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- Hacker News
- Polymarket engages in scammy behavior?? Wait, isn’t that their entire business model?by skywhopper
- The part where all their legal troubles went away when one of the President's sons became an "advisor" says "yes".by EdwardDiego
- So Polymarket is a Web3 outfit?
- "Court filings show the law office also did work for FTX"
If the shoe fits..
by jcgrillo - It might as well be a regular website. The crypto bit adds nothing since 99.9% of users just use the webUI.
- There is nothing to see here. Thousands of businesses, based both inside and outside the country, use a legal address where they don't have an office. Literally every out-of-state Delaware-registered firm does it.by OutOfHere
- Polymarket is based in NYC, in Soho, on Crosby Street. Knock yourself out if you want to go find anyone there.by exogeny
- Isn't this grounds for having their domain name revoked?by fooqux
- Wut?by NDlurker
- Presumably it's grounds for the registrar to send them a notice to update their information. But also having a domain name shouldn't require an impressum. The current domain registration system is complete BS.by fc417fc802
- Not the first time. Tether's "bank" for multiple years had been a tiny house at Bahamas, barely barely as big as a gas station shop. And supposedly it held 100+ billions real US dollars :) . These scammers aren't concerning themselves with even a false facade, as long as government explicitly allows them to operate. And no bribes... ahem... lobbying is involved.by Yizahi
- Why are Americans allowed to invest in a business that would be illegal if based in the US? Why can they be patrons? Idgiby ThomW
- Why wouldn't they be allowed to? If (suppose) the UK completely banned the sale of tobacco under any circumstances should a UK citizen be forbidden from investing in a US tobacco company? Why?
Polymarket is forbidden to sell their product within the US. That doesn't mean they can't take investment from or employ or even be headquartered in the US.
by fc417fc802 - Breaking the law doesn’t follow the transitive property. Many businesses that people interact with have done illegal things. You typically can do business with someone as long as you aren’t breaking the law in doing so.by kube-system
- Most of the things you buy are manufactured under conditions that aren't legal in the US as well.
It doesn't make it acceptable, just endemic
by kristopolous - It’s such clickbait to purposely conflate the word headquarters with legal domicile / registered agent. I mean Garmin, Medtronic, Accenture, Aon etc are all non-us businesses but no one shows up in Switzerland looking for Garmin, they go to Kansas…by balderdash
- Is that giant building you can see from the highway in Kansas their headquarters? I was surprised to see it.by sidewndr46
- Switzerland is a tax evasion heaven too. Companies don't go there for the "predictable legal framework" lol, they go there to do shady schemes of tax "optimization".by Yizahi
- But if you did show up to their Swiss address presumably the representative there would know who you were talking about and be able to confirm that they are in fact a client.by fc417fc802
- to be fair, empty non-existing official office is nothing new. iirc, Delaware has a warehouse that's official residence of hundreds of corporations (for tax reasons)
I don't understand the rest of the article, tho... It complains that company that (officially) left the US market and already blocks US ips from participating... isn't doing enough? Officially there's no ground to demand more
If you really want to solve the problem - start hunting down unofficial means. Investigate influencers that started mentioning Polymarket out of the blue. Look into news outlets that decided to start mentioning polymarket as supposed proxy of popular opinion. Start advertizing campaigns against gambling addiction the same way as against smoking
by NooneAtAll3 - It’s not for tax reasons. It’s for legal reasons. You can’t escape taxes just by putting your headquarters in a certain location, but where your registered agent is controls your jurisdiction for disputes.by anikom15
- If you follow Apple's official address to a lawyer's office in Delaware, don't be surprised that Tim Cook isn't there to greet you.by dweez
- It's an interesting "problem". The cities we have now exist because businesses and people want to be located in the same geographical area to maximize, well, doing business.
Now the opposite is happening. Businesses have no incentive being located in the same physical area they do business in. In fact, they have opposite incentives. The closer they are to their customers and workers, the less they can do things with impunity.
by ares623 - For what it's worth the only "official address" I could find was Apple Park in Cupertino.by EA-3167
- Indeed, their registered agent address is 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington.by trollbridge
- The issue wasn't that the CEO was missing when they dropped by the Panama address. Rather it was that the (supposed) registered agent didn't know who they were.
If I say "contact my lawyer" and you show up to his office and the receptionist informs you that I'm not a client ...
by fc417fc802 - Apple is registered in California, as both their website ( https://investor.apple.com/faq/default.aspx ) and their most recent form 8-K ( https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0000320193/beb2c24... ) confirm.by kibwen
- I don't get it. Most companies registered in the state I live in, for example, are not actually located here. They simply receive mail through their registered agent there. Why would this be news?by forshaper
- > Why would this be news?
Mostly because international litigation is, let's say, fraught issues (as in "good luck!")
by Carioca - It's not news. It's interesting because of Polymarket's size - $8bn traded in a month up 8x from a year back, controversy - $400k on military secrets, drama - FBI ramming the CEO's pad and the like.
See also: Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me... 1090 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47397822
If it was just your average company it wouldn't be very interesting.
by tim333