On 3/4/23 01:46, Jeffrey Schwartz - schwartz.jeffrey at gmail.com (via
tml list) wrote:
> <snip>
> IMTU, there's not a lot of direct Imperial Tax revenues - user fees
> and such cover the local needs. The Big Money is the Imperial Family
> ownership of stocks in the Megas, which gives income via profit
> disbursements and also gives the Imperial family some control of the
> corporations
> Cleon I kept the reins in his reign, so to speak.
> Bottom line for the Baronet is : no appreciable tax income that isn't
> already committed to making the by-the-book mainworld stuff work.
Gotcha.  The Bent Baronet has to get creative.
> <snip>
> The easiest exploitable trojan is swarming with belters, which
> explains why an otherwise backwards system has a Class B starport: the
> port builds and maintains the mining boats.
>
>> <snip>
> The Baronet's on the Board of Directors for the company running the
> starport , and the boat yard there, so he's got an in for getting them
> to buy from a shell company and can convince them not to keep much
> paperwork about the purchase.

Even better.  How about value added services like faked papers to order
for certain valued clients?

Or ripping off the idea of mining support boats that I used in Parental
Advisory?  The support boats go out to supply goods + services +
blackjack + hookers to belters (at a premium) and let the latter stay on
claim significantly longer.

>
>
>> A classic way would be the Baronet borrowing the boodle from himself, or
>> via a third party (securing the funds borrowed with the dirty boodle),
>> and after a while, the paperwork grows legs.
> Makes sense, noting that
I can go dig up more mechanisms if you're stuck for ideas.
> <snip>
>>> 1111 also sees hiring some naval architects, construction of a space
>>> station for them to live and work on, and building a type-A a year,
>>> selling them, and paying off the Legionary by 1114ish
>> Launches _and_ scout ships, maybe?
> I played with the idea of Type-S or even Type-J's, but figured a
> single type-A per year might be easier to lose the paperwork for.
> Construction ability by the start of f111 is on the order of a
> thousand tons of hull without impacting other projects (Swarm growth,
> space station)
>
> What's a reasonable number of ship sales a year you could hide?
If that's a thousand displacement tons per year, I doubt 5-10 ships per
annum would be too problematic, especially to "outsystem" purchases.
>
>>> 1114 to 1117 see selling a Type-A a year for expenses and banking most
>>> of it.. and by "banking" we're talking about half of it being buying
>>> stocks in planet-side businesses and helping them expand. Figure
>>> pumping about 15Mcr/year into business growth, and avoiding inflation
>>> by selling needed expansion goods from a shell company the Baronet
>>> owns that's actually the Swarm making stuff.
>> Presuming the above laundry setup, I'd suggest a combination of
>> investment, both debt and equity.
>>
>> Maybe shopping centres or the like?
>>
>> Maybe a venture capital fund set up by Definitely Not The Baronet You're
>> Looking For?
>>
> That and lots of immigration subsidies - Carmel's really population
> poor. Shopping centers need customers.
> How hard do you think it would be to get the Ministry of Colonization
> to rubber stamps something they didn't have to fund, so that it looked
> like the funds were coming from them?

Laundering the "immigration subsidies" through the MoC?  That's bloody
brilliant - up there with engaging tax authorities to help you launder
money by over-eager pay-as-you-earn withholdings.

How about a small-ish retail concession in the downport, to flog stuff
to passing ships as well as dirtsiders?  That should be worth a couple
of MCr.

> <snip>
>> One hell of a kick in the pants, at the very least.
> Yeah, it's looking to be a bit of a "oof!"
> They think they're on a completely different adventure, and they're
> having fun with it... and will be right up to the minute the Vargr
> Corsairs arrive
> I'm trying to set it up so there's a real high point of emotional
> "WE'RE ROCKING IT!!" that whipsaws around to "WTF? " for full player
> emotional buy in.
Pity I can't be there to see it.  GM: "Your cunning Evil Plan of Evil
(tm) just went to the dogs - Vargr corsairs have turned up..."
>
> <snip>
>
>> Maybe he hides it in plain sight by _subcontracting_ to the bigger
>> outfits, and tests designs in his system fleet first?  The bigger the
>> subcontracting gets, the more actually-dirty boodle can be mixed in and
>> washed.
>>
> Now there's an idea!

And about the time the lid flies off the 3I, the Bent Baronet's
operations take a whacking great loan to support further expansion,
arranged by this guy who feeds his family with commissions on arranged
loans, not curiosity.  (ie, the Bent Baronet, with different trenchcoat,
vest, hat and moustache, indirectly supplied the funds to the uncurious
agent).

If H.E. is operating this overtly, then I withdraw my earlier concern
about couriers to put at the disposal of (sub)sector nobility.

> <snip>
>> Filling in the gaps left by the official J-4 and secret J-6 couriers?
>>
>> Could be just me - that doesn't quite seem strong enough.
>>
> In what way? Can you expand that?

If the Bent Baronet is overtly subcontracting to other shipbuilders, my
concern is moot.

On further thought, that might be reason enough to fund an upgrade to an
A-class port  (and "M.C. Hammer & Associates Jump Drives LIC" moves in -
yet another Honest Eneri invention that ends up unexpectedly successful)
to concentrate on actual _jump drive_ subcontracting.  IIUC, that's the
limiting reagent in starship construction.

>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>> Anything glaringly out of sync above? It all seems to hang together
>>> for me, but it feels like there's something I'm missing.
>>> Is the worry about MegaCorps too strong? What's the threshold there
>>> for getting noticed?
>>> Would building starships to go help the rest of the Domain make more sense?
>> I think the worry about the megacorps is too strong, and have suggested
>> ways to mitigate that.
>>
>> The timeline might be a _little_ compressed up until 116, but not overly so.
>>
>> After the lid flies off the 3I, I think the Domain of Deneb is going to
>> care more about _having_ new-build ships than _where_ they came from -
>> that being a good time for H.E. to step up burying/muddying the paper trail.
>>
> Makes sense!
Never let a good crisis go to waste - it's a truism for money launderers
on Earth today, it will still be true for the Bent Baronet.
> <snip>
> Thanks! Appreciate the insights.
> -----

I enjoyed supplying them.

Alex