Empire of Shadows

The specialist was discussing some issues regarding the lawsuit with their public relations team. It was obvious that the Golden Port city court was on the side of the locals.

Although there was no evidence to prove a direct connection between the Garden Trading Company and the Lance Family, the lawyer representing the Garden Trading Company this time was a friend of Roben the lawyer.

Roben the lawyer had been serving Lance for over a year, so there was a necessary connection between them.

The verdict from the Golden Port side led the specialist and his legal team to believe that there had been extrajudicial influence. Therefore, it was impossible to win this lawsuit locally, and they could only place their hopes on the appellate court.

“We have already secured the relationships of four of the adjudicators. The appellate court will definitely accept the appeal, but this does not mean we will be able to get what we want.”

“Whether it’s winning the case or something else, it will be very difficult.”

“I had someone ask around…” the team’s legal counsel paused for a moment, “Roben’s wife’s father graduated from Golden State University Law School, and he is an alumnus with many people in the Department of Justice.”

“He himself has also served as a high court judge, until now!”

“However, there is one piece of good news. Roben and his wife have already divorced. The reason is not clear.”

The specialist listened to these reports very seriously. He was here to solve problems, not to live here long-term.After a little thought, he said, “The appellate court won’t be able to solve our problem in the short term. We need to prepare some follow-up disposal plans. In addition, we need an extra way to apply pressure, to make Lance and the Lance Family take the initiative to negotiate with us.”

He was not aware that the board of directors had already decided to take a dark hand against Lance. This news was too private, so besides the board members, no one else knew.

As for who would be specifically dispatched to do it, and when, only the chairman of the board, the president, and the enforcer themselves knew.

While they were discussing the remaining countermeasures, the phone suddenly rang. It was a call from the hotel front desk, saying that two police officers wanted to see them.

The specialist did not refuse and had the front desk bring the police up.

He had someone tidy up the things on the table, and then took a legal consultant to the reception room.

They had booked a suite. There was an office, a study, two reception rooms, and a living room.

A few minutes later, two police officers came in from outside. The specialist took the initiative to stand up but did not go forward to greet them, instead standing by the side of the sofa.

“Hello, I am the officer in charge of managing dock cases at the Port District Sub-bureau, and this is my partner.”

The sudden visit of the two police officers made the specialist a bit confused, but he did not show a look of incomprehension. Instead, he extended his hand and shook theirs, and then invited them to sit down.

“I remember I didn’t…” he turned his wrist, signaling that it was not he who had asked them to come.

The officer who had spoken first said with a smile, “I contacted the… general manager of the Liji Group’s Golden Port branch. He said that you are now in charge of this case.”

“The branch office had reported a case before. They suspect that the sprouting of the wheat was man-made, a commercial sabotage.”

“We took the case and have been conducting a detailed investigation and solving the case.”

The specialist remembered this matter. The general manager had mentioned it when he was handing over the case, that they had already called the police.

However, he had also learned through other channels that in Golden Port, the gang forces were almost superior to the police system. It was basically impossible to expect these police officers to investigate and find out the crimes of the gangs.

Of course, those small gangs were not included in this. This referred to the Five Families, including the Lance Family.

So from the very beginning, he did not think that calling the police was a meaningful move. Of course, it was necessary, because the judicial process was like this, but he had no expectations for the result of calling the police.

He crossed his legs and nodded slightly. “So, do you have any progress now?”

He even laughed twice as he spoke. “If you need some investigation funds, we may not be able to provide them here.”

Because of the allocation of police resources and other issues, in this period and for a long time to come, there were cases where the person reporting the crime would pay the police to have them solve the case.

To put it nicely, it was sponsoring the police with some funds for solving the case. To put it bluntly, it was that the police were unwilling to move if they didn’t receive money.

It wasn’t just in Golden Port; the entire Federation was like this. It was a symbol of the era.

You can’t say it’s entirely the police’s problem. For some cases that require a large number of police to do basic work, you can’t have the entire sub-bureau, or the entire city’s police force, do nothing but focus on one case. It’s not reasonable, nor is it possible.

If the person reporting the case was very rich, then they could spend money to get support. The police would recruit some temporary police officers to be responsible for the investigation work.

Or they would transfer some police officers from surrounding areas with no major police situations, including state police, forest police, road police, and the like, to cooperate in handling the case.

Transferring these police officers required money, so this money was used here.

But there were also police in some places who would use this method as a means of “extorting money.”

If you don’t give money, they will, according to the regulations in the work manual, send two police officers to be responsible for this case.

There is no problem from the process point of view, but if it is a major case, or a more troublesome case, then this investigation work may have to continue for several years.

The person reporting the case spending money to speed up the investigation progress was an unspoken social rule.

The specialist thought they were here to extort money, so his words were not so polite.

After all, for them in this case, the assistance of the police was not a plus point, because from the very beginning, the police could not possibly be on their side. Hearing the specialist’s impolite words, the expressions of the two police officers also changed slightly, but they did not forget the reason for coming here today.

One of the police officers said, “You misunderstand. We are here to tell you that we have already found some clues and have basically locked down some possible suspects.”

The specialist’s eyes slowly widened. His legal consultant beside him also had a look of disbelief. Since when were the police in Golden Port so capable? And, did they not care about the influence of the Lance Family on them?

They completely didn’t understand.

Seeing the two of them looking dumbfounded, the police officer smiled and continued, “Later, some more conflicts broke out at the docks. Through our understanding, questioning, and investigation of these people, we found some clues.”

“The staff of the Liji Group may have had some problems with a few workers at the docks. The workers generally believe that your employees are too arrogant and will use vicious and harsh language to provoke the workers at the docks.”

“So a few workers may have developed a psychology of revenge for these reasons.”

“We have already arrested two of them. They confessed that they did this just to vent their dissatisfaction.”

“The other few have already fled. We have already applied for a wanted warrant. I believe they will be brought to justice soon.”

“I came to notify you because your company reported the case. Now there is progress in the case. That’s it.”

“After the others are brought in and interrogated, we will give you an accurate result.”

“You can, based on the materials and confessions we provide, decide whether to assert your legal rights.”

“Of course, let me say this privately, these people are dirt poor. They probably can’t even come up with a hundred dollars.”

The police officer smiled. “This is what we have to say. If there are no other problems, we have to leave.”

The specialist glanced at the legal consultant. The latter quickly asked, “Can we have contact with those… suspects?”

The police officer nodded. “Within the limits allowed by law, of course you can.”

“However, we will have someone watch you and make a recording.”

“If there are no other problems, we have to leave. The police station still has a lot of work to do.”

This news came too suddenly. The legal consultant shook his head, and the specialist certainly couldn’t have any problems. They took the initiative to see the two police officers to the door this time. The legal consultant even saw them to the elevator. After returning to the room, the expressions of the legal team were not very good, which also made the specialist realize that the problem might not be good.

This was very interesting. The criminals were found, but the problem had become troublesome.

So sometimes, the criminal being caught doesn’t necessarily mean things have gotten better. On the contrary, it might get worse.

The legal consultant who had returned from outside sat down and lit a cigarette. “They didn’t catch them early, they didn’t catch them late, and now they’ve suddenly caught these criminals. This is not a good thing for us. And from the looks of it, they plan to send them to court directly through the prosecutor.”

The specialist frowned. He already had some guesses in his heart, but he had not graduated from law school. He didn’t understand much. He needed an explanation. “What problem will this cause?”

The legal consultant said, “We have been pushing to treat the entire case as a single case. Then, in the judicial procedure and judicial logic, there are many things that need to be proved, which is conducive to us dragging the case on.”

“But now, if the local prosecutor directly sues these workers, then it can prove the point advocated by the lawyer of the Garden Trading Company, that the sprouting of the wheat and the Garden Trading Company’s claim for breach of contract damages are two independent cases with no connection.”

“The appellate court will most likely reject the appeal and uphold the original verdict.”

Once the original verdict is upheld, the Garden Trading Company can request compulsory enforcement.

If they are unwilling to enforce it, not only will they face a huge penalty for breach of contract, but also a late fee and a judicial punitive fine for resisting enforcement. You have to know, a punitive fine is not a joke. Many enterprises may not be able to withstand this judicial heavy blow. In the cases that have already occurred in the Federation, it is not unheard of for cases involving a few hundred, a few thousand, or even a little more, tens of thousands of dollars, to result in hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in punitive fines. Some enterprises are directly knocked down with one punch.

The Liji Group will certainly not be knocked down, but it will definitely not be very comfortable. This time was different from the last time. Last time, they could still find other problems to delay the case indefinitely, for example, they believed that Lance had colluded with the appraiser and had also forged evidence.

Because the appraiser and the evidence they had forged had occurred in Golden State, they had submitted these to the Golden State court, not the Golden Port court.

That was their home turf. They could drag the case on indefinitely. But this time, it had nothing to do with the appraiser, and the trial was very fast and simple.

Their previous plan was now also invalid.

The specialist’s brow furrowed. “Then we have no way out at all?”

Several legal employees looked at me, I looked at you. In the end, someone said, “The only thing we can do now is to start from the suspects.”

The specialist also couldn’t help but light a cigarette. He held his own arm and raised his chin. “Continue.”

“We have to make the suspects admit that there was someone behind the scenes who instigated this, and then find a way to connect this instigator with the Garden Trading Company. This way we will have time to continue to supplement the evidence to prove our asserted point of view.”

“At least we can drag it on for a few months. During this time, we can continue to try to turn the entire case into contract fraud according to our previous idea. Then it will be no problem to drag it on for several years.”

The specialist nodded and exhaled a large puff of smoke. “So the core of the case now is on those suspects?”

The legal consultant nodded. I’m afraid so.

The specialist sat there and thought for a while. “I will find a way to create an opportunity for you to be alone. you must complete your work.”

He stood up as he spoke. “I’m going to make a phone call…”

Although he had not graduated with a law degree, he knew some superficial things more or less.

For example, they would definitely have to study these suspects and find an easy-to-“break” key person among them, and then find a way to persuade the other party.

And what he had to do now was to provide convenience for these things.

He soon made a phone call to a capitalist in the Bay Area who had a close cooperative relationship with the Liji Group, and had the other party act as a middleman to let him meet Chief Hunter.

As long as Hunter’s side nodded, there would be a way to let their lawyers have separate contact with the suspects.

Because he was in a hurry with this matter, and the middleman was also willing to contact Hunter for him, so he quickly left the hotel and went to the city police department.

And in the city police chief’s office, he met Chief Hunter.

Hunter, like Charlie, was a loyal running dog of the Bay Area, or rather, they knew better than others who the real masters of this city were.

The phone call from the Bay Area’s side had him meet this visitor, so he cleared his schedule.

When the specialist handed over his business card, Hunter knew that it was someone from the Liji Group.

The smile on his face grew wider. As a monopolistic enterprise with an annual profit of tens of millions or hundreds of millions, in front of such a behemoth, he, a police chief, was just a small character.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” he lowered his posture.

The specialist was very reserved in front of such a small character. Of course, behind the reserve was arrogance.

“My lawyer needs to be alone with a suspect for a period of time. They have some things they want to talk about.”

This was not in compliance with the rules, but the rules did not restrict these big capitalists. Hunter had a smile on his face and agreed without even asking. “This is just a small matter. I will arrange it for you.”

A few more smiles appeared on the specialist’s face. “You have my friendship, Chief Hunter.”

Chief Hunter didn’t know how much he would have to pay in the future for this friendship he actually didn’t need, but at least he was happy now.

Everything was proceeding according to the script.

During this period, there was actually a very interesting thing that happened. When Lance promised these workers who were taking the blame that he would get them out of prison as soon as possible, two of them even took the initiative to ask if they could serve their full sentence without any reduction.

After all, the “job” of nearly $200 a month was, it could be said, the highest-income opportunity they had ever encountered in their lives. After leaving prison and this opportunity, it was unlikely that they would ever encounter such a high-income opportunity again in their lives. Ten years might be a long time, but if you look at it as a job, then it might not be that long.

And Lance had guaranteed that they would not be bullied inside. The Lance Family also had its own people inside who could take care of them.

So what they had to do every day was to work just like outside, but the difference was that the working hours inside were only ten hours, and they also had free lunch and dinner every day, and rest days…

Where the fuck could you find such a good job? Ten years, $20,000. If they missed this opportunity, it was unlikely that they would ever encounter it again in their lives. However, in the end, Lance still did not agree, which made them a little disappointed.

Later, Elvin told Lance that there were still people outside who were willing to take the blame at a reduced price. Some even offered $1,000 a year.

This might be seen as a joke by people, but Lance felt that this was actually a social problem of not being able to make money.

After the mid-term strike problem, the income at the docks had actually increased a lot, with an average of $40 or more per person.

But the whole society, the economic market, was still in a lifeless state. Some people had already noticed that something was wrong.

Before this, the Federation had already experienced several great depressions, and the current situation seemed to have some signs.

These past two days, the bar in the Starlight District, after its trial operation, had begun to officially operate. Although the business was not as good as before it was closed, overall, it was still acceptable.

At the same time, the bar manager also raised a new problem—

“We need to expand some of our business.”

“The people who come here to drink need some girls. you know, if they are just by themselves, they might only drink one glass of wine.”

“But if there is a sensible girl, they might drink a whole bottle.”

“It’s too clean here now. We can’t attract those rich young people who are also willing to spend money…”

(End of chapter)