Drake's 'Silence Policy' Shell Corporation Raises Questions

A dissolved corporation linked to Drake has sparked questions and theories from lawyers on social media as the rapper navigates a tumultuous week.

On Tuesday a drive-by shooting outside a Toronto property owned by the Canadian musician left a security guard hired by the artist badly injured, Newsweek confirmed.

And people want answers about unrelated screenshots of records showing Drake as the former head of a company called Silence Policy, LLC which were this week shared on X, formerly Twitter, by Daniel Boguslaw, an investigative reporter at news outlet The Intercept.

According to the screenshot, the company was incorporated in 2021, dissolved in 2023, and had a mailing and business address in West Los Angeles. Drake, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, was listed as the company's manager.

Sharing the screenshots on Monday, journalist Boguslaw wrote: "Does anyone know why [Drake] started this shell corporation called 'silence policy'? Asking for a friend."

As of press time, the post has garnered more than 4.5 million views. Newsweek has contacted a representative of Drake via email for comment.

Boguslaw followed up his post with a broader screenshot of the shuttered company's information.

Shell corporations are called such because they usually don't have active business operations or significant assets, even if those who own them do. While they're often perceived as being used to facilitate illegitimate dealings due to the ability to obfuscate owners' business expenditure, many of these corporations are legally used.

Legitimate reasons for using shell corporations include, but are not limited to, startup businesses using the company as a vehicle to raise funds or to go public and general confidentiality. Such corporations are used by everything from large conglomerates to private individuals.

Boguslaw's X post on Silence Policy, LLC sparked a discussion on the microblogging platform, where many questioned why Drake's name would have been added to the company's listed information.

"What kind of incompetent lawyer makes his client the recorded head of the shell corp?" asked digital strategist and former Wall Street Journal writer Heidi N. Moore.

Moore added that "leaving a shell corp called SILENCE POLICY in the public record with his full government name on it" was an "incredible" move.

"I would simply have advised my client not to list himself as the sole officer of a Delaware-registered LLC called 'Silence Policy, LLC,' but I'm built different," commented an X user describing themself as a lawyer.

Hunterbrook Media, an open-source investigative news outlet, shared a screenshot of other entities purportedly linked to Drake, adding that the rapper "also seems to own at least 20 other shell companies, according to information accessed via Sayari."

Boguslaw's screenshots also became a talking point on Reddit, where one user pointed out that the use of limited liability companies is common practice among celebrities and other high-profile people.

"The vast majority of celebrities have LLC's. Some may have 1-10, some have 100s," they explained. "There are legal, tax, confidentiality and privacy benefits to having these. Having an LLC as a celebrity is like having a seat belt in your car. It doesn't necessarily mean anything nefarious is going on.

"In addition, having an LLC does not automatically make it a shell company. Being that it was incorporated and terminated within 2 years more likely means it was established for a particular purpose and was no longer needed. Establishing an LLC in the U.S. isn't the greatest idea if you're trying to be private because it's public record and easily accessible by normal folks."

Regarding questions surrounding the company's name, another Reddit user said that "as a business owner, there are a ton of reasons to establish an LLC and then dismantle it in two years. 'Silence Policy' doesn't necessarily refer to anything, but it could be something not-nefarious (for example, 'we need to establish security controls to prevent the album from leaking, let's spend the money through this LLC so that if something fails, the label can only sue the LLC.')"

Drake most recently made headlines over a drive-by shooting that took place outside a Toronto property owned by the Canadian musician on Tuesday.

The shooting left one man badly injured. Officers found a man with "serious injuries" near the scene, and he was taken to the hospital. The victim was a security guard for the rapper, Toronto police confirmed to Newsweek in a statement.

Police said the suspect fled in a vehicle. Officials have not released a description of the alleged shooter or the car.

When contacted by Newsweek, representatives of Drake declined to comment on the matter.

In recent weeks, Drake has been involved in a rap feud with Kendrick Lamar. Over this past weekend alone, the rappers ramped up their back-and-forth with the release of four new diss tracks between them. In the tracks, they have talked about each other's families and lobbed unsavory allegations at one another.