The Mech Touch novel Chapter 988

After Ves returned to the base, he studied the contents of Raella’s data chip. As promised, she really did retrieve a fair amount of dirt on the Kadar-Neyvis Group and also the Neyvis Family for that matter.

Ves decided to look into the Neyvis Family first, because the KNG could never have grown so fast and with such momentum without the capital to back up their ambitions.

"Turns out the Neyvis Family has been laundering money for the Peace Association." He immediately recognized.

Money earned through illicit means couldn’t be spent so easily. Running them through legitimate businesses helped underground organizations clean up their dirty money so they could spend it in the open without drawing an excessive amount of scrutiny.

"I guess it’s too much to expect a bank on Bentheim to keep their noses clean."

To their credit, money laundering only formed a small proportion of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Bentheim banking activities. It could even be said that the additional money injection allowed the ICBB to be more generous in investing in some of the local businesses with promise.

Through increasing the circulation of money in Bentheim’s economy, the ICBB therefore formed a positive influence to the planet.

"Many other banks are probably engaging in similar schemes." Ves concluded.

The ICBB and the Neyvis Family’s involvement in laundering money for one of the Big Three gangs of Bentheims made Ves apprehensive. If Ves ever damaged their business interests, then he’d be sure to draw the ire of the Peace Association.

Despite its seemingly benevolent name, the gang led by Three-Eyes Jackson could be just as cruel and ferocious of the Blood Claws!

"Pissing off the Peace Association is a very bad idea."

The Neyvis Family’s relationship with the Peace Association extended to the Kadar-Neyvis Group. The mech company enjoyed a considerable amount of attention and protection from the gang since its inception!

"On top of the KNG’s political, military and local connections, it also has a firm bond with Bentheim’s underground!"

The sheer amount of connections the KNG forged almost made Ves faint. The more people cared about the company, the more people Ves pissed off if he dragged the company through the mud!

It seriously made him consider Leland’s request yet again. Fabricating evidence in the absence of any legitimate evidence of treasonous behavior incurred numerous powerful enemies!

The calculus didn’t seem very favorable to him. Was the backing of Flashlight really worth pissing off so many powerful figures?

After a moment of thought, Ves eventually narrowed his eyes in determination. "The only way to thread the needle is to dig up evidence of actual misdeeds. I don’t believe a mech company of this size, background and history is completely clean. There has to be something fishy!"

The strange way that Kadar and Neyvis ran their company just didn’t mesh well with Ves for some reason. The business of producing and selling lower-end mechs en masse pressured mech manufacturers into operating as lean and efficient as possible.

Yet the KNG seemed to reject that approach in their employment policies.

"Where do they get the money?" Ves asked himself.

The KNG spent lavishly on their employees, yet Marcella told him that she believed the company actually made a loss for every cheap mech they sold! _{freewebnσvel.cøm}

At such a time, the KNG should have tightened their belts and streamlined their operations, but Ves actually witnessed preparations for future expansions!

The company’s cozy relationship with the Peace Association couldn’t account for the entire shortfall. As Ves read through the intel meticulously gathered by the Blood Claws, the KNG only allocated around five percent of its profits and production capacity to servicing the Peace Association’s needs.

This sounded like a reasonable proportion to which the KNG could just attribute at as ’inefficiencies’ or ’spillage’ in their administration. Handing over five percent of their stuff to a gang sounded like an unofficial industry standard for large companies.

In exchange for providing tribute, the gang subsequently extended their protection to the company. The documents provided by Raella frequently stated that none of the Blood Claws should ever touch the KNG and the Neyvis Family because the Peace Association would certainly retaliate!

Every business operating in an area where gangs held sway needed to accommodate the local powers. This was an unavoidable reality. Even his LMC continued to pay tribute to Walter’s Whalers!

"In general, the KNG spends a lot more money than they get from the Peace Association. It wouldn’t make sense for the gang to be generous enough to lose money to the KNG. Extra cash infusions by the ICBB can’t explain it all because the bank needs to remain profitable as well."

This returned Ves to his initial question. Where did the KNG get the money to make up for their shortfall?

From the Ministry of Economic Development? Unlikely.

"Even if Marcella stated that the KNG has received generous subsidies and interest-free loans, the ministry is still a profit-seeking institution at heart."

From his logical deductions, MinEcDev wouldn’t violate their basic interests when showing political favor to a particular company.

So where did that leave the company?

"Maybe I should look at their production capacity first."