Some traffickers, citizens and noncitizens, would set up a "sham" company and get permission to import a certain number of foreign workers.

You can create a sham company according to your specifications or you can buy one ready-made.

Others were complicated schemes in which sham companies brought in people from other countries for costly operations.

Jefferson and family was held liable to forfeit more than $470,000 of this bribe money paid to sham companies under the family's control.

So, they created a sham company to charge the U.S. Government extortionate fees and expenses during construction of the line.

The firm is accused of forming sham companies to serve as plaintiffs in the lawsuits.

Mr. Kanter, the judge wrote, would then withdraw the cash, replacing it with purported accounts receivable from other sham companies.

But, the judge wrote, the accounts receivable would be written off as worthless, fabricating a tax loss for the sham company.

Nor is it clear how much was involved, or how the money was routed through Swiss bank accounts and sham companies.

Its host, Pixelon, was a sham company that went bankrupt within less than a year.