Colorado Secretary of State
09/14/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/14/2026 10:31
September 14 - Secretary of State Jena Griswold Removes or Marks Fraudulent 23,000 Entities from Business Registry in First Month Following Law Change
Secretary of State Jena Griswold Removes or Marks Fraudulent 23,000 Entities from Business Registry in First Month Following Law Change
Denver, September 14, 2026 - In the first month since a new law went into effect, the Secretary of State's Office has marked 12,693 entities as fraudulent and has removed an additional 10,214 entities in the state's business registry.
House Bill 26-1088, "Business Entity Filing Secretary of State," went into effect on August 12. Under this new law, the Secretary of State's Office can go after networks of potentially fraudulent entities in the state's business registry. It enables the Colorado Secretary of State's Office to proactively mark entities as fraudulent in the State's Business Registry if they list another known fraudulent entity as their registered agent and remove business filings from public view entirely if a bank reverses a filing payment - a common sign of fraudulent activity.
"My office is going after networks of fraud. We will aggressively implement this new law," said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. "I was proud to champion, and work with the legislature, on this first-in-the-nation law so that we can supercharge our fight against business fraud. My office is taking immediate steps to put these new tools to use to protect hardworking Coloradans and business owners."
House Bill 26-1088 is the third major law Secretary Griswold has supported in the last five years to address business fraud, and it includes additional tools for the State of Colorado to more efficiently and effectively combat business fraud and provide faster relief for victims. This new law specifically enables the Department of State to proactively address networks of fraudulent business filings rather than address them based on a case-by-case basis only after a complaint has been filed.
In 2022 Senate Bill 22-034, "Business Filing Address and Name Fraud" created a new Fraudulent Business Filings Complaint Process. The complaint process launched formally in February 2023 and requires individuals or law enforcement to submit complaints to the Department of State, in partnership with the Department of Law, for any investigation to take place and for any single entity to be marked as fraudulent. The Department of State then convened the Fraudulent Filing Working Group in 2022 and 2023 and subsequently supported the passage of HB24-1137 to implement the recommendations from that working group to secure additional tools and resources to prevent fraud in the state's business registry.
Between February 2023 and August 11 - the day before the new law took effect - more than 7,700 business entities had been marked as fraudulent in the Colorado Business Registry. Today's announcement brings that total to nearly 20,500, alongside the more than 10,000 entities removed from the database entirely.
Colorado Secretary of State published this content on September 14, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 14, 2026 at 16:31 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]