Mongo is the base of operations for Tukera
Lines' Nakege Project. Everything is run from the capital city,
and the Vemene operated ships (two destroyers and four SDB's) that
patrol the neighboring system are serviced at the highport.
The Bank of Mongo is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Tukera Lines, LIC. It is used as the funnel for all the actual
revenue and paper profits of the Nakege Project. Meanwhile, the
expenses of the blockade -- ship purchasing, maintenance, and running
costs -- are accounted as a business loss by the local Tukera
office. To add to the Bank of Mongo tax-free profits, and the
Tukera tax credits for the blockade expenses, all the business that's
done with Nakege runs through Tukera owned companies as
well. Overall the Nakege Project is a complete win for Tukera,
and a very nice profit center.
No-one locally knows the extent of Tukera
involvement, but the clues are there for anyone enterprising enough to
put them together -- and stupid enough to take on an Imperial
megacorporation. In the Bank of Mongo, only the President (Jone
Riksson) and Senior Financial Officer (Colin Gaiterby) know that the
paper profits are being moved offworld to Aramis and also
through creative megacorp accounting practices being converted into
real cash profits for Tukera Lines. The local Tukera officials --
under Vice President for Mongo Ari Kolinska -- operate the
blockade side of the project only. Sir William Edgerton, a Tukera
man, runs Creative Imports -- the company that handles and arranges all
transport to Nakege, and also the lucrative business of bootleg
Nakege exports; Sir William is handsomely rewarded, and also
handles diplomatic matters (i.e. kickbacks) for the project.
The Bank of Mongo
The Bank of Mongo graciously extends the loan to
Traditional Heritage Craftworks of Nakege as requested,
compounding annually at 12% per year. With the 1121 debt at 8.7
GCr, that'll be just over a gigacredit of interest accumulating for
1122. Creative accounting turns most of that pretty much directly
into real Tukera revenue, more than covering the costs of maintaining
the blockade. In fact, just 2% of the interest (an anticipated 20
MCr for 1122) goes back into the Bank of Mongo itself. Even so,
that easily pays the 2 MCr (each) bonuses for Riksson and Gaiterby.
Tukera Lines
Tukera officials here are relatively innocent.
Ari Kolinska sees his main duties to be overseeing the excellent trade
for Mongo -- agricultural products shipping out, industrial
equipment coming in. The blockade at Nakege he sees as an
unfortunate expense, but is well aware that his superiors are insistent
that it be maintained at all costs -- no compromise it to be
permitted. He will end the blockade when Tukera gets its
supposedly promised 40% of THC, and when all outstanding debt for the
company is paid off. Kolinska is well aware that this will
probably never happen, but understands the blockade as a necessary cost
of maintaining Tukera's reputation and integrity. He has only
sympathy and respect for THC's plight, but obviously cannot do anything
about it.
Sir William
Edgerton and Creative Imports
Sir William Edgerton, on the other hand, is a
duplicitous sleazeball. Getting his knighthood by the influence
of the Marquis of Aramis, he is everything bad about new money.
He has no taste in clothes, art, dining, or associates -- he merely
follows the style magazines and assumes that anything expensive has to
be appropriate for his station. He has been deliberately chosen
as someone who can get the job done, but who is going to take the fall
if anything about the true nature of the Nakege Project comes to
light. Tukera is well aware that he is embezzling from his own
company, skimming off revenue from exports from Nakege.
Sir William knows only his side of the Nakege
Project. He knows nothing of the creative accounting by the Bank
of Mongo, and thinks that Tukera's true revenue comes from controlling Nakege's
imports and exports. He sees nothing wrong with taking "his cut"
from the top, since it's no worse than the kickbacks and bribes he
passes out to free traders and Vemene officers to get stuff through the
blockade.
No sane free trader will go to Nakege.
Trade Free! was quite clear that it's stupid to go there, no
matter what the potential profits, because of the difficulty of leaving
the world with even the clothes in the ship's closets. Creative
Imports, however -- supposedly through Sir William's "connections" --
can get the occasional import licence for traders to take goods into Nakege
with preferential treatment from the Vemene blockade. So all
goods bound for Nakege end up going through Creative Imports,
with a very large handling fee to cover the costs of the blockade
paperwork. What is more, CI insists on sourcing the goods
themselves -- to be certain of the origin, for paperwork reasons -- and
so THC ends up ordering all their equipment from CI. CI in turn
charges excessive prices in addition to the handling fees, and also
while the free traders they employ do get good rates for the trip to Nakege,
CI gets a hefty surcharge on the freight fees too. All of this
gets charged to THC's account with the Bank of Mongo.
Sir William also handles a steady trickle of exports
from Nakege. He believes he has himself managed to
influence the blockading officers to accept bribes to let certain ships
through. The truth, of course, is that these officers are
instructed to do so by their Vemene superiors, as part of the Nakege
Project. In turn, when he thinks it's appropriate for another
shipment to get out, he contracts certain disreputable free traders to
go get another load.
While the traders get a good payout for their
"danger," they don't get anything like market value for the
goods. For example, bottles of Blockade Bourbon, bought on Nakege
for a kilocredit, are bought from the traders for 10 kCr. Sir
William then brings them into Creative Imports at 100 kCr, pocketing
the extra himself and hiding it through cooking the books. He's
also doing more traditional embezzlement to support his expensive
lifestyle Creative Imports then trades the goods offworld
through Tukera, who get the profit as speculative trade goods.
Other Nakege products are similarly profiteered.
Sir William also believes he's getting kickbacks
from Tukera to keep the trade goods flowing to them. Tukera on Aramis
accounts him as a merchant trader, totally above board -- whether he
believes it or not, he cannot harm anyone but himself by blowing the
whistle. Tukera has been very careful to make sure that all the
blatantly illegal parts of the operation are being done by Sir William
Edgerton.
The Nakege Room
The exclusive Nakege Room club is owned and
run by the Bank of Mongo. It is outfitted from Nakege
goods and materials at Tukera's purchase price, and so did not cost
nearly as much to build and maintain as it looks. Bottles of
Blockade Bourbon are a steal on the menu at a mere megacredit; Tukera
paid only 120 kCr for each.
It is a clever irony that through the expensive
club, a large part of Sir William's income -- legal and illegal -- goes
right back into Tukera's coffers.
The Marchioness of Nakege
The Marchioness of Nakege is the Nakege Room's
most honored guest. Anything that can be done to make her feel
favorable to the Nakege Room, the Bank of Mongo, and Tukera
Lines will be done. She has the full facilities and personnel of
the club at her disposal for no charge, as long as she is not working
against Tukera interests.
Likewise, Tukera facilites are at her beck and
call. Ari Kolinska will gladly arrange a guided tour of Nakege
via Tukera yacht, and do everything he can to show her how fair Tukera
is being in this unfortunate situation -- remember that Kolinska is
perfectly genuine in his attitude and beliefs about Nakege and
the blockade.
The Bank of Mongo will be glad to extend the
Marchioness an unlimited line of credit, and put her full financial
services at her disposal. As far as they are concerned, she
outranks even the Countess Jewell and Alise, Lady Mongo.