Most shell company schemes involve the purchase of fictitious what?

• A. Supplies
• B. Goods
• C. Inventory
• D. Services

Answer: (D)

A key idea here is how shell companies create a believable business activity to justify money movements. Fictitious services are favored because an invoice for consulting, management, IT, or other professional services can be produced with relatively light documentation—contracts, timesheets, and billings—making it easy to generate a plausible payment trail. This lets funds pass between entities as payments for services, creating a clean-looking paper trail that hides the true source and destination of the money. In contrast, fictitious purchases of supplies, goods, or inventory would require actual physical items, shipping, warehouse records, and inventory counts, which are more likely to raise red flags and become difficult to sustain without detection.