Elliot Shaikin sells privacy. But he doesn't accept credit cards. Shaikin is the founder of Sovereign Solutions, a 3-year-old Las Vegas company that provides individuals and corporations with confidential, anonymous and untraceable personal security vaults. Clients of Sovereign Solutions need not reveal their address, telephone number, driver's license number, Social Security number, credit card number or even their name. http://www.inbusinesslasvegas.com/2004/06/25/smallbizpro.html
All clients of Sovereign Solutions need to access their security vault any time of the day or night, is a personal pin code, an iris scan and a two keys. Clients must pay in cash. "Checks and credit cards leave a paper trail," Shaikin said. Clients can also rest assured their valuables are secure: Sovereign Solutions is outfitted like Fort Knox. "This place is bulletproof, fireproof and bombproof," Shaikin said. For starters, the company headquarters -- tucked in a nondescript shopping plaza on East Sunset Road -- is encased in a material that Shaikin said will stop a bullet. The interior walls and doors are made of the same material, and the glass on the windows is also bulletproof. Visitors must pass through a metal detector immediately upon entering. In order to gain access to the vaults, clients must first undergo an iris scan, a proven, safe and irrefutable identification system. That will get them through the first set of doors. Once inside the small intermediary chamber -- which is equipped, as is the vault itself, with motion and sound sensors on the walls, floor and ceiling -- clients must enter their five-digit personal pin number, which is assigned privately and retained exclusively by clients. This gets them into the inner chamber where Sovereign Solutions' 4,000 security boxes are stored. For security reasons, there are cameras inside the vault, but there are also two private viewing rooms for customers who wish to be alone with their valuables. Sovereign Solutions Owner: Elliot Shaikin Founded: 2000 Industry: Personal security vaults Location: 3110 E. Sunset Road Work force: Eight There are only two keys made for each of Sovereign Solutions' security boxes -- which come in six sizes and range in price from $120 to $400 annually -- and clients keep both of them. "There are three things we tell every client," Shaikin said. "First, give us the name of a trustee in case you have an accident. Second, don't lose the keys. It costs $150 to get a locksmith, and the client and one of our employees have to be present in order for the locksmith to open the box. And number three, don't put anything in there that's illegal. We tell it to them point blank up front. I've had people walk out the front door and leave." So how did Shaikin -- who previously built 15 strip shopping centers and four industrial buildings in California -- get into the business of providing privacy? Call it a bad banking experience. "My daughter came to visit me and the only thing she brought was an electronic airline ticket," he said. "I took her into a bank and wanted her to sign on a safe deposit box and they wouldn't let her sign unless she had the ingredients -- a driver's license, a Social Security card and a credit card. So I got mad and called the manager over." The manager, he said, was of little help, upholding the bank's policy that required multiple forms of identification. "So I sent my daughter out to the car, got some bags out of the trunk, went back inside, emptied the safety deposit box and put the key on the counter," he said. He then closed his account with the bank and demanded his more than $10,000 in cash. When the bank balked, saying the facility didn't have the funds on hand, Shaikin threatened to call the news media. Twenty minutes later, an armored car arrived with the money. Shaikin got his cash -- and the inkling of an idea for a better way to store valuables. "I went to see some people I respected in the legal community and they did some research and said there was no law or regulation against what I was thinking of doing," said Shaikin, who launched the company using personal funds in the upper six digits. So what happens if Sovereign Solution is served with a court order or subpoena to open a client's box? In a word, nothing. A court order must specify a name, box number and contents. Sovereign Solution is not an agent, and never has information about its clients, their corresponding vault number or the contents of their vaults. "We don't know the customer, therefore we do not have any legal obligation to the customer for accepting search warrants or subpoenas," Shaikin explained. "I've been investigated by all federal and state agencies -- the FBI, the CIA, the IRS, the Justice Department, Metro -- and nobody has been able to violate privacy because we don't know our customer. We do not require anything but a picture of the iris of the eye. People who want privacy, anonymity and accessibility are coming here."
