Advice needed on a St Vincent and the Grenadines company - registered with SFM

[karishi]

Hi,

I'm looking for some guidance on some issues I'm having with my company which was incorporated in December 2017 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I used SFM to register the company, I bought the nominee shareholder and director services + the bank account. The company provides software development services to various companies, mostly in the UK/US.
Bank account was at Loyal Bank...I immediately asked to close the account once I read the rules of the bank, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting and what I needed. The bank failed before the account could be closed, and I lost 2500€ in the process. In the meantime I set up Transferwise to receive money from my clients.
At the end of November 2018 I asked SFM to remove the nominee shareholders and directors, and to renew the company to put it in good standing, as I wanted to open a bank account with a Registered bank, mostly to have a debit card and to be able to open a corporate account at Interactive Brokers, which at the time didn't work with Transferwise. They took my 2000€ and, one year, two months and countless mails later, I've not been able to have any of the services I requested. At a certain point a Senior Manager from SFM took over my file, but nothing practical has changed.
This march I will go to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in person, I was wondering what I should do/who I should contact to manage my company more "directly", bypassing SFM, and if it make sense to do so, or if it makes more sense to do something else, like open a new company. The registered agent is Loyal Agency.
Any suggestion is appreciated.

 

[CaLViN]

I have gone with SFM in past.They have lost contact with nominee and couldnt reach him after company setup.
That was not an island but an UK setup.
They are good at emailing you or speaking with you on the phone.You will just lose time and you company will stay there .You will pay yearly renewals or bank account application fees and thats all.You will not even be able to use your company properly.

 

[karishi]

I have gone with SFM in past.They have lost contact with nominee and couldnt reach him after company setup.
That was not an island but an UK setup.
They are good at emailing you or speaking with you on the phone.You will just lose time and you company will stay there .You will pay yearly renewals or bank account application fees and thats all.You will not even be able to use your company properly.

That's why I'm going to St. Vincent directly, to bypass them, if possible. I mean, I don't care about the money I've given to SFM, I just want a working company, I guess that any other registered agent on the island can put the company in good standing and change the directors/nominees, right?

 

[Gediminas]

That's why I'm going to St. Vincent directly, to bypass them, if possible. I mean, I don't care about the money I've given to SFM, I just want a working company, I guess that any other registered agent on the island can put the company in good standing and change the directors/nominees, right?

Hi, do you want/need to stay in St. Vincent? If so, why? What is your tax residency? I am trying to understand your situation a bit better.

What you wrote about your company, I can tell, man - looks messy. )

 

[James Turner]

Hi, I agree with @Gediminas the information you have given looks very messy indeed. Not to mention alarming that a agent may lose contact with their own nominee and would not have the foresight to put in place documentation enabling the later removal of nominees without their consent. That is quite basic.

I would also question why you want to be incorporated in St Vincent & Grenadines. There are many locations to choose from and likely a better option in reality, although I understand that you will feel like you have wasted money on the original company. In my opinion I would suggest discussing your situation and requirements with another agent as there are certainly things that can be done with the existing company and also consider some alternative locations to replace the company with.

This does not have to be handled by a local St Vincent agent. In fact it may be helpful for us to have a look at all of the documentation you were sent at the time of formation to see if there is anything obvious that can be done to help you.

 

[karishi]

@Gediminas I just have a plane ticket to stay 20 days in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I thought that maybe going there it was easier to find a new agent, or at worse, I would be working 20 days from the beach. I'm currently an albanian tax resident, moving to Spain this year.
@James Turner SFM suggested me to use St. Vincent. My need is to be able to work with US / UK companies, although It's possible that this year I will have a client in France. Last year the turnaround was 120k USD, so we are not talking about big amounts of money. I don't care too much about the money I wasted so far, I already consider that as lost money, so if it makes more sense to replace the company, I'm open to that option. I can send you a PM with the documentation I have.

 

[fshore]

What will you say to st Vincent corporate register if you don't officially own the company or are named director? Wouldn't it be careless of them to listen to a random guy that claims he owns a company there?

 

[Sols]

What will you say to st Vincent corporate register if you don't officially own the company or are named director? Wouldn't it be careless of them to listen to a random guy that claims he owns a company there?

Was thinking the same. Going to SVG in person is probably not going to change anything. Since you have been using nominees provided by SFM (by the now defunct Loyal Agency), no one in SVG has any legal obligations towards OP. The company register doesn't know who they are or, even if they do, the UBO can't just show up. The directors are still the directors, until they are removed by the shareholders.

I'd cut my losses. This doesn't sound worth pursuing anymore. Take out what money can be taken out and use this opportunity to restructure the business under something other than an IBC - something compliant and sustainable under modern regulations.

 

[Joe Blasco]

Hi,

I'm looking for some guidance on some issues I'm having with my company which was incorporated in December 2017 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I used SFM to register the company, I bought the nominee shareholder and director services + the bank account. The company provides software development services to various companies, mostly in the UK/US.
Bank account was at Loyal Bank...I immediately asked to close the account once I read the rules of the bank, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting and what I needed. The bank failed before the account could be closed, and I lost 2500€ in the process. In the meantime I set up Transferwise to receive money from my clients.
At the end of November 2018 I asked SFM to remove the nominee shareholders and directors, and to renew the company to put it in good standing, as I wanted to open a bank account with a Registered bank, mostly to have a debit card and to be able to open a corporate account at Interactive Brokers, which at the time didn't work with Transferwise. They took my 2000€ and, one year, two months and countless mails later, I've not been able to have any of the services I requested. At a certain point a Senior Manager from SFM took over my file, but nothing practical has changed.
This march I will go to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in person, I was wondering what I should do/who I should contact to manage my company more "directly", bypassing SFM, and if it make sense to do so, or if it makes more sense to do something else, like open a new company. The registered agent is Loyal Agency.
Any suggestion is appreciated.

Hi there. 15 - 20 years ago I had two companies in St Vincent. I was direct client to one of the registered service providers in St Vincent which by "coincidence" was the prime minister's daughter - niece something like that. Money was something like 500 $ each year for each company and banking was with some cyprus bank arranged by me as the directors. What striked me an immpression is that rarely when I needed some kind of another document, certificate of incubency for instance, the registered agent in st Vincent was totally useless and could not understand even the basic things albeit being a lawyer, minister, general marshal, Dr and whatever other title they give to themselves there. Each end of the year it was me , that had to remind them that my renewal fees had to be paid and not the opposite. They simply would not care about their work nor the registrar of the companies a fat woman who would put a huge signature on each renewal certificate and the secretary s lawyer sent over me, with the WRONG company name and number and nobody would notice nor care! They were complete clowns with the mental capacity of a 3 year old. After some years I decided it was too risky for me to conduct business with such companies in case somebody could discover that the whole setting in St Vincent was quite for laughs.

 

[Joe Blasco]

What will you say to st Vincent corporate register if you don't officially own the company or are named director? Wouldn't it be careless of them to listen to a random guy that claims he owns a company there?

they would listen to Napoleon in St Vincent or who ever you claim to be and if you paid the fee they would give you a certificate to jang on the wall with a huge signature over it.

 

[karishi]

Was thinking the same. Going to SVG in person is probably not going to change anything. Since you have been using nominees provided by SFM (by the now defunct Loyal Agency), no one in SVG has any legal obligations towards OP. The company register doesn't know who they are or, even if they do, the UBO can't just show up. The directors are still the directors, until they are removed by the shareholders.

I'd cut my losses. This doesn't sound worth pursuing anymore. Take out what money can be taken out and use this opportunity to restructure the business under something other than an IBC - something compliant and sustainable under modern regulations.

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. How would you suggest to restructure?

 

[JohnSeed]

OP check the mentor group before you make a decission. It's worth to have a look there my friend

 

[Gediminas]

@Gediminas I thought that maybe going there it was easier to find a new agent

If you wish, PM or email me and we will discuss it through.

 

[karishi]

OP check the mentor group before you make a decission. It's worth to have a look there my friend

Should I open a thread in the mentor forum?

 

[karishi]

BTW, looking at documents I have the Power of Attorney.

 

[JohnSeed]

Should I open a thread in the mentor forum?

You can do that, there will be some help to get there, I'm sure.

 

[James Turner]

Agree entirely with the above. Going to SVG is not going to help you in any way. The fact that a POA exists could potentially be helpful. I would suggest that we review the Articles and POA document (well ideally every document you have) to see if there is anything that can be done in the first instance.

 

[hernanday]

Hi, I agree with @Gediminas the information you have given looks very messy indeed. Not to mention alarming that a agent may lose contact with their own nominee and would not have the foresight to put in place documentation enabling the later removal of nominees without their consent. That is quite basic.

I would also question why you want to be incorporated in St Vincent & Grenadines. There are many locations to choose from and likely a better option in reality, although I understand that you will feel like you have wasted money on the original company. In my opinion I would suggest discussing your situation and requirements with another agent as there are certainly things that can be done with the existing company and also consider some alternative locations to replace the company with.

This does not have to be handled by a local St Vincent agent. In fact it may be helpful for us to have a look at all of the documentation you were sent at the time of formation to see if there is anything obvious that can be done to help you.

STv and G is a good location on paper, in practice I don't know though, so I can see many reasons why he would do that.

 

[hernanday]

BTW, looking at documents I have the Power of Attorney.

What does it say, send it to me in direct message, can you remove the nominee directors and shareholders with it?

 

[Marie Manila]

I just have a plane ticket to stay 20 days in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I thought that maybe going there it was easier to find a new agent, or at worse, I would be working 20 days from the beach.

I have been to St. Vincent and the Grenadines recently.
There are almost no nice beaches at the main island. The most beautiful beach (without Wifi) I could find was at position geo:13.312562,-61.233751. Rent a car and take the western highway to reach there.
Otherwise you might get bored at the main island.

If you are searching for a nice beach, you can go to Bequia (island) or maybe to the southern islands of the Grenadines.
In Bequia there is a nice beach called "Princess Margaet Bay". Just walk south after arriving at the port.
To reach the southern islands (like Union Island), you could try to get a flight ticket (quite expensive and very rare) or you could go by ship once a week every Friday.
Schedule of the ferry is here: Bequia Express: Daily auto and passenger ferry service from St.Vincent to Bequia

Keep this in mind, when you book a hotel.

Not really related to the main topic, but maybe a good hint to waste less time there.