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A few months ago, a video in went viral in France, with two "sovereign citizens" refused to submit during a regular police road control. They claimed that French policemen are mercenaries on French soil, that most French government departments are US companies, and that they refuse to "contract" with them (as of "sealing a deal").

Yesterday, one of them tweeted some documents ostensibly showing multiple French departments being registered as US companies:

la holding mère REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE PRESIDENCE et 41200 filiales commerciales sont à vendre avec leur portefeuille "CITOYENS" clients par contrat forcé depuis la rédaction de leurs ACTES CIVILS DE NAISSANCE et la création de leurs FICTIONS JURIDIQUES ????

Auto-translation:

the parent holding company REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE PRESIDENCE and 41,200 commercial subsidiaries are for sale with their "CITIZENS" portfolio of customers by forced contract since the drafting of their CIVIL BIRTH CERTIFICATES and the creation of their LEGAL FICTIONS????

Here is an example of the registrations:

enter image description here

Some are English named French departments, listed with an address correspondence to the French Embassy in Washington. The other has a French name and French address. Each has a DUNS number.

Are these French government departments registered as US companies?

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    In particular, DUNS numbers are assigned by a private company (Dun and Bradstreet) just as a way of having a unique identifier. They don't carry any official legal status that I know of (though the US government does use them, solely as identifiers, in some official processes). To equate having a DUNS number with being "registered as a US company" is completely misleading. Commented Aug 11 at 15:16
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    Not that I know of. Registration of businesses in the US is handled at the state level. Commented Aug 11 at 16:57
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    That registered address (4101 Reservoir Road) is the address of the French Embassy in the USA. I imagine it's standard practice for embassies in the USA to set up registered companies so they can pay the correct tax on any taxable official business they do? Commented Aug 11 at 19:02
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    Trying to fact-check sovcits is like trying to muck out Augeas' stables except all the horses have explosive diarrhea -- no matter how much of the horse shit you shovel away, they'll keep on piling more and you'll never get anywhere. Commented Aug 12 at 7:57
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    I have a DUNS number and my company is most definitely not a US company. Everyone can get a DUNS number easily. I needed one at the time because Apple required a DUNS number to allow an app on the App Store. So if a French government office wanted an app on the App Store they’d need a DUNS number.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Aug 18 at 11:41

1 Answer 1

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No, they are not US companies.

Using the top right example from the image (DUNS 126952720):

DUNS lookup result

The "Ministry of Economy and Finance" does have an office in the United States at 4101 Reservoir Road NW, as claimed. The entity (which is not a company) has a DBA ('Doing Business As') identity, which is necessary to have a bank account - itself necessary for things like efficient payroll for employees. That DBA is, tellingly, "French Trade Commission."

The listed website is www.franceintheus.org, the same and top result for when you Google for "French Embassy Website."

As a matter of law, the French Embassy is required to have a legal identity in the United States in order to have operating accounts, sign leases/own property, operate vehicles, and so forth. They also hire US citizens to do work for them, which requires an EIN for income tax purposes, etc.

The existence of these do NOT mean the French Embassy is a corporation of the United States. They are merely concessions made to the need for smooth operations, transparency, and auditability.

As noted in comments, DUNS numbers are trivially easy to acquire and are also for the purposes of transparency, ease of operations, etc. They allow anyone who wishes to contract with the DUNS registrant to have a measure of confidence in the identity and reputation thereof.

The "Edit Details" link in each of the example registrations reveals the source to be a private business directory (I'm not able to positively identify which one) - which is not an official public records repository by any means. Typically these are for-profit services that are ad-revenue and member-fee funded.

A search of the Washington DC business records (login required, but free to register) - which would contain the registration for any lawfully organized company has no record of either of the putative 'corporations' with Washington DC Addresses (see note below). The original source has grossly misread the information and proceeds from a lack of knowledge of business law.


Note: Search terms were "French" "France" "Ministry" "Economy" (not particularly helpful) and "Finance" (also not particularly helpful by itself).

Business registrations are matters of public record in the United States. In Washington, DC particularly businesses must be registered unless they are Sole Proprietorships. These registrations are available to the public as a matter of consumer protection. Businesses with headquarters elsewhere are required to submit Foreign Registration Statements.

Tools to search these records are routinely provided by governments who require such registrations (in this case the relevant entity is the District of Columbia).

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  • The image text is too small to see on a number of devices (and the alt text is also completely unsuitable). You need to quote the relevant text instead.
    – Laurel
    Commented Sep 25 at 13:21
  • @Laurel The relevant portions of the text are already expanded upon in the remainder of the answer - the image simply provides the capture from the DUNS lookup, which is reproduceable independently. The key pieces (website, address, DBA) are discussed as requested. Commented Sep 25 at 13:23
  • "A search of the Washington DC business records": Could you say which specific records you searched, where they can be found, and what you searched for? Commented Sep 25 at 14:57
  • @NateEldredge Public records searches feel like they should be legible as common practice, but edited per your request. Commented Sep 25 at 15:25
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    Sure. Just that "the Washington DC business records" could refer to a lot of different things, so it's good to know more specifically what you mean. Commented Sep 25 at 17:16

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