// the investigation

The investigation

Skytech Construction's hiring channel told an LLC-only applicant in writing that no Social Security Number was needed — four times, across three Telegram personas, over four months. Each of those four written replies came from the same operation under different recruiter aliases — Vertexon Group, John Sagittarius, and Andrei Shelepov. Each one, asked in private whether an LLC-only applicant was acceptable, gave a written answer that should end a federal immigration inquiry in a weekend. Vertexon Group: "I don't need an SSN, as long as there's an LLC and an EIN on it". John Sagittarius, reframing the arrangement as a tax benefit: "Yes. It'll be easier for you with taxes". Andrei Shelepov, in reply to whether the position was 1099: "Yes, 1099" — the same operator routing an LLC-only applicant into an employment structure that bypasses every employee-side verification the federal government has written into law.

The fourth DM is the cleanest of all. When the applicant circled back four months later to re-ask whether LLC without SSN was still workable, John Sagittarius answered with a single word: "No" — no, it's not a problem. The answer's economy is the point. There is no hedging, no request for documentation, no pause. The follow-up a few messages later — "it'll be easier for you with taxes" — frames the entire arrangement as an administrative courtesy to the worker. Skytech's operational model does not need to check. Four separate recruiter personas gave four different variants of the same written answer, over a four-month span, from three distinct Telegram identities.

Publicly, Skytech's recruiting posts cycle across markets without pausing to ask what its hires actually are. One Skytech recruiting account calls for "subcontractors with their own equipment" — the phrasing that sits at the top of the 1099-pipeline funnel and is documented, four DMs later in private, to accept an LLC with no SSN. The same account runs continuous market-by-market recruiting under the "Skytech Construction" brand with no explicit work-authorization requirement, and under multi-account operation that makes vendor-management cross-reference against Telegram operator identity effectively impossible without per-account attribution. The Vertexon Group alias alone gave the written "LLC with an EIN" answer — the single most explicit recruiting confirmation that SSN-less hiring is the standing policy. The public posts are the funnel. The DMs are the sort.

The primes contracting Skytech's work cannot read this Russian-language chat directly. What they have is the certification chain that is supposed to verify, for every site closeout, who climbed the tower and on what authorization. Skytech's three Telegram personas all routed an LLC-no-SSN applicant into a 1099 hiring structure in writing, in private, on a single applicant the investigation tested. The vendor-management programs above Skytech could surface this pattern by checking whether the certificates submitted on Skytech sites trace back to credentialed workers with documented authorization. They have not. They know.

// findings

6 findings on this card

Each finding is a single corpus message (or a short cluster) with a verbatim quote, severity tag, and provenance label. Click any finding to view the source message and context window. Speaker identifiers below are Telegram name (the handle the user chose for themselves on Telegram — can be a real name, a single letter, an emoji, or anything else they set) plus Telegram UID (the numeric account identifier).

m0117 HIGH W2_TO_1099_ARBITRAGE PROVEN

Мне ссн не нужен, если есть ллс а на него еин

I don't need an SSN, as long as there's an LLC and an EIN on it

Tagged as: LLC_AS_SSN_SUBSTITUTE

source: DM · msgs 109-208 (4) · Telegram name: Vertexon Group · uid 7800217503 · role: Vertexon Group
View source message and context →
m0118 HIGH W2_TO_1099_ARBITRAGE PROVEN

[238 Investigator] Интересно, только у меня LLC, нет SSN, это проблема? — [239 John Sagittarius / Skytech] Нет

[238 Investigator] Wondering, I only have an LLC, no SSN — is that a problem? — [239 John Sagittarius / Skytech] No

Tagged as: LLC_AS_SSN_SUBSTITUTE

source: DM · msgs 15-239 (4) · Telegram name: John Sagittarius (424) 488-3388 · uid 7147448296 · role: John Sagittarius
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m0119 HIGH W2_TO_1099_ARBITRAGE PROVEN

[407 Investigator] Скажите это позиция на 1099? Просто у меня нет SSN , но есть LLC... — [413 Andrei Shelepov / Skytech] Да , 1099

[407 Investigator] Tell me, is this a 1099 position? I just don't have an SSN, but I have an LLC... — [413 Andrei Shelepov / Skytech] Yes, 1099

Tagged as: LLC_AS_SSN_SUBSTITUTE

source: DM · msgs 407-421 (4) · Telegram name: Andrei Shelepov · uid 5224383309 · role: Andrei Shelepov
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m0276 MEDIUM JOB_POSTING_LEGIT PROVEN

требуются сабконтракторы со своим оборудованием

subcontractors with their own equipment are required

source: CHAT · msgs 30310-39273 (3) · Telegram name: Yerlan Yerkanatov · uid 941357620
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m0277 MEDIUM JOB_POSTING_AMBIGUOUS PROVEN

«Skytech Construction»

«Skytech Construction»

source: CROSS_REFERENCED · msgs 44557-53632 (13) · Telegram name: John Sagittarius (424) 488-3388 · uid 7147448296
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m0358 LOW UNDOC_LABOR PROVEN

[4 Investigator] У меня нет ssn , но есть LLC. ... [15 Investigator] Сориентируйте по зарплате. То что у меня LLC это ок? — [16 John Sagittarius / Skytech] Да. Вам будет проще с налогами

[4 Investigator] I don't have an SSN, but I have an LLC. ... [15 Investigator] Tell me about the pay. The fact that I have an LLC — is that OK? — [16 John Sagittarius / Skytech] Yes. It'll be easier for you with taxes

source: DM · msg 16 · Telegram name: John Sagittarius (424) 488-3388 · uid 7147448296
View source message and context →
Source
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Telegram Name
Telegram UID

CONTEXT WINDOW

Before you read

The Shadow Zone Investigation documents labor violations in U.S. wireless tower construction — including wage theft, undocumented-labor schemes, fraudulent safety certifications, child labor, and immigration coercion. 339 documented findings across 93 named subcontractors and 384 individuals. Anonymous investigation team.

Three editorial commitments:

  • Every finding carries a PROVEN, ALLEGED, or INFERRED label. The label is the editorial commitment, not decoration.
  • Russian-language source quotes are preserved verbatim, with English translations.
  • Three corruption allegations against named primes are framed as ALLEGED throughout. The corpus does not prove them. They are surfaced because named industry sources, separately, raised them. Every unproven allegation on this site is collected on the What Is Alleged — and Not Proven page.

Mistakes may exist. The corpus runs to ~30,000 messages over 5+ years; translations were AI-assisted across four independent analyses. Some errors likely remain. To report a factual error or dispute a finding's framing, see the corrections policy on the About page.