Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are setting up a complex network of
companies all based in the opaque tax haven state of Delaware – despite living and doing business in California.
Meghan’s longtime lawyer and business manager have incorporated 11
companies and trust for the couple since April 2020, state filings reveal,
including a firm apparently set up for Harry’s multi-million-dollar memoir book
deal.
Names for the companies include an intriguing Japanese term for deal-making, a reference to Meghan’s freckles in Spanish, a South American river,
and a possible allusion to a $44,000 ‘babymoon’ getaway the couple took in
2019.
The companies are all headquartered in the Beverly Hills offices of
attorney Richard Genow, who has worked with the Duchess for years.
Among the companies inked by Meyer and Genow are two publishing firms.
The first, Peca Publishing LLC, was set up in September 2020 and used by Meghan
to hold the rights for her children’s book The Bench.
The same day a second company was incorporated, Orinoco Publishing LLC –
though it didn’t register its status in California until December 22, 2021.
It is unclear what the couple will use the Orinoco for, though it is likely
it was set up to hold the rights for Harry’s blockbuster book deal with Penguin
Random House for his memoir, due for publication later this year.
The word ‘Peca’ means freckle in Spanish, and appears to be a reference
to a book Meghan wrote in eighth grade titled A Face Without Freckles… Is a
Night Without Stars; a copy of which currently sits in the Congressional
Library.
Orinoco is also the name of a South American river, which flows through
Venezuela and Colombia.
Some of the Sussexes’ Delaware firms were set up to hold the trademarks
for their charity Archewell and its associated companies.
In a complicated structure, Harry and Meghan set up Cobblestone Lane LLC
as the holder of the Archewell logo, but lodged another trademark filing for a
second logo, with just the letters ‘AW’ on top of each other, under a different
Delaware firm, IPHW LLC.
Cobblestone Lane LLC was incorporated in Delaware in February 2020 and
five days later was used as the applicant to file for the Archewell trademark. Though
both Archewell and Cobblestone are based in California, there were no filings
for the LLC registered with the California Secretary of State.
The legal site UpCounsel said: ‘Before any business can conduct and
transact interstate or intrastate business in the state, the company must
register and qualify with the California Secretary of State until this month,
almost two years after it was set up on the east coast.
On January 2, 2022, the company filed an ‘application to register as a
foreign limited liability company’, noting it was incorporated on February 27,
2020, in Delaware. Unlike Harry and Meghan’s other companies, it shares a
business address with the British Consulate-General in Los Angeles, rather than
being based at Genow’s offices.
According to legal site UpCounsel: “Before any business can conduct and
transact interstate or intrastate business in the state, the company must
register and qualify with the California Secretary of State. This means that if
you plan to do business in California, your business must be registered.”
The couple’s lawyers did not respond to questions over why Cobblestone
had not filed documents in California for almost two years. Delaware-based IPHW
did register with the California Secretary of State on July 16, 2021.
Companies that have already drawn international attention over the
Sussexes’ high-profile entertainment deals with Netflix and Spotify include
Archewell Audio LLC and Archewell Productions LLC.
But Meghan’s money men also incorporated Baobab Holdings LLC in February
last year, writing in company documents that the firm was for ‘investments’.
