Polymarket claims its headquarters is on the 21st floor of the Oceania Business Plaza. So do more than a dozen other crypto companies. But the address leads to a law firm.Eliana Morales Gilhide caption
PANAMA CITY — On the 21st floor of a gleaming skyscraper in the heart of the upscale Punta Pacifica neighborhood here is the official corporate office of Polymarket, the wildly popular prediction market site that has flourished in President Trump's second term.
But when NPR recently visited the law office listed as its home base inPanamanian government documents, there was no sign of Polymarket, nor the entity it does business as in Panama, Adventure One QSS Inc.
Instead, a nondescript corporate lobby opened into a large space with about a dozen unoccupied computer stations positioned in the middle of the room. An office worker said the attorney who runs the firm, Mario García de Paredes, was not available. The worker had never heard of Polymarket or Adventure One.
Public records show that Polymarket is far from alone in using this Panama City law office as a headquarters in an office park known as the Oceania Business Plaza. So do at least 15 other cryptocurrency companies, including Helix, Drift Protocol, Goldfinch and Parti, a crypto-based prediction market live-streaming site that partners with Polymarket, according to publicly available corporate records.
Court filings show the law office also did work for FTX, the now-collapsed exchange whose founder,Sam Bankman-Fried, was handed a 25-year prison sentencein the fraud scandal that took down the crypto empire. In a bankruptcy document detailing unpaid FTX debts, the law office is listed as being owed $13,889.
Polymarket and the other companies using the Panamanian law firm did not return requests for comment. Neither did García de Paredes when asked repeatedly for comment by NPR.
Corporate law experts say while there is nothing illegal about housing a business inside a shell company, the practice is often a strategic move to protect a firm's wealth or shield it against lawsuits and action from government regulators.
"From a tax and regulatory point of view, Panama offers many advantages," said Bruce Zagaris, a Washington lawyer who specializes in international criminal law.
After the Biden administration cracked down on Polymarket for operating without a license in 2022, itwound downits U.S. business and set up shop in Panama, a country that has long been a popular tax haven for American firms looking for an off-shore subsidiary.
Source: Drudge Report
