Empire of Shadows

"Nice clothes!" As soon as he entered, Alberto commented on Lance's clothes. "I like the style of this suit. You can introduce me to its tailor."

He proactively walked out from behind his desk and shook hands with Lance. "The local Federal tailors simply don't know how to make a beautiful suit!"

Many Federation citizens don't like wearing clothes that are too tight, which has led to increasingly loose clothing designs, especially for men.

The tailors here tend to go to two extremes: one is purely imitating the styles of their ancestors, so tight that it's almost impossible to breathe.

The other is making clothes into squares, shapeless and baggy.

Alberto wasn't a native of the Federation, and he didn't like this style.

After a brief chat, Lance sat down on the sofa.

"Have you been following the alcohol market lately?" He offered Lance a cigar. "Sumuri Island handmade cigar. I had someone keep an eye on it during production."

Lance took it and sniffed it. The aroma was rich, with a hint of sweetness.

Alberto took out his cigar paraphernalia and unwrapped one for Lance. He seemed very enthusiastic now.

Lance handed over the cigar, watching him cut and toast it. "Is the alcohol market in Goldport City really that good right now?"

Alberto nodded. "Better than expected. And you know… my boss above me told me that the Prohibition Alliance is starting to have a lot of political influence throughout the Federation."

"Various regions have seen increased productivity and decreased crime rates due to the prohibition, so Congress plans to forcibly implement a complete prohibition order throughout the Federation."

"This is also one of the deals the president made for his re-election."

Before this, the prohibition was not fully implemented, but voluntarily participated in by regions.

The Prohibition Alliance and some people from the church, along with politicians and big shots behind the scenes, would form lobbying teams to persuade various states to join the Prohibition Alliance.

They weren't sure if doing so would really help the city's development or social progress.

But now, it does seem to be effective.

Even the Goldport City media are saying it, aren't they?

Our productivity is increasing, our work efficiency is improving, our crime rate is decreasing. What reason is there not to support its full implementation?

The Holy Federation is about to arrive under the Prohibition Order! Whoever the hell stops the Prohibition Order is an enemy of the Federation!

The sudden involvement of the President gave Lance a strange feeling.

Worrying about the cabinet while eating beef worth less than a dollar.

"Let's talk about the alcohol market in Goldport City."

Alberto handed the cigar to Lance, who took a puff and nodded under his expectant gaze. "Very good flavor."

Then the two looked at each other for a few seconds. Lance couldn't help but ask, "You don't expect me to say something about the top notes and base notes, do you?"

"That's too much to ask of me!"

Alberto looked disappointed. "I thought you'd say something nicer. Each one costs more than one and a half dollars."

Lance looked at the cigar in his hand again, took another puff, and then felt it. "When you said it was worth more than one and a half dollars, I suddenly felt the flavor was indeed better!"

"You're wasting it, Lance!"

He laughed as he said this, lighting one for himself. "The prohibition order in this state has just started to be implemented, and they're cracking down hard, so alcohol from outside can't get in at all."

"They expect this crackdown on violations of the prohibition order to continue until January 1st. We don't know what the subsequent situation will be, so right now, Goldport City only has stockpiled alcohol available."

"November, December, more than sixty days. How much alcohol can this city consume?"

"Those Gold Label Napoleon Whiskeys you have are currently selling for about eleven dollars on the market."

Tens of thousands of bottles of alcohol sounds like a lot from an individual's perspective, but this city has 1.1 million permanent residents, as well as a large number of transient people brought in by maritime transport every day.

The City Hall gave an uncertain number through investigation: this city has 1.25 million inhabitants, including short-term residents and those planning to leave.

Not including illegal immigrants. As everyone knows, illegal immigrants are not people on paper.

If you include them, this is a city of nearly 1.5 million people.

The consumption of alcohol by 1.5 million people is staggering, and Goldport City has a good economy. People are not poor, and Federation citizens have a habit of consuming alcohol.

Lance didn't expect the price of his alcohol to rise so quickly. If calculated at eleven dollars a bottle, more than 40,000 bottles would be more than $460,000.

Zero-cost businesses always make the most money. No wonder those capitalists and political families who started zero-cost businesses would legislate to prevent later generations from doing the same.

Alberto looked at Lance, meeting his gaze. "Someone wants the alcohol you have."

Lance held the cigar with three fingers. "So you told someone I have a large quantity of alcohol?"

No expression could be seen on his face, neither anger nor dissatisfaction, as calm as before, but Alberto knew that beneath the calm surface, things were not calm.

He quickly shook his head to avoid misunderstanding. "No one knows you have alcohol. When I attended a family gathering a few days ago, the big boss talked about this matter. I said I had a way to get a batch of alcohol, and he was very interested."

"Big boss?" Lance showed a curious look. "I thought…" He had a look of regret, as if saying, "I didn't expect you were just a small fry."

This made Alberto laugh. "Please, this is the Federation, not our hometown."

"Sumuri people, Patty people, Gray people, Swiss people, and you Imperial people, and many people from all over the world."

"The Federation's environment is very complex. Don't tell me you don't know that, so we must unite in order to have room to survive."

"If you paid a little attention to the five major families in Goldport City, you would know that one of them is the Sumuri family, the Pastoreto family."

"Paul Pastoreto is my big boss."

Lance didn't speak, so he had to continue, "Mr. Pastoreto means to buy all the Gold Label Napoleon Whiskey you have at eleven dollars a bottle. He can give you cash, unregistered stocks, bonds, or something else."

"If you want to pay taxes, he can also transfer the money to you." Alberto couldn't help but laugh at this point.

Even if the Investigation Bureau doesn't investigate how he got such a large amount of alcohol, just paying enough taxes would take half of it.

Lance suddenly froze on this issue, because the money was really too much. Before, it was just alcohol, so he hadn't considered these things.

But if he wanted to cash it out now, it meant he had to have a plan to dispose of this $400,000+.

Should he throw the cash into a safe as ill-gotten gains and bury it deep underground, or should he launder it through other means?

Money laundering is not an easy thing.

Although, from Lance's perspective, money laundering in this era is not too difficult, it is not easy to quickly launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

And, this will definitely be targeted by the Federal Revenue Service.

Lance wouldn't feel any problem even if he was targeted by the Federal Investigation Bureau. Everyone knows that as long as they feed their director, they are just sleeping tigers.

But the IRS is difficult to deal with, because they only want money, and a lot of money.

Seeing Lance fall into contemplation, Alberto, who ran a financial company, knew what he was worried about and gave him two suggestions.

"If you want cash and want to spend it, you can have the Koda family help you launder the money, but they charge a lot."

"If you don't want cash, unregistered bonds are a good choice."

Casino money laundering has always been a… relatively reasonable method of money laundering, but the cost of this method is very, very high.

Casinos are inherently prone to being associated with various crimes. If you don't give enough, the Koda family will not risk conflict with the IRS for tens of thousands of dollars.

Giving this money to the Koda family is not as good as directly paying taxes—

If you give the money to the Koda family, they won't feel like they owe you anything. Instead, they will feel like you owe them. They helped you solve the problem of your funds being shady, and the fees you give them are justified.

You still owe them a favor, just to save possibly less than $50,000.

It's better to just pay the taxes directly. The IRS will think you're a good person!

"Cash, I'll figure out how to handle it myself." Lance finally made a decision, then asked, "How do we trade?"

Alberto stood up and walked back and forth a few steps. "If you want to come forward yourself, I will introduce you to Mr. Pastoreto."

"If you don't want to come forward yourself, then you can sell this batch of alcohol directly to me, and I will transfer it to the family."

Both seemed like good choices, but rather than meeting this big boss of the five major families because of this matter, Lance hoped to do so for another reason, so as not to leak the news.

He decided to sell the alcohol directly to Alberto, and the deal was made at a total price of $465,000, saving Alberto about a thousand dollars.

This amount of cash was an astonishing number, and it looked even more astonishing.

There were no hundred-dollar or fifty-dollar bills, all ten-dollar and twenty-dollar bills.

One hundred bills per bundle, tied with rubber bands. They directly used two waterproof gasoline drums to hold the money, and both drums were filled to the brim.

Out of trust, and because he simply couldn't count that much money, he chose to trust Alberto.

But soon, how to place these two oil drums filled with banknotes became a problem.

He could only transport them back temporarily.

Buying a reliable and safe large house became the most pressing matter for Lance.

Alberto, having obtained a large quantity of high-end liquor, quickly informed Mr. Pastore of the news, who praised him greatly.

Currently, a very... strange phenomenon has emerged in Gold Harbor City. The vast majority of people hoarding liquor are hoarding mid-to-low-end liquor, especially low-end liquor.

Some no-name cheap whiskeys and Copper Label Napoleon whiskey are their main stockpiles.

To some extent, their choice is actually correct. When the price of alcoholic beverages skyrockets, the mainstream consumer group can only afford these cheap or inferior liquors.

They simply can't afford mid-range or high-end liquor!

A glass of Gold Label Napoleon whiskey costs one dollar and thirty-five cents in an underground bar, and the bar isn't even making money, but who the hell can afford that?

This also leads to the fact that the amount of mid-to-high-end liquor stockpiled by liquor merchants in Gold Harbor City is actually not that much...