NEWS

Delaware dissolves shell companies

created to pay off women by Trump-
fixer Michael Cohen
Karl Baker
Delaware News Journal
Published 3:56 p.m. ET Oct. 5, 2020 Updated 10:51 a.m. ET Oct. 6, 2020

Two companies created in 2016 by President Donald Trump's former personal

attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay off women who claimed to have had sexual
affairs with the then-real estate mogul, have been dissolved in Delaware.

Two weeks before the 2016 General Election, Cohen created Essential Consultants
LLC to funnel $130,000 in what he would later call "hush money" to former adult-
film star Stephanie Clifford, professionally known as Stormy Daniels.

The previous month he had created Resolution Consultants LLC with the intention,
according to federal prosecutors, of reimbursing the National Enquirer's parent
company for its $120,000 purchase of a story from former Playboy Playmate Karen
McDougal about her involvement with Trump.

The media company, called AMI Inc., bought the story to prevent others from
printing it in what is called a "catch and kill" scheme, according to prosecutors. It
did not intend to publicize the allegations of an affair.

THE DETAILS: How Michael Cohen was outed for making a hush payment to
Stormy Daniels for Donald Trump

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2020/10/05/delaw eated-pay-off-women-trump-fixer-michael-cohen/3623443001/ 6/28/24, 2 56 AM

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 The Wall Street Journal first reported on Cohen's payment to Clifford in an
explosive early-2018 article. Later that year, federal prosecutors in New York filed
United States of America v. Michael Cohen, a case in which they charged the former
Trump "fixer" with evading taxes and making an unlawful campaign contribution,
among other counts.

Last year, Cohen told Congress he created Essential Consultants in the fall of 2016
because Trump asked him "to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair,
and to lie to his wife about it."

He did so, he said, "without bothering to consider whether that was improper."

"Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of
Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his
campaign," Cohen said to Congress.

Trump first denied he knew about the payment before later acknowledging it in a
string of Twitter posts in May 2018. He called the payment a private nondisclosure
agreement.

"In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages
against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and
extortionist accusations made by her about an affair,....." Trump said in one of three
Tweets on the matter.

JUDGMENT: Trump ordered to pay $44,100 in Stormy Daniels' legal fees

To create the Delaware LLCs, Cohen employed the help of a Dover company that
registers and maintains entities on behalf of their beneficial owners. Cohen's full
name is written at the bottom of his LLC's formation documents, though it was not
legally required to be disclosed.

Known as a corporate capital, Delaware is the legal home to over one million
business entities. Some of those have been used in the highest-profile global money

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 laundering schemes in recent decades.

The Delaware Attorney General's office filed a complaint last year in the
state's Court of Chancery seeking to cancel the registration of Cohen's two Delaware
LLCs "because a corporate officer of each of the Defendants has pleaded guilty, and
thus confessed, in federal courts."

The Delaware attorneys asserted that the companies had been used to purchase
Clifford's and McDougal's "silence and prevent her story from influencing the
election."

A state judge ordered the dissolution of Essential Consultants LLC and Resolution
Consultants LLC last Thursday.

“We expect every Delaware business to follow the law, full stop, and my office will
not hesitate to use our full authority to stop criminal abuse of a Delaware LLC or
corporation,” state Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement Monday.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow

him on Twitter @kbaker6.

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2020/10/05/delaw eated-pay-off-women-trump-fixer-michael-cohen/3623443001/ 6/28/24, 2 56 AM

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