Rokita: Letter Seeking $125 Business Fee is Bogus

Businesses are having a tough enough time. Now there is someone out there trying to bilk companies out of $125 for "recordkeeping and processing of a company’s annual minutes."

Sounds fishy from the start, but the official look of the letter has drawn the attention of Secretary of State Todd Rokita’s office. His staff is working with federal law enforcement officials to determine who is responsible. They offer the following:

A letter being mailed to Indiana businesses, that would appear to come from an official government source, should be ignored. Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced the letter is deceptive and does not come from his Business Services Division.

It gives the appearance of coming from a legitimate government agency and cites fictitious state law. It also includes a "return by" date. The return address on some of the recent letters mailed to Indiana businesses goes to a box at a Mailboxes, Etc. store close to the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.

Secretary Rokita is concerned businesses may be confused and believe responding to the letter takes the place of business entity reporting that is legitimately required by state law. Businesses operating in Indiana can now securely submit these reports online through the INBiz portal found on the Secretary of State’s Web page,

Businesses wishing to check the validity of any mailing from Indiana’s Business Services Division or any division of the Office of the Indiana Secretary of State should contact the Business Services Division Help Line at (317) 232-6576.