"If MUX doesn't exist, who's making all that money?" "MUX doesn't exist," Mr. Harris snapped back, clearly annoyed with having to explain, "as a conventional business organization. I checked everything and only found a web of shadowy transactions—all shielded by front companies. The stock isn't traded over-the-counter, so the company's privately owned." "Can't you get an address, then?" Frank asked. "It isn't incorporated in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, or the other states I checked. It doesn't even have a federal tax number." "How does it do business, then?" "Same story," Mr. Harris said. "It's puzzling. Most of the company's business is transacted through a post-office box in lower Manhattan. Its finances are funneled through off-shore banks in the Caribbean and in Panama." "What about production facilities?" "None in this country. Its products are shipped through Taiwan from other countries on the Pacific Rim. The company uses a local advertising agency. It pays on time, and the checks don't bounce.
