Interesting! Reminds me of what I see with some businesses. In some cases, a visibly, very successful business (I've seen it with restaurants), with tons of customers all the time, will go "out of business", and I wonder if they were embezzling the profits (to themselves), so that there was minimal tax on the business when in operation, and then, when they decide they've made enough, or perhaps they sense they might be investigated, they shut down. The other end is an obviously dead business (never see customers) keeps going for years and years; my interpretation of this phenomena is that it is a money laundering operation where, on paper, the business is thriving. There was a used furniture place where I used to live, and when going there, I noticed the prices were really high, and not only did we not buy anything, I didn't know, or ever notice, anyone else ever buying anything. The place had a lot of creepy mob-looking men working there; my take is that it WAS a money laundering operation for some NYC area mafia types. (the mafia is still around, just not as prolific as it used to be)