Daycare Shell Business in Greensboro, NC

During the Covid pandemic, may families were forced to stay at home, in toxic relationships where abuse was and is still occurring. Physical abuse of the spouse, live-partner and children are not uncommon, along with neglect, and a general lack of providing the basics of food with nutritional value or meals at all, a safe living and sleeping environment, and not being subjected to harsh living conditions. Subjecting children to this environment requires a call to authorities and to a domestic violence shelter, but making the decision to get out of this toxic relationship, and keeping your kids (and pets) safe from the abuser is the first step. You have to want better, want more, for yourself and your children. This is what rocking the crab bucket is all about.

There is a business here in Greensboro, a residential babysitting service that offers help to the families of dysfunctional and toxic relationships - who have children. Unfortunately, the male/female couple is running a shell business. ?A shell company runs on the premise that a business is making profit from their service, but very little “babysitting” is done, while the profits are pocketed. There are exorbitant rates charged if a family requests that the babysitting service keeps their child(ren) overnight. There is overcharging during the day to provide services. Depending on the number of children per day, the number of overnights per month, and the additional number of children the service is supervising, the overcharging or profit, can be in the thousands per month.

Recommendations:

• There needs to be a flat rate for day services for a child(ren). The rate needs to be in line with other daycares and competitively priced in accordance with the market rate in the area.
• A surcharge, or small fee is charged for overnight services with the scheduled pickup between 6AM – 8AM unless the child is staying for the next day all day services.
• If there is damage done to the daycare property or the staff, by the child or an abusive partner, a payment plan needs to be worked out based on what the insurance won’t cover, and what the family can reasonably afford per month.
• Overcharging prior to the overnight stay is not a deposit. You cannot estimate what damages are going to be before they occur.
• Coming clean to me about the shell business is not going to get leniency. It will get the process started to see that these families who have been overcharged receive restitution for the fraudulent business practices.

What to Look For:

• The shell business is being run by a male. The female is running a babysitting service.
• They are charging exorbitant fees to cover the cost of caring for children and to pay for their liability insurance – when comparing the costs to other daycares – it is significantly higher.
• The business is showing a profit, and is making money.
• Since it is a home, it must be credentialed to offer daycare services, have the proper inspections, licenses, permits, education and experience. This takes time. The permits, licenses must be in a visible place for all paying clients to see.
• The home is located in a woodsy area, and the house sits alone and back from the road, but still visible from the road. A long driveway from the street to the house is visible.

It is not uncommon for someone to rent a home and use it as a shell business. It is not uncommon to find that the couple isn’t married, but a duo coming together to split the profits from the fraud occurring. ?One may be helping the other, especially if they one or both have fallen on hard times and need a way to make money fast.

Tips for Law Enforcement:

• Conduct a background check of the couple. Look for default on a mortgage, on payments, on a loan. There could be a financial crisis looming ahead.
• Impending bankruptcy for the male. He is about to lose everything if he doesn’t start paying bills or get out of debt quickly.
• Marital, separation issues causing a default on alimony or child support payments.
• Look for an affair partner – they are costly to have and to maintain.
• An existing threat – could be anything, from owing a huge debt, paying off someone, having a huge bill to pay, a favor needs to be returned, trying to replace existing income.

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