Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas will be asking lawmakers for more authority to crack down on fraudulent businesses.
Copeland Hanzas said Vermont, like the rest of the nation, has seen an uptick in the number of illegitimate companies that use corporate filings to perpetrate frauds against consumers and banks.
Because the secretary of state collects and oversees all the filings that businesses are required to submit to the state, Copeland Hanzas said, her office is in a unique position to detect when there’s something amiss.
But under current law, she said, they have to refer those cases to either a county prosecutor or the attorney general.
“Which is slow, cumbersome, inefficient and I think insufficient in terms of the risk to Vermonters of fraudulent filings,” Copeland Hanzas said.
Copeland Hanzas said she’ll ask lawmakers to give her office the administrative authority to terminate or suspend businesses when there’s clear evidence of fraud.
She said states including Rhode Island and Colorado have adopted similar measures over the past year.
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