NEW ORLEANS — Advertising Executive Perry Dolce expected to receive a six-figure check for ad buys in the mail from one of his largest clients every month. When it failed to arrive at his company, Dolce Advertising, in February, he knew something was off.
He thought maybe it had gotten lost in the mail or that his long-time client had made an accounting error. He never expected that the missing check would lead to the theft of his company’s identity.
Dolce Advertising was founded by Perry’s father, Charles Dolce, in the 1950s.
Over the years, the family-owned business created some of the city’s most iconic ad campaigns. From Miller the Killer Pest Control on the radio to Doerr Furniture and Aucoin Heart Jewelers, Dolce Advertising made many of the jingles into unforgettable earworms that New Orleanians can sing on cue like a reflex.
“The business was started by my father in 1956, and I started working for the company in 1980,” Perry recalled.
For nearly 70 years, the Dolce family built their business and reputation on their name. In fact it has always been registered with the Louisiana Secretary of State as Charles Dolce, Inc.
But earlier this year, Perry got quite a shock. Someone had stolen his company name along with that six-figure check.
“I have a client that I've worked for for over 15 years that pays invoices promptly every month. A couple of months ago, I did not receive payment for one of my invoices,” Perry said.
The company’s vice president, who is also the bookkeeper and Perry’s wife, Barbara, realized that wasn’t the only thing that seemed strange. The company received a utility shut-off notice for non-payment of a bill after failing to receive it and thus never paying it.
“I thought the check was probably lost in the postal service somewhere. The client put a stop payment on the check and issued me a new check,” Perry continued, “Well, about four weeks later, I got a call from my client's bank.”
A man had walked into the bank and tried to open a business account in the name of Charles Dolce, Inc., with the missing check and forged Secretary of State corporate documents in hand.
“The individual had gone to the Secretary of State's website, changed my name as the company owner to his name,” Perry said.
The change was reflected on printouts from the Secretary of State’s website that Dolce provided to WWL-TV. Damion Bernard was listed as the President and registered agent for Charles Dolce, Inc.
The business address listed was no longer the company’s headquarters on Canal Street but a house on Ellington Drive in Marrero.
A search of public records revealed no one by the name of Damion Bernard had ties to that house.
“The bank told me that they had surveillance footage of the individual and that everything was turned over” to law enforcement, Perry said.
He later filed an additional report for identity theft with New Orleans Police.
While the Dolces await the results of the police investigation, the whole thing raised big questions about the security of Louisiana business information.
The Dolces thought because they had a password-protected sign-in with the Secretary of State’s GeauxBiz site that, their business information was protected and tied to that login, but it’s not.
The agency does not verify whether someone is authorized to make changes to corporate documents. Instead it relies on the word of the person making the changes that they’re not doing so fraudulently.
In addition, the state never notified Dolce that his company's information had been changed.
The only way the site verifies and secures a company’s corporate information is if the company takes the extra step to register through the secure business filing process.
Business owners have to get the initial documents notarized, and they are given a secure personal identification number that must be entered at any time they want to change corporate information.
But again, that is an optional, additional step that records show only a small fraction of Louisiana businesses have taken.
“It seems to me… that would be mandatory, that if they are aware that people are forging other people's articles of incorporation, they would make it mandatory for a company to get a PIN number so someone would not be able to access the information,” Perry said.
According to Kaylee Trisler, the Public Information Officer for Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry, only 1,536 of the 835,702 corporate filings are secured with a PIN number.
That's less than one percent of business filings, leaving the other 99 percent at risk of fraud.
We requested an interview with Landry or a representative multiple times and on multiple occasions but were told no one was available.
However, the risk of fraud is what made Dolce speak out. He’s hoping his message for other business owners will catch on like one of his company’s legendary jingles.
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