Annual Review Board

The Dirt

Below is the original information we dug up about these scams and received from others.

While it is true that a statement of information must be filed along with your LLC-1 document (which creates your LLC), the Secretary of State will automatically send you the form (or you can find a pdf here or check the CA business portal here) and it costs only $20 to file the form. This company wants you to pay $228 for them to file it for you, and they don't even guarantee that they will file it! Letters are being sent to new LLCs as well as existing ones on just prior to their anniversary dates.

The CA Secretary of State has an alert regarding these notices here and suggests that you report them to the California Attorney General's office (general site here, file complaint here). Here is exactly what I filed:

This company sent me a letter made to look like it was from the state of California, telling me that I had to send them $228 to file my statement of information after recently creating an LLC. I believe that their letter was intentionally deceptive and misleading.

I am bringing this to your attention for the purpose of prosecution should you find that their behavior is criminal.

Here is the letter I got back from the CA Dept of Justice. They say they can't do anything for me personally but will keep it on file if the decide to take action to protect consumers.

Another person who contacted me filed complaints with the Attorney General, BBB, and Mail Fraud div. of the USPS. You can file a mail fraud report here.

One reader sent the reply back with no check. They sent him a letter back asking for the check. If everyone did this, it would create a lot of extra work for them.

As this article in the WSJ points out, submitting a complaint to the FTC might get them to pursue the scammers (submit to the FTC here).

Attorney Kenneth has offered to represent anyone who actually paid the scammers, on a contingency basis.

I'm an attorney in California.

http://members.calbar.ca.gov/search/member_detail.aspx?x=250255

A lawsuit would stop this. If you or someone you know sent a check to these scammers, I would like to represent them on a contingent basis, that is, a share of any settlement or damage award.

You can find his contact info in the above linke to his State Bar of California listing.

So if you are receiving these Annual Review Board letters, complain to the AG, BBB, USPS, FTC, and anyone else you can find. It just might make a difference. Feel free to use any of the information below to harrass the people behind this scam. Anyone care to get me a picture of our scammers, their offices, their homes ...

More Information About Annual Review Board

The other thing you can do it to help uncover as much information about the scammers and try to contact them to let them know their covers have been pulled.

Here is what people are saying on Yelp. Links to other sites that talk about this scam: here, here, and here.

They list their address as:

333 S. Grande Avenue, 25th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90071

This floor of the Wells Fargo Center in Los Angeles rents executive suites.

Their phone number is (213) 986-4414. Calling the number gives voice tree only, no way to get to a live person. The voice is of a male with a slight accent. Searching Google for the number provides no interesting information.

The State of California lists the following information for "Annual Review Board." It looks like Kristina KESHISHYAN - is the scammer. (Here is the link to that page)

ANNUAL REVIEW BOARD, INC.
Number: C3171925
Date Filed: 10/14/2008
Status: active
Jurisdiction: California
Address 333 S GRAND AVE 25TH FL LOS ANGELES, CA 90071
Agent for Service of Process KRISTINA KESHISHYAN 333 S GRAND AVE 25TH FL LOS ANGELES, CA 90071

She used to be a Keller Williams real estate agent.

Someone called Keller Williams and asked to speak with Kristina. She doesn't work there anymore, but they gave her cell phone number. Her cell is (818) 515 9156. One person called Kristina and she says she doesn't do real estate anymore (now she just scams people). She appears to have changed her number.

Her license status page at the CA Dept of Real Estate. According to this page, her mailing address is:

1748 OPECHEE WAY
GLENDALE, CA 91208-2538

Kristina's page at Keller Williams is no longer active. A search on her last name shows another agent with the same last name, also in Glendale, Roxy Keshishyan: http://roxykesh.yourkwagent.com/

whitepages.com lists the following information for K. Keshishyan:

2048 W Kenneth Rd
Glendale, CA 91201-1163
(818) 559-7667
(323) 661-4545

I found the following additional information:

She is probably 36 years old.

Possible relatives:

Thomas Keshishyan
Kisso Keshishyan
Argishti Keshishyan
Alfred A Keshishyan

Possible addresses and phone numbers

605 STOCKER 9
GLENDALE, CA 91202
(818) 545-3708

414 E VALENCIA AVE
BURBANK, CA 91501
(818) 859-7566

642 DRYDEN 5
GLENDALE, CA 91202

5/7/09: Debbie writes:

The mail with check and Statement of Information was returned by US post office this afternoon with a yellow label printed "Return to sender, unknown reason, unable to forward" (it was certified with return receipt request). I thought I wrote the address wrong so I went on Google and try to verify the address !!!!!

Out of curiosity, I called the number printed at the bottom of the form (213) 986-4414. It was male voice recording, however, after a few choices down I got to speak to this live person "Kelly". I told her the mail was returned so I need to verify the address. She read me the same address that was printed on the statement.

"But it was returned by the post office. What do I do ?"
"Mail it again."
"To the same address ? "
"Yes"
"What if it was returned again ? Isn't it a penalty for filing late ?"
"Call us again. I already put a note on your LLC. You will be OK."

Her accent is a bit worse than the male recording, however, she is very clam. (I am the one who is nervous !!)

Update 7/4/09: A reader contacted me about receiving the same or similar letter from:

Business Filings Division
980 9th Street, 16th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Like their address in LA, this appears to be a furnished monthly office rental floor of the US Bank building.

Perhaps being wise to my grabbing the domain name and putting up scam info like this, businessfilingsdivision.com has been anonymously registered as of April 9th.

Here is their corporation into at the Secretary of States website. The corporation was filed on 4/28/09. The agent for service of process is the same as for Annual Review Board:

GETINCTODAY, INC.
1807 W BURBANK BL STE A
BURBANK, CA 91505

They appear to be just a generic service that does corporate filings.