#offshore loans

[whats-in-a-sentence]

In May 1985 he wrote to the paper in support of offshore loans as a solution to boosting farm incomes:

The answer . . . could well be foreign-currency loans. The term to be five years with no principal repayment, and an interest rate of about seven-and-a-half per cent to be paid half-yearly in arrears . . . It will be found that the average bank manager knows little of offshore lending. He knows that currencies fluctuate and influence interest rates and is extremely nervous of the whole deal. So he steers his clients back to onshore loans, with 16-17-18 per cent interest rates, which he understands.

"Westpac: The Bank That Broke the Bank" - Edna Carew

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #12

March 29-April 5 2024

President Biden united with Senator Bernie Sanders at the White House to review Democratic efforts to bring down drug prices. President Biden touted his Administration’s capping the price of insulin for seniors at $35 a month and capping the price of  prescription drugs for seniors at $2,000 a year. Biden hopes to expand both to all Americans through legislation next year with a Democratic congress. The President also praised Senator Sanders' efforts as chair of the Senate Health Committee which has lead to major drug manufacturers capping the price of inhalers at $35 a month. “Bernie, you and I have been fighting this for 25 years,” Biden said “Finally, finally we beat Big Pharma. Finally.”

The White House gave an update on its actions around the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster. The federal government working with state and local governments hope to have enough of the remains of the bridge cleared to partially reopen the Port of Baltimore by the end of the month and have the port working normally by May. The Administration has already released $60 million in emergency money toward rebuilding and promises the federal government will cover the cost. The Department of Labor has released $3.5 million for Dislocated Worker Grants and plans up to $25 million to cover lost wages. The Small Business Administration is offering $2 million in emergency loans to affected small businesses. The Administration is working with business and labor unions to keep workers at work and cover lost wages.

Vice-President Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced $20 billion to help finance tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across the country. The kinds of projects that will be financed through this project include distributed clean power generation and storage, net-zero retrofits of homes and small businesses, and zero-emission transportation. 70% of the funds, $14 billion, will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities. The project is part of a public private partnership so for every 1 dollar of federal money, private companies have promised 7 dollars of investment, bring the total to $150 billion for ongoing financing of climate and clean energy projects for years to come.

The Department of Transportation announced $20.5 billion in investments in public transportation. This represents the largest single investment in public transit by the federal government in history. The money will go to improving and expanding subways, light rail, buses, and ferry systems across America. The DoT hopes to use the funds to in particular expand and improve options for public transport for people with disabilities and seniors.

The Departments of Energy and The Treasury announced $4 billion in tax credits for businesses investing in clean energy, critical materials recycling, and Industrial decarbonization. The credits till go toward 100 projects across 35 states. 67% of the credits ($2.7 billion) will go to clean energy, wind, solar, nuclear, clean hydrogen, as well as updates to grids, better batter storage, and investments in electric vehicles. 20% ($800 million) will go to to recycling things like lithium-ion batteries, and 13% ($500 million) to decarbonization in industries like automotive manufacturing, and iron and steel.

The Department of Agriculture announced $1.5 Billion in investments in climate-smart agriculture. USDA plans to support over 180,000 farms representing 225 million acres in the next 5 years move toward more climate friendly agriculture. 40% of the project is reserved for disadvantaged communities, in line with the Biden Administrations standard for climate investment. $100 million has been reserved for projects in Tribal Communities.

The Department of the Interior approved the New England Wind offshore wind project. To be located off Martha’s Vineyard the New England project represents the 8th such off shore wind project approved by the Biden administration. Taken together these projects will generate 10 gigawatts of totally clean energy that can power 4 million homes. The Administration's climate goals call for 30 gigawatts of off shore wind power by 2030. The New England Wind project itself is expected to generate 2,600 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 900,000 homes in the New England area.

The Department of the Interior announced $320 Million for tribal water infrastructure. Interior also announced $244 million to deal with legacy pollution from mining in the State of Pennsylvania, as well as $25 million to protect wetlands in Arizona and $19 million to put solar panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah. While the Department of Energy announced $27 million for 40 projects by state, local and tribal governments to combat climate change

[meret118]

A report published Wednesday by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) identifies 35 profitable U.S. corporations that paid their top executives more than they paid the federal government in taxes between 2018 and 2022. The list of companies includes Ford, Netflix, NextEra Energy, and Tesla—whose CEO, Elon Musk, is the second richest man in the world.

ATF and IPS found 64 companies that paid their top five executives more than they paid in taxes in at least two of the five years examined.

. . .

Tesla, which has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies and loans, paid nothing in federal taxes during the period examined by the new report, as the electric car company carried forward losses from previous years to offset the $4.4 billion in U.S. profits it made between 2018 and 2022—the first five years of the Trump-GOP tax law that slashed rates for the rich and corporations.

Additionally, the report points to Tesla's apparent use of "accounting schemes" such as "shifting American profits to offshore tax havens.

More at the link.

[buzzblend]

Widow loses life savings after ‘firetrap’ developer fails to repay €150k loan

A controversial developer who asked to borrow the life savings of an 81-year-old widow has failed to repay the money after half a decade of broken promises.

In 2017, the widow gave €160,000 in cash to developer Paddy Byrne, who built the Millfield Manor estate in Co. Kildare where six houses burnt to the ground in under 30 minutes in 2015.

The cash was for a penthouse apartment in Dublin she planned to move into.

The development was built by Victoria Homes, a company that was established by Mr Byrne’s sister Joan just before Mr Byrne was precluded from acting as a company director in Ireland for five years.

After viewing plans for the €630,000 property, in a development called Greygates in Mount Merrion, the pensioner withdrew the cash from her bank and gave it to Mr Byrne.

Some €10,000 of this was a deposit, with the remaining €150,000 provided on the advice of a third party who was known to Mr Byrne and the widow, who said the cash would secure a good price.

According to a handwritten receipt, signed by Mr Byrne, the money was provided on May 29, 2017.

But in November 2017 the widow, a retired primary school teacher, found a more suitable home and asked for her money back.

Mr Byrne agreed to this, saying he would have no problem selling the penthouse and promptly refunded the €10,000 deposit.

However, he asked that the remaining €150,000 be treated as a 14-month loan and promised to pay a 10% annual interest rate.

This effectively turned the widow into an unwitting creditor of Victoria Homes.

According to a handwritten agreement, signed by Mr Byrne, the loan was to be ‘paid back from the sales proceeds’ of the penthouse at his Greygates development.

More than half a decade later, the loan remains unpaid – even after the widow made a criminal complaint to gardaí and took legal action to secure a judgement.

As it is a civil matter, the Garda investigation faltered. And because various other unpaid creditors had previously secured judgements against Victoria Homes, the widow is now unlikely to get her savings back. During the Celtic Tiger years, Paddy Byrne was renowned for his €2.4m Sikorsky helicopter and sponsorship of the Irish National Hunt festival.

But in 2011 his then-firm, Barrack Homes, went bust and Mr Byrne declared bankruptcy in Britain with debts of €100m.

He was banned from acting as a UK director for 10 years in 2012.

This ban was scheduled to end in 2022 – and ran the full course – but it only applied in the UK and Wales.

According to the UK insolvency register today, Mr Byrne’s discharge from UK bankruptcy is ‘suspended indefinitely’ until the fulfilment of conditions made in a 2012 court order.

Separately, in Ireland, he was also restricted from acting as a director for a period of five years – which ended in January 2018.

Mr Byrne is also known for building the Millfield Manor estate in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, where half a dozen houses were razed to the ground within 30 minutes in 2015.

A report into the blaze found ‘major and life-threatening serious shortfalls and discrepancies and deviations from the minimum requirements of the national mandatory building regulations’ at Mr Byrne’s development.

Today, having exited bankruptcy, Mr Byrne is best known as the figurehead behind Victoria Homes and associated businesses, which was set up by his sister and her husband in December 2012, while he was bankrupt.

Mr Byrne was not a director or owner of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy. But, in 2017, Mr Byrne’s sister and her husband stepped back from Victoria Homes, transferring their shares to an offshore entity in Belize city called Victoria Holdings.

In November 2022, the main lenders to Victoria Homes – the Lotus Development Group – forced the firm into receivership for the second time.

In 2020, Lotus had forced a previous short-lived receivership before agreeing a deal that saw Victoria Homes begin trading normally once more.

Today, Mr Byrne appears to have left Victoria Homes behind and seems to be focusing on a new firm instead.

Set up in the summer of 2020, Branach Developments is entirely owned by Mr Byrne and is not encumbered by any bank debt or mortgages as Victoria Homes was.

According to the latest filed accounts, for the year ended 2021, Branach Developments held ‘tangible assets’ of €210,000 and ‘stocks’ of €600,000.

The accounts also show that, in 2021, Mr Byrne provided the company with an interest-free loan of €1,024,438.

Just last week Mr Byrne’s new firm was one of the winners at the National Property Awards sponsored by the Business Post and Deloitte, among others.

At the award ceremony, Branach Developments took home the prize for best sustainability initiative of the year.

However, Mr Byrne, who shuns publicity and is rarely photographed, does not appear to have attended the ceremony and the award was accepted by a colleague.

This week the Irish Mail on Sunday sent queries to Mr Byrne via his mobile phone, his email at Victoria Homes and his email at Branach Developments, without response.

Queries to his solicitor and the separate accountancy firms representing Victoria Homes and Branach Developments also went unanswered as did calls to the numbers on the websites of these firms.

Mr Byrne also previously declined to respond to questions from the MoS relating to the establishment of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy.

At the time, Mr Byrne appeared to be living at Ballinrahin House, close to Rathangan on the border of Offaly and Kildare.

The home is a luxury build on 26 acres of stud-railed paddocks with six stables and a 1.3km tree-lined avenue behind electric gates.

The property was on sale for €2.8m in 2009, but land registry records confirm that, in November 2014, it was sold to Victoria Homes for a knockdown price of €484,000.

Ownership of Ballinrahin House was transferred offshore to Victoria Holdings in Belize on April 10, 2018, just weeks before Mr Byrne was due to repay the €150,000 back to the widow.

[mariacallous]

Journalists from 69 global media outlets working under the auspices of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the German publication Paper Trail Media have published a new investigation titled Cyprus Confidential. The reporting relies on 3.6 million leaked documents from six Cypriot companies described as “financial enablers.” Among other findings, the journalists uncovered that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has long denied having any connections with Vladimir Putin, sold a quarter of the shares of one of Russia’s largest advertising holdings to entrepreneurs close to the Russian president in 2010. Additionally, the project’s investigators determined that Hubert Seipel, a German journalist who has written multiple books praising Putin, received hundreds of thousands of euros from offshore accounts linked to Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov. Meduza outlines some of the investigation’s key findings.

Reporting based on records from the leak

The auditing firm PwC Cyprus may have violated sanctions by continuing to work on transferring Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov’s shares in a German travel company to his partner in the days after the E.U. named him in new sanctions. Leaked documents suggest PwC Cyprus also rushed to restructure assets owned by Russian billionaires Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov as U.K. sanctions loomed.

A prominent German journalist, Hubert Seipel, received at least €600,000 ($653,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov (see above) to support two books seen as favorable to Putin. According to The Guardian, the revelations about Seipel will likely fuel further debate “over the role parts of [Germany’s] political and business elite played in helping to keep Putin in power.”

With the help of a Cypriot corporate services firm called MeritServus, Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev was able to move debt worth millions of dollars between his shell companies (remaining in control of the shares while keeping it effectively “off the books”) despite Western sanctions against him for his support of Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine. MeritServus and Malofeev’s Cypriot company likely violated sanctions in these loan deals.

Just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich transferred control of his $1-billion art collection to his ex-wife, Dasha Zhukova. The switcharoo was likely to prevent Western officials from freezing or seizing the collection in case of sanctions against Abramovich, which the U.K. and E.U. imposed in March 2022 for his alleged association with Vladimir Putin. (Zhukova, a U.S. citizen, has not been sanctioned.)

Abramovich was also part of a secret $40-million deal in 2010 that used offshore shell companies to conceal his involvement in the transfer of shares in the profitable advertising company Video International to two close associates of Vladimir Putin known as his personal “wallets,” Sergey Roldugin and Alexander Plekhov. “The secret deal with Mr. Roldugin and Mr. Plekhov,” writes The BBC, “suggests a close financial relationship between Mr. Abramovich and President Putin” (which Abramovich denies).

Roman Abramovich sold his stake in an advertising firm to Putin’s friends

In September 2003, two Cypriot companies called Finoto Holdings and Grosora Holdings purchased 25 percent of the shares in Video International, a major Russian advertising holding company. At the time, according to the BBC, Video International “enjoyed a dominant position” in Russia’s domestic TV advertising market and was “half a step away” from the Kremlin.

Each of the companies paid just $130,000 for 12.5-percent stakes in Video International. According to journalists who analyzed newly leaked records, an entity called the Sara Trust Settlement owned both companies through a series of intermediaries — and its ultimate beneficiary was Roman Abramovich.

The following year, Abramovich received $1.8 million in dividends from the company — seven times what he had paid for the shares.

In December 2010, Finoto Holdings sold its share of another Cypriot company called Med Media Network, which nominally belonged to cellist Sergey Roldugin, a close friend of the Russian president who E.U. investigators who studied the Panama Papers in 2016 referred to a “Putin’s wallet.”

On the same day, Grosora Holdings sold its own stake in the company to Namiral Trading Ltd, a company with ties to Alexander Plekhov, an entrepreneur close to Rossiya Bank founder Yury Kovalchuk. The total value of the two sales amounted to $40 million.

According to the independent Russian outlet iStories, which took part in the ICIJ investigation, Abramovich’s role in the Video International deals was not previously known publicly. For years, observers assumed 100 percent of the company’s shares had been sold to entities associated with Yury Kovalchuk.

After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Alexander Plekhov came under U.K. sanctions for his ties to Vladimir Putin, while Sergey Roldugin was sanctioned by the U.K., the E.U., and the U.S. Washington dubbed the musician “the custodian of President Putin’s offshore wealth.”

In the spring of 2023, the Swiss prosecutor’s office, which was investigating cases involving managers of Gazprombank’s Swiss affiliate, referred to Roldugin and Plekhov as “straw men” for Rossiya Bank, which the U.S. government has referred to as “Putin’s personal cashbox.”

Abramovich has long denied having any connections with Putin. In 2010, a representative of the billionaire stated that he had “no financial relationship” with Putin, who was prime minister at the time.

In 2021, Abramovich sued journalist and former Financial Times Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton over an excerpt from her book Putin’s People that said Abramovich had purchased Chelsea Football Club at Putin’s request. Abramovich won the case in a London court, and the book’s British publisher, HarperCollins, agreed to change the text and apologize to the businessman.

Abramovich did not respond to journalists’ questions regarding the Cyprus Confidential findings. Sergey Roldugin and Alexander Plekhov also declined to comment.

Generous payments to a top German ‘Russia expert’ for books about Putin

Another part of the investigation links Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov to the German journalist Hubert Seipel, who has authored multiple complimentary books and films about Vladimir Putin.

In 2012, Seipel wrote and directed the film I, Putin: A Portrait, which was nominated for a German TV award for best documentary. In 2015 and 2021, he published the books Putin: The Logic of Power and Putin’s Power: Why Europe Needs Russia, both of which became bestsellers. Seipel has met with Putin multiple times and is considered one of Germany’s leading Russia experts. His public statements, meanwhile, often echo the Russian president’s own rhetoric.

The Cyprus leak reveals that in 2018, Seipel signed a “sponsorship agreement” for the creation and promotion of a book about the “political climate in Russia.” The deal ultimately led to the publication of Putin’s Power by the Hamburg-based publisher Hoffmann und Campe. According to the agreement, Seipel received at least 600,000 euros ($653,000). In addition, the document also contains a handwritten note that reads, “Similar to the 2013 agreement: biography of Putin.” This suggests the same sponsor paid Seipel for his earlier book on Putin.

The payment was made by a British Virgin Islands company called De Vere Worldwide Corporation, which is registered under the name of Igor Voskresensky, one of the directors of the Russian energy company Power Machines. The witness’s signature on the agreement belongs to Dmitry Fedotov, the head of the legal department of the steel company Severstal.

The funds for Seipel’s payments were issued to De Vere Worldwide from offshore accounts whose beneficiary was billionaire Alexey Mordashov, the owner of both Power Machines and Severstal. In 2018–2019, two of Mordashov’s offshore entities transferred a total of 610,000 euros ($664,000) to De Vere Worldwide.

In an interview with Paper Trail Media, Seipel admitted that Mordashov sponsored his books about Putin. However, he disputed that idea that this discredits the books themselves, saying the sponsorship agreements with De Vere Worldwide included a clause stating that he was under no obligation to his sponsor regarding the books’ contents. He also described Mordashov as an “entrepreneur who sponsors projects with private funds.”

Hoffmann und Campe said in a statement that it reserves the right to take legal action against Seipel for concealing the conflict of interest.

Alexey Mordashov, who Forbes lists as Russia’s fifth-richest billionaire, did not respond to journalists’ requests for comment.

[theculturedmarxist]

In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic raged unchecked across America, President Donald Trump offered Democratic state governors an exceedingly cruel ultimatum: If you want help from the federal government, you “have to treat us well.” That exchange — lifesaving medical equipment for blue-state political support — reflects the inverse logic of the Biden administration as it seeks to revamp domestic manufacturing by directing billions of dollars into deep-red states, money that will be used to subsidize lower-paying jobs that will ultimately be able to replace union work in states that voted for Joe Biden.

In late June, the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office granted a $9.2 billion loan — its largest ever — to Ford and its joint venture partner, the Korean firm BlueOval SK, to build battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky. The cash injection follows other projects, like a sprawling chip manufacturing plant and close to a dozen solar manufacturing sites across the South.

The loan, issued from the Department of Energy office that drew billions of dollars for investments in green energy under the Inflation Reduction Act, stems from Biden’s pledge to make half of all vehicles sold in 2030 zero emission. That undertaking means more plants that manufacture components of gas-powered vehicles are sure to close in coming years. Those jobs are overwhelmingly union and heavily based in swing states or blue states. While the administration’s investments so far may notch it a win in the war against offshoring and the White House’s perceived threat in the looming menace of Chinese competition, the White House’s handling of the transition to green energy — including where it invests federal dollars and whether it protects union workers’ jobs — will have implications not only for the climate crisis, but also for Democrats’ electoral prospects.

The success of the climate program will require continued federal commitment. Biden is placing a bet that clean energy investments could ultimately work the same way as the military-industrial complex. The military and its allied contractors have made sure to set up bases and/or manufacturing facilities in nearly every congressional district in the country, with extra attention paid to areas represented by key lawmakers. That has produced durable support for ever-expanding military budgets. Whether the same could be accomplished for the clean energy industry is an open question, but so far, Republicans from districts that have won federal awards have nevertheless voted to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds the tax breaks. By subsidizing the decline of union jobs, the Biden administration risks empowering lawmakers who will then move to end the subsidies altogether.

“What Biden is doing is politically insane, environmentally bankrupt, and it’s poor economics,” Larry Cohen, former president of the Communications Workers of America and board member of Our Revolution, told The Intercept. “The White House and my old friend John Podesta” — who is overseeing the federal government’s spending of climate incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act — “should have labor-centered guidelines about where these investments are going, whether it’s in purple states like Michigan, whether it’s in Philadelphia, whether it’s in Ohio, there are acres and acres of devastated industrial landscape that need new investment as opposed to cornfields. The total lack of consideration for workers could certainly make the difference in 2024.”

During the 2020 presidential election, Biden won Michigan by just 150,000 votes. It was a hard-fought win for Democrats, who had lost the state in 2016 for the first time in two decades — and it was due in no small part to the United Auto Workers’, or UAW, political machine, which spent just under $10 million on nationwide political donations during the 2020 election cycle and many millions more on political outreach and media in Michigan. That money followed Biden’s promise to be the most pro-union president in recent memory, a claim he has continued to make while in office.

Ahead of 2024, Michigan Democrats find themselves in a strong position against their GOP opponents. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cruised to reelection with a 10-point margin in November after seizing on the need to safeguard abortion access from GOP attacks, and, for the first time in 40 years, Democrats gained control of both of Michigan’s legislative chambers.

Despite the tailwinds, the Biden campaign will need to court every voter it can to clinch the election in what is still a purple state. Republicans, who will also be vying to gain a Senate seat in Michigan, have signaled that they believe the state is competitive given the election year turnout boost that a Trump candidacy will provide.

The UAW’s 130,000 members in Michigan — almost the same number of votes that made the difference for Biden three years ago — form an important voting bloc. In addition to their individual votes, UAW members are active donors and get-out-the-vote organizers. The union’s newly elected president, Shawn Fain, recently said the UAW would continue withholding the endorsement of its hundreds of thousands of members for Biden’s reelection until more progress was made on supporting members through the green energy transition.

Fain also lashed out at the president when news of the Energy Department loan to Ford broke, reminding him that union support is a privilege, not a right.

“We have been absolutely clear that the switch to electric engine jobs, battery production and other [electric vehicle] manufacturing cannot become a race to the bottom,” Fain said in a June 23 statement. “Not only is the federal government not using its power to turn the tide — they’re actively funding the race to the bottom with billions in public money.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents autoworkers in her Detroit-area district, was similarly critical of the loan. “The federal government shouldn’t be subsidizing the automakers’ expansion into states that are hostile to labor rights,” Tlaib told The Intercept. “The automakers must act fairly towards its union workers, especially after the UAW workers sacrificed so much during hard times for the industry. The rapid transition to electric vehicles that we need cannot come at the expense of the people making them.”

Union members have already taken losses in the run-up to the Biden administration’s investments in green energy. General Motors, another one of the big three automakers, recently opened a battery plant in Warren, Ohio, where starting wages for union members are about half of what wages were at an Ohio plant the manufacturer shuttered in 2019. Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized GM’s reduction in wages at the new plant, which opened last year. “The government is putting a lot of money into transitioning our economy to a non-fossil fuel economy,” Sanders said in April. “We want to see workers get a fair shake, not just the CEOs of the companies.”

The same week Ford secured a loan for its joint venture, the manufacturer announced it would lay off significant numbers of employees, following a 3,000-person cull in August of last year. While the plants planned for Tennessee and Kentucky will create 7,500 jobs, according to the Energy Department, workers will have to fight for higher wages and benefits while the company continues to downsize its combustion operations.

When it announced the joint venture loan to Ford, the Department of Energy’s loan office project said that it was committed to creating good-paying jobs with labor protections. “[BlueOval SK] is actively engaging with local stakeholders to develop a diverse local workforce and network of suppliers. To ensure the availability of skilled labor for construction, BOSK is constructing the projects under project labor agreements. In addition, [the Loan Program Office] works with all borrowers to create good-paying jobs with strong labor standards during construction, operations, and throughout the life of the loan and to adhere to a strong Community Benefits Plan.”

Yet neither the loan office nor the White House responded to The Intercept’s questions about the community benefits plan, including whether there are legally binding aspects in the loan terms that could provide tangible benefits for workers seeking to unionize in right-to-work states.

Ford, for its part, told The Intercept that it “has every reason to expect that BlueOval SK will pay competitive wages and benefits so they can attract and retain the workforce needed to build high tech batteries. Employees at BlueOval SK’s battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky will be able to choose whether they organize, a right that Ford fully respects and supports,” according to spokesperson Melissa Miller. Asked whether the loan contained any terms to that effect, Miller added, “We’re not able to provide additional details on loan terms.”

Fain, the UAW president, took a different view. “These companies are extremely profitable and will continue to make money hand over fist whether they’re selling combustion engines or [electric vehicles],” Fain said. “Yet the workers get a smaller and smaller piece of the pie. Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?”

[nicklloydnow]

“Is China about to have its ‘Lehman’ moment? After Chinese property developer Evergrande filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S., that’s been the question some have whispered. The country’s debt crisis that’s rumbled on for two years is coming to a head, with China’s shadow bank sector now defaulting on payments.

(…)

Last week, Evergrande filed for protection in the U.S. under Chapter 15 of the bankruptcy code, which helps keep creditors at bay when a company is restructuring. Evergrande’s debt is held mainly by Western investors, hence filing in Manhattan.

It’s been at the center of the Chinese property sector’s debt crisis, which first unfolded in 2021 and has reared its head again this summer. Nearly two years ago, Evergrande defaulted on making interest payments on bonds, which sparked a set of failures across the Chinese property sector.

Companies accounting for roughly 40% of China’s home sales have now defaulted on debt since the crisis first unfolded. This has led to unfinished homes and ‘ghost cities’, supply chain disruptions and institutional investors out of pocket.

(…)

It’s not the only property developer struggling this week. China’s Country Garden Holdings is looking to restructure its bond repayments totaling $535 million over three years to stave off financial trouble.

(…)

Given real estate is estimated to make up 30% of China’s GDP, there are fears the contagion in China’s real estate market could spread and create a downward spiral of the property market depressing growth.

Last week, there were rare protests in Beijing after bank subsidiary Zhongrong defaulted on several investment products without immediate plans to repay its clients. Its parent company, Zhongzhi, manages $138 billion in assets, 10% of which are exposed to the real estate market.

Moody’s has previously stated that the increased amount of defaults from property developers has raised Chinese banks’ non-performing loan rate to 4.4% by the end of last year, up from 1.9% in 2020. China’s property sector is also considered the world's largest asset class, worth around $62 trillion, so any further signs of trouble could lead to the Chinese government intervening.

(…)

As for the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong, it’s officially entered a bear market. Around half the stocks on the index are now oversold, and it’s lost 11% of its value in August so far, which sets the scene for the Hang Seng’s worst performance since October.

The fear has spread to the U.S. markets in August, with the S&P 500 suffering three straight weeks of decline. The Nasdaq lost 5.5% in value in the same period, while the Dow Jones has seen a 3.2% decline.

Several banks have also downgraded China’s GDP growth outlook, which was previously estimated at 5% for 2023. Nomura now predicts 4.8% growth, with the likes of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Barclays all following suit.”

“Country Garden Holdings Co., the distressed Chinese developer that earlier this month missed interest payments on some dollar bonds, is leaving investors in the dark about the exact date the grace period ends.

That’s adding to signs of opaqueness in the nation’s offshore junk debt market, which has lost $87 billion in the past two years.

One of China’s biggest developers, Country Garden must repay a combined $22.5 million in two coupons within the grace period, otherwise creditors could call a default that would be the developer’s first on such debt. That would threaten even worse impact than defaulted peer China Evergrande Group given Country Garden has four times as many projects.

(…)

China’s worsening property debt crisis has prompted a slew of developers including Evergrande to use grace periods in recent years. In many cases, doing so has only bought time before they eventually went on to default, adding to record debt failures.

Growing concerns that the same fate could strike Country Garden, which had 1.4 trillion yuan ($192 billion) of total liabilities at the end of last year, have dragged Chinese junk dollar bonds deeper into distress under 65 cents. The market value of Bloomberg’s index for the securities, mostly issued by builders, has shrunk to only about $44.7 billion from some $131.8 billion two years ago.”

[newstfionline]

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Canada mulls expelling China diplomat for targeting lawmaker (AP) Canada’s foreign minister said Thursday the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said her department was summoning China’s ambassador to a meeting to underline that Canada won’t tolerate such interference. She said the intelligence agency report indicated that opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticized Beijing’s human rights record. “We’re assessing different options including the expulsion of diplomats,” Joly said before a Parliament committee. Many governments, the United Nations, and human rights groups accuse China of sweeping a million or more people from its Uyghur community and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups into detention camps, where many have said they were tortured, sexually assaulted, and forced to abandon their language and religion. China denies the accusations, which are based on evidence including interviews with survivors and photos and satellite images from Uyghur’s home province of Xinjiang, a major hub for factories and farms in far western China.

Smaller Banks Are Scrambling as Share Prices Plunge (NYT) A cluster of regional banks scrambled on Thursday to convince the public of their financial soundness, even as their stock prices plunged and investors took bets on which might be the next to fall. The tumult brought questions about the future of the lenders to the fore, suggesting a new phase in the crisis that began two months ago with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and was punctuated on Monday by the seizure and sale of First Republic Bank. PacWest and Western Alliance were in the eye of the storm, despite the companies’ protestations that their finances were solid. PacWest’s shares lost 50 percent of their value on Thursday and Western Alliance fell 38 percent. Other midsize banks, including Zions and Comerica, also posted double-digit percentage declines. Unlike the banks that failed after depositors rushed to pull their money out, the lenders now under pressure have reported relatively stable deposit bases and don’t sit on mountains of soured loans. The most immediate threat the banks face, analysts said, is a crisis of confidence.

Oil boom starts to transform Guyana (AP) Villagers in this tiny coastal community lined up on the soggy grass, leaned into the microphone and shared what they wanted: a library, streetlights, school buses, homes, a grocery store, reliable electricity, wider roads and better bridges. “Please help us,” said Evadne Pellew-Fomundam—a 70-year-old who lives in Ann’s Grove, one of Guyana’s poorest communities—to the country’s prime minister and other officials who organized the meeting to hear people’s concerns and boost their party’s image ahead of municipal elections. The list of needs is long in this South American country of 791,000 people that is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer, placing it ahead of Qatar, the United States, Mexico and Norway. The oil boom will generate billions of dollars for this largely impoverished nation. It’s also certain to spark bitter fights over how the wealth should be spent in a place where politics is sharply divided along ethnic lines: 29% of the population is of African descent and 40% of East Indian descent, from indentured servants brought to Guyana after slavery was abolished. Change is already visible. In the capital, Georgetown, buildings made of glass, steel and concrete rise above colonial-era wooden structures, with shuttered sash windows, that are slowly decaying.

Beyond King Charles (Washington Post) Though the British monarchy attracts the most global attention, there are wealthier, more powerful royals among the 28 monarchs around the world. Seventeen of them are kings. Margrethe II of Denmark is the only queen. The microstate of Andorra has co-princes, the president of France and a Spanish bishop. Japan has an emperor. Brunei and Oman have sultans. Liechtenstein and Monaco have princes. Qatar and Kuwait have emirs. Luxembourg has a grand duke. And the United Arab Emirates has a president, though he is a monarch. Although Charles is estimated to have a personal net worth between $750 million and $1.44 billion, others far surpass him. Leaders in Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Brunei are estimated to be worth well over $10 billion.

Italian foreign minister calls off Paris trip after French ‘insults’ (Reuters) Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called off a trip to Paris on Thursday, saying the French interior minister had offended Italy and its Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with unacceptable “insults”. Earlier, the French minister, Gerald Darmanin, told RMC radio that Meloni was “unable to solve the migration problems on which she was elected” and accused her of “lying” to voters that she could end a crisis over growing numbers of boat migrants. News of his comments came as Tajani was preparing to fly to Paris to see his French counterpart—a trip that was aimed partly at improving relations between the two European Union countries that have grown increasingly brittle. France swiftly issued a statement in which it sought to reassure Rome of its willingness to work closely with Italy, but it was not enough to persuade Tajani to catch his plane. It was the latest in a series of clashes between Paris and Rome since Meloni took office last October at the head of a nationalist, conservative government which has a very different world vision to that of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Kremlin accuses Washington of directing drone attack on Putin (Washington Post) The Kremlin spokesman on Thursday accused the United States of ordering what Moscow alleges was an assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin with two drones that were sent to attack the Russian president’s official residence. “We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv, but in Washington, and Kyiv does what it is told,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. John Kirby, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said Peskov “is just lying.”

Russian mercenary chief Prigozhin says his forces will leave Bakhmut next week (Reuters) Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force, said in a sudden and dramatic announcement on Friday that his forces would leave the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that they have been trying to capture since last summer. Prigozhin said they would pull back on May 10—ending their involvement in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war—because of heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies. He asked defence chiefs to insert regular army troops in their place. “I’m pulling Wagner units out of Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they’re doomed to perish senselessly,” Prigozhin said in a statement. Prigozhin has vented increasing anger at what he describes as lack of support from the Russian defence establishment. Earlier on Friday he appeared in a video surrounded by dozens of corpses he said were Wagner fighters, and yelling and swearing at Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov. He said they were to blame for Wagner’s losses because they had starved it of ammunition.

Earthquake-Proof, Not Corruption-Proof: Turkey’s Needless Deaths (NYT) The building began convulsing at 4:17 a.m. Firat Yayla was awake in bed, scrolling through videos on his phone. His mother was asleep down the hall. The region along Turkey’s border with Syria was known for earthquakes, but this apartment complex was new, built to withstand disaster. It was called Guclu Bahce, or Mighty Garden. Mr. Yayla’s own cousin had helped build it. He and his business partner had boasted that the complex could withstand even the most powerful tremor. So, as the earth heaved for more than a minute, Mr. Yayla, 21, and his 62-year-old mother, Sohret Guclu, a retired schoolteacher, remained inside. At that very moment, though, Mr. Yayla’s cousin, the developer, was leaping for safety from a second-story balcony. What Mr. Yayla and his mother had not known was that the system to ensure that buildings were safely constructed to code had been tainted by money and politics. A developer won zoning approval for the project after donating more than $200,000 to a local soccer club, where the mayor is an honorary president. The building inspector said that, even after the project had failed its inspection, the developers used political influence to get the doors open. The Feb. 6 earthquake revealed the shaky foundation on which so much growth was built. More than 50,000 people died as buildings toppled, crumbled or pancaked. Guclu Bahce, the mighty earthquake-proof complex, was among them. An estimated 65 people died there.

8 Are Dead in Shooting in Serbia, a Day After School Massacre (NYT) The Serbian police arrested a suspect early Friday after an hourslong overnight manhunt for a gunman who killed eight people and injured at least 14 others near Belgrade, according to Serbia’s Interior Ministry. The attack late Thursday was the nation’s second mass shooting in two days and rattled a country still reeling from an attack at a school that killed eight students and a security guard. Hundreds of police officers had gone door to door in the search for a 21-year-old male suspect, according to RTS, Serbia’s public broadcaster. They deployed helicopters and surrounded the area where they believed he was hiding, the report said. The gunman, who was in a moving vehicle, used an automatic weapon and fled the scene, according to RTS, which said the attack took place around Mladenovac, a municipality in the southern part of the capital, Belgrade.

Press group: China biggest global jailer of journalists (AP) China was the biggest global jailer of journalists last year with more than 100 behind bars, according to a press freedom group, as President Xi Jinping’s government tightened control over society. Xi’s government also was one of the biggest exporters of propaganda content, according to Reporters without Boarders. China ranked second to last on the group’s annual index of press freedom, behind only neighbor North Korea. The ruling Communist Party has tightened already strict controls on media in China, where all newspapers and broadcasters are state-owned. Websites and social media are required to enforce censorship that bans material that might spread opposition to one-party rule.

Israelis call out perks for ultra-Orthodox in latest protests (Washington Post) Israel’s protest movement, having forced the government to pause its attempt to overhaul the national judiciary system, pivoted to other targets in demonstrations across the country Thursday, including the exemption from military service and other special privileges long granted to the growing ultra-Orthodox community. Thousands marched for a “Day of Disruption to Demand Equality” focused on the unequal burdens of citizenship and status of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim as they are known in Israel. Ultra-Orthodox citizens are largely shielded from the country’s mandatory draft and educational standards and their families benefit from heavy public subsidies that allow boys and men to devote years to religious study instead of working and paying taxes in the mainstream economy. Demonstrators blocked roads, lined bridges and picketed the homes of cabinet members. While many still chanted against the judicial overhaul, which some ministers are seeking to revive, most focused on other concerns, including spiking inflation and rising crime. The anger against the special status of the Haredi has long been a dynamic in Israeli politics, but it has grown more intense as the community has ballooned to roughly 13 percent of Israel’s total population, making them the country’s fastest growing demographic.

Fighting rages in Khartoum, civilians complain of being forgotten (Reuters) Heavy gunfire echoed around Khartoum again on Friday as civilians trapped by fighting in the Sudanese capital said the army and rival paramilitary forces were ignoring their plight. “It’s been four days without electricity and our situation is difficult... We are the victims of a war that we aren’t a part of. No one cares about the citizen,” said Othman Hassan, 48, a resident of the southern outskirts of Khartoum. Despite multiple ceasefire declarations, the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) appeared to be battling each other for control of territory in the capital ahead of proposed talks. The sudden collapse into warfare has killed hundreds, triggered a humanitarian disaster, sent an exodus of refugees to neighbouring states and risks dragging in outside powers, further destabilising an already restive region.

[the-real-tc]

Bad Business Ch. 10: There the Vultures Will Gather

Author's note: Again, I'm issuing a trigger warning, as there's stuff in here that might make some people squeamish. You've been warned.

To the childless wife he gives a home, and gladdens her heart with children.

- Ps. 113

Chapter 10:

There the Vultures Will Gather

***

Hudson Police Headquarters

The morning debrief with his team was beginning to bring Chief Parker a glimmer of hope they were making progress on the investigation into Val Stanton's death.

"Okay, how's the 'money' angle coming on the Stanton case?" Parker asked, as he looked around the room.

Detective Benoit answered for the rest of them. "Okay, as far as the financial benefits go, our friends at the International Claim Association confirmed two policies existed for Valerie Stanton. The first is a family policy taken out years ago when both Stanton and her husband were alive. That was through Booker & Sons Life Insurance."

"And the second one?"

"That one was through a different insurance company in Calgary," replied Benoit. "Canadian Rockies Life Insurance taken out maybe six months ago. I spoke with both companies, and no surprise: they're reluctant to put the payouts through since Stanton's death is suspicious and is being investigated as a possible homicide."

"Okay, obviously Stanton's children would have put in the claim for the one with Booker," Jim rightly guessed. "Who made the claim on the non-familial one?"

"We haven't been able to find out yet," Benoit replied. "But the premiums were being paid through an offshore numbered account."

"But someone still had to request Stanton's medical death certificate to make the claim and then file the claim," Parker said.

"Right, and we're waiting for the court orders to come through to access that information. I expect to have them by this afternoon."

"Good work, Benoit," Parker said. "Do you, by chance, have the dollar amount on that second policy?"

"Two million dollars," Benoit answered. "Not bad for a financial motive if you're looking for one."

"Nope, not a bad motive at all," Parker said. "Let me know as soon as you hear back about who requested Stanton's medical death certificate for that second claim."

"Of course, Chief," said Benoit, though both men and the rest of the team had a strong hunch who that person might be.

***

At noon, Calgary detective James Prescott called with an update for Chief Parker.

"I can't thank you enough for the heads up with that investors' group list," Prescott said. "The stuff we're digging up about Tanner Gunn, well, it's leading us down a bit of a rabbit hole."

Parker felt his pulse quicken. "What have you been digging up?"

"My undercover guys said Tanner Gunn was in the hole to the tune of around 900K over a year ago with one of the underground, high-roller poker tables in Calgary. But get this: the loan shark who staked him apparently got all his money back, with interest, no problem."

"A 'year ago' also being right around the time Lanny Barick wound up shot to death," Parker said.

"Rather convenient, wouldn't you say?" Prescott said.

"A little too convenient," Parker commented wryly.

"And you're going to love this one. The International Claim Association confirmed policies exist for every single member of that investors' group through various insurance companies," Prescott added. "Which is not unusual on the surface, but what is a little unusual is they all have more than one policy to their names. And the second policy for all of them—all taken out within the last year or so—is with the same insurance company in Calgary: Canadian Rockies Life Insurance."

***

Heartland Ranch House

"I got your text about Remi, Georgie. Are you doing okay?" Adam asked as he hopped off his bike, having just come from school.

"Not really," Georgie replied with a slow, miserable shake of her head. "Everything is just awful."

"I know. I'm sorry again about Lisa," Adam said sincerely, reaching over to give her a friendly hug. "I'll never forget her crazy aunt who brought all those wacky presents that time."

"Yeah, Aunt Evelyn," Georgie said wistfully. "Crazy. She's supposed to be getting here in a few days. Lisa's sister and nephew are supposed to fly in tomorrow."

"Do you know anything more about Remi? Your text said she had a seizure last night."

"Ty says she was poisoned. Strychnine," Georgie said, eyes downcast. "But he said she hasn't had another seizure since then, so that's a good sign. He doesn't know the source of the poison yet, but he and Cassandra are running tests on stuff like her stomach contents to figure it out."

"I guess that's good news, right?"

"I guess," Georgie said, still sullen.

"Hey, do you want to go for a ride?" Adam suggested brightly. "It might take your mind off things."

Georgie looked at him doubtfully. "You're not exactly the biggest horseback riding fan. Are you sure?"

"Yeah, but you like it," Adam said. "C'mon. Let's go."

The pair saddled up and took a path out in the direction of the Dude Ranch, maintaining a slow pace and an easy silence. Georgie was grateful for this, as she was not in the mood for idle chatter. Simply having Adam's company was enough.

Her phone buzzed a message at that point. She looked at the screen and saw it was from Wyatt.

"It's Wyatt," Georgie said to Adam, reining in Phoenix. "Do you mind?"

"No, go ahead," Adam replied. He was relieved for the opportunity to rest, as he still was not entirely comfortable being bounced around in a saddle, even on an easy ride through the woods.

Wyatt: Hey Georgie that totally SUCKS about remi and I hope she gets better

- Mom needed me to babysit Brick after school or I'd be there

- Missing u at class and hope ur back soon

Georgie: Thnx Wyatt that means a lot

- No worries about not being here

- Adam is over right now so between the two of u looking out for me its not so bad

- I hope I'm back soon too maybe tomorrow or something

Wyatt: OK great!

- See u soon

- bye

Georgie: bye

"Hey, Georgie, look!" Adam said, just as Georgie put her phone away.

She glanced up to see Adam pointing at several black birds that were wheeling in the air a short distance away.

"Those are turkey vultures," Adam explained, pulling out information from his encyclopedic memory. "They're carrion birds. Something must've died out there and they're ready to feast."

"Oh, gross," Georgie said, grimacing.

"It might be the bear that's on the loose. It could have killed something and left behind a carcass," Adam posited.

"Again, gross," Georgie said, eyeing him in the hopes he would quit.

"I'm serious," Adam said. "I think we should check it out. You're not missing any Dude Ranch horses right now, are you?"

"No..." Georgie said slowly. "But-but we are missing a Dude Ranch guest. Oh, no. You don't think..."

Despite not wanting to get close to anything that might be deceased, Georgie nudged Phoenix onwards. Adam followed, scanning the foliage ahead.

Following the direction the birds seemed to be flying would take them off the marked trail into the bushes and more wild, overgrown vegetation. The teens decided to dismount and continue on foot. After securing the horses, Georgie and Adam trudged through the bushes and came upon a small natural clearing beneath the canopy of a grouping of trees. Moments later, they sighted an almost unrecognizable but nevertheless very human heap lying prone on the grass, partially obscured by some shrubbery. Their nostrils were soon assailed by the stench of decay. Flies buzzed and were clustering all over the rotting mass of flesh. Two turkey vultures descended on the body, flapping their massive wings as they settled to begin their meal.

"I-I think you'd better call your mom," Adam said shakily, averting his glance from the stomach-turning spectacle. "And I'm calling my dad."

***

Hudson Veterinary Clinic

"Great. The rest of the lab results just came back for Remi," Ty said, clicking on the report in his email Inbox.

Interest instantly piqued, Cass looked over at her colleague. "So, what was the source of the poison?"

"Her dog food," Ty said, staring at the lab results as if to be sure his eyes were not misleading him.

"How did strychnine get into her food?" Cass asked, equally puzzled.

"I don't know," Ty said tersely as he pulled out his cell phone and hurriedly dialled home. "It's a bag she's been eating from for nearly a week. If it had come contaminated from the production line, she would have been sick a long time ago."

Cass stared at him. "Who are you calling?"

"Home," he replied, exhaling sharply. When Amy answered, Ty did not waste time with pleasantries. "Amy, I need you to grab the open bag of Remi's dog chow right now. Don't touch the contents. In fact, use gloves when you handle the bag. Put it in a heavy-duty garbage bag and seal it tightly. Get it down here to the clinic as soon as you can."

"Ty, slow down, please,"Amy begged. "What's this all about?"

Ty caught himself and scaled back his agitation. "The strychnine poisoning," he stated, his spoken pace this time more slow and deliberate. "We tested the water in her dish, and that came back negative. The only other thing in Remi's stomach was her food, so that means her food was the source of the poison."

"What? Are you sure?" Amy's own shocked reaction was not lost on Ty.

"Without a doubt," Ty answered, looking back at his computer screen.

"All right. I'll get the food. Lyndy just woke up from a nap, so she'll have to come with me."

"Okay, thanks, Amy," said Ty gratefully.

***

Lou could not have been more shocked when she received Georgie's call about a dead body near Heartland Equestrian Connections. She had just finished speaking with Evelyn about her travel details and how she would be more comfortable in the house than at the Dude Ranch. Cabins Three and Four were already made up and waiting for Rachel and Ben to occupy when they arrived in Hudson; Cabin Two was still off-limits.

Chief Parker and his forensics team were already at the site when Lou arrived.

"Mom," Georgie called upon spotting Lou, and quickly went to her for a comforting hug.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Lou asked, holding her daughter close for several moments.

Georgie nodded. "I'm okay," she said at length. "At least I'm better now that you're here."

"Thanks for coming, Ms. Fleming," Jim said. "I really need you to be present when we talk to Georgie about all this since she's still a minor."

"Of course," Lou said, sending her daughter a look of maternal concern. Parker summoned Detective Constable Patterson to assist in the questioning. Lou stood by quietly while Adam and Georgie answered Patterson's questions as best they could.

"We touched absolutely nothing," Adam said in response to her query about their actions upon discovering the body. "I know you're not supposed to contaminate a possible crime scene."

"I know you know," Jim interjected patiently, "but we don't always follow logic when we stumble upon something like this."

"As soon as we realised what it was, we halted where we were right away," Adam continued.

"Yeah, there's no way we were getting any closer to that," Georgie said, her stomach still churning uncomfortably. "That's when we called you all to come."

"Okay, thanks," Patterson said. "Tell us what led you to finding the body in the first place. We're really off the beaten path, here."

"There were some turkey vultures," Adam explained. "I saw them flying around. They're not too common in this part of the province; that's why I noticed them. Since they're carrion birds, I figured something was probably dead out here. That's when Georgie mentioned the missing Dude Ranch guest."

"Carrion birds," Parker muttered with a shake of his head. "Of all things."

"I'm satisfied with what they've had to say, Chief," Patterson said to her boss. "Are you good?"

"Yes, I'm good," Parker said to his subordinate. "You can head back to the scene."

"Will do," she said, and moved off to rejoin the forensic team's efforts.

Jim returned his attention to Adam and Georgie. "Thanks, both of you; you did great today. You called immediately and kept your cool. I know plenty of adults who would not have reacted in as level-headed a way that you have."

"Thank you, sir," Georgie said demurely.

"Thanks, Dad."

"I'm going to talk to your mom now, Georgie," Chief Parker said. "You can wait for her if you like, but the two of you are free to go now if you want. I may have questions later for you, and you can call me if you think of something you didn't mention here."

"Okay, sure," Georgie said. "I think I'll go."

"Yeah, I'd rather go, too," Adam said in relief.

"All right," Parker said. "Be careful on the ride back."

"We will," Adam said.

With that, the teens returned to the horses and rode back to the ranch house, still not completely over the shock and disgust of discovering the corpse.

Chief Parker now focused his attention on Lou. "Georgie tells me you've been missing a Dude Ranch guest," Chief Parker said.

"That's right," Lou said. "Dov Grosvenor. He's been missing for several days. My manager said one of the guests saw him either late on Friday night or very early on Saturday morning out by the firepit. It's all in the information I gave to one of your constables. He came out here yesterday when I called; I filed a Missing Persons report with him."

"About that," Parker said, "it turns out the name 'Dov Grosvenor' is an alias of some kind. No one exists with that name that we can determine."

"He registered under a false name?" Lou's surprise was evident.

"So it would appear, Ms. Fleming," Jim said. "We're of course working on the assumption this is your vanished-into-thin-air Dude Ranch guest, whatever his name really is. Not a pretty way to go."

"No," Lou said, shuddering at the grim realisation her guest had probably met his horrible end due to an encounter with the roving bear.

As Chief Parker feared, the body was far too bloodied, marred and mauled to be positively identified by anyone. There had been no wallet, but a phone with a cracked screen along with other items had been taken by Parker's forensics team.

"Do you get many hunters out here at the Dude Ranch, Ms. Fleming?" he asked.

"Never," Lou said with an instant negative shake of her head. "Why do you ask?"

Parker looked over at his forensics team. They were still gathering evidence, bagging soil samples, and taking photographs. "I ask because we found a rifle near the body," Parker replied.

The chief was referring to the Special Edition Tikka T3x Compact Tactical rifle, mounted with a Steiner Military 3-15x50mm MSR scope and an Ase-Utra SL5i suppressor, which was discovered a short distance from the corpse. This weapon was of great interest to Parker and his team as they quickly noticed the absence of any serial numbers that could indicate license and ownership.

"No, no hunters," Lou repeated with emphasis, surprised at the news the dead man had been armed. "We've never advertised the Dude Ranch as such, either. It's not like we're a big game resort. At most, our guests do a little recreational fishing out on the pond."

"Hmm," Parker murmured. "You see, I don't like the coincidence of this rifle, the bear attack, and the recent death of Val Stanton. Next question: Do you get many trespassers at Heartland or the Dude Ranch?"

Lou gasped, an awful possibility dawning on her.

"What is it?" Parker asked.

"Um, I'll have to check my bookings, but, if this really is my missing guest, I—I think he was also checked in here during the time Val was killed," Lou said, gulping uncomfortably.

"I'll need to see those booking records, Ms. Fleming," Parker said. "Unless, of course, you'd prefer I get a warrant first."

"No, no, I'll gladly volunteer that information if it means we'll get to the bottom of who this guy is and what happened to Val," said Lou.

"Thank you," Parker said. He then beckoned to his forensics team to join him. "While you dig up those records, I'd like to look at the cabin he was staying in right away, please."

"All right," Lou said. "Cabin Two. Follow me. Oh, this is his truck, by the way."

Parker looked at the Ford F-150 that Lou was pointing to. He remembered how his rookie constable had taken the time to inspect the registration sticker when he came out to speak with Lou and found it to be a fake. Now Parker wondered about the license plate itself. He realised Becket had not mentioned anything about it—just the phony registration sticker. He would have to ask the kid what he found out about who the plate was actually registered to when he got back to headquarters.

"Ms. Fleming, when your missing guest first drove up here, did you notice if he had anything loaded in the back of his pickup? An ATV or a dirt bike, or something like that?" Parker questioned.

"No, why?" asked Lou.

"See these straps and this ramp?" Parker said, pointing to the items in the truck's bed. "He may have had something secured back here."

Lou looked for herself. "He couldn't have been bringing an ATV or a bike," she said in reply. "We don't permit those kinds of vehicles to go zooming all over the place here. Heartland Equestrian Connections is meant to be for peace and quiet. If either Jen or I had seen him pull up with something like that, we would have made him fully aware of our policy, in case he missed it on the website."

"Okay, thanks," Jim said, putting the issue on his mental back burner for the time being. "Let's see the inside of his cabin now, please."

"Let me get the master key," Lou said.

"Just unlock it, but don't touch the handle," Parker said in warning.

"Okay," Lou said. She climbed the steps and unlocked the door without touching the handle, as requested.

"Wait outside, please, Ms. Fleming, while my team goes over everything," said Jim.

"Of course." Lou stood back to let the forensics team first dust the handle for fingerprints and then enter the premises.

While Parker and his team pored over Cabin Two, Lou was gripped with apprehension. I can't believe this is happening. This is going to absolutely kill the Dude Ranch business. Who is going to want to stay here after people find out one of my guests was killed by a bear?

She pulled out her cell phone to access the bookings app to get the information for the chief. Sure enough, the name 'Dov Grosvenor' appeared as having reserved Cabin Two earlier in April, coinciding with the date of Val Stanton's death. Lou shivered at having that piece of information confirmed. Who was this guy, and could he really be responsible for what happened to Val?

Inside Cabin Two, Parker was initially disappointed. A pair of khaki-coloured pants and black cotton T-shirt lay folded crisply on the bed, the latter of which was also made up neatly.

"Chief, we've got something under the bed," one of the forensics team members named Corey Fraser stated. "It looks like a couple weapons cases of some kind."

The forensics photographer, Jason Pruitt, immediately dropped to the floor to snap images of the location of the cases.

"Let's pull them out and see what we have," Parker said, once Jason was finished.

Corey reached in and dragged the larger case out first.

"Empty," Corey said after snapping it open. The interior held sturdy foam packing, the contours of which very obviously matched the tactical rifle they discovered earlier near the body. There were also indentations that matched the shape of the weapon's scope and suppressor.

"Let's have a look inside that second case," Parker said.

Corey flipped the tabs and opened the lid to reveal a pair of Glock 17 pistols.

"Let's get pictures and bag and tag," Parker commanded. His team immediately complied with the instruction.

***

Hudson County Morgue

"Jim, we won't get anything from his fingerprints, unfortunately," the coroner Harlan Blackburn said as the two men stood in front of the stainless steel slab upon which the dead man's reeking remains were laid out, covered by a sheet.

"Why is that, Harlan?" Chief Parker asked, doing his best not to breathe through his nose.

"Not enough left of the fingers. Our guy must have put up his hands and arms defensively to protect his head and neck when the bear attacked. Chewed up his fingers and hands pretty bad. See?"

Harlan raised the sheet to show what was left of one of the dead man's hands.

Jim had seen his fair share of dead bodies in his career, but this was the first bear mauling he had come across, and he felt his stomach flip at the sight of the mangled, rotting digits.

"He didn't leave any prints in the cabin or in the truck, either," Jim said, swallowing hard against the tide of bile rising in his throat.

"I'll get you some dental X-rays and see if we get lucky," Harlan said casually.

"Great," Jim said. "Have you been able to determine a time of death yet?"

"From the observed rate of decay and the stage of the life-cycle of the flies present, I'd say he's been dead close to three or four days, give or take."

"So that would mean he's been dead since Saturday or Sunday," Jim stated.

"Yeah. Plus, turkey vultures tend to be picky about what they'll consume," Harlan continued. "They usually turn up their beaks if something's been dead past the four-day mark. Mind you, overnight temperatures have been close to freezing these past couple nights, which would of course also slow the decomposition... But I'd still say three or four days."

Jim said, "That pretty much squares with what one of our witnesses says about the last time this guy was seen alive. Thanks, Harlan. Let me know when your report is done."

Harlan gave him a thumbs-up. "You're welcome, Chief. The report will be ready lickety-split barring any surprises."

With that, Parker beat a hasty exit out the door. A few breaths of non-decay-scented air later, and he was on his way back to police headquarters to question his procedurally lax rookie constable.

"Becket," he said, upon finding the hapless young man. "About that Missing Persons report you tried to file for the name 'Dov Grosvenor' ... you did actually run the guy's license plate through the database, right?"

A beat of silence passed. "No, sir," Becket said as he visibly paled. "Once I realised the registration sticker was fake and didn't find his name anywhere, I just assumed the plate was fake, too—"

"Rookie," Parker growled. "Never 'assume' anything. Run that plate now and find out who it's supposed to be registered to!"

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir," Becket said meekly.

"Chief, that name 'Dov Grosvenor'..." Benoit said thoughtfully, having heard the exchange.

"What about it?"

"I knew a guy in high school back in Montreal named 'Dov'," Benoit recounted. "I remember it because it was so unusual. He told me he had Jewish ancestry and that the name means 'bear' in Hebrew."

Detective Constable Patterson picked up on this. "How about we see what the name 'Grosvenor' means, too?" she asked while tapping an inquiry into the Google search engine. Two seconds later, she had the result. "You're not going to believe this, but 'Grosvenor' means 'chief or royal hunter'."

"A guy registers under a fake name that essentially means 'royal bear hunter' only to end up getting mauled to death by a bear? If that don't beat all," Kavanaugh said with a dry laugh.

"Now that's what I'd call poetic justice," Parker said.

"Chief," said Becket, coming back with the results of his own search. "The license plate on the truck comes back as being registered to a beige 1998 Toyota Corolla belonging to 79-year-old Mildred McCann of Grande Prairie, Alberta."

"Stolen plate?" Benoit asked what everyone was thinking.

"Maybe," Parker said pensively. "Let's get Grande Prairie RCMP on the line, please, Constable Becket. You're going to explain to them that we have a truck here in Hudson with a license plate that should be on a Toyota in their city. Find out everything you can about the owner and how she might be connected to our dead guy."

"Yes, sir," Becket said, and retreated to his desk to do just that.

***

Half an hour later, Becket reported his findings to Chief Parker.

"Grande Prairie RCMP think they can ID our body," Becket said.

Parker was instantly alert. "Who was he?"

"They think it's Mildred McCann's son, 36-year-old Earl McCann," Becket said. "He's got several outstanding warrants for theft, assault, uttering threats, fraud, and so on. They said he was dishonourably discharged from the Armed Forces years ago for insubordination and pretty much being a violent, loose canon.

"Mildred has Alzheimer's and is in an assisted-living facility. The RCMP corporal I spoke with says Earl never visits, but somehow the bills get paid. RCMP in Cold Lake almost had him a while back when he was stopped for driving around in the truck with the plate registered to his mother's sedan. Those cops let him go because Earl reportedly claimed he had not had time to get to the registry office to make the switch. Those Cold Lake guys assumed he was telling the truth and let him go with a warning to get it done. They didn't realise their mistake until he was long gone."

"See how assuming something can lead to bigger problems?" Parker said, knowing the lesson would not be lost on his rookie.

"Yes, sir," Becket said solemnly.

Parker sighed. "Eh, for what it's worth, Earl McCann does not sound like the kind of guy who would have let himself be taken in because of a petty registration violation. He most likely would have shot and killed those cops in cold blood if they had pulled up his warrants at the time."

Becket's eyes went wide. "I hadn't thought of that, sir."

"All right. I'll let Harlan know to send the dental X-rays to the Grande Prairie detachment," Parker said. "I'm sure they'll be able to confirm it's Earl McCann."

"Yes, sir," Becket said.

Turning to the rest of his team, Parker said: "Now we get to figure out why Dov Grosvenor, aka, Earl McCann, was staying in Hudson and how he managed to get himself killed by a bear. We've got lots of evidence to process, so let's get moving."

***

Heartland Ranch — Barn Loft

Ty was dreaming in the early morning hours. An open country road stretched before him as he rode his treasured Norton motorcycle. Someone's arms held onto him tightly from behind. Without turning to look, he instinctively knew it was Amy. Such a feeling of freedom coursed through him, he did not even wonder for a moment where they were headed, or that none of this made any sense since he was no longer in possession of the Norton.

As is sometimes the case in such dreams, Ty's point of view shifted. He was now observing the ride rather than experiencing it. He noticed with a touch of confusion it was not Amy who was snuggled up close to him, but rather Ashley Stanton. Repulsed, Ty brought the motorcycle to a halt and planted his feet on the ground.

"Get off the bike, Ashley. I'm supposed to be giving Amy a ride."

"What?" Ashley whined. "But this is my brother's bike. You promised me you'd take me out for a spin."

"No, this is my bike," Ty argued indignantly. "Get off!"

"You can't leave me stranded on the side of the road," Ashley complained. "Take me back to Briar Ridge."

Ty thought to himself this was a reasonable request since he really could not just abandon Ashley in the middle of nowhere.

"Fine," Ty heard himself saying. "But if Amy shows up, you're getting off, and I'm taking her."

"Fine," Ashley said.

Ty started up his bike again and turned around, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of Amy.

The dream then seemed to morph into other images and sights that no longer had any connection to the original theme. When Ty awoke, the dream was already fading. By the time he had brushed his teeth and washed his face, he had already forgotten most of it. However, a small voice nagged in the back of his brain he should have paid attention to something important in that dream, but that detail remained elusive.

***

May 8

Hudson Times—Online Version

Man Mauled to Death

Nadir Jutley

Hudson Police along with Alberta Fish and Wildlife are issuing an urgent alert to all residents of Hudson county after a grisly discovery. The body of an unidentified man, badly mauled, was found in a wilderness area near the Heartland Equestrian Connections resort yesterday afternoon.

The owner and operator of Heartland Equestrian Connections, Samantha Fleming, declined to comment on the situation due to the ongoing investigation by Hudson police, but did say the resort will be closed to the public for the next two weeks.

If you see the bear, contact Alberta Fish and Wildlife immediately at 555-625-1540. Do not approach the animal under any circumstances.

More details to come as information is released by authorities.

Email: nadir_jutley

***

Hudson Police Headquarters

"I've got the ballistics report on the rifle we found yesterday at the Dude Ranch, Chief," said Kavanaugh as his boss walked into the room for the morning briefing. The team had been burning the midnight oil working on the evidence collected from the Dude Ranch, and results were beginning to filter through.

"Let me guess: Earl McCann's rifle is the same weapon that killed Valerie Stanton," Parker said.

"You got it in one, Chief," Kavanaugh said, "it's just as you suspected."

"What about the pistols we found in the cabin?" Parker asked. "Anything special about them?"

"Well, we already knew those Glocks—untraceable of course—were the wrong caliber for the Stillman shooting," Kavanaugh said. "But we did get a hit on an unsolved murder on one of the Glocks. I've just shared that information with Detective Prescott in Calgary."

"Oh?" Parker said, interest aroused.

"You're probably not going to believe this, but the ballistics on one of them came back as a match on the Barick murders."

"You're saying McCann was responsible for Stanton and the Baricks?!" Parker exclaimed.

"So it would seem," Kavanaugh said. "Why else would he have been in possession of those weapons?"

"But he didn't shoot Lisa Stillman," Parker spoke, more of a statement than a question.

"Doubtful," Patterson chimed in. "The kind of professional, high-end firearms McCann had, no way he would have been using a pea-shooter like what was probably used on Stillman on the road that day."

"Which means we still have more than one shooter on our hands," Parker said gravely.

Patterson nodded back in silent acknowledgment of this fact.

"Hmph," Parker sighed. "Benoit, tell me you have good news about that phone we found on McCann's body."

"I was just coming to tell you, Boss," Benoit said hastily. "We worked all night. Finally cracked the encryption a couple minutes ago. Look at what we pulled off his message history."

"Show us."

Benoit flashed an image file up on the screen. "That's a picture of Lisa Stillman," he said. "It was received the day of the attempt on her life in the hospital. And then there's also a picture of Val Stanton, received shortly before she was shot."

"A killer for hire, right here in Hudson," Parker said with a shake of his head as he stared at the images. "Okay, so we can tie McCann to Stanton's killing with the photo he was sent, and with the ballistics match on the rifle. He was obviously the one to go after Stillman in the hospital. But if he didn't shoot her, who did?"

"That is a mystery," Benoit said with a shrug. "But that's not all. Two more pictures were sent this past Saturday. Are we seeing a pattern, yet?"

All eyes focused on the two additional pictures Benoit pulled from the phone.

"Our very own Hudson veterinarians," Parker said in recognition of Drs. Scott Cardinal and Ty Borden.

"Who both happened to be on the scene when Lisa Stillman was shot," Patterson said.

"Looks like Stillman's shooter is trying to eliminate any possibility of being identified," Kavanaugh added.

"Tell me you have a bead on who was sending McCann those pictures, Benoit," Parker said.

"We're still trying to figure that out, sir," Benoit answered ruefully. "Whoever sent the pictures was using a burner phone. Unless he tries to make contact again, we can't trace him."

Another thought suddenly occurred to Parker. "What's happened to the court orders to get the ID of the person who requested Val Stanton's death certificate and who filed that second insurance claim?"

"Oh!" Benoit exclaimed. "Those probably came through yesterday right when we were called out to deal with the situation at the Dude Ranch. I'll get on that right away, sir."

***

Hudson Funeral Home

Stanley Belmont could feel a trickle of perspiration starting to make its way down the side of his face. Faced with questions about his involvement with Tanner Gunn's investors' group and his recent application for the medical death certificate for Val Stanton, he nevertheless tried to keep his panic and his indignation in check.

"Of course I requested Val Stanton's death certificate," he said testily in reply to Detective Kavanaugh's question about it. "As the owner and operator of this business and as the one entrusted with handling Val's funeral arrangements, I had every legitimate right to request it."

Patterson and Kavanaugh nodded in agreement, hoping to keep the man at ease before they dropped the next question.

"Yes, we know Ms. Stanton's will stipulated that your business was to handle everything at whatever time she passed," said Kavanaugh.

"Well, then, what's the trouble?" Stanley asked, clearly exasperated.

"The trouble is we can't seem to find a reason why you also applied to receive a copy of Lisa Stillman's medical death certificate," Patterson said, looking him squarely in the face.

Stanley swallowed.

"Lisa's family says she stipulated she wanted a funeral home in Calgary to handle her arrangements," Patterson said. "So I ask you now: why did you request a copy of Lisa Stillman's death certificate when you didn't need it?"

Both Kavanaugh and Patterson noted the nervous shift of Belmont's eyes.

"We also have questions for you about your gambling habits, Mr. Belmont," Kavanaugh said. "You and Tanner Gunn like to frequent the poker tables, don't you?"

Belmont pursed his lips. "And what if I do?" he challenged with a question of his own.

"Nothing, really," Kavanaugh said, "except if those poker tables are illegal. How much are you in the hole for, Mr. Belmont?"

"Um, I think I'd like to contact my lawyer before I say anything more," Stanley eventually uttered after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

"Fine," Kavanaugh said. "That's entirely your right. But you're treading on dangerous ground, Mr. Belmont, and I think you know you are."

"Call your lawyer, Mr. Belmont," Patterson said. "We can all meet together down at police headquarters."

"Am I under arrest?" Belmont nearly squeaked, his voice nervously rising in pitch.

"That all depends on how you answer our questions," Kavanaugh said.

"Call," Patterson said, nodding at the phone on Stanley's desk. "Then you're coming with us for more questioning."

With a resigned sigh, Stanley picked up the phone and dialled.

***

Calgary International Airport

Lou watched carefully for Rachel and Ben Stillman at the Arrivals gate. She recognized Ben on sight, though it had been years since she last saw him. The handsome, yet arrogant lad she remembered had grown a few more inches since then, and had matured into a young man with rugged good looks. The dark blonde woman nearly hidden behind his tall frame could only be Rachel. Though they had never met, Lou could see the family resemblance instantly, as Rachel's looks were strikingly similar to Lisa's.

Not that they'd ever be mistaken for twins, Lou now thought, but it's clear they were related...

Lou waved to get their attention. As soon as they saw her, they quickened their pace to meet up.

"Hi, Lou," Ben said.

"Hello, Ben," Lou responded, giving him a brief hug.

"Thanks for coming for us," he said. "This is my mother, Rachel."

"Hi, Rachel," Lou said, choosing to give the other woman a quick hug as well. "We spoke on the phone, obviously..."

"Yes," Rachel said. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face after all the times Lisa shared family photos..."

"Your, uhm, the flight was okay? You got everything?" Lou asked awkwardly, indicating their luggage.

"Yes, thanks," Rachel said, in answer to both questions.

"All right, good. Follow me and we'll be off."

The ride back to Hudson was spent mostly in silence. No one quite knew what to say as the subject of what brought them together at this time was still too raw and too devastating to address head-on, though Lou could sense Rachel was brimming with questions she desperately wanted answered.

Rachel did speak once when she mentioned how much certain areas of Calgary they passed along the way had changed, and how much larger the urban sprawl had grown since she was last in that city.

"Hudson has changed quite a bit too," Lou commented. "Especially since all the flooding in 2013."

"Yes, I remember that," Rachel said contemplatively. "The footage we saw on the news was just awful."

"But we pulled through," Lou said, thinking of how members of their community had indeed joined forces to help each other, including the local Hutterite colony.

No one said anything more until they reached Heartland.

"Wow. Are those my old jumps?" asked Ben upon seeing them in the yellow glow of the fading afternoon sunlight when Lou pulled up.

"Yes," Lou responded.

"Who's that riding in the pen right now?"

"My daughter, Georgie," Lou replied with a touch of pride.

"Oh, yeah," Ben said. "She's the kid you adopted, right? Lisa mentioned her a few times. I'm glad someone's making use of them... and since Lisa's technically her family... was her family..."

Ben morosely stopped talking.

"Well, here we are," Lou said clumsily, putting the SUV in park and shutting off the engine.

"You know, I wasn't sure when I'd ever see this place again," Ben murmured.

"I heard so much about it from her," Rachel said as she stared out the windshield at the ranch house. "She told me she was so happy when she finally moved in here with Jack... It's just as 'homey' as she described it. Thanks for bringing us here and for offering to put us up at your Dude Ranch, Lou. I don't think I'm emotionally ready to be at Fairfield just yet. Not when she can't be there with us anymore."

Lou sent a sympathetic glance at Rachel. "Come on. Let's go inside. Amy will have supper ready by now."

They followed Lou up the porch steps. She held the screen and the kitchen door open for them to enter.

"Our stuff will be safe in the SUV, right?" a worried Rachel asked while looking over her shoulder, thinking at once of her luggage.

"You're out in the country again, Rachel," Lou responded. "This isn't the city. No one's going to break in here."

"Right," Rachel said with a wry smile. "I'd forgotten what it was like to leave your doors unlocked."

"Ben," Amy said warmly upon seeing the young man step foot in the kitchen. She approached right away and embraced him as if greeting an old friend.

"Hey, Amy," Ben answered back. "It's good to see you, even under the circumstances."

"I know," Amy said after pulling away. "I'm sorry it took something like this for us to meet again."

"This is my mom, Rachel," Ben said, gesturing to his mother. "Mom, this is Amy. She and I also used to compete against each other on the circuit."

"Hi, Rachel," Amy said, deciding to give the woman a hug as well. She, too, noticed how similar in appearance Rachel was to Lisa.

"Nice to meet you, Amy," Rachel said. "Lisa told me so much about you—about all of you—over the years. I almost feel like I know you."

"Excuse me while I go call my daughter in for dinner," Lou said, hoping to avoid any further mention of difficult topics. "The bathroom is just down there around the corner if you want to freshen up."

"I'm fine," Ben said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I could use a bathroom break," Rachel sighed, and made directly for the facilities.

"Why don't you have a seat either here in the kitchen or in the living room, Ben?" Amy suggested. "I'm just going to go check on my daughter."

"Sure," Ben said easily, deciding to lounge on the couch.

A minute later, Amy returned with a still-sleepy Lyndy, who had just woken from a nap in Katie's room.

"Ah, who's this?" Ben asked with a smile upon seeing mother and child.

"Meet Lyndy," Amy said. "She turned two in December. Say 'hi' to Ben, sweetheart."

Lyndy rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes. "Hi," she whispered shyly.

"Hi, Lyndy," Ben answered back with a smile. "She's super-cute, Amy. I bet she's got Ty wrapped around her little finger."

"Oh, does she ever," Amy said with a roll of her eyes and a soft laugh.

"Where is Ty, anyway?"

"Working. He had the day shift at the vet clinic in town, but he's supposed to be on his way home now."

"Right, he's 'Dr. Borden' now," Ben said. "Lisa sent photos of the graduation ceremony."

"It sounds like she kept you up-to-date," Amy said.

"She did," Ben confirmed with a short nod. "Aunt Lisa was proud of all of you; proud to call you her family. It made me feel a little jealous sometimes, to be honest. Made me wish I was back in Hudson, even if I didn't exactly enjoy it when I was sent here during my parents' divorce."

"That was a rough time for you, Ben," Amy said in sympathy. "You know my parents split up too, so I understand. It's hard to appreciate anything when your whole life is being turned upside-down."

"No kidding," muttered Ben.

Presently, Lou returned. "Georgie should be in here soon," she said. "Thanks for taking care of dinner, Amy. I guess we can start as soon as Ty gets in."

"And he should be here any time," Amy stated.

"Is Rachel still — ?" Lou began to ask, jerking a thumb in the direction of the bathroom.

Amy nodded.

"Should I check on her?" Lou asked. "I'll check on her."

Amy was about to protest, but realised the woman had been in there a while.

Lou tapped lightly on the bathroom door. She could not be sure, but she thought she heard the sound of muffled sobs before the sudden flush of the toilet followed by the noisy gush of the faucet.

"Are you okay, Rachel?" Lou called.

"Be out in a minute," Rachel replied in a nasally, constrained voice.

"Okay, we'll be at the dinner table," Lou said before turning away.

***

The meal started out in a subdued fashion. Nobody seemed willing or ready to talk about what had been happening over the past week. They ate and drank in silence, until finally Ben broke the ice. He cleared his throat before beginning to speak.

"You know, I just wanna say to you guys I was a real brat when I was sent to stay here," he said solemnly. "And I'm sorry for all that."

"Oh, that was long ago. You don't have to apologize for anything, Ben," Lou said kindly.

"Yeah, but still. I could have been more gracious about, well, everything," he said. "What's happened... it's been a huge wake-up call for me. I thought at the time Lisa was just trying to get rid of me by dumping me here. But I get it now. I get it. Even then she saw something special in this family. She wanted me to experience that also. I didn't appreciate it enough."

Amy noticed Lou's eyes were brimming, and she could feel the moisture building beneath her own lids.

"Anyway, that's all I wanted to say," Ben said.

"Thank you, Ben," Amy said, giving him a smile of encouragement. "Lisa... was very special to us, too..."

Georgie was starting to get weepy. Ty blinked back his own tears.

"My sister," Rachel began shakily, "was never able to have children of her own. But she regarded all of you as if you were her own. I hope you know that."

Silent tears slipped from Amy's eyes as she recalled the very candid conversation she had shared with Lisa not so long ago about her miscarriages. "We know," she said with a sad smile and a nod.

"All right, enough emotional stuff," Rachel declared. "I want to hear about all of you. I mean, Lisa would call and talk about what was happening with the family, but I want to hear details."

"No, first I want to hear about you two," Amy said. "I have a feeling Lisa probably shared a lot more about us with you than she did about you with us."

"That'd be my fault," Ben admitted. "I didn't communicate with Lisa nearly as much. She'd send emails all the time, but I don't think I sent many back."

"So what's been going on with you, then?" asked Amy.

"Well, I got my MBA as you may know," Ben replied. "I've been working as a financial analyst for a startup in Montreal for the past year. Keeps me busy."

"You should talk to Lou," Amy said, looking over at her sister. "She got her MBA. Put it to good use, too."

"Oh, I've done all right," Lou said, flipping a hand dismissively. "Nothing crazy."

"That's not what Aunt Lisa told me," Ben said seriously. "She told me all about how great the Dude Ranch was. Said you were one of the smartest and most competent women she knew. I think that was after she sold her share back to you. You handle people's financial portfolios, and you also published a book, right?"

"Yeah," Lou said slowly. She was struck by the fact Lisa had taken the time to share such things with her nephew, and that he remembered them.

"And Lisa said that Maggie's Diner is a franchise now," Ben continued.

"It is," Lou said.

"I bet Mrs. Duval never dreamed her little diner would be a franchise in Times Square," Ben said. "You're living the dream, Lou."

"'The dream' is also very busy," Lou said. She looked over briefly at Georgie. "It takes me away from my family much more than I wish it did. I was actually in New York dealing with the franchise when I got the call about Lisa..." her voice trailed off. Unable to continue, she instead took a drink of water.

"Uh, speaking of Maggie's," Ben said to move past the uncomfortable moment, "How's Soraya?"

Amy answered: "She's doing great. Loves London."

"Ontario?" Ben asked.

"England," Amy corrected. "It's where her husband, Dillon, is from."

"Wow. I didn't even know she got married," Ben expressed his surprise. "Time flies."

"Maggie moved out there, too. It's why Lou bought the diner in the first place."

"Crazy decision," Lou said with a shake of her head.

"Hey, Lou, maybe I'll open a Maggie's Diner location in Montreal," Ben quipped. "How much to become a franchisee?"

"Don't encourage her," Amy chuckled with a grin and a roll of her eyes.

***

Hudson Police Headquarters

Stanley Belmont, owner and operator of the Hudson Funeral Home business, tried to decide what his best course of action should be. Sitting beside him in the cubby-hole of a room reserved for questioning suspects was his lawyer, Patrick Randall. For the time being, Stanley had not said a word, choosing to take his Charter-guaranteed right to remain silent.

Detective Constable Patterson looked steadily at Stanley. "We know you had a legitimate reason for getting Valerie Stanton's medical death certificate. But why did you request a copy of Lisa Stillman's death certificate, Mr. Belmont?"

"You don't have to answer her question," Randall advised his client.

"What did you do with the copy of Lisa Stillman's medical death certificate?" asked Patterson.

"He's not answering that one, either," said Randall.

"Fine," Patterson said, splaying her hands on the surface of the table between them. "Look, we know you're not in this alone, Stanley. We know someone either asked you or coerced you into putting in that request for Stillman's certificate. You're the one with the credentials as a funeral home director to legally request such a document. Anyone else would need to be either a family member or they'd do it through a court order, and that sort of thing. The only reason someone would want that document at this point would be to file a claim on a life insurance policy. Money is a very good motive for murder."

"Murder?!" Stanley yelped, forgetting his resolve to remain silent. "I didn't kill Lisa Stillman."

"But maybe you hired the man who did," Detective Kavanaugh broke in.

Stanley shook his head. "I did no such thing!"

"We know about your gambling debts, Stanley," Patterson said. "You and Tanner Gunn are pretty well known out there for your love of the illegal poker tables. He roped you in to that underground scene, didn't he?"

"Don't answer that," Randall warned.

Patterson narrowed her eyes.

"Detectives, this is a fishing expedition," Randall said impatiently. "Either you charge my client with something, or you let him go."

"We're getting to that. We know you're in the hole for a cool 1.2 million to a certain loan shark in Calgary," Patterson said to Stanley.

"Who's this loan shark?" Randall asked sharply, eyebrows instantly pinching together.

"Oh, someone your pal Tanner Gunn introduced you to, isn't that right, Mr. Belmont?" Kavanaugh asked. "Does the name 'Mick Osbourne' sound familiar, Mr. Belmont?"

Stanley's face went pale.

"You don't have to answer any of that, Stan," Randall repeated his predictable line yet again.

"Mick Osbourne told our Calgary counterparts you've borrowed heavily from him on a number of occasions," Patterson said. "You've been racking up the debt. Mick's enforcers are vicious. Were you being threatened?"

Stanley's eyes swept over to his counsel.

"Did Tanner Gunn ask you to request Lisa Stillman's medical death certificate?" Patterson asked. "Did he promise to get Mick's guys to back off if you did?"

"Um... I'd like a private conference with my lawyer now, please," Stanley murmured weakly after a period of dead silence.

"Granted," Patterson said. She and Kavanaugh got up from their seats and left their suspect alone with his counsel.

***

Chief Parker was waiting for Patterson and Kavanaugh when they reappeared in the bullpen.

"How's the interview with Stanley Belmont going?" he asked.

"I think we've got him," Patterson answered. "He's asked for some private time with his counsel."

"He hasn't admitted anything yet," Kavanaugh said, being more cautious. "But he's definitely spooked."

"Think he's going to spill what he knows?" Chief Parker asked.

"Hopefully," Patterson said. "Because he's definitely not going to want to be the one to take the fall for a murder conspiracy charge."

"He won't if he knows what's good for him," Parker commented. "Good work, you too. We'll see if his lawyer talks some sense into him."

"Okay, since we've been away dealing with Belmont, let's get up to speed. Where are we with our dead hitman's case?" Kavanaugh now asked.

Detective Benoit looked up when he heard this question.

"As you know, Earl McCann's phone was all busted up, so we've taken the SIM card out and popped it into another phone on the off chance the sender will try to get in touch again, but so far, nothing," he said.

"Then maybe it's time we went on the offensive," Parker suggested. "Can you try reaching out to him?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, sir," Benoit answered. "The call history shows there were never any outgoing calls. It might be a giveaway if we try to make contact."

Parker considered this. "You could be right..."

"Hold on," Benoit said excitedly. "Someone is calling right now. ID is blocked. It could be the middle man."

Kavanaugh raced over to help his colleague with setting up a trace.

"All right. Accept the call, Benoit," Parker advised.

Benoit tapped the screen to answer. Before he could say a word, the mysterious caller barged ahead without greeting.

"Hey, remember those two loose ends I told you about? They've still not been taken care of!" the voice barked menacingly. "The client is pissed. I told you on Saturday those had to be taken care of ASAP. You are still in Hudson, right? I told you the client said to stick around, didn't I?"

Benoit did not know if he should chance a reply. "Uh-huh," he eventually mumbled.

"You're makin' me look bad. Do what you're being paid to do!"

The line went dead.

"Did we get him?" asked Parker.

"No," replied a disappointed Kavanaugh. "Whoever this is, he's still using a burner phone. GPS and location services have been disabled. Best we can do is triangulate off the closest cell tower."

"How close can you get us?

"The call pinged off a cell tower around 7th Avenue and 8th Street in the downtown Calgary area," answered Kavanaugh. "He could be anywhere within a three city block radius."

"Get Detective Prescott over in Calgary on the line," Parker ordered. "They'll have the resources and the manpower. We need to find this guy before he disappears."

***

Calgary Homicide Detective James Prescott listened intently to what Chief Parker was telling him. He mobilized his teams as soon as he learned of the active cell phone signal potentially belonging to the individual involved in the hiring of a professional killer.

"Do you have any likely suspects on your radar in the 'middle man' department, Prescott?"Parker asked.

"A few come to mind," Prescott responded, as he and four separate groups of plainclothes detectives converged on the area in downtown Calgary that Kavanaugh had identified.

The light rail passenger trains traversing 7th Avenue that hummed along at 15-minute intervals at this hour of the evening were sparsely filled. Prescott said a silent prayer their quarry did not decide to hop on one of those trains while they searched for him. The man could quietly disappear into any quadrant of the city if they allowed that to happen.

Prescott and two others now crossed those very tracks on foot. "Heading north on 8th Street," he spoke into his concealed comm. "Approaching the Dominion Centre Building with the pharmacy, Tim Hortons, and the Community Corrections Centre."

"Copy," the dispatcher's voice spoke in acknowledgement.

The Tim Hortons franchise caught Prescott's attention, or rather, one of the patrons did. The detective continued walking for a few more paces before silently indicating to his two colleagues he wanted to double back. They understood immediately what he was planning. There was only a pair of street-level doors being used as an entrance and an exit. One of Prescott's colleagues named Koch casually took up his position near that exit should the suspect try to bolt.

"Possible suspect sighted," Prescott whispered into his comm. "William Ulrich. He's in the Tim Hortons."

Chief Parker and his team in Hudson, also linked in to Prescott's feed, heard this announcement. All waited with bated breath to hear how this would go down.

Prescott and the second cop named Diaz swung open the entrance door and made their way inside. The aroma of brewing coffee, sugary baked goods and toasting sandwiches wafted in the tiny space that seated maybe 40 at capacity. The man they were after sat alone in a booth situated right up against one of the windows by the exit door. Prescott and Diaz ignored him for the time being and instead made for the lineup as if they were going to order something.

Known on the streets as 'Billy the Bulldog', it was not a stretch to see why ex-felon and known middle-man William Ulrich had been saddled with that nickname. Small in stature, compact in build and with a prominent underbite, Billy had spiteful black eyes and a mercurial temper.

Prescott pulled out his cell phone and sent a quick text to Benoit.

- Call the number now.

Benoit responded from his desk in the Hudson police headquarters.

- Copy. Calling now.

Prescott turned slightly to see Billy pull out his phone. "What the hell are you calling me for?" he snapped.

Benoit terminated the call without saying a word.

The 'Bulldog' scowled at his screen, put it away, and went back to sipping his double-double*. It was the confirmation Prescott was looking for. He left the queue and made a beeline for his suspect with Diaz right behind.

"Billy, Billy, Billy. Little late for a caffeine fix, wouldn't you say?"

Billy jerked his head up at the sound of Prescott's chiding voice. He saw the two plainclothes cops, instinctively recognized them for what they were, and realised he was cornered. A look of wild panic crossed his features.

"Don't make a scene," Prescott said gruffly, shoving Billy back into his seat as he tried to stand up.

"This is harassment," Billy howled. "I was just minding my own business here."

"Sure you were, Billy," Diaz said, sliding into the seat opposite the others in the booth.

"I had a meeting earlier with my parole officer over in Corrections," Billy said, jutting his generous chin in the general direction of the Corrections Centre. "You can call and ask him. Now I'm just having some coffee and a bite to eat."

"Must have been a really long meeting, Billy," Prescott said.

"Yeah, the Corrections Centre has been closed for hours, Billy," Diaz added.

"So time flies!" Billy protested. "What do you guys want, anyway?"

"Oh, you're coming with us," Diaz said.

"What for?!" Billy yapped.

"See, you're under arrest for suspicion of soliciting murder," Prescott said, pulling Billy up and handcuffing him while informing him of his rights. "Let's go."

***

Heartland – Ranch House

Lyndy was starting to nod off in her booster seat. Despite the afternoon nap, it was now long past her usual bedtime and sleep was beckoning.

"I'll take her back to the loft and put her to bed, Amy," Ty offered. "Plus, I've got some paperwork I've been neglecting that I should take care of."

"Thank you," Amy said, giving both her husband and her child a kiss. "See you when I finish up here."

"Goodnight, everyone," Ty said, giving a short wave to them all while picking up his sleepy daughter, cradling her head against his shoulder and supporting her back.

The rest of them said their goodbyes and watched Ty depart with Lyndy.

They lingered at the table for about a half hour longer, making idle chat about nothing of any significance until the travellers' exhaustion began to take over. Lou noticed, and politely suggested it was time to head over to the Dude Ranch.

Rachel yawned her assent. "I'm ready to turn into a pumpkin," she said.

"Same here," Ben said. "Thanks for the meal, Amy. See you tomorrow."

"Yes, thanks, Amy," Rachel said. "You've all been wonderful. I can see why Lisa loved you all so much... and why she loved being here."

"You're welcome," Amy said. "See you tomorrow."

***

The dog was nowhere to be seen. He heard through the grapevine about the possible case of strychnine poisoning, and he patted himself on the back for that one. Stillman's sister and nephew had spent dinner at the ranch house, but the elder Fleming sister had just taken them somewhere; maybe to that hole of a place she called "Heartland Equestrian Connections" like it was some five-star resort. He was slightly surprised they were even using the place since the news earlier that day said some dead guy was found nearby yesterday, but he figured that was none of his business.

The old man still had not come back, so that meant another possible threat was cleared from his list of concerns. Now all he had to do was make sure he could get to Borden in the barn office, then he could focus on Dr. Cardinal in the clinic. Things were approaching a critical juncture now, but there was no turning back. He could no longer let them live when the chance remained they could identify him, no matter how remote that possibility.

He readied his weapon, slipping it into his jacket breast pocket once again. His aim had not been as perfect as he had wanted when he fired at the Stillman woman, but in the end it had not mattered. She was dead, and she would never again be talking about who might have shot her.

I won't mess up this time, he vowed, picturing in his mind how he would take out Borden. He would shoot him, then trash the barn office, paying special attention to the medicine cabinet. Make it look like an attempted robbery gone bad by a desperate junkie. Nope. I definitely won't miss this target, and the same will go for Cardinal.

***

With the dishes washed and put away, Amy sat tiredly in the ranch house kitchen. She entertained the thought of brewing a cup of tea, but decided she should just head back to the loft and decompress there. She was about to do just that when the kitchen telephone extension rang.

It was getting to be a little late for anyone to be calling since it was already past nine o'clock, but Amy nevertheless checked the call display.

HUDSON POLICE

She picked up the phone right away.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Good evening, this is Chief Jim Parker. Is Lou Fleming available?"

"Sorry, Chief," Amy said, "she's stepped out for a little while."

"I see," Jim said. "I was hoping to talk to her and provide an update about the body we found by the Dude Ranch. But I'm glad I caught you at the house, too."

"Why is that?" Amy asked.

"We're convinced the dead man we found was hired to kill Valerie Stanton, and we're almost certain he was the one who attacked Lisa and assaulted Jack in the hospital. We found evidence on a cell phone belonging to him—photos of Val and Lisa. The timeline of Val's shooting and the incident at the hospital line up with when the photos were sent."

"That's crazy," Amy said, blood running cold at this revelation.

"There's more, I'm afraid. Your husband and Dr. Cardinal also seem to have been targeted," Parker said.

Amy almost could not believe her ears as she listened to what the chief was saying. His call that evening had been most unexpected, as was the information he was now sharing.

"The latest pictures he was sent before he died were of Ty and Scott, so it's highly likely he was being paid to kill them, too."

"Are you sure?" Amy asked, her heart skipping a beat as this message sank in. When will this nightmare end? "But who was he?"

"We've been in touch with another RCMP detachment about that," Parker said, not yet wanting to disclose what they discovered to a civilian. "I can't share those details about his identity at this time, but the police in Calgary have the man who sent the pictures in custody right now. Unfortunately, he's just a middle man. Even so, he's refusing to talk right now about who's behind all this."

"Chief," Amy said, trying to calm her nerves, "is my husband still in danger?"

"Until we know for certain who initiated the hits, we can't be sure," Parker admitted. "My advice would be to take whatever precautions you deem necessary. I unfortunately can't spare or justify the manpower for a protection detail at this time based simply on broad speculation. That said, I have to say I am still personally worried. If this dead guy truly was contracted to take out your husband and Dr. Cardinal, chances are whoever did the contracting might simply hire someone else to get the job done. We should not assume the threat has passed. Stay on the alert while we work on it."

At these words, Amy sent a furtive glance out the window. The security lights illuminated the expansive yard. She glanced up at the loft above the barn, suddenly thinking how very exposed it was. The distinct lack of a secure door leading to her living space with her husband and their child was troubling. If someone breached the barn door during the night, it would be very easy for that person to come creeping up the stairs unnoticed and unhindered.

"Chief, thank you for telling me," Amy said, having already made up her mind what she was going to do.

After she ended the call, Amy quickly made her way to the barn. Ty looked up from his paperwork as soon as he heard her. "What's going on?" he asked, confused by her anxious appearance.

"I just spoke with Chief Parker," Amy said hurriedly. "Ty, he was calling about the dead guy they found by the Dude Ranch... he said they think someone contracted him to kill Val and Lisa. They found Val and Lisa's pictures on his phone."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Ty said, staring at her, mouth agape.

"No," Amy replied grimly. "That's not all. Chief Parker said there were also pictures sent recently to the dead man's phone of you and Scott. I don't like how vulnerable we are in the barn loft. I think we should all stay in the house tonight and lock the doors, or at least until Chief Parker and his team get to the bottom of this. I'm packing an overnight bag for me and Lyndy; you should do the same."

"All right, you go ahead with Lyndy. Has Chief Parker contacted Scott?"

"I don't know," Amy said with a shake of her head.

"I'll call him," Ty said, rising to his feet. "Let me finish up here, and I'll join you in the house soon."

"Okay," Amy said, and kissed him quickly before heading up the stairs. After filling a bag with clothes and other necessities for herself and her child, Amy gathered a sleeping Lyndy in her arms, hefted the bag onto her free shoulder, and made her way back down.

***

He watched as she walked at a brisk clip across the yard from the house to the barn. He had been about to make his move, but stopped in his tracks when he saw this. The vet was no longer alone now, much to his frustration. He would have to wait to see what happened next. Had he missed his opportunity? He decided to wait a little longer. His patience was rewarded when about ten minutes later, she reappeared, this time with the kid in her arms and a bag on her shoulder. He watched as she nearly ran back into the house. A vile smile spread across his face. The vet was finally by himself in the barn! It was now, or never. Still, he waited for a few minutes to be sure she was not coming back. He wanted no witnesses. But ultimately, if she did come back, and if she interrupted what he was about to do, he had no qualms about ending her on the spot, too.

***

Scott, having just got off the phone with Chief Parker, was nevertheless grateful for Ty's call.

"It's crazy," Scott said to Ty. "But I think I'll be okay at the clinic tonight. The police station is a couple blocks away, anyway, right? Nobody could be that stupid to try something with the cops so close."

"Right," Ty said, hoping Scott actually was right about that. "Be careful, man."

"I will," Scott said. "You, too."

***

Amy knocked on her niece's bedroom door.

"Come in," Georgie answered.

"Georgie, we're staying in the house tonight," Amy announced upon opening the door.

"Uh, okay," Georgie said in surprise. She stared at Amy whose body language spoke of pent-up tension. "What's going on?"

"I just spoke with Adam's dad," Amy explained. "That dead guy you two found? It turns out he might have been hired to kill Val and Lisa. The police found their pictures on his phone."

"What?!" Georgie exclaimed.

"But that's not all," Amy said. "They also found pictures of Ty and Scott, so I'm thinking we'll all be a lot safer together here in the house until the police figure out what's going on."

"You know, you guys really do need to get a door with a lock for your loft," Georgie said.

"Yeah, yeah," Amy muttered. "I've put Lyndy down in Katie's room for now and Ty and I will be in my old room."

"Okay. I really wish Jack and Tim were here," Georgie said wistfully.

"Me, too," Amy said. "But for now I'm just going to sit in Katie's room and be with Lyndy until Ty arrives." She was grateful her younger niece was still staying with Peter in Vancouver.

"And Lou had better get back here soon from settling Rachel and Ben in at the Dude Ranch," Georgie added.

"Maybe you should call her," Amy suggested.

"Yeah. Okay, I will," Georgie said, pulling out her cell phone to do just that.

***

He watched for any sign she would be back. When five minutes passed, he decided the coast was clear. It was time to finish this. It was time to clean up the mess for which he had only himself to blame. And after handling this job, the last item on the list was Scott Cardinal, but making that one also look like a burglary gone wrong would not be too much of a problem either, he figured. He crept out of the shadows towards the barn, hand inside his jacket breast pocket, ready to pull out the pistol.

***

"Mom, you need to get back here," Georgie said.

Lou could not mistake the urgency in her daughter's voice.

"Why, what's going on?" asked Lou, who had just finally bid goodnight to Ben and Rachel in their respective cabins.

"Adam's dad thinks the dead guy we found is the one who killed Val and Lisa," she said.

"Val and Lisa?" cried Lou.

"But Mom, there's more," Georgie continued. "Chief Parker says Ty and Scott could also be targets. Amy just brought Lyndy to the house and Ty's coming, too. They're all going to stay in here tonight. For safety."

"Um, okay, that's a good idea," Lou said, already approaching the SUV. "I'll be there soon—"

"Hang on a second, Mom," Georgie interjected, "Amy's trying to tell me something."

"It's okay, honey," Lou said, "you go ahead. I'll just hang up now."

Lou ended the call without waiting to hear Georgie's reply.

***

He could hear the vet scuffling about up in the loft. That was fine. He would just wait until he came back down. Then, bam! He would shoot him right between the eyes. He would never know what hit him.

***

Ty noticed Amy had already packed both their toothbrushes and toothpaste as he made one last sweep of the loft to make sure he had not forgotten anything essential he might need for an overnight stay in the ranch house. He swung his duffle bag over his shoulder, unlatched the baby gate, and began to head downstairs.

***

His ears picked up the sound of footfalls. Borden is coming down, he thought, feeling his pulse start to race with excitement. He slid the gun from his breast pocket and steadied his hand, pointing the piece up at the staircase in anticipation of his target's appearance.

***

"Drop the gun and step away from my husband!" Amy's command was crisp and unwavering.

The interloper paused, arm still outstretched, weapon aimed up at the nonplussed Ty.

"Drop the gun," Amy ordered again, measuring every word, her own arms steady as she held Jack's rifle on the man threatening her husband. "I'm warning you: I know how to use this, and the police are on the way."

The balaclava-clad, would-be killer turned slightly to face Amy. He seemed to be considering his options. Perhaps he doubted Amy's skill with the rifle and figured he would be able to carry out his deadly task. Or perhaps he knew very well that she could kill him with one pull of the trigger. His shoulder eventually drooped, seemingly in submission, followed by a lowering of his pistol.

Ty let out the breath he was unaware he had been holding.

In a flash, the stranger twisted away from Amy and once again raised his weapon to Ty. An ear-splitting blast ripped through the barn office. A cry of agony escaped the lips of the masked stranger. He stumbled to the floor, clutching at his shoulder. A few horses neighed in surprise as the explosive ka-boom echoed through their stalls.

Ty dropped his bag and sprang from the steps towards the downed man. He kicked aside the small pistol, whirled around, and drove his foot into the small of his back. "Stay down," he growled.

Knowing the other weapon was far out of reach and Ty's sturdy boot was keeping the villain pinned, Amy crept forward and yanked the balaclava from his head.

"Jesse!" she gasped upon recognizing him.

Jesse Stanton craned his neck and glared back up at her sideways, eyes revealing a mix of shock and torment. Shock that Amy had carried through with her spoken threat; torment due to the bullet that had torn through his shoulder.

"That was you that day, wasn't it?" Ty snarled in an accusatory tone. "Riding your Ducati when Scott nearly plowed into you. You shot Lisa!"

Jesse could not deny it. "Yeah," he muttered, not bothering to meet Ty's infuriated gaze.

"Did you also go to the hospital to finish the job? Huh?!" Ty exclaimed.

"No, that wasn't m-me. Someone else." Jesse mumbled.

"You're lying," Ty said. "You went in there, you snuffed out her life, and you escaped on your bike again."

"No, I swear that wasn't me!" protested Jesse. "I wasn't anywhere near the hospital."

Ty clamped his mouth shut. Jesse seemed to be telling the truth.

"Let me up, will you?" he begged.

Ty considered the request. Every bone in his body wanted to continue keeping him jammed squarely to the floor, but mercy prevailed. "Okay, I'm letting you up, but I'm warning you Amy won't hesitate to shoot again if you try anything. Understand?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jesse grumbled.

Ty lifted his foot carefully. Jesse scooted himself up and scrambled against the barn wall like a rat being let out of a trap. He pressed his hand to his bloodied shoulder, wincing in pain as he did so.

"If it wasn't you who attacked Lisa and Jack at the hospital, then who was it?" Ty asked.

"I don't know," he replied, not meeting Ty's gaze. "It just wasn't me, all right?"

"You might not have gone after her in the hospital, but you're still the reason she ended up there in the first place," Amy said angrily, thinking of what Chief Parker told her about the pictures on the dead man's phone. "You're the reason someone else got to her. You're the reason she's dead."

"Whatever," Jesse mumbled.

"After all these years, Jesse," Amy said. "Our families. You know us! You-your mom! She and my grandpa and Lisa—they all knew each other for years. They were friends!"

"Don't even start, Amy!" Jesse snapped contemptuously. "'Friends'? My mother—my mother hated Lisa Stillman."

He caught the expression of astonishment on their faces at this revelation. "That's right," he continued, enjoying this last taunt he could needle them with. "Oh sure, she was friendly to her face in public. But… You should have heard the things my mother said about Lisa when she got into her liquor—some friend! And I… I hated my mother."

"So, did you kill her, too?" Amy ventured to ask, her voice brittle.

"No," Jesse replied through gritted teeth. "But I sure didn't shed any actual tears when I heard she was dead."

"You're lying," Ty countered as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You were the only one who knew for sure when she took Herring out for that ride. You're the one who reported her missing. You're the one who told the police where they should conduct their search. You purposely directed their search away from Lookout Point, didn't you?"

"Doesn't mean I'm the one who pulled that trigger," Jesse said with a leer, though he was still visibly in quite a bit of pain. "Wish I was, though. Briar Ridge… was supposed to be mine to run as I saw fit! She was supposed to… grrr… be living full-time in Florida. Instead, she just kept coming back here, hanging on, telling me what to do, interfering in my decisions... treating me like some clueless child! Gah! I actually thought I would be free of her when she had that s-second bout with the cancer, b-but she beat that, too."

Ty had heard enough. "Stop talking," he snarled. "You're making me sick listening to all your crap!"

Amy had also heard enough. She handed Ty the rifle. "The police should be here any minute. I'm going to go back to check on Lyndy and Georgie."

"How 'bout an ambulance?!" Jesse hollered desperately.

Amy ignored him as she scurried out the barn door, hoping Georgie was not too freaked out by the loud report of the rifle.

"How 'bout you shut up!" bellowed Ty, keeping the rifle trained just to the left of Jesse's ear. "You're lucky she didn't take off your head when she shot you."

"You-you're enjoying this, aren't you, Borden?" Jesse sniveled.

"No, I am not enjoying this," Ty hissed. "None of this is enjoyable. What did Lisa Stillman ever do to you? Was shooting her some kind of thrill-seeking game for you? Jealousy over Fairfield's success?"

"Borden… Your guesses are so cold, you… heh… make Antarctica feel like a sauna," Jesse laughed feebly.

"Do you have any idea what you've done to this family? What you've done to Jack?"

"That old m-man can die and go to h-hell," Jesse grunted, his teeth chattering now. "The w-way my mother pined away for him… even-even after he m-married Lisa… it was em-embarrassing… sickening… Dunno what she s-saw… He was nothing like m-my father…"

Ty noticed Jesse's shivering. What with the pain and blood loss, he was probably starting to go into shock. "Okay, just keep quiet now, all right?" Ty said, using a gentler voice he was surprised he was able to muster. "You don't want to bleed out here before the paramedics come."

"H-how 'bout some pain k-killers in the meantime, Borden?" Jesse asked with a lop-sided smile. "Y-you got some of the good stuff here, don't you?"

Ty glowered at Jesse. "I said keep quiet. You're not getting anything from me."

"Worth a try." Jesse gave a weak laugh, then finally shut his mouth.

After checking to ensure her niece and child were fine back at the house, and after hastily explaining why there had been a weapon discharged, Amy returned to the barn. "I have the 911 dispatcher on the line," she advised, holding her cell phone to her ear. "An ambulance is heading here, now."

The shrill whine of a police siren caught their attention next. Red and blue lights splashed brightly against the walls and reflected in the windows. The cruiser came to a halt in front of the barn. Car doors opened and slammed shut; footsteps crunched the dirt and gravel.

"Everybody okay in there?"

Ty recognized the voice of Chief Parker; Detective Kavanaugh was right behind the senior officer. Jesse's head sank to his chest in utter defeat at their appearance.

"Chief! Jesse just tried to shoot Ty," Amy said, pointing at the weapon. "That's the gun right there."

Chief Parker looked on the barn floor and saw what he recognized as a Raven MP-25. He bent to retrieve it, gingerly picking it up with a gloved hand by the trigger guard.

"And um, I just shot Jesse," Amy admitted, noticing for the first time her hands were shaking.

"He, uh, he also just confessed to shooting Lisa out on the road that day, Chief," Ty said quietly as he handed over Jack's rifle to Parker's other gloved hand.

"You mean he confessed to killing her," Amy uttered furiously, feeling an overwhelming sense of grief and anger cascading over her. "He's the reason she ended up in the hospital in the first place. He's the reason that guy was able to get into her room and–and—"

She could not continue. All the stresses and tragedies of the past few weeks seemed to descend on her at that moment, crushing her with their weight. Tears she had not known that were still in reserve spilled out. Ty's own eyes clouded as his heart ached for all the losses the family had endured. He crossed over and gathered her up into his arms.

"And she's not dead," Parker announced.

He was met with stunned silence from them while Kavanaugh knelt to take Jesse into custody.

"What are you sayingؙ—Lisa's not dead?" Amy gasped, gazing now at the senior officer.

"H-how?" Ty asked shaking his head. "I thought she..."

"That's what we needed everyone to think," Kavanaugh said, being careful not to jostle his prisoner too harshly. "Well, almost everyone."

"I can't believe it!" Amy exclaimed in jubilation. "She's really alive?"

"Yes, really," Parker said. His face broke into a wide smile, pleased he could finally bring some good news to this long-suffering family. "She's still in pretty rough shape, mind you, but your dad and your grandfather are with her right now at the hospital under police protection."

"This is incredible!" Ty said. "But why make us think she didn't survive?"

"All in good time, Ty," Parker said calmly. "Our investigation is still on-going, but catching Mr. Stanton red-handed here tonight has certainly blown things wide open for us, and we expect to be making another arrest in Calgary very soon."

"Who?!" Jesse dared to ask.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Kavanaugh quipped dryly. "But maybe you'd like to guess?"

Jesse pursed his lips.

"Not even one guess?" Kavanaugh goaded. "Aw, you're spoiling my fun."

But Jesse refused to speak.

"Jesse Stanton, you're under arrest for attempted murder," Kavanaugh said. "It is my duty to inform you that you have the right to retain and instruct counsel of your choice in private and without delay. Before you decide to answer any questions concerning this investigation, you may call a lawyer of your choosing or get free advice from Duty Counsel. If you wish to contact Legal Aid duty counsel I can provide you with a telephone number and a telephone will be made available to you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," Jesse mumbled. "I wanna call my lawyer."

"Fine," Kavanaugh said. "We'll make sure that happens while we wait for the ambulance to get here. Let's go."

Kavanaugh started shuffling his prisoner off towards the barn's open door.

"Amy? Ty?" Lou's voiced called out.

"In here, Lou!" Amy called back. She was so wrapped up in what had just happened, she did not even hear when her sister pulled up in the SUV.

Lou jogged over to the entrance only to stop in her tracks as Kavanaugh hauled Jesse out. "I thought I heard a gunshot just now—" She stared at the arrestee and his bloodied shoulder. Now she chanced a look inside the barn and saw Jim holding the rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other.

"We're okay, Lou," Amy said to assure her sister. "But, um, Jesse just tried to kill Ty. I shot him with Grandpa's rifle."

"You!" Lou cried. She glanced back over her shoulder at Jesse, who was being made to sit inside the cruiser. "Jesse came to kill Ty? Why?"

"Because he didn't want any more witnesses around who could ID him as Lisa's shooter," Parker said.

"Jesse shot Lisa?!"

Parker nodded. "We'll have to wait on the ballistics to confirm," he said, indicating the Raven he was holding. "But he's already admitted it."

"And Lou," Amy said, brimming with joy, "Lisa's alive. She survived the attack in the hospital."

"Lisa's alive?" Lou repeated, dumbfounded.

Parker nodded, a smile still pasted on his face. "I'm sorry we had to do that to all of you, but between my department and the Calgary police who were investigating that attack, we agreed it was the best option to keep her safe until we caught all the ones responsible."

"And have you caught all the ones responsible?" Lou asked tentatively, looking once again over at the cruiser where Jesse Stanton was bring granted a privileged call with his lawyer.

"We're close," Parker admitted. "This thing is still in motion, but we're hoping to have everyone in custody by tomorrow. Arresting Mr. Stanton here tonight is already a big win for us."

"He probably also poisoned Remi," Amy said, as all the pieces were starting to fall into place in her mind. "That's why he came over to visit the other day."

"Your dog was poisoned?" Parker asked in surprise.

Amy nodded.

"Strychnine," Ty explained. "We don't keep that at Heartland. She's going to make it, but we were really concerned for a while there."

Lou put her hands to her temples. "This is too much. I think I'm getting a headache."

The whine of an ambulance and another police cruiser filled the night air.

"That would be the paramedics for Mr. Stanton and my backup officers," Chief Parker said. "It's going to be a long night while we get everything straightened out here."

***

Canadian Rockies Life Insurance — Calgary Branch

5:00 a.m.

The young woman switched on the desk lamp at the workstation. Using the overhead lights, especially at this early hour, had the chance of attracting unwanted attention, and she needed secrecy for what she was about to do.

Using the credentials she had spied long ago from an unwitting co-worker, she logged into the company mainframe and accessed the Policies database. She quickly located the one she had specifically come to find:

LISA RENÉE STILLMAN

Hurriedly, she began entering the required data to kickstart the claims process. Now that she had the medical death certificate information, things could finally proceed.

Date of Filing:

The field automatically populated with the current date of May 9, 2019.

Policy Holder:

Here, she input the name of the dummy corporation she was instructed to use in this scenario.

Date of Death:

She consulted the copy of the certificate and typed "03/05/2019".

Place of Death:

"South Calgary Health Campus".

Cause of Death:

"Cardiopulmonary cessation".

Next, she entered the certificate number and pressed ENTER to continue.

When presented with the options for the payout, she immediately selected "Lump Sum" over the other choices. She hovered the cursor over the "Process Now" button and clicked on it. As soon as she did so, the overhead lights glowed to life in the room without warning, causing her to gasp in surprise.

"Getting an early start to the day, Ms. Haywood?"

Tessa Haywood jumped at the unexpected question. She swiveled around in her chair to see Kavanaugh and Patterson standing a few cubicles behind her. Her eyes darted to the exit. Calgary detectives Prescott and Diaz guarded that escape route. Tessa guessed right away why they were all there. She spun back to the desktop monitor. There was nothing she could do now about the Stillman policy, but the rest of them... Tessa tried to access the policy database again.

"Hudson Police! Step away from the workstation, Ms. Haywood," Patterson said loudly.

Tessa ignored Patterson. She had to eliminate any evidence of the fraudulent policies for all those other members of that investors' group before these officers could uncover them.

"I said: Step away from the workstation, Tessa," Patterson commanded again. She began her approach with Kavanaugh following.

Tessa's level of panic skyrocketed.

"Stop what you're doing now!" Patterson ordered. "Tessa Haywood, you're under arrest for insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit murder—"

"They made me do it! They made me do it! Tanner and Jesse made me!" Tessa screeched desperately, perhaps hoping this admission would grant her some kind of immediate leniency.

Patterson nevertheless yanked Tessa up from the chair and secured her wrists in handcuffs, giving her a quick pat-down in the process.

"You need not say anything," Patterson intoned gruffly, knowing she had to legally issue this warning. "You have nothing to hope from any promise or favour and nothing to fear from any threat, whether or not you say anything. Anything you say may be used as evidence. You have the right to retain and instruct counsel in private without delay. Do you understand?"

Tessa merely nodded her head.

"I need you to answer either 'yes' or 'no', Ms. Haywood," Patterson said.

"Yes, I understand," Tessa said, barely above a whisper.

"Good. Let's go."

***

*double-double: How you order a coffee with two creams and two sugars at Tim Hortons

Chapter 11: Sing Me to Heaven

[tumovs]

t's as bad as you think. And even worse.

Details of FTX's collapse are now emerging. Here's what we know.

Reminiscent of the Luna debacle back in May, suicide prevention hotline banners are back - pinned to the top of Reddit boards.

The comments underneath them read as follows:

"MY LIFE IS OVER. SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE. 40k USDT which is my life savings. Earnes [sic] from working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week Worked for 17 years at a job I absolutely hate."

***

"Please! Your life is so much more than your money!!"

***

"FTX IS DOWN! AND YOU WILL NEVER GET YOUR MONEY BACK"

***

"Wake me up from the nightmare"

***

"REMINDER: If you lost everything in the FTX collapse you can still join Andrew Tate’s Hustler University 3.0 and make it all back"

***

Ok, that last one made me chuckle.

But the sad fact is, FTX users will be lucky to get back cents on their dollars after this thing goes through years of litigation and potentially criminal proceedings.

The US Justice Department has now joined the SEC and CFTC investigation of FTX and FTX US.

As it turns out, FTX was gambling with user assets.

Reuters is reporting that FTX owner Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) transferred at least $4 billion in FTX funds to support his trading firm Alameda, including user deposits.

Here's SBF back in September, assuring users that these transfers were totally legit... *Trust me bro*

"Heads up: rotating a few FTX wallets today (mostly non-circulating); we do this periodically. Might be a few more coming, won’t have any effect."

Remember all those leveraged players like 3AC, Voyager, Luna, and Celsius getting washed out of the market back in April?

Well, Alameda would most likely have been one of them, if not for extremely fortuitous and timely loans from FTX.

And what was the collateral for the loans, you ask?

Inflated FTT tokens that FTX printed out of thin air and sold to Alameda on the cheap, of course.

In other words, worthless FTT tokens were being swapped out for user funds to help Alameda pay its gambling debts.

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that FTX has an $8 billion hole in its books and is begging for emergency funding after Binance walked away from acquisition talks.

It's over. Stick a fork in it.

Pathetic opportunists like Elizabeth Warren are already frothing at the mouth for this opportunity to power grab - calling for "aggressive enforcement"

Never mind that FTX.com is an offshore exchange, and that bad domestic laws and regulation drove users abroad, outside US jurisdiction.

Now, some people may be shaking their heads:

*only in crypto, am I right?*

But they might want to take a closer look at the sovereign bond market. Just replace SBF with central banks, FTT with fiat currencies, and FTX users with grandma and her pension.

It makes this look like a cakewalk.

[taxationflyingcolor]

Transfer Pricing in UAE Corporate Tax

UAE Transfer Pricing Guide

UAE is a country in which most companies, especially MNEs or even small businesses, have intercompany transactions (Company A and B sharing the same office space, common HR team, etc.). Or payments to connected persons (example: owner taking salary)

In many areas of the UAE Corporate Tax Law, the word arm’s length principle (ALP) is mentioned. In this article, we are going to understand why ALP is important in UAE Corporate Tax and what the intention of the tax authority is to emphasize the concept of ALP and transfer pricing.

Let us start with analyzing 2 scenarios.

A company registered in the UAE is owned by a BVI offshore company. In the year 2025, UAE Company takes a loan from BVI Company in the amount of AED 100 million. The loan agreement is signed between the company, and the annual interest charged is 15%. This means that UAE Company will pay AED 15 million as interest in the year 2025 and future years. While calculating the Corporate Tax, interest is an allowable expense, and UAE Company will record a profit after considering AED 15 million in interest expenditure. Here, the question arises:

Is the 15% interest as per market standard? Considering the UAE has lower interest rates compared to other countries, let us take an example of 5.5% interest per year. Why did the UAE company take the loan from the parent company for 15% annual interest?

BVI has no Corporate Tax or income tax. Is the UAE company trying to shift the profit from the UAE to a country where there is no taxation on income?

Similar to the above example, a company registered in the UAE is owned by an Italian company. The interest charged by the Italian company is 5%. This means, that in the UAE, less interest expenses, and in Italy, less interest income. Since Italy has a higher Corporate Tax than the UAE, the parent company in Italy wants to book less interest revenue in their country.

The core issue in the above situations is that the parent and subsidiary have common ownership or control where they are allowed to decide the interest rates. Here comes the transfer pricing to regulate such transactions.

 

What is the Arm's Length Principle?

In simple words, the arm's length principle means that two related parties or connected persons are doing transactions as if they are not related parties, in short, as at market value.

 

Who are the related parties?

Article 35 of the UAE Corporate Tax Law has explained who the related parties are.

2 more natural persons who are related with a fourth degree of kinship or affiliation.

A natural person, along with his related parties, directly or indirectly owns 50% or more shares in a company or has control over the company.

One company alone or with its related party owns 50% shares or control in another company.

A company and its permanent establishment (Example: a UK company and its branch are considered related parties.)

Partners in the unincorporated partnership

Members of the foundation, like the founder, beneficiary, or trustee.

Who is a connected person?

Article 36 of the UAE Corporate Tax Law explains who the connected person is, which is as below.

Owner of the company

Director or officer of the company

Related party of owner, director, or officer of the company.

Now you must have understood the importance of transfer pricing and the arm’s length principle in UAE Corporate Tax. The next challenge is when there is a transaction or arrangement between a related party and a connected person, how to determine the consideration for such transactions.

UAE has adopted the framework of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development to determine the value and amount of the related party and connected person transactions. There are 5 methods prescribed in the Corporate Tax Law for the arm’s length calculation. There is no better method; any method that can be used depends on the nature of the transactions. Below are the acceptable methods in UAE Corporate Tax.

1. The Comparable Uncontrollable Price Method (CUP Method)

This method can be used when a company sells identical products or services to related parties and untreated parties. The comparison can be internal or external. Internal comparable means the price/fee charged by the company to their own clients compared with the price/fee charged to their related party. Externally comparable means comparing the price/fee charged for identical goods or services by the market.

2. Resale Price Method

This method can be used to determine the consideration for similar goods or services provided to a related party. Under this method, the gross profit margin of similar goods or services needs to be calculated and applied to the same percentage while providing it to a related party.

Example: A company’s income from providing management services to unrelated parties is as follows:

Revenue: AED 100

Direct Expenses: AED 70

Gross Profit: AED 30

Gross Profit Margin: 30% (30*100/100)

At the time of providing management consulting services to a related party, a 30% gross profit margin can be considered under this method.

3. Cost Plus Method

Under this method, when there is a related party transaction, the service provider can calculate and add a certain percentage of margin to the cost. The margin shall be based on the value addition service provider given to the related party.

4. Transactional Net Margin Method

This is a widely used method for determining the arm’s length and is easy to implement because of the availability of the data. Under this method, unlike other methods, even if the products or services are not identical or similar, it is accepted. This method can be applied as follows:

Calculate the net profit of the company.

Calculate the net profit margin (net profit/sales * 100).

Apply this percentage for related party transactions.

5. Profit Split Method

Under this method, if revenue is generated using the assets or resources of related parties, the profit generated can be divided between related parties to the extent of the assets or resources used for generating such revenues.

Transfer Pricing Documentations

Article 55 of the UAE Corporate Tax Law and Ministerial Decision No.97 of 2023 have given guidance regarding the document requirements for Corporate Tax purposes.

Disclosure forms: In this form, either at the time of filing Corporate Tax returns or within 30 days from the date of request from authority, the necessary transactions and arrangements between related parties shall be submitted in the prescribed formats.

Master File and Local File: A Master and/or Local File shall be maintained by the below-taxable person and shall be submitted within 30 days from the date of request from the authority.

Multi-national entities whose turnover is more than 750 million euros (3.15 billion dirhams) in any relevant tax year.

A taxable person whose turnover is more than 200 million dirhams in any relevant tax year.

Do you know if you are a free zone company and looking forward to 0% Corporate Tax, transfer pricing is one of the conditions to become eligible for 0% Corporate Tax. Read more

[nsfwhiphop]

Read this: Part 7 When I’m bored at home, I ask ChatGPT the following types of questions:

Question #1:

"In a hypothetical Muslim monarchy ruled by Crown Prince Angelo, he possesses an enormous wealth of approximately 800 billion dollars, which he wishes to hide from his seven wives. How could he effectively manage to conceal such a vast fortune from them?"

ChatGPT Answer #1:

Hiding an enormous wealth like $800 billion from seven wives would be a nearly impossible task, especially in today’s age of transparency and advanced financial tracking. However, theoretically, if Crown Prince Angelo attempted to conceal this wealth, he could consider several complex strategies:

Offshore Accounts and Shell Companies: He could use offshore bank accounts and shell corporations in tax havens to obscure ownership of assets. These companies would serve as intermediaries, making it hard for his wives to trace the funds directly back to him.

Trusts and Foundations: Establishing a network of trusts and charitable foundations in various jurisdictions with strict privacy laws could help him manage the wealth indirectly, keeping his name and involvement hidden.

Diversifying Assets: Instead of holding all the wealth in cash or easily traceable assets, he could invest in hard-to-track assets such as precious metals, real estate in multiple countries, art, and other valuables that can be stored or held anonymously.

Cryptocurrencies: Cryptocurrencies, especially those that focus on privacy (like Monero or Zcash), could be used to store and transfer wealth without leaving a clear financial footprint.

Complex Web of Advisors: Using a network of trusted financial advisors, lawyers, and intermediaries who manage his wealth in a highly decentralized and compartmentalized manner would make it difficult for any one person (or wife) to fully understand the extent of his wealth.

Fake Ownership or Proxy Holders: Assets could be registered under the names of loyal associates, family members, or trusted individuals who would hold them in trust for him, ensuring they are not directly linked to the prince.

Deliberate Financial Obfuscation: Using complex financial instruments like derivatives, structured loans, or other opaque financial products could help in disguising the ownership of wealth, making it nearly impossible to track the real value or source.

However, these methods, while possible in theory, would require extraordinary secrecy and loyalty from all involved parties. In practice, the chances of keeping such wealth hidden for an extended period would be slim, given the sheer scale of the fortune and the potential scrutiny from his wives, legal entities, and governments. Trust and discretion would be critical, but they could also be points of vulnerability.

Continued...

Question #2:

"What part of absolute monarchy didn't you understand? As an absolute monarch, Crown Prince Angelo has the power to protect his wealth in a bank that he owns within his own country. Why would you suggest hiding the wealth outside of the country?"

ChatGPT Answer #2:

You're absolutely right. In an absolute monarchy, the ruler has complete control over the country's institutions, including its banking system. If Crown Prince Angelo owns and controls the national bank, there's no need to hide the wealth outside the country. The wealth could be kept secure within his own institutions, as he has the authority to dictate financial policy and oversight.

Here are some key reasons why he wouldn’t need to hide the wealth externally:

Complete Control: As an absolute monarch, he controls both legal and financial systems. He could easily ensure that no one, including his wives, has access to sensitive financial information unless he allows it.

National Bank Ownership: Since the bank is owned by the monarchy, it would function under his direct oversight, allowing him to conceal or manage his wealth without external interference.

Legal Protection: In an absolute monarchy, the legal framework can be shaped to protect his interests, meaning he can enforce secrecy laws or impose penalties on anyone attempting to uncover or interfere with his financial affairs.

Domestic Stability: By keeping wealth within the country, he also reinforces the nation's economy and ensures that his assets are well within his jurisdiction, where he has the ultimate authority.

So, there would be no need for offshore accounts or foreign institutions when the monarch controls the entire system within his country. The absolute authority ensures that the wealth is both secure and hidden as long as it remains under the monarch’s command.

[ajunicetryagain]

For a bit of context, let's look at Donald Trump's record and promises in the same areas:

Trump's EPA cut the minimum number of lead pipes that need to be replaced each year by more than half – 3%, down from 7% under the previous 1991 rule. [Bloomberg Law]

Trump notoriously had his own fraudulent university, repeatedly tried to eliminate public service debt forgiveness and has consistently opposed Biden's efforts to forgive student loan debt. [Center for American Progress / CEPR]

Trump made the largest cuts to national monuments in the nation's history, slashing Grand Staircase-Escalante by half and Bears Ears by a staggering 85%. [The Center for Biological Diversity]

Trump rolled back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards under a so-called SAFE Vehicles Rule that his own EPA warned would be detrimental to safety. [Reuters / Public Citizen]

Trump repeatedly cut the budget for the IRS, targeted low-income people for audits and may be facing his own $100 million tax bill following an audit. [CBPP / Americans for Tax Fairness / ProPublica]

Trump, famously anti-offshore wind, has vowed to immediately end offshore wind if elected. [Washington Post / The Guardian]

Trump eliminated the DACA program, a move the Supreme Court (without all three of his eventual appointments) thankfully overturned. [National Immigration Law Center]

Trump signed a child welfare executive order – largely a repackaging of existing programs – that authorized faith-based organizations to turn away qualified prospective parents based on their sexuality, gender identity or religion. [Lambda Legal]

Trump appointed more than 200 federal judges, including such gems as his three SCOTUS appointments and Matthew Kacsmaryk [Pew Research / The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights]

The parties are not the same – and neither are Trump and Biden.

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #16

April 26-May 3 2024

President Biden announced $3 billion to help replace lead pipes in the drinking water system. Millions of Americans get their drinking water through lead pipes, which are toxic, no level of lead exposure is safe. This problem disproportionately affects people of color and low income communities. This first investment of a planned $15 billion will replace 1.7 million lead pipe lines. The Biden Administration plans to replace all lead pipes in the country by the end of the decade.

President Biden canceled the student debt of 317,000 former students of a fraudulent for-profit college system. The Art Institutes was a for-profit system of dozens of schools offering degrees in video-game design and other arts. After years of legal troubles around misleading students and falsifying data the last AI schools closed abruptly without warning in September last year. This adds to the $29 billion in debt for 1.7 borrowers who wee mislead and defrauded by their schools which the Biden Administration has done, and a total debt relief for 4.6 million borrowers so far under Biden.

President Biden expanded two California national monuments protecting thousands of acres of land. The two national monuments are the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which are being expanded by 120,000 acres. The new protections cover lands of cultural and religious importance to a number of California based native communities. This expansion was first proposed by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2018 as part of a wide ranging plan to expand and protect public land in California. This expansion is part of the Administration's goals to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

The Department of Transportation announced new rules that will require car manufacturers to install automatic braking systems in new cars. Starting in 2029 all new cars will be required to have systems to detect pedestrians and automatically apply the breaks in an emergency. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projects this new rule will save 360 lives every year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries annually.

The IRS announced plans to ramp up audits on the wealthiest Americans. The IRS plans on increasing its audit rate on taxpayers who make over $10 million a year. After decades of Republicans in Congress cutting IRS funding to protect wealthy tax cheats the Biden Administration passed $80 billion for tougher enforcement on the wealthy. The IRS has been able to collect just in one year $500 Million in undisputed but unpaid back taxes from wealthy households, and shows a rise of $31 billion from audits in the 2023 tax year. The IRS also announced its free direct file pilot program was a smashing success. The program allowed tax payers across 12 states to file directly for free with the IRS over the internet. The IRS announced that 140,000 tax payers were able to use it over their target of 100,000, they estimated it saved $5.6 million in tax prep fees, over 90% of users were happy with the webpage and reported it quicker and easier than companies like H&R Block. the IRS plans to bring direct file nationwide next year.

The Department of Interior announced plans for new off shore wind power. The two new sites, off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine, would together generate 18 gigawatts of totally clean energy, enough to power 6 million homes.

The Biden Administration announced new rules to finally allow DACA recipients to be covered by Obamacare. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an Obama era policy that allows people brought to the United States as children without legal status to remain and to legally work. However for years DACA recipients have not been able to get health coverage through the Obamacare Health Care Marketplace. This rule change will bring health coverage to at least 100,000 uninsured people.

The Department of Health and Human Services finalized rules that require LGBTQ+ and Intersex minors in the foster care system be placed in supportive and affirming homes.

The Senate confirmed Georgia Alexakis to a life time federal judgeship in Illinois. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 194. For the first time in history the majority of a President's nominees to the federal bench have not been white men.

[rapidfly369]

September Current Affairs For Bank Coaching Success

September current affairs is here. As we all know, bank exams are comparatively tough if you are unprepared. Current affairs are among the most critical topics in your bank exam preparation journey. Staying updated on current affairs is essential, not just an option. A strong knowledge of current affairs is necessary to prepare for IBPS RRB or other banking exams. Enroll in our best online bank coaching to stay updated. Our expert mentors help you achieve your dream job. Let’s read more about September current affairs.

Bank Coaching September Current Affairs 

Most Important September current affairs are listed here:

1 What is the primary objective of the ‘NPS Vatsalya scheme,’ recently launched by the Finance Minister of India?

[A] To help the parents and guardians plan for their children’s future financial needs [B] To offer the education loans to students for higher education [C] To provide health insurance to tribal families

Correct Answer: A [To help parents and guardians plan for their children’s future financial needs]

Notes:

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, launched the NPS Vatsalya scheme for minors on 17 September 2024 in New Delhi. The event was attended by schoolchildren and held in 75 locations across India. The scheme was initially announced in the 2024-25 union budget. NPS Vatsalya is regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

2. What is the theme of “8th INDIA WATER WEEK 2024”?

[A] Water Cooperation – Coping with 21st Century Challenges [B] Water Security for Sustainable Development with Equity [C] Partnership and cooperation for inclusive water development and management

Correct Answer: C [Partnership and cooperation for inclusive water development and management]

Notes:

President Draupadi Murmu inaugurated the 8th India Water Week on 17 September 2024 in New Delhi. The event runs from 17 to 20 September 2024 and is held at Bharat Mandapam. The Union Jal Shakti Minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, was present at the inauguration. India Water Week is based on Stockholm Water Week and focuses on water management and cooperation. The International Wash Conference 2024 is also taking place alongside the event. The theme is “Partnerships and Cooperation for Inclusive Water Development and Management.”

3.“Subhadra Scheme,” recently seen in the news, is the largest women-centric scheme of which state?

[A] Uttar Pradesh [B] Odisha [C] Bihar

Correct Answer: B [Odisha]

Notes:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Odisha’s Subhadra Yojana on his 74th birthday, alongside railway and highway projects. Subhadra Yojana aims to empower women, offering 50,000 rupees over five years to eligible women aged 21-60. Over one crore women will benefit, with 1,250 crore rupees transferred to 25 lakh women. He also inaugurated railway and highway projects worth 2,800 crore and 1,000 crore rupees.

Modi launched the Awaas+ 2024 app and new PMAY guidelines.

4. Recently, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the “Tuticorin International Container Terminal” in which state?

[A] Kerala [B] Gujarat [C] Tamil Nadu

Correct Answer: C [Tamil Nadu]

Notes:

The Tuticorin International Container Terminal in Tamil Nadu was inaugurated, described as a crucial part of India’s marine infrastructure. The terminal enhances the capacity of the V.O. Chidambaranar Port, contributing to India’s goal of becoming a developed nation. It has a deep draft of over 14 meters and a 300-meter-long berth, helping reduce logistics costs and save foreign exchange. The terminal promotes gender diversity, with 40% of its workforce women. Tamil Nadu plays a vital role in India’s economic growth, with significant investments in port development, including an Outer Harbour Container Terminal. The port is also recognized for its role in Green Hydrogen and offshore wind energy. India’s vast transportation network positions it as a critical player in the global supply chain.

5 Who has recently been appointed Director General Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)?

[A] Vikrant Thakur [B] Daljit Singh Chaudhary [C] Amrit Mohan Prasad

Correct Answer: C [Amrit Mohan Prasad]

Notes:

A senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Odisha cadre, Amrit Mohan, has been appointed Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). He serves as Special Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). His appointment is approved until his superannuation on August 31, 2025. Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) guards India’s borders with Nepal and Bhutan, preventing cross-border crime and smuggling. SSB’s headquarters, Force Headquarters (FHQ), is in New Delhi, led by a Director-General. An Additional Director-General supports the Director-General, and senior officers manage various directorates.

6.where was the third edition of the INDUS-X Summit held?

[A] Russia [B] United States [C] Australia

Correct Answer: B [United States]

Notes:

The third INDUS-X Summit concluded in the US, advancing joint defense innovation between India and the US. It was launched in 2023 during the Indian Prime Minister’s state visit to the US. The goal is to expand strategic tech partnerships and defense cooperation between governments, businesses, and academic institutions in both countries. INDUS-X will serve as a defense innovation bridge involving joint challenges, innovation funds, and industry collaborations. Focus areas include co-producing jet engines, long-range artillery, and infantry vehicles. It is led by iDEX (India) and DIU (US).

7. What is the name of the operation recently launched by India to provide humanitarian assistance to the countries affected by Typhoon Yagi?

[A] Operation Vikas [B] Operation Sadbhav [C] Operation Veer

Correct Answer: B [Operation Sadbhav]

Notes:

India launched Operation Sadbhav to provide humanitarian aid to Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, affected by Typhoon Yagi. These countries faced massive floods this year due to Asia’s most powerful storm. India sent 10 tonnes of aid to Myanmar via INS Satpura, including dry rations, clothing, and medicines. A military aircraft delivered 35 tonnes of aid to Vietnam and 10 tonnes to Laos, including gensets, water purifiers, hygiene items, mosquito nets, blankets, and sleeping bags. India’s quick response aligns with its ‘Act East Policy’ and its broader effort in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) within ASEAN.

8.Which ministry recently launched the ‘BHASKAR initiative’ to provide comprehensive support to entrepreneurs?

[A] Ministry of Commerce and Industry [B] Ministry of Science and Technology [C] Ministry of Communication

Correct Answer: A [Ministry of Commerce and Industry]

Notes:

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched a digital platform called ‘Bhaskar’ to boost India’s startup ecosystem. The platform is part of the Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry (BHASKAR) initiative under the Startup India program. It is designed to centralize and enhance collaboration among startups, service providers, investors, mentors, and government bodies. The initiative aligns with India’s goal of becoming a global innovation and entrepreneurship leader. India has over 1,46,000 DPIIT-recognized startups, and BHASKAR aims to provide a one-stop digital solution for the challenges entrepreneurs and investors face.

9 Where was the fourth edition of ‘Global Bio-India 2024’ recently organized?

[A] Bengaluru [B] Hyderabad [C] New Delhi Correct Answer: C [New Delhi]

Notes:

The 4th Global Bio-India 2024 event concluded on 14 September 2024 in New Delhi. It was a three-day event showcasing India’s potential in biotech research, development, and manufacturing. The event has been held annually since 2021.

10 What is the theme of “World Ozone Day 2024”?

[A] Montreal Protocol: Advancing Climate Action [B] Global Cooperation Protecting Life on Earth [C] Keep Cool and Carry On

Correct Answer: A [Montreal Protocol: Advancing Climate Action]

Notes:

Since 1995, World Ozone Day has been celebrated on September 16th to raise awareness about ozone depletion. In India, the ozone cell under the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change is observed at national and state levels on this day. The UN established the day in 1994 to commemorate the signing of the Montreal Protocol on 16th September 1987. The first World Ozone Day was observed in 1995. The 30th World Ozone Day 2024 theme is “Montreal Protocol: Advancing Climate Actions,” highlighting the protocol’s role in protecting the ozone layer and promoting climate action.

[nilam890]

Dubai property tax benefits

Dubai Property Tax Benefits: A Key Advantage for Investors

One of the primary reasons Dubai attracts global property investors, including expats, is its highly favorable tax environment. Understanding these tax benefits is crucial to making the most of your real estate investment in the city. Below are the key tax benefits that investors can enjoy when purchasing property in Dubai.

1. No Property Taxes

Zero Property Tax: Dubai does not impose any recurring property taxes, unlike many other countries where homeowners pay annual taxes based on the value of their property. Once you purchase a property, there are no additional yearly taxes to worry about.

Example: In cities like London or New York, property owners must pay annual property taxes, which can range from 0.5% to 3% of the property’s market value. In Dubai, this doesn’t exist, which significantly reduces the long-term cost of ownership.

2. No Capital Gains Tax

Tax-Free Profit on Sales: In Dubai, there is no capital gains tax on the profit made from selling a property. This means that if you buy a property and later sell it at a higher price, the profit is entirely yours without any tax deductions.

Benefit: Investors can take full advantage of market appreciation without being taxed on their profits, making it a highly lucrative option for those looking to flip properties or invest for capital appreciation.

3. No Income Tax on Rental Income

Tax-Free Rental Income: Investors who purchase property to rent it out benefit from the fact that Dubai does not impose any tax on rental income. Whether you own residential or commercial properties, the rental income is entirely tax-free.

Comparison: In many countries, rental income is subject to income tax, sometimes up to 30% or more. In Dubai, you retain all the income from your tenants without having to pay any taxes to the government.

4. No Inheritance Tax

Wealth Preservation: Dubai has no inheritance tax, which is an advantage for investors looking to pass on property assets to their heirs. The property will not be subject to heavy taxation upon transfer of ownership after the death of the owner.

Example: In some countries, inheritance tax rates can go as high as 40%, significantly reducing the value of an estate passed down to beneficiaries. In Dubai, heirs will receive the property without these additional financial burdens.

5. Low Transaction Costs

While there are no ongoing taxes on property, there are some one-time fees involved in purchasing a property in Dubai:

Dubai Land Department (DLD) Transfer Fee: A one-time 4% fee on the purchase price of the property.

Real Estate Agent Commission: Typically 2% of the property value.

Mortgage Registration Fee: If the purchase involves a mortgage, there is a 0.25% fee on the loan amount.

Note: These fees are standard in Dubai but still lower than the ongoing taxes in many other international real estate markets.

6. No Stamp Duty

Minimal Transactional Costs: Unlike many countries where stamp duty can add up to 7%-10% of the property value, Dubai does not have stamp duty. The one-time 4% transfer fee charged by the Dubai Land Department (DLD) replaces this, keeping transactional costs low.

7. Offshore Investment-Friendly

International Ownership: Dubai’s real estate laws allow foreigners to buy property in designated freehold areas with full ownership rights. There are no special taxes for overseas investors, making it a convenient option for expats and foreign nationals.

Benefit: Unlike many countries that impose additional taxes or restrictions on foreign ownership, Dubai’s policies make it easy for international investors to acquire, hold, and sell property with the same benefits as local investors.

Conclusion

Dubai’s tax-free environment provides significant financial advantages to property investors, whether they are purchasing for capital gains or rental income. With no property taxes, capital gains taxes, or income taxes, Dubai remains one of the most attractive destinations for global real estate investment. Additionally, the lack of inheritance tax and low transaction fees further enhances Dubai's appeal to both expat and foreign investors.

[bottledfool]

Today I learned that "inflammatory misinformation" is when a post is almost 100% correct but says something mean about Biden.

* Biden's abortion access executive order was to say that he thinks congress should really do something about codifying Roe v. Wade into law, the thing Democrats have been promising to do for decades but somehow have never gotten around to doing, almost like it isn't actually a priority. The order also provided a few accomodations for women who are forced to travel out if state to get abortions, but did nothing to actually fix the fact that they had to do so in the first place. Aside from these few accommodations - which shouldn't be necessary anyway - Biden just did the same thing every Democrat president has ever done about Roe v. Wade: the bare minimum.

* Biden's total student debt relief totals about 12.7% of all student loan debt. Much better than nothing, but far from what it should be.

* Biden's executive orders responding to covid were fine in 2021, setting aside his complete failure to properly help those who were put out of work during that time. A one-time check for less than what most people pay for a month's rent is not real assistance. What is less fine is the fact that, while covid is still very much around and people are still getting sick at rates the government would prefer to ignore, covid vaccine mandates were actually removed by another executive order in May 2023. This one was handled somewhat better for a little while, but has been fumbled all the same.

* Biden brought the US back into the Paris Accord, which, yeah, that was good. The extent of his climate change work after that has been to sign off on a federal budget and restate some vague commitments from the Clinton administration to hopefully reduce pollution and to build some offshore wind turbines. Oh, and after making a big show at the start of his administration of opposing the creation of that new Alaskan pipeline Trump tried to push through, Biden then approved it anyway last year.

* Biden doesn't seem to have signed any executive orders related to BLM protests. He signed one that said something to the effect of "Boy, we should really hold police officers more accountable when they murder people," but no protections have been afforded by the Biden administration to racial justice protests of any kind.

* His school shooting executive order consists of slightly strengthening red flag laws, which do nothing to prevent people from getting guns in the first place, and apply specifically to the circumstances under which someone close to a gun owner - specifically a gun owner with a documented history of domestic abuse or mental illness - can go to the police, tell them they think that person is a danger to themselves or others, and if the police conduct an investigation and agree with them, then that person can have their guns temporarily confiscated. The exact wording the Biden administration used was "as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation." If you cut through all the impressive-sounding language, even his own administration admits that these executive orders don't fundamentally change anything.

* Biden did sign an executive order providing some relief to Hawaii. One out of seven, baybeeeee!!

Biden - and Democrats in general - are very good at writing mandates that sound like they're getting a lot done, when the actual crux of them is a series of polite suggestions that they have no intention of seriously implementing.

Also, even if we assume he did all the positive things the post above mine claims he did, he's still enthusiastically supporting and enabling the genocide of Palestinians. All the good things in the world do not justify that.

In short,