Founded | 2008 |
---|---|
Founder | Dan Keen |
Headquarters | |
Services | Registered agent |
Owner | Dan Keen |
Subsidiaries | Epik |
Website | www |
Registered Agents Inc. (RAI) is a United States-based registered agent company founded by Dan Keen in 2008. Since 2023, RAI has been the owner of Epik, a domain name registrar and web hosting service known for providing services to alt-tech websites that host far-right, neo-Nazi, and other extremist materials.[1][2]
In 2008, Dan Keen founded RAI after running a tree trimming and landscaping business in Idaho.[3] Initially focusing on company incorporation in the Pacific Northwest,[4] Dan Keen grew RAI into a registered agent incorporating companies throughout the United States.[3] According to Wired, RAI is a "one-stop shop for people seeking to incorporate a business in any US state, often in those with advantageous tax policies, while obscuring their identities."[3] RAI uses fictitious personas to mask the identities of its employees and to sign their customers' incorporation documents, according to Wired and a joint investigation by The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.[3][5] In Wyoming alone, RAI serves as the registered agent for over 50,000 companies.[6]
In 2020, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that RAI served as the registered agent for multiple Natural News-affiliated companies.[7] The same year, RAI threatened to sue a local Wyoming newspaper, The Sheridan Press, after it investigated RAI as the registered agent of companies with no presence in Wyoming that had received CARES Act money.[4][5] In 2022, KELO-TV reported that RAI served as the registered agent for a company operating illegal robocalls targeted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[8] In 2023, Reuters reported that RAI served as the registered agent for Russian and Somali cybercrime groups.[9] In January 2024, RAI was reported to serve as the registered agent for a vital records intermediary company later shut down by the Wyoming authorities for misrepresentation.[10] In March 2024, the Orlando Sentinel reported that RAI was linked to an election disinformation campaign in Florida.[11]
In June 2023, RAI acquired Epik, a domain name registrar and web hosting service catering to far-right and neo-Nazi websites that have been denied service by other internet service providers.[1][12][13][2]
RAI also owns a software development company called Two Barrels LLC and a company that helps manage multiple corporation filings called Corporate Tools LLC.[3]