News Room

SAINT PAUL – On February 26, 2026, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon provided an update to members of the Minnesota House State Government Finance and Policy Committee on the successful implementation of the new Business Identity Recovery Program. (Watch Sec. Simon’s Testimony)

The new Business Identity Recovery process offers individuals affected by business identity theft a free and fast way to correct their records. With new legal authority to intervene on behalf of targeted businesses, the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State can now investigate and redact illegitimate filings after a business owner reports a wrongful filing.

Since the program launched on January 1, 2026, the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State has corrected 24 wrongful filings for business owners. An additional 29 claims of wrongful business filings are currently under review.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon issued the following statement following his testimony:

“The Business Identity Recovery program addresses a growing, nationwide problem - business identity theft. Business identify theft occurs when someone makes a change to a business, or registers a new business, without the consent of the owner. Victims of business identity theft often face debts, collection calls, or damaged credit histories - all without a clear path to resolution.

Before the Business Identity Recovery program, my office had no way to help impacted business owners. The only way for a victim to reverse these fraudulent filings was to go to court and seek a court order to restore the filing to its proper status – costing business owners time and money.

The new program, one of just a handful in the nation, creates an administrative process at no cost to the victim to determine whether a filing is fraudulent. This process ensures most disputes are resolved faster and with no cost to the victim.

Since January 1, 2026, our office has received 54 requests to review wrongful business filings. We've already been able to resolve 24 of those cases saving these business owners thousands of dollars.

We’re grateful to our Business Services team, including Business Services Director Adam Hasen, for launching this new program.

Our office is also grateful for the bipartisan support of this legislation including bill authors Representative Liz Reyer and Senator Matt Klein, as well as Committee Chairs Representative Jim Nash and Representative Ginny Klevorn, and Senator Tou Xiong, who included these provisions in the final State Government Finance Omnibus bill in 2025.”

Learn more: Minnesota Secretary of State - Business Identity Recovery