Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are setting up a complex network of companies all based in the opaque tax haven state of Delaware – despite living and doing business in California.
Meghan's longtime lawyer and business manager have incorporated 11 companies and a trust for the couple since April 2020, state filings reveal, including a firm apparently set up for Harry's multi-million-dollar memoir book deal.
Names for the companies include an intriguing Japanese term for deal making, a reference to Meghan's freckles in Spanish, a South American river, and a possible allusion to a $44,000 'babymoon' getaway the couple took in 2019.
The companies are all headquartered in the Beverly Hills offices of attorney Richard Genow, who has worked with the Duchess for years.
Also appearing on company filings for all 11 firms is her business manager Andrew Meyer, a well-connected money guru whose clients have included Jon Chu, Anna Kendrick, Adam Driver, Kathryn Hahn, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ellen Pompeo.
DailyMail.com can reveal Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are setting up a complex network of companies based in the inscrutable tax haven Delaware
Among the companies inked by Meyer and Genow are two publishing firms. The first, Peca Publishing LLC, was set up in September 2020 and used by Meghan to hold the rights for her kids book The Bench. Peca is Spanish for freckle, and appears to be a reference to a book Meghan wrote in eighth grade titled A Face Without Freckles... Is a Night Without Stars
In September 2020 Orinoco Publishing LLC was incorporated– though it didn't register its status in California until December 22, 2021. It is unclear what the couple will use Orinoco for, though it is likely it was set up to hold the rights for Harry's blockbuster book deal with Penguin Random House for his memoir, due for publication later this year
The 1,400 mile Orinoco River flows through Colombia and Venezuela. Its name is derived from a Warao term for 'a place to paddle'
Among the companies inked by Meyer and Genow are two publishing firms. The first, Peca Publishing LLC, was set up in September 2020 and used by Meghan to hold the rights for her children's book The Bench.
Some of the Sussexes' Delaware firms were set up to hold the trademarks for their charity Archewell and its associated companies
The same day a second company was incorporated, Orinoco Publishing LLC – though it didn't register its status in California until December 22, 2021.
It is unclear what the couple will use Orinoco for, though it is likely it was set up to hold the rights for Harry's blockbuster book deal with Penguin Random House for his memoir, due for publication later this year.
The word 'peca' means freckle in Spanish, and appears to be a reference to a book Meghan wrote in eighth grade titled A Face Without Freckles... Is a Night Without Stars, a copy of which currently sits in the Congressional Library.
Orinoco is the name of a South American river, which flows through Venezuela and Colombia.
Some of the Sussexes' Delaware firms were set up to hold the trademarks for their charity Archewell and its associated companies.
In a complicated structure, Harry and Meghan set up Cobblestone Lane LLC as the holder of the Archewell logo, but lodged another trademark filing for a second logo, with just the letters 'AW' on top of each other, under a different Delaware firm, IPHW LLC.
Cobblestone Lane LLC was incorporated in Delaware in February 2020 and five days later was used as the applicant to file for the Archewell trademark.
Though both Archewell and Cobblestone are based in California, there were no filings for the LLC registered with the California Secretary of State.
According to legal site UpCounsel: 'Before any business can conduct and transact interstate or intrastate business in the state, the company must register and qualify with the California Secretary of State until this month, almost two years after it was set up on the east coast.
On January 2, 2022 the company filed an ‘application to register as a foreign limited liability company’, noting it was incorporated on February 27, 2020 in Delaware. Unlike Harry and Meghan’s other companies, it shares a business address with the British Consulate-General in Los Angeles, rather than being based at Genow’s offices.
According to legal site UpCounsel: 'Before any business can conduct and transact interstate or intrastate business in the state, the company must register and qualify with the California Secretary of State.
'This means that if you plan to do business in California, your business must be registered.'
The couple's lawyers did not respond to questions over why Cobblestone had not filed documents in California for almost two years.
