China, JAA was a solution to help decompress the politically sensitive issue. Several other airlines used similarly named subsidiaries to fly into Taiwan without the parent company losing their rights to fly to China; such as British Airways (British Asia Airways), Air France and Air France Cargo (Air France Asie and Air France Cargo Asie respectively) and Qantas (Australia Asia Airlines).

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