Company information in New York, New York?

July 5, 2005 2:52 AM

How would I find out information about an LLC registered in New York State? Ideally, I'd like summaries of accounts, names of directors, etc.

I can get this kind of stuff in the UK by going to Companies House. Other European countries have similar services. The CA Secretary of State offers some information on companies registered there but the NY Secretary of State doesn't seem to offer the same kind of stuff.

posted by humuhumu to Law & Government (5 answers total)

You can see if they've filed anything with the SEC, though if it's a private company, your chances of finding readily available public information are slim. If that doesn't work, get thee to a library, as there are plenty of expensive databases with that kind of information that a public library (or business school library, if you have access to one of those) would have. Names of directors can sometimes be patched together by searching news articles (a good LexisNexis news search can do wonders).
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 4:22 AM on July 5, 2005

If you don't have access to the subscription databases banjo mentioned above, try Dun & Bradstreet, who are a major reputable clearinghouse of business credit information and have individual reports for sale available on their web site.
posted by eschatfische at 5:00 AM on July 5, 2005

The basics of the Edgar database cited by banjo_and_the_pork are not subscription, but are not likely to find you your NYS LLC. You are on the right track with the NY Secretary of State. They may have information beyond that in the online database. I would call them to find out about it. I doubt you are going to get summaries of accounts, but you might get names of directors.
posted by caddis at 5:54 AM on July 5, 2005

Unlike California, New York doesn't require extensive disclosures of the sort you are seeking. While you can obtain the original filing documents, these can be signed by lawyers or service bureau officers, rather than by the actual principals (and, in any event, the principals can change).

D&B is principally used by vendors for credit approval -- if the company is very small, or doesn't consume a lot of wholesale goods and services, it won't likely have a very useful D&B entry.
posted by MattD at 5:57 AM on July 5, 2005

I'd try the Department of State website... (you can search by company) coupled with Yahoo! finance.
posted by weiailei at 7:31 AM on July 5, 2005