Want to protect yourself from public scrutiny in your business affairs?

Establish a limited liability company.

Whether it is New Mexico or most of the other 50 states, individuals or partners who form limited liability companies are required to provide very little information to either government agencies, oversight commissions or the public.

Take the nice-sounding company Grounded and Polite, LLC.

It shares several things in common with five other LLC companies formed on the same day last year with equally nice-sounding names: Harmony Wells, San Juan Peaks, Monument Valley and Phoenix & Avriel.

All six want to drill wells deeper than 2,500 feet on state trust land, tapping briny water that is beyond the jurisdiction of the state's water regulator. All six want to pump out millions of gallons, according to notices of intent to drill filed with the state engineer.

If anyone knows who owns the companies or what they intend to do with the water, they aren't talking publicly about it.

The information provided to the New Mexico Corporations Commission lists the purpose as "not required." A lot of LLCs use that phrase.

The mailing address is the same for all six: 201 Third St. NW, Suite 1850 in Albuquerque, which is the address of the companies' organizer, Michelle Henrie of the Atkinson and Thal law firm.

Henrie is a water attorney who also specializes in planning and land use, real-estate, natural-resource and environmental law, according to Lawyers.com. She's a member of the New Mexico State Bar, the Navajo Nation Bar and the American Bar Association.

Henrie said she asked the owners of the companies if they would allow her to release any names or information about them. "Unfortunately," she said, "I cannot say anything at this time."

The registered agent for all six companies is listed as CT Corporation System, although no address is stated. An online search yielded addresses for CT Corporaton System in several states from Delaware to California, but none in New Mexico.

The State Engineer's Office said Henrie's name is the only one listed on the notice of intent to drill. Under state law, such a notice is the only form a company needs to file before drilling and pumping out a steady stream of water from deep aquifers. A bill pending before the state Legislature would expand the state engineer's jurisdiction, but in the meantime, a number of companies like those Henrie represents have submitted notices of intent to drill.

The only thing the State Land Office knows about the companies seeking to lease easements on state trust lands and drill for water is that they are registered New Mexico companies represented by Michelle Henrie. "Our vetting process does not go much farther than that," said Dallas Rippy, assistant commissioner of special projects. "In this instance, we also verified that the client has never been convicted of a felony and is not a promoter or agent for another group."

Rippy said the companies have been issued a $500 "exploratory water easement," which allows them to go onto state trust land and "explore" for water but "gives no legal right to the resource itself."

State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons has said he thinks his office should be granted control over deep aquifers under state land, not the state engineer, so that the water can be sold to benefit schools.

The state Taxation and Revenue Department is not allowed to give out information about individual taxpayers, including limited liability companies, and there's no publicly available information about LLC tax filings.

Corporations get off so easily. An incorporated business such as Ground Zero Fabrication, a mechanical repair shop in Chama, usually must list its board of directors and officers, making it easier to find out something about the company. If it's publicly traded corporations, for example, tax data is among the information made available.

Limited liability companies are a "relatively new business structure" allowed by state laws in recent decades, according to October 2008 information from the Internal Revenue Service.

"LLCs are popular because, similar to a corporation, owners have limited personal liability for the debts and actions" of the company, the IRS information says.

LLC owners are called members. Most states don't restrict who can set up an LLC, so a corporation, a group of people or one individual can set one up.

If one person establishes an LLC, there are some federal tax advantages, according to one Santa Fe business lawyer who spoke on background.

It is hard to find out anything about a limited liability company, unless the members or their attorneys want to talk.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.