The Story of a Solid Investment, a serial novel

The Story of a Solid Investment, a serial novel

http://solidinvestment.blog.com/
https://solidinvestmentinfo.wordpress.com/

(Kindly note that this blog is available at both of these addresses.)

Chapter 1

June 15, 1815

Late on the afternoon, a Rothschild representative jumped on board a specially chartered boat and headed out into the channel in a hurried dash for the English coast. In his possession was a top secret report from Rothschild’s secret service agents on the progress of the crucial battle. This intelligence data would prove indispensable to Nathan in making some vital decisions.

The special agent was met at Folkstone the following morning at dawn by Nathan Rothschild himself. After quickly scanning the highlights of the report Rothschild was on his way again, speeding towards London and the Stock Exchange.

Arriving at the Exchange amid frantic speculation on the outcome of the battle, Nathan took up his usual position beside the famous ‘Rothschild Pillar.’ Without a sign of emotion, without the slightest change of facial expression the stony-faced, flint eyed chief of the House of Rothschild gave a predetermined signal to his agents who were stationed nearby.
Rothschild agents immediately began to dump consuls on the market. As hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of consuls poured onto the market their value started to slide. Then they began to plummet.

Nathan continued to lean against ‘his’ pillar, emotionless, expressionless. He continued to sell, and sell and sell. Consuls kept on falling. Word began to sweep through the Stock Exchange: “Rothschild knows.” “Rothschild knows.” “Wellington has lost at Waterloo.”
The selling turned into a panic as people rushed to unload their ‘worthless’ consuls or paper money for gold and silver in the hope of retaining at least part of their wealth. Consuls continued their nosedive towards oblivion. After several hours of feverish trading the consul lay in ruins. It was selling for about five cents on the dollar.

Nathan Rothschild, emotionless as ever, still leaned against his pillar. He continued to give subtle signals. But these signals were different. They were so subtly different that only the highly trained Rothschild agents could detect the change. On the cue from their boss, dozens of Rothschild agents made their way to the order desks around the Exchange and bought every consul in sight for just a ‘song’!

A short time later the ‘official’ news arrived in the British capital. England was now the master of the European scene.

Within seconds the consul skyrocketed to above its original value. As the significance of the British victory began to sink into the public consciousness, the value of consuls rose even higher.

Napoleon had ‘met his Waterloo.’

Overnight, his already vast fortune was multiplied twenty times over.

Chapter 2

June 5, 1947

In a beautifully appointed room of dark panel, and rich brown leather chairs, several men sat smoking Havana cigars and drinking Armagnac. A couple with names many would recognize, the rest only known to a select few. Their nationalities were diverse, representing Austria, Britain, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States but their interest was singular; money. It would not be overstated to say, as a group, they represented over half the world’s wealth and had complete power over 2 continents.

The reason for this gathering was celebratory. The agreements to loan the Federal Reserve Bank another $13B had just been signed. The terms of this agreement represented the culmination of maneuvers decades in the making. The objective; to consolidate the power of the developed world within the hands of the few. The method; chaos. It had all started with the abrupt contraction of the world money supply in 1929. This required world governments to borrow funds from a select few wealthy individuals, via the Federal Reserve Bank, that had miraculously not been harmed by the collapse of the global economies. Then the advent of WWII required more funds to be borrowed. The terms of these war loans stipulated that the victor paid all debt incurred by all countries involved and were backed by gold required to be stored at the army depot in Fort Knox, Kansas. In 1946, $13B was loaned to the US government from the Federal Reserve Bank. Because the Federal Reserve Bank is a private entity, the origination of the funds remained obscure. The use of the funds was no less illusive. In reality they were transferred immediately back to the members of the Federal Reserve Bank who in turn sent it to the European owners of the banks as repayment of the war loans. Even though they could also manipulate currency valuations, they chose to be paid in gold, thereby returning huge gold reserves back to Europe.

With the creation of the Bank of International Settlement, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund at Bretton Woods, and the signing of the “Marshall Plan” a new era of “money” was born. What had previously been a segmented industry was now a single international conglomerate. The terms of the “Marshall Plan” guaranteed, the few men in the room, total control over both Europe and the United States. The banks controlled by these men loaned $13B to the Federal Reserve Bank at a slightly higher than market rate of interest. These funds were then given to the European banks these men owned to be given out in loans to both Europeans governments and businesses thereby making more interest while their original loans were guaranteed by the United States gold deposits. Since these men had diversified their interests during the war, the majority of the loans went to their own interests, while several million more Europeans starved to death, until the program ended in 1953. By then the Federal Reserve had borrowed over $100B.

Chapter 3

February, 2001

The horseshoe shaped table filled almost the entire space the small gray cubicle provided. One of dozens that made a honeycomb in the cavernous space. A well-dressed twenty something man sat in the center studying the numbers scrolling across his screens and reading stacks of financial reports and graphs. In the spare moments, his 60 hour workweek provided, he envisioned himself as the next visionary in the ruthless financial industry the world called “the City.” After graduation, his family connections landed him a job as a junior analyst for a large bank. The first step on his road to riches, fame, and a knighthood.
Suddenly an interoffice e-mail popped up on his screen. It was from his superior. The message read, “What is this thing called e-gold? How can $2B be flowing through it and not only do we not control it, but we are not even getting a piece of the action! Find out what this is immediately, and get back to me with your analysis of how we can extort it to our advantage! E-gold.com.” Ah, back to reality, he thought. So, what is E-gold?

Chapter 4

October 19, 2004

The man, dressed stylishly in a Savile Row suit, had chosen to walk the two blocks from his hotel to his appointment. His flight had come in the night before and he had been unable to see anything but the overwhelming abundance of neon signs that lite up the city as if it were midday. He had never been to Hong Kong before and wasn’t sure why he had been summoned. He walked into the richly appointed office on the 33rd floor and gave his name to the receptionist.

Shortly after being seated and offered coffee or tea, an attractive woman approached him and said, “Mr. Sherwood will see you now.” Following her down the hall, he was shown into a tastefully appointed corner office overlooking the bay. The gentleman behind the desk rose and shaking his hand introduced himself, “Good morning Mr. Conors, I am Christian Sherwood, I hope you had a good flight.” The two men settled themselves around a small table and chatted about the weather while morning tea was brought in and served.

Once the door was closed, Mr. Sherwood started to explain the purpose of the meeting. “Mr. Conors, I understand you have been researching how new internet investment portals can be used to pool small investors and allow them to access investment opportunities normally reserved for large or institutional investors. Tell me about your ideas.”

Stanton Conors was surprised by the request. He had been trying to interest upper management at Schafers for months in developing an internet investment product but had garnered little support. “Sir, started Stanton, my research indicates that there is a growing industry of internet based investment portals that will allow millions of dollars to be pooled and invested to benefit both the small investor and Schafers. There are also electronic money systems that allow access to an entire international group of small investors.”

arming to the subject, and getting excited about the possibilities, he spent the next twenty minutes explaining the details of his plan.

After quietly listening to the explanation, Sherwood stood and started walking toward the door. Before opening it, he turned and said,” Mr. Conors, I expect to see your website up and running within six months. I suggest that you incorporate it in Belize, and run the funds through several of our insurance surety holding companies incorporated in Jersey. The name should give the impression of a Solid Investment. Any thoughts?” As Conors got up to leave, he said, “I think I will call it Secure Income.” The two men shook again, and Stanton Conors was escorted to the elevator.

After Stanton Conors left, Christian Sherwood returned to his desk, picked up a report he had received a couple of years previously, and read the title, E-Gold and HYIP Investment Opportunities on the Internet. His secretary walked in a few minutes later to tell him that all 14 other gentlemen were scheduled over the course of the week to ensure they did not accidentally meet. They had been planning this project for over a year, and the last thing they needed was for anyone to know the scope of the undertaking or the end game. He would tell his partners the plan was progressing on schedule over the weekend.

Just as the secretary left, he turned and said, “Henry Paulson from Goldman Sachs is on the phone.”

Chapter 5

May 30, 2006

Stanton Conors sat in his hotel room staring at the counter on his laptop. Over 90,000 accounts and rising. Secure Income had become a huge success, but he did not feel like celebrating. The unease that had been pricking the back of his neck for months had now become a real foreboding. He had just spent two days in meetings with the Schafers investment fund managers. They spoke of soaring profits and the exciting future that the brave new world of the internet had opened.

In similar meeting in the last few months he had come to realize the size of Schafers’ internet exposure with 15 different internet sites. Though each had its own corporate structure, and investment terms, the back office procedures were the same. A shell entity was either created or purchased in an off shore location. Funds received via wires or on-line currencies were then funneled through several reinsurance fronts setup by Schafers, then transferred to one or several of Schafers investment portfolios. Necessary interest and principle repayments to investors were handled in reverse.

However, the day was fast approaching when large distributions would be necessary for all of the internet programs. This subject had been broached by several of the internet executives over the last two days. Each response was answered with affirmation that it was being handled, but was vague on the details. Stanton had become, if not comfortable, at least accepting, that in this industry, details always seemed to be in short supply.

Still staring at the screen, he closed the computer. As he packed for the trip home, he could only hope that his concerns were without merit, and all would be ready at the beginning of July.

Chapter 6

July 9, 2006

The perpetual mist outside mirrored his mood as he stared out the window. The last week had been the worst of his life, and the coming week was not looking any better.

First the funds had not shown up in the accounts as expected. Demands for funds and requests for explanations from Schafers had garnered vague answers and promises. Then a relentless DDOS attack had brought down the website. Calls with the other web investment executives confirmed the appearance of a coordinated attack. Forum posts screaming scam had prompted the closure of several of the ecurrency accounts. Followed by the IP provider asking that the website be moved. All of this, topped by never ending calls from board members, all of which seemed to have family members with sizable investments.

Monday he had called a computer technician he knew voicing a suspicion he had had for weeks. The news Conors had hoped he would not hear had just been confirmed. The DDOS attack had originated with Schafers.

Chapter 7

November 27, 2007

Baroness Doss was struggling to stay focused. The emergency board meeting was now approaching its third hour. The most frustrating aspect, of this waste of time, was that the decision had been made days ago.

She had known nothing of the situation, until a frantic call from the HPBC board secretary. Would she be available for an emergency board meeting, as a significantly urgent matter had arisen?

Over the next few days, the details surrounding the troubling transaction had become clearer. Trustee irregularities, missing trust funds, unauthorized distributions, compromised databases, technology glitches, and government interference were only some of the problems mentioned. She suspected many others. The amounts involved and the hidden fingerprints pointed to a small group of unseen conspirators. She had seen the signs before.
The more she learned, the angrier she got. How could the bank have been drawn into this situation? Who knew about it? What did they know and when? How were they going to get out of this mess? What was her personal obligation and exposure? What happened if it became public?

Now a German Federal court order had been issued demanding payments begin, and they were voting on whether to comply. Why was a vote necessary? They were the paymaster on a settlement agreement. This was ordinary day to day business for any major international bank.

Yet, hastily arranged back room meetings had taken place around the world. A deal had been made. HPBC would be given access to lucrative wealth management opportunities in several new markets in exchange for a no vote on compliance with the court order.
She had now spent 3 hours listening to several eager young men from Schafers talk about the huge market potential of adding new wealth management divisions to the HPBC banking group. She had made it clear, she would not agree with this charade and would be resigning. She knew it wouldn’t matter. Sir Mallet had the votes he needed.

Chapter 8

November 13, 2009

“Bill, did you hear, your high card, with the king of diamonds, it’s your bet.” Bill had been distracted all evening. The last couple of years had been catastrophic for the world. For him, it had been the best of his life.

It had all started almost two years ago. A quiet request for a confidential meeting with a group of men he had heard existed, but had never hoped he would meet. An opportunity had been presented to them, and they felt he was the perfect man to implement their plan. As they proceeded to explain the details, he could hardly contain his excitement. It was simple in concept and brilliant in design.

In 2007, in lieu of criminal charges filed in a German court, settlement had been reached between a UK investment group and a large number of international investors. As part of the agreement, the administration stayed with Schafers. Due to some irregularities, the position of paymaster had been moved from HPBC to Barkers Bank. After several conversations with Schafers, it became clear they did not have the funds nor the desire to honor the agreement. Yet, they did possess a legal, global conduit for the distribution of large amounts of money. The entire operation was being monitored by the German federal court, who had neither the manpower nor expertise for proper oversight.

Schafers proposed the following. As they had control over the investor numbered accounts in the database, additional accounts could be added and given preferential treatment. These account “settlement” payments could then be wired anywhere Barkers deemed most advantageous. All that was necessary was that 10% of the original settlement amount must be maintained in the court designated escrow accounts at all times. Schafers then admitted that currently the escrow accounts were empty. Apparently a clause, not understood by the court, written into the escrow document, allowed them to remove the funds almost immediately after the settlement had been reached.

As the group explained to Bill Spade, his role was the movement of funds. Barkers Bank as paymaster, had contracted with RSB and Llinds Bank to assist in the distribution of the settlement funds. The contact information Schafers listed on the “additional” accounts would route the wire request to hundreds of Barkers associated collaborators. These funds, less fees, would then be wired to one (Entity 1) of hundreds of new entities that Spade would set up in any number of corporate structures and jurisdictions. Utilizing the full legal leveraging capacity of each structure and jurisdiction, funds would then be loaned from Entity 1 to Entity 2. Entity 2 would establish trading accounts (Trading 1) with investment groups controlled by Barkers. Again using the full legal leveraging capacity allowed by the trading markets, Entity 2 would transfer the funds to Trading 1. Trading 1 would then transfer back to the escrow accounts only the necessary amount required to replenish the escrow plus the next day’s payments. All other funds and ensuing profits would be forwarded to parts unknown for further distribution.

The plan had worked perfectly for almost two years. Today’s distribution numbers reminded him how well. The 3 banks had sent out 450 wire transfers ranging from $63M to $117M each. He had lost track of the profits, but the $20T in distributions was a small fraction. The profits had also allowed Barkers to weather the recession without taking any bailouts, giving up any control and purchase Lehgoods from petty cash.

As he knew, all good things must end. A call today from RSB to the judge had sealed the projects fate. They were demanding to know why some investor accounts had been paid four times while others hadn’t even been notified. He didn’t mind. Due to the success of his division, it was being sold at multiple times his stock cost, and he was being promoted. He didn’t even feel sorry for the new owners. They would never understand why they couldn’t replicate his success. Maybe, they would think he was a genius.

“I raise £100.”

Chapter 9

July 16, 2010

Stephen Ballan thought of himself as the great puppeteer, the grand master, the wizard behind the curtain. He just smiled whenever his associates teased him about his slight Kiwi accent. They did not know he was the Moriarty of his age. Better, he was a genius with a law degree and access to unlimited resources.

He had learned early that the more laws, the more loopholes, and nowhere were there more written and unwritten laws than The City.

Schafers’ overinflated sense of entitlement, and general disdain for lesser mortals had been the perfect environment for him to develop his fascination with legal manipulation and the failings of human nature. They had used crude forms of extortion, bribery, fraud, and theft for decades to create a vast network of bankers, lawyers, court clerks, fund managers, brokers, traders, politicians, government officials and corporate managers.

Ballan turned it into an art form. No more gun toting thugs, brown paper packages, or unseemly photographs. He knew the first rule of getting what you want, is to give them what they need.

When he was told about the settlement agreement and Schafers adamant demand that payments never be made, it was like a gift from heaven. “Especially the Secure Income accounts, they created this mess.” They had said.

His initial reaction, upon reading the settlement documents, was that the plaintiffs had very poor legal advice and loop holes abounded. He almost started cheering. Schafers retained the escrow, database, and administration.

The German court had stipulated that a minimum of 10% of the total settled amount be deposited in escrow, but did not say for how long. 30 days seemed sufficient.
HPBC had built its business on millions of small depositors. It needed access to high net worth. A deal was born and a court order ignored.

Barkers needed cash, and lots of it.

As Ballan knew, each of these maneuvers came at a price. The court and plaintiffs were getting wiser. Schafers was forced to remove the “unauthorized” accounts from the database. The matter was reassigned to the German Court of Appeals Special Senate for oversight. Lexia Bank in Brussels was assigned paymaster duties.

For Ballan, it was just an opportunity for a new kind of fun. Though Schafers removed the “unauthorized” accounts, they still retained control over the database and administration.
Ballan’s first move was to hire the best computer technicians. To buy time for them to execute his plan, a simple scientific experiment was tested. For the low price of a job guarantee, a Lexia hardware technician carried a high powered magnet into the banks designated server room and set it next to the database hard drive. Magnets do indeed destroy data.

Next, the court appointed a Lexia employee, as onsite administrator, to monitor the process on their behalf. In a predawn raid, on the morning payments were scheduled to begin, the court appointed administrator was arrested. Sometimes unseemly photographs still have their uses.

Lexia started getting threats from numerous large investors involved in the settlement agreement. Lexia demanded that the court give them total control over all aspects of the payout process or they would resign. The court agreed. Fortunately, the coup de grace was ready for implementation. The court had demanded the database be locked. No new records could be added. The manipulation of the existing records was a different matter altogether.
Over the last few months Lexia Bank had made thousands of settlement payments. The settlement agreement covered tens of thousands of accounts from over a dozen entities. The database was sorted by entity. This allowed Schafers to select which entities it wanted to pay. The entity chosen first included those with large accounts or significant influence. The real magic was in this process. As certain of these significant accounts were selected for processing, it would activate a software routine that “scrambled” less desirable accounts in the database. The more accounts paid, the more the database was corrupted.

Ballan smiled at today’s numbers. RSB had processed 222 payments ranging from $40M to $112M. Schafers was no longer in control of any part of the settlement process, but he was still dictating every payment. Now his job was to keep it going as long as possible. What does the judge need? He was sure he could provide.

Chapter 10

June 24, 2012

“You would think, after a few hundred years, someone would have figured out how to make a wig that wasn’t so hot.” Judge Richards thought as he threw it on his desk. For some reason he wasn’t feeling very well today, and a long day in court had just made him irritable. “It must be all the traveling lately, he mused.” The “Schafers” case seemed to be an endless legal, political, and jurisdictional quagmire.

The “Schafers” case had somehow been hoisted on him while he was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. Now it had followed him to his appointment to the Supreme Court. He thought he had disposed of the matter when it was appointed to the German Federal Criminal Court for oversight. The accusations of numerous improprieties dropped it back in his lap and was quite disquieting.

Three beneficiaries had filed for a court order demanding payment. Richards had never seen a more convoluted legal mess in his career. He couldn’t tell where the law stopped and politics started. He didn’t even want to think about the darker side of this transaction. His job was to get the payments completed.

There were now three jurisdictions involved. The UK, Belgium and Germany. Upon further review, it appeared that when Lexia Bank, Brussels took over as paymaster, they changed the beneficiary account numbers. Supposedly to better interface with their computer system. It had the side effect of ensuing that no beneficiary could directly claim their account.

The three beneficiaries filed a request for an order of payment with the Belgium Court of First Instance, using the original account number. The request was denied. The court ruling stated that the new account number was required to make a claim. Richards was well known for his calm demeanor, but this stunt raised his ire. He allowed the beneficiaries to demand the new account numbers from the administration. Once received, a new request for payment was filed with his office. He promptly issued a court order demanding payment. This order was forwarded to the Belgium court, who in turn was required to issue its own order for payment.
However, a stipulation was included in the Belgium order. The Belgium court would become co-signer on all of the escrow accounts. This would put jurisdiction of the civil matter in the UK, the criminal oversight in Germany and the money in Belgium. Virtually guaranteeing no payments could ever be made.

After a short “chat” with the Belgium judge, Richards quickly demanded and received a court order from the Belgium court without stipulations. Lexia immediately filed a motion in German court claiming jurisdiction belonged to Germany. The German court denied the motion, stating jurisdiction is with the UK courts. Judge Richards, issued a court order demanding Lexia begin payment immediately. Lexia ignored the order, and a show of cause hearing was immediately scheduled.

An army of Lexia lawyers appear in Judge Richards’ chambers, all talking at once. As they explain the numerous unfortunate events that have befallen them, he just holds his head. “This can’t be happening to me,” he thinks. He raises his head, and quiets them all. “I will be in your office on Thursday at 10am, to evaluate the situation myself.”

Upon returning from Brussels, Judge Richards contacts his counterpart in Germany. Simultaneously, court orders are issued demanding that Lexia appoint an employee to monitor processing for the courts, and that payments start immediately. Lexia then files a motion with the Belgium Court of Appeals. The court denies a hearing on the motion.
Training of the monitor and testing of the system is finally underway. Due to previous unfortunate incidents, the system have been heavily reinforced, replicated, and fortified. Richards breathes a sigh of relief when the system tests are successful and processing is about to begin.

His phone is ringing, and it’s still dark. Never a good sign. The payout process was hit with a DDOS attack overnight and hackers tried to break in to the system. Alarmed at the severe breach in security at a large international bank, Judge Richards jumps on a plane to Zürich. This matter must be discussed with the Bank of International Settlement.

“Finally, payments started today,” he thought. He should have felt more relieved, but what he had seen, in the last couple months, worried him. It was like there was a malevolence behind the scenes that he had never experienced before. What was going to happen next?
Suddenly he grabbed his chest, and called out for help.

Judge Richards died two days later, and processing suddenly experienced new problems.

Chapter 11

November 15, 2011

Peter crawled out from under the table, and dusted off his pants. He then sat at the keyboard, entered a command and finally the monitor came to life. He had been in Germany three weeks and wanted to go home.

He still wasn’t sure how he’d been selected to go to Frankfurt. Was it because he was the best man for the job, or just low man on the totem pole. Either way, the monitor was finally connecting to the main servers in London.

Not that the team was having any more fun at home. The last few months had been a nightmare. The payment process was finally started when the judge died. Judge Thompson was now in charge. Peter couldn’t decide whether he didn’t know what he was doing, didn’t care or was a puppet on a string. He was inclined to believe the later. How else could so many things go wrong?

Within the first week, the account response percentage had gone from 80% to 25% of the 3500 accounts contacted daily. It took a bit of research to discover that 90% of the nonresponses were to US accounts.

It was first assumed that the interference was coming from the US. After the judge received vehement denials, from numerous government officials, he asked the team to delve deeper into the problem. All of the accounts appeared to be blocked before they left the UK. The interference was being caused by the court appointed IP provider. Firing a couple key technicians seemed to resolve the issue.

Then the account notification process started scrambling the database. Every time a batch was processed for notification, accounts would disappear. On top of that, the judge demanded that instead of processing new accounts, notifications would be reissued to nonresponses. This scrambled the database faster. Now it was lucky if 25 got processed in a day.

In an attempt to get better control and limit further interference the web interface was moved to GCHQ. Within days of the move, the US government demanded that processing be slowed. How and why were they involved? It hardly mattered, the database was so corrupted it had to be rekeyed, just to make it computer readable.

Finally processing commenced again. Now the notifications were being blocked, and the database was being scrambled. This time, the team was old hands at this game. GCHQ was blocking the emails and processing of specific accounts was scrambling the database.
And the war of the judges began….

New UK administrators were appointed. Processing was still not working. Judge Thompson started blocking the wire transfers and was removed from the case. Judge Lewiston was appointed. Then German judges started threatening.

Before he knew it, Peter was flying to Frankfurt with a monitor and keyboard. The installation requirement was simple. Install a monitoring station in Judge August’s office. Nothing had gone smoothly. Judge August didn’t seem to like to work in the morning, and left at 3pm, when he showed up at all. The court IT team was trying to help, but the language barrier was a problem. The installation of the dedicated communication line had taken over a week to schedule. Removing interference to the main server required a complete rewrite. Today, some new judge walked in and demanded the whole monitoring station be moved.

Peter hoped he would be home by Christmas. On the other hand, he had a date tonight. At home he was a nerd, here his “charming” accent made him a hunk. Who needed to know the language?

Chapter 12

December 15, 2011

Sir Anthony Evans-Rhodes felt he had spent his life living on the edges of greatness. He was peripheral counsel on a settlement agreement, currently being processed by Lexia, on behalf of an amorphous group with some unknown interest in the outcome. There had been an assortment of problems, some quite perplexing.

When he was invited to meet with Lord Rodgers, he was sure he had reached greatness. Lord Rodgers explained, there was a very important and delicate matter that only Sir Anthony had the skills and knowledge to handle. He would be considered for further privilege, if it was handled correctly.

The assignment required him to create an administrative team to control and manage the database and distribution of funds, related to the “Lexia” matter. Once the team was in place, he would be given further instructions.

Now Sir Anthony was summoned to Germany. “What did they want?” He was not accustomed to being summoned and did not appreciate the German attitude.
He hadn’t even gotten the case documents yet. That was the first problem he faced. It seemed there were several sealed Court of the Ordinary orders related to the matter. Further research found that they were issued by Lord Richards, and sealed by Lord Thompson. According to the seal instructions, they could only be obtained with permission from all signatories. Lord Richards was dead and had died before the seal!

Then he was informed that a German judge had filed a motion to remove Lord Thompson from the case. Why, he did not know. It may have something to do with the order he just received, signed by Lord Thompson, requiring he pay 42 US investor accounts immediately, completely in violation of the process protocols. Lord Thompson then immediately filed a counter complaint with the German Ministry of Justice.

Next the summons appeared on his desk. In all his years in the law, he had never been summoned to a judicial hearing. Though he spoke fluent German, none of this sounded good.

Upon arriving in Germany, he discovered there were three judges tangled, in what appeared to be, a childish squabble. Apparently, Dr. Porter was newly appointed to oversee the German interests in the ‘case’. Dr. August seemed to be angry over inferences, directed at him, of improprieties in the ‘case’. Dr. Graeme was just trying to disappear into the woodwork.

Then the questioning began. This was clearly more than a childish squabble. The panel had detailed documents related to transactions all the way back to Barkers. As well as, hard copies of database files that did not correlate with electronic copies. The good news was, they seemed more interested in understanding then accusing. Though there was an undertone of recriminations he did not understand.

The questions involved a group of investor accounts controlled by a small group of reinsurance entities located in the islands. After giving the transaction details to the panel, he was dismissed. It still wasn’t entirely clear what it all meant, but the implications were disquieting.

He returned to his office a few days later to a stack of rulings and directives. His request for control over the database was granted. The court announced the retirement of Dr. August, and the appointment of Dr. Porter. Dr. Porter, representing the State of Germany, now had full jurisdiction over the ‘case’.

Then a feud broke out between the UK and German Finance Ministries. Pursuant to another court order, his team then installed a monitoring station in Dr. August/Porter’s office, twice. Not to be outdone, Lord Thompson demanded a monitoring station for his office. Thankfully, his petition was denied and he was finally officially removed. Not to be bested, the UK Finance Ministry demanded an observer be sent to Germany to oversee their ‘interests’ in the ‘case’.

After he thought it couldn’t get any worse, he got a call from the Swiss Finance Minister. This prompted a call from Lord Rodgers instructing him to fly to Switzerland immediately. He was also informed that besides Germany, the UK, and Belgium somehow this matter involved China, France, Austria and the US.

“I need a drink, and to reevaluate the cost of privilege.” sighed Sir Anthony.

Chapter 13

January 31, 2012

“Make that a double,” thought Sir Anthony. “There is definitely more involved in this transaction than anyone is telling me.” That impression became a certainty when he arrived in Switzerland, and the suspicion has grown stronger every day.

His meeting with Minister Wimmer-Schlumm had been troubling. She demanded to know why she had not been informed about this “transaction” earlier. She seemed to believe that it would have a detrimental effect on Switzerland. Once he explained the “transaction”, she was satisfied to leave the matter alone, “For now,” she said. That still left the question of who had brought it to her attention, and why?

His meeting the next day with German Finance Minister Dr. Schartel held few answers. He was assured that no such statements came from his office. Dr. Schartel didn’t understand why Switzerland was involved.

Then the UK judicial observer arrived in Germany, complete with a list of demands longer than a UN referendum and no knowledge of the matter. A long day of cross continental multi department negotiations resolved the fiasco.

Finally, his team got back to the matter at hand, distribution of funds. The testing of the system was successful! Processing was scheduled for 11am GMT+ 1 the next day. There were 47 accounts left in the current block. “We should be done by 2,” he said optimistically. He should have known better.

“What do you mean, the IT group has been sued and served with a restraining order this morning!! That can’t be a coincidence.” Sir Anthony could only hope money would solve the problem.

Three days and a substantial payment later, the team was ready to try again. Suddenly the observer was urgently called back to the UK. Another cross continental multi department negotiation.

Ready again, and suddenly there is a complete power outage in the courthouse. “Who thinks up this stuff???”

Feeling that one judge was not enough to manage the “transaction”, the German Justice Ministry appointed a panel of judges to oversee the German Finance Ministry overseer. Their first directive was to demand the new administrative team be vetted. Another week wasted. Then the presiding judge on the panel started questioning the administrative corporate structure. Sure enough, the panel accomplished delaying processing for another week.
Next, the panel wanted to examine the Court of the Ordinary orders signed by Lord Richards. Sir Anthony’s suspicions of something amiss reached fever pitch. All of these requests seem to be originating from the same panel member. Each creating a delay, with no appreciable advancement of the process. And, he was sure the panel was aware the documents were sealed.

He has no choice. He filed a request for the sealed court orders with Lord Lewiston. Lord Lewiston apologized, but told him, that according to the seal instructions, the court had to deny the motion. Then he realized, Lexia had a copy of the orders. He had reviewed them when they were first issued. As administrative counsel, he could demand Lexia, as paymaster, provide him with a copy.

Finally, something simple. A telephone call. No such luck. Lexia legal counsel refused to provide a copy, citing the seal instructions, as the reason. Absolutely furious, Sir Anthony flew straight to Brussels, walked into the office, opened the safe, made a copy of all the documents, and upon leaving, fired his on-site administrative legal counsel for suspicion of collusion.

The next day, Sir Anthony walked into the presiding judge’s office and calmly placed the documents on his desk. He thought he might have seen a flicker of surprise, but he couldn’t be sure. Official receipt of the orders was acknowledged by the panel. Both Sir Anthony, as administrative counsel, and Lexia, as paymaster, were advised they had 72 hours to release notification to the account beneficiaries.

At long last. With a smile on his face, Sir Anthony picked up the phone and contacted Lexia to advise them his team would be releasing the email notifications for 47 accounts, in about an hour. He told them to expect responses shortly thereafter. He had hardly put the phone down when his secretary told him there was a call from the German court. Lexia’s legal counsel had just called to notify the panel that their paymaster contract was with Lord Thompson and the UK Court of the Ordinary. Without a new contract, the State of Germany could not use their facilities. Also, they were reevaluating their role as paymaster.

It was time to call the boss. “I believe the moment has come for a chat with a couple prime ministers,” Lord Rodgers replied.

“Make that two doubles.”

Chapter 14

April 1, 2012

“What a difference a telephone call makes, or in this case two,” thought Sir Anthony.
The day after the panel suddenly reversed course and voted to freeze processing, the panel was disbanded. Official control of the database was granted to Dr. Porter, but not control over administration. In an interesting twist, albeit he wished more surprising, the presiding judge was promoted.

As if that wasn’t strange enough, somehow this “transaction” was now tangled up with the EU bailout negotiations. A conversation with Lord Rodgers EU negotiating team clarified the administrative team’s position. Dr. Porter presided over administrative control with oversight from Lord Rodgers. This put control of the “transaction” under the German Ministry of Finance.

It didn’t take long before it became clear this arrangement was not acceptable to the German Ministry of Justice. The day the team were ready to process the first 47 accounts, a suspension order was issued against Dr. Porter. Further intervention by Lord Rodgers EU negotiating team got the suspension lifted. Suddenly the next day, a new panel of 6 judges was appointed as “oversight”.

Now payments could only be made within a “window” each day. After several days of missed “windows” it became apparent, this was another delay tactic. “But why?” There were so many players involved with what appeared to be diverging interests, it was impossible to tell.
Suddenly the new oversight panel was disbanded. Sir Anthony was informed, in another conversation with the negotiating team, that Dr. Porter had been granted universal jurisdiction over the “transaction.” 24 hours later, Dr. Porter was denied access to the courtroom. “I swear I have fallen into a bad episode of the Marx Brothers.”

Completely at a loss how to proceed, Sir Anthony called Lord Rodgers. Lord Rodgers suggested another private meeting was necessary as new and troubling information had come to light.

They met in a small room, designed for very confidential conversations. Lord Rodgers explained that in the course of their due diligence related to the EU financial condition they had found that the “transaction” escrow accounts were drastically underfunded. Through an elaborate scheme of multinational companies, and leveraged family trusts, a paper trail had been created to disguise the deficiency. Investigations were ongoing, but it appeared the funds had been removed shortly after the settlement agreement was signed.

Lord Rodgers continued to say that he had dispatched his nephew to Qatar, with documents requesting access to the Sheik’s family trust accounts in Switzerland, so an audit could be performed. The Swiss trust was now in the hands of the Swiss Finance Ministry and the Swiss Chief Prosecutor had been notified. The unique corporate structure of Lexia had also brought France into the equation.

Lord Rodgers himself had just returned from a meeting with certain interested parties located in Asia. An agreement had been reached to fully replenish the escrow accounts.

Since all of these events had happened under German oversight, it was causing some difficulty with the EU bailout loans. Certain guarantees had to be negotiated and signed ancillary to the new EU Stabilization Agreement for the State of Germany referencing the “transaction”.

He then assured Sir Anthony payments would start shortly after a few more details were resolved. Sir Anthony returned to his office with more questions than answers. He grabbed his bottle of scotch and turned it over. It was empty.

Chapter 15

May 31, 2012

Sir David Woods and Lord Richard Rodgers met at Oxford. Woods studying law, Rodgers theology. From all practical appearances, and despite both being born with a silver spoon, they were very different men. David was the charmer, quite the ladies’ man. Richard was charismatic, with a smooth silver tongue. The world will never know if they would have become lifelong friends, if they had not married sisters. But they did, and were.

Now almost 60 years later, they sat together in a dark paneled room, brandy in one hand and a cigar in the other. The tone of the discussion belied the relaxed atmosphere. The last few weeks had been tense. Woods just returned from Switzerland, and Rodgers from an undisclosed location. “The documents we uncovered at the Trust were a goldmine,” said Woods. “These lawyers documented every detail and recorded every conversation. It has taken days to go through it all. Did the documents I grabbed before the Swiss arrived accomplish your objective?”

The documents Woods procured, detailed how several very old family trusts had been used as collateral, by a small group of Asian families. Most of the transactions involved large real estate purchases. Immediately upon receiving the documents, Lord Rodgers contacted each of the families. An agreement to replenish the “transaction” escrow fund was reached.
Before the discovery of the missing escrow funds, the group Lord Rodgers represented had agreed to loan $5T to the German government as part of the EU bailout. Though it was hidden by an assortment of smoke and mirrors, the “transaction” escrow funds were to be used as collateral for the loan. That made it imperative that the funds be replaced quickly.
Everyone involved was aware that the “transaction” funds, like the Swiss trust funds, belonged to someone else. In this instance, thousands of small international investors. They justified their actions by convincing themselves it was for the “greater good” and it was only temporary.

The problem then became, that the “greater good” needed absolute secrecy. Germany’s history had taught them the dangers of such activities and laws existed to ensure transparency. It was also imperative that the owners of the funds could not demand payment. A solution was found in the creation of a “virtual” jurisdiction. Create an imaginary country, “Camelot” and place all of the real secret documents in the imaginary safe. Lock the safe, and give the key to a secret custodian. Because no one knew Camelot existed, they couldn’t demand payment or argue its legality.

To make the deal more palatable, Lord Rodgers and Dr. Schartel signed an agreement. If for any reason the administration was unable to pay the rightful owners, the German government would ensure the payments. By attaching it to a 2,000 page government document, with the benign name of Agreement to Facilitate Payments, it was hidden in plain sight.

Then a new problem arose. The funds had not been transferred as agreed. In another call with Lord Rodgers, the families told him they had reconsidered their position. They believed nothing could compel them to comply. The next morning, the eldest son was arrested on fraud and corruption charges in Hong Kong. Another secret meeting, another agreement.
The families then start moving money around, but maintained control. Several group members were contacted and offered a deal. The families would pay them $10T if they delay the payouts for two years. The group agreed to delay 6 months in exchange for costs and interest. The next morning $225B was transferred to the “transaction” escrow fund. Within hours, the second son was arrested for good measure.

Among the files found at the Trust, Woods found the original “transaction” escrow documents. Aside from some smaller problems, there were two huge ones. The first was the “window.” The escrow was closed to any and all transactions between 6am and 6pm GMT every day. The second was the backdoor. Even if the funds could be deposited outside the “window”, they could be immediately withdrawn again by the administrators.

Changes to the escrow documents required reauthorization by the court. Because Lexia was now paymaster, approval was needed by both the French and German courts. German court authorization was granted immediately. Almost as quickly, the French courts created interference. A couple well placed telephone calls determined that the families were angry at the arrests and requested Schafers create as much disruption as possible. After the arrest of the third son, the group finally got French court approval.

“We found something else very interesting in the documents,” said Sir David. “It seems a lot of the interference we ran into was coming from Jean Simeon. Apparently Schafers absconded with a large amount of his money. The letters and recordings show he has a huge network of midlevel officials in the UK, Germany, Belgium, France, and Switzerland on his payroll. Stopping these payments became his personal vendetta.” Lord Rodgers thought for a moment and replied, “Set up a meeting. I think a deal can be reached. Perhaps we can get him to stop, and incorporate his back channel into ours. We need better influence in France.”

Chapter 16

July 15, 2012

“Given the amount of time I have spent in Switzerland lately, I should buy a house there,” mused David Woods. No sooner had he returned from the seizure of the Trust, that a group representative, sent to follow up, was arrested for violating traffic laws. If it hadn’t been so troublesome, it would have been funny. The man was 72 and had never driven a car in his life. “Clearly someone wasn’t getting the message to leave this matter alone.”
At last progress was being made to get the payment process started. After the escrow documents were approved, the German court requested a test of the wire process. $187m was sent to NY Mellon. All cleared smoothly, but the 10 day time frame seemed unusually long.

Next came the conflict over who got paid first. The court order accounts or the settlement accounts. To confuse the matter, the settlement accounts were now split into 3 separate blocks. Block A had 12 accounts remaining, Block B had 32. Block C held the indeterminable remainder. The decision was made that the 3 court order accounts would start the process and be used as the final test of the system. Blocks A, B and C would follow in order.
The IT team was then directed to do a final test of the system. All system tests were successful except the German monitor. Peter was sent back to Germany. After extensive analysis, he found new code was imbedded in the system, via the monitoring station, that could be used to disrupt transaction processing. New equipment was installed, security enhanced and code changes were made.

Feeling additional security was needed, five new server paths were added to the system. Within hours of completion, the Singapore government objected and a path was rerouted. How they even knew remained a mystery.

All this foolishness was annoying Woods. As lead negotiator for the Group’s interests in the EU bailout agreement, he was already tired of listening to bickering politicians. Now Spain needed funds immediately, and France had found out about the deal he made with the Germans. Knowing their final approval was needed to initiate the payments, France demanded the Group purchase €250m in Spanish bonds.

Finally, he got Germany, France, Switzerland, and the UK signed off on the procedure and all the documents were in the hands of the German court. He was now able to leave the final processing in the capable hands of Sir Anthony. Formal charges of bribery, corruption and fraud had been filed against the three brothers. “Some people never learn,” he smiled.
This evening he was having a quiet drink with his friend, Richard. Lord Rodgers was scheduled for a minor heart procedure in the morning and there were many things to discuss.

Chapter 17

August 5, 2012

Sir David Woods stood in the hallway outside his friend’s hospital room. The procedure had not gone as planned. Lord Rodgers was in an induced coma after having a stroke during surgery. The prognosis was uncertain, and all anyone could do was wait.

Knowing at his age, any surgery could be fatal, Woods and Rodgers made specific arrangements. Protocols were to be followed, and business deals were to proceed on schedule. His first call was to Lord Rodgers’ nephew, Stewart Chambers. Woods had power of attorney, but Chambers was trustee.

“The only business your uncle was working on was getting the payment process started. Sir Anthony told me he needed Richard’s signature to get started and wasn’t able to get it before the surgery”, said Woods.

After getting the documents from Lord Rodgers’ office, Woods and Chambers met in the group’s London “clubhouse”. “According to these documents, the sun, the planets and the moons of Jupiter’s will have to be in alignment before we can make these payments. We have to streamline this process,” declared Woods. “That reminds me of a story I heard the other day,” said Chambers. “As much as I normally enjoy the fish tales all the members love to tell, we don’t have time. I have to leave for the states in a few days,” replied Woods.

Then they went to work. For three days they examined thousands of pages of documents. Some in English, some German and a few in Latin. Woods looked up from the desk and said, “It appears certain parties created this procedure to guarantee failure. I think we should make sure they are exposed, or at the very least, make them choose between their money and their freedom.”

Even after simplification, they had only reduced the number of steps from 72 to 29. The changes were made and both Woods and Chambers signed all the relevant documents. The next morning they invited Sir Anthony to join them and explained the new procedures. Evans-Rhodes agreed to get approval for the changes from the German court. Woods headed for the airport. “Another week of bickering politicians.”

Final approval was obtained. After the Jackson Hole conference, a quick stop in New York was necessary before Woods could return home. He called Chambers to tell him the he would be back on Monday, and processing would begin immediately.

Sir David Woods was found dead in the bedroom of the group’s New York apartment at 10am Monday morning. Two glasses were on the table, one with lipstick.

Chapter 18

August 11, 2012

Law school had done nothing to prepare him for the discovery of a dead body. It had, however, told him what to do. Instead he called his senior partner. After a very short, terse conversation, he went to work. Touching nothing, he photographed every inch of the apartment. Then he removed the specified documents, and four of the five passports from the briefcase. He couldn’t help but notice they all had different names, birthdays, and places of origin. “Hmmm, who is this guy?” After hiding the questionable credentials in his car, he called the authorities.

After about an hour of questions, the preliminary determination was death by natural causes. The gentleman was over 80 years old with a history of heart problems. Also, he carried a British passport, and they were more than happy to turn this matter over to someone else.

What neither the young lawyer nor the authorities knew, was that Sir David Woods death would set off a monumental chain of events that would play out on the international stage for months to come. The call to his group contact, by the senior partner, immediately prompted calls to several other group members. These prompted immediate calls to UK government officials. Within eight hours, Sir David’s body was on its way back to London.

Dr. Christian Adler had been busy of late. As both a consulting neurosurgeon and a group member, he was closely monitoring Lord Rodgers recovery. The side effects of stroke are unpredictable. His temperament could be trying at the best of times and now there seemed to be some concern about his short term memory.

Now, David was dead and the group wanted a complete autopsy done immediately. Thorough with absolute discretion was emphasized. A quick call to his associate in the pathology department would guarantee both. Within two days, the preliminary results were back. According to medical records, Woods suffered from a heart condition that had been successfully treated for several years with medication. But according to toxicology, his tests showed an unusually high amount of the medication in his system. “Whether it was enough to kill him is inconclusive,” reported Adler. “But it is certainly suspicious, considering he has been taking this drug for years and knew the risks of an overdose. Does anyone know why he suddenly rerouted to New York, or who he was with?”

Chapter 19

October 25, 2012

It had been a difficult few weeks for Stewart Chambers. Besides being trustee for his uncle, he was also executor of the estate of Sir David Woods. Amongst other things, as executor he was tasked with clearing numerous residences. Much to his surprise, this included telling several of David’s mistresses they would have to vacate. “The man was over 80 years old, worked 20 hours a day, traveled constantly, and had a heart condition! Where did he find the time… or the energy!” proclaimed Chambers.

In addition, all of the paperwork was finally completed to transfer full control of the payout process to him. It all started so long ago, he hardly remembered how it all began. But he would never forget the first conversation he had with her. When she asked him to help, how could he say no?

His first task as fiduciary administrator was to take control of the funds. That meant a trip to David’s office in Germany. Upon first entering the office, nothing seemed out of place. After a second glance, something struck his eye, and he realized the office had been searched. For what, and whether it was found, he was never able to determine. His priority was to collect the applicable documents and the bank security remote control device necessary to access the accounts.

Upon his return to the UK, the IT team immediately went to work installing the device in Stewart’s office. Much to the chagrin of all involved, it required a completely dedicated electrical and telecommunication system. Two days and a large hole in the wall later, the system was ready for testing. It failed. And failed again. It seemed to be looking for something they didn’t have, but what? A quick call to the bank, and a not so quick conversation with the bank’s security team, disclosed it was a two piece system. Quickly realizing where the other piece must be, Stewart jumped on a plane back to Germany. The next day, with the second component installed, all worked perfectly.

Now with several whiteboards affixed to the walls, he went about initiating the 29 steps necessary to begin payments. “Wasn’t there a movie by that name?” mused Chambers. Over the next three days the first 26 steps went seamlessly. Step 27 required that funds be transferred to Siti Group Bank, for the purchase of shares from a Chinese conglomerate. A call the next morning, from the CFO of said conglomerate, informed him the shares purchase had not been completed. After confirming that the funds transfer was successful, a call was made to Siti Group Bank. Followed by several other calls to other related parties. By the end of the day, it was discovered that the funds had been rerouted by Siti into a related deal to the benefit of select bank shareholders. The following morning, both the Siti CEO and COO abruptly resigned, and the shares purchase was completed.

Step 29 routed the funds to the final depository for disbursement. At 11am, the call was made to start the transfer of $2.3B to the processing account. At 11:15am the telephone rang. Chambers was needed in London for immediate group business. As a newly appointed leader, he was compelled to comply. However, he was assured he would be back to his office by late afternoon.

Two weeks later, Stewart Chambers walked back into his office.

Chapter 20

November 8, 2012

Sir Davis Prince was a smart and ambitious man. Born with the privilege of few, he never learned its true power. It is not in being the smartest man in the room, but in the ability to demonstrate sincere humility once you are admitted to the room. His birthright and intelligence earned him a place at Eton, Cambridge, and military command. Followed shortly thereafter by a career in business and finally politics.

It was in politics, he believed like many others, he found the pinnacle of power. “To be a leader of the nation”, he mused. Though his intelligence got him noticed, his inability to play well with others got him shunned.

Though his political career did not materialize as he envisioned, it brought a different kind of attention. When his uncle invited him for a drink, he was annoyed. In Prince’s opinion, the old man had never really amounted to much. But family was family. The building was in a forgotten part of the city and the room was old. But Prince recognized the smell of expensive cigars, leather bound books, exquisite liqueurs, and money. Seated in a quiet corner by the fire, his uncle explained the true hierarchy of power. “He who controls the machinery of money, controls the power,” he said. “The treasury and bank executives are actually the bottom tier. Above them, are presidents, prime ministers and select corporate tycoons.”
“This is the representation of power the world is allowed to see,” he continued. “In reality there are three levels above them. The lowest level is comprised of old family money. It may surprise you to learn, that only about 100 families control the majority of the world’s wealth.”
“Within these families, there is a select committee of 12 to 15 men that manage their power. This includes, not only expanding their portfolios, but dictating legal doctrine, shaping public policy, manipulating entire continents through government loans and controlling global financial markets.”

“From this group, 3 men are selected as arbiters. One is always a representative of the Rothschild family. The other two have changed occasionally over the decades, but are currently representatives of the families involved in the WWII Reclamation,” his uncle concluded.

Prince was struggling to grasp what he had just heard. After a few minutes of silence, he looked at his uncle. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked. His uncle looked at him, as if taking one last appraisal, and said. “Our family has been part of the select committee for decades. It is time for you to take my place.”

This conversation had taken place in 1992, but Prince could remember it like it was yesterday. For 20 years he sat at a level of power, only conspiracy theorists could imagine. But that was not enough. He wanted more, and the games he learned from years in politics had served him well. Lord Rodgers was no longer fit as an arbiter, and Prince’s moment had come.

However, there was a fly in the ointment. According to group rules, Lord Rodgers was allowed to choose his successor. He had chosen his nephew. An upstart nobody with no formal education or experience. The kid seemed to think his new position allowed him to distribute funds, now in possession of the group, to some bunch of peons. All because of a few court orders and a settlement agreement. “We own two continents, and pay 100 lawyers to avoid such legal foolishness,” smiled Prince.

Like Woods, Chambers ignored all polite requests to cease and desist. It was now time for further direct action. Prince immediately demanded that all Chambers activities be monitored. This was expressly frowned upon, but he didn’t care. He would be considered a hero for saving the group’s money.

A plan was devised, and arrangements made. The moment the kid called the bank to start the initiation of payments, the plan was put into action. Under the guise of important business related to his new role, Chambers was enticed to London. It was promised that he would be able to return home that afternoon. Once he arrived, he was told that his new position required him to meet all of the select committee members immediately. Because failing health was a hindrance for most, he had to travel to them. Over the next eight days, Chambers traveled around the globe twice and met seven committee members.
The travel schedule was strategically planned to ensure maximum exhaustion and disorientation. Also, it was made clear to the other members that no mention was to be made of the payment process.

On the ninth day, with Chambers so confused he neither knew the date or country, Prince and the remaining five members welcomed him. After the social pleasantries, the kid was told they felt it was not in anyone’s best interest to continue the payment process. “The funds can be put to better use for the greater good by the group,” they said. Chambers remained obstinate. It took all his self-control for Prince to continue a civilized conversation. Even his fellow members were softening there position. Against his strenuous objections, the kid and the members came to an agreement. If Chambers could continue the project without group resources, all further interference would cease. Prince was livid. After everything he had done to ensure these payment NEVER got made, he had been betrayed.

“This game isn’t over yet,” he fumed. After dinner he invited Chambers to have drink with him, as a sort of reconciliation. After a bit of conversation about the weather, Prince said. “Woods made the same mistake of getting in my way. Look what happened to him,” he smirked. “I strongly suggest that if you want to make sure you and your nearest and dearest stay healthy, you never allow those funds to leave the bank.” At which time he got up and walked away, with a look of malevolent satisfaction on his face.

Though left for dead, Lord Rodgers was very much alive, and with every passing day, regaining his old disposition.

Chapter 21

December 5, 2012

Stewart Chambers dropped onto his bed exhausted. His body had been functioning on remote control since his brain turned off, days ago. If he did wake up, he would try and figure out what had just happened. But now, he didn’t care.

When he finally awoke and focused on the clock, he was surprised to see he’d been asleep for only 10 hours. A shower, clean clothes, breakfast and some very strong coffee made him feel almost functional again.

His first task was to get to his office. He had been forbidden to communicate with anyone for almost two weeks. Designs needed to be delivered, inventory received, shipments packaged and bills and wages paid. With trepidation he walked onto the factory floor. Everything seemed to be running smoothly. His manager greeted his return, spent an hour going through current operations and went back to his office. Stewart wasn’t sure if he should be proud of their achievement, or concerned how well it ran without him.

His next task was to contact the fiduciary bank and determine the status of the funds. He had disappeared immediately after instructing them to proceed with moving the funds into place for distribution. He was happy to see, that according to standing order, when the bank had not heard from him for 72 hours they had returned the funds to a “safe haven” status that was created for just such an eventuality.

Next he contacted Dr. Porter and apologized for his abrupt absence. After a short conversation, it was agreed the process would begin again on Monday morning. “Thank you,” thought Stewart. “That gives me the weekend for my body to catch up to the time zone.”

Over the weekend, as his brain and body got back in sync, he started to relive the events of the last couple of weeks. The same thoughts kept creeping into his mind. The first, that nothing on this trip was urgent. Everything could have waited weeks, if not months. Second was the crushing disappointment. He was led to believe there was a greater purpose to the group. Now he knew their only motivation was personal greed and power. When he asked why they objected to paying the funds to the rightful beneficiaries, their responses had been simply, “because we can, it isn’t theirs until they can prove it, and why should we?” Lastly, was Prince’s allusion to David’s death and the insinuation that it could happen again. “Was it just a boastful threat, or did he really do what he implied,” wondered Chambers. “The other members would never allow it, or maybe they didn’t know.” His mind raced from one extreme to another. Should he be afraid or just annoyed?

Monday morning brought other priorities and his concerns about Prince moved to the back of his mind. The call to the bank started the funds movement again. Because of the size of the fund, movement was complex and time consuming. The first tranche of funds needed to move from the numerous main accounts to three accounts in three separate receiving banks. From there it was randomly moved to a single account. Then that account number was immediately forwarded to Dr. Porter. Once the judge received the account number, he approved distribution from the station in his office. This would then prompt a call to the administrator to start distributions.

On Wednesday morning the first tranche moved into the single account and the account number was transmitted to the judge. Dr. Porter pressed the button for approval and suddenly the funds transferred back to the three designated accounts. “It’s not supposed to do that,” exclaimed Chambers. The process was attempted again. All went perfectly until Dr. Porter’s approval and the funds reverted again.

Immediately both bank and IT security teams jumped on the problem. After two days of line by line code analyses, a backdoor into the monitoring station was discovered. Again program changes were made, and security enhanced. Because this was not the first time this had happened, certain security protocols had been built into the system and electronic fingerprints were found. Certain German court staff were immediately either dismissed or relocated.

Finally all was ready for another attempt. This time the funds moved to the single account, Dr. Porter approved transmission and the call was made to the administrators. But before the administrative team could even start contact with the beneficiaries, the fiduciary bank called. They had just received a court order freezing all assets.

After Chambers calmed down, he could not help but think about his conversation with the select committee and especially Prince. “I am glad my uncle is feeling better, I am going to need his help.”

Chapter 22

December 24, 2012

“It is time for us to fully re-evaluate the situation,” Stewart told her. “To quote Lord Elrond, “Our list of allies grows thin.”

“My uncle and Mrs. Grayson promised us they would start the process after the EU negotiations were completed in April, and reneged.”

‘David is dead as a result of his attempt.”

“Prince may have been the one who delivered the threat, but who knows where it really came from, or how many members are involved. “

“The original purpose of the ‘virtual’ jurisdiction has been corrupted. What started as a way to protect the beneficiaries is now being used to insure they we can never make the payments.”
“Whether willingly or unwillingly, the German political machine is now involved and in full spin mode trying to protect their own collective careers.

I update the judge every Friday, but he clearly has no intention of pressing the issue. I assume he either has no idea what is really going on, has been told to do nothing, but make it look good, or both.

“The current paymaster bank, which not only holds the settlement funds, but also group funds, has been threatened.”

Approximately 35,000 investor accounts probably representing hundreds of thousands of people, in over half the countries of the world, have enough information to bring the entire world down on my head.”

“Hmm,” she said. “What exactly did the court order say?” she asked. “Interesting you should ask me that,” said Stewart “It was very specific. It only froze assets that left the country. As you know, we have our funds in constant circulation to limit their ability to be encumbered. The group funds don’t leave Austria. Therefore, by amazing coincidence, the order only affected our accounts,” Stewart replied sarcastically.

“I don’t think we have a choice. We have to sound out your uncle. Even if it is for his own purposes, I think he will help us. He doesn’t seem to mind using these maneuvers to his benefit, but tends to respond exponentially when used against him,” she said.

Stewart went to work. Though there were some concerns about his health, Lord Rodgers seems to become rejuvenated as his nephew explained the problem.

After a few telephone calls, Lord Rodgers told Stewart what he had learned. “It seems Prince used Graystone Investments to put pressure on the Austrian Finance Ministry to issue the order. Because of our ownership position in Commerce Trust, and relationship with the Austrian government, we will need to get a majority vote of the members to get the order lifted.”

“This will have to be done discreetly and very carefully. I don’t know where all of the members stand on this matter. The fact that it is the holiday season will make it much easier. We can hide our conversations in holiday greetings.”

Ten days later, per Stewart’s agreement, without the use of group resources, Lord Rodgers had obtained the votes needed, and held controlling interest in Graystone Investments.

Chapter 23

January 2, 2013

The night was cold and clear. There was no snow on the ground and the damp air had left the grass covered in frost. The house sat on a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood backed by a small wood. To a casual observer, it looked like any other. Upon closer observation, it might be possible to see the tiny cameras positioned at key points around the house. Nowhere was it apparent the residence had more silent security then No.10 Downing.

Suddenly Stewart was wide awake. He couldn’t say what had woken him. But something was wrong. One of the outside motion sensor controlled lights flashed, and was quickly extinguished when the whole house went dark. A quick look out the bedroom window told him the street was still illuminated.

Then he heard a small scraping noise at the backdoor. Seconds later the generator kicked in, the power was restored and the alarm system started flashing. While he crept slowly down the stairs to see what was happening, he heard a vehicle start and drive away.

Carefully he explored the house room by room to ensure there were no breaches. As his heart rate started to slow he could only be thankful his holiday guests had left the day before.
Next he walked into his office and cued up the security tapes. Instantly four men in black clad commando gear came into view. He could see them move around to the back of the house and access the junction box. Then the tape went black. When the images reappeared, he could see them all moving quickly away from the house and out of sight.

Within five minutes of the alarm, a police cruiser arrived. While Stewart was apologizing for the false alarm, a black SUV drove up to the house. No one got out. After the authorities were sent away, with continued apologies, Stewart went back into the house, grabbed an already packed bag, walked over to the SUV and was driven away.

He suddenly resurfaced two weeks later.

Chapter 24

January 17, 2013

“Back in my own bed,” sighed Stewart. Group security protocols were initiated the moment that Stewart’s security alarm activated. His protection detail had been on high alert since the discovery of the listening device in his mail box. Also, several vehicles with untraceable number plates were spotted around his house and office.

Protocol required that he be completely sequestered from all outside contact and moved every two days. It had been an exhausting and disorienting experience. He was never told where they were going or where they had been. Once in a while, he would spot a landmark that at least told him in which part of the country they were traveling.

There were two good things about this experience. The first, he was able to catch up on some movies he had missed, and binge watch some of his favorite shows. The second, he was being updated regularly on the full scale investigation into the attempted break in.
In between episodes of Game of Thrones, he was told the four operatives were retired British Special Forces. Considering the group employed many of them, including the four protecting him, the news was not entirely comforting.

He was just finishing The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey, when he was told their mission was to retrieve a black box. No one seemed to know what that meant. Stewart knew immediately. They were after the bank security remote control device that controlled the settlement fund accounts. “Someone must be awfully desperate to try something so brazen,” thought Stewart.

Stewart was halfway through Season 5 of Sons of Anarchy when he was informed that information had been received that implicated David Prince was the instigator of the attempted theft. A call from his uncle, an hour later, informed him he was free to return home and “STEPS WILL BE TAKEN.” “Why couldn’t they have waited a few more hours? At least I could have finished the whole season.”

Chapter 25

February 18, 2013

Stewart sat in his uncle’s office. He was sure the only things in the room that had been invented in the last century were the push button phones sitting on the desk. Even some of the books in the extensive library could be better described as manuscripts. Many of them, first editions.

Lord Rodgers had invited him down to the family estate for the weekend, ostensibly to make sure he was okay, but Stewart knew better. Over the last month, the battle lines had been drawn. Rodgers, who managed with the precision of a surgeon, and Prince, who appeared more like a butcher with a dull knife. The spoils being sought were nothing less than the machinery of money; complete control over the Bank of International Settlement and the entire banking system. The settlement funds were just a bonus. As Prince had explained to Stewart in October, “I am keeping your money because I can, and nobody can stop me.”

Lord Rodgers walked in and took the wing backed chair next to Stewart. “We have a problem,” he started. “Prince has decided that the settlement fund is his own personal treasure chest and has and will continue to do any and everything to make sure the funds are never paid.” Stewart wished he could be surprised, but he wasn’t. The only good thing that had happened in the last month was that Prince and his confederates had been forced into the open. For the first time in six years he knew the face of his enemy.

Rodgers continued, “The only way to stop the continual interference is to stop Prince. This means he and his minions must be destroyed, both professionally and financially. There activities have left us no other choice.”

Stewart listened as his uncle proceeded to explain his three step plan. It started with a complicated maneuver that had been discussed occasionally, in theory, for decades, but the opportunity to use it had never arisen. The other reason it had not been tried, was that it was very risky. The outline of the plan required Stewart to create the impression that he had accidentally left $10B of the settlement fund in an unnamed and unencumbered account. This information would then be leaked to one of Prince’s confederates, Bill Spade seemed a good choice. Greed being the prevailing motivation of the group, Rodgers explained, it would be quickly encumbered, leveraged, and trading. Rodgers’ team would then generate offsetting positions. Once that happened, the fictional $10B underlying asset would simply disappear in the same way it appeared. “If all goes well, we will catch them on the wrong side of the trades with no collateral. It shouldn’t take more than a few days,” finished Rodgers.

Stewart sat thinking for a few moments. He couldn’t help but admire the sheer audacity and genius of the plan. But he also knew his uncle. Never, in the past, had he been told the whole story and didn’t he promise almost a year ago that the payments would be made. Here too, he knew large pieces of the puzzle were missing.

After repeated assurances, by his uncle, that Stewart’s part in the battle would be over in a few days, and the payments could then be made to their rightful owners, Stewart agreed. The next day he handed Rodgers the keys to the treasure chest.

Things did NOT go according to plan.

Chapter 26

May 3, 2013

Stewart awoke, opened his eyes, looked around and couldn’t immediately place where he was. “Oh yes, another hotel room in another city I can’t remember,” he thought with a feeling of déjà vu. He and several other group members had been dispatched around the globe in an attempt to prevent a potential financial meltdown created by the “plan”.

The “plan” had overlooked three significant factors. The first being the extent of leverage in play. Prince was not trading $10B or even $100B but he had leveraged the leverage. The second was the number of financial entities involved. In order to maximize his profits and minimize his exposure, the funds were distributed across dozens of trading institutions. The third was perhaps the most portentous and unpredictable; electronic trading.

When the “plan” was conceived decades before, all market transactions were done by manned trading desks. Today over 70% of all financial trades are done by computer algorithms and the number of interlocking financial products had increased exponentially. The group had already learned that movement of large amounts of funds from one account to another could trigger huge swings in the market. Protocols requiring human intervention were in place to quickly make corrections.

Within 30 minutes of Lord Rodgers’ implementing his offsetting trades the NYSE dropped over 300 points. Immediate initiation of adjustment protocols allowed the market to close within 50 points of its open, but not without several intraday swings. Overnight, these adjustments created further swings in the Asian markets. By the next morning, the NYSE had dropped another 300 points.

Several group members were immediately contacted and a conference call was arranged. Lord Rodgers explained the situation. “It was necessary for us to rein in some rogue members. In order to do this, I was forced to initiate some trading transactions that have created unintended consequences. It is critical that you meet with our financial partners and explain our need for them to cooperate, no questions asked, if they want to preserve their capital positions,” he said. “Because of the three tiers of impact, the financial institutions must be contacted in a certain order. This is going to require an illogical travel pattern,” he continued.

Seeing the puzzlement on their faces, he tried to explain. “There are effectively three tiers of financial entities that impact the global markets. The first tier have both the infrastructure and the volume for immediate effect. As you move down the tiers the effect becomes less immediate or amplified. With every move I make, our quarry will be forced to move his activity to a lower tier where he will be trapped.” This explanation still left a couple puzzled faces but Rodgers decided he didn’t have time for further explanation. Instead he ended the conference call and started giving each member, in turn, their specific tasks.

The markets swung like a pendulum for the next ten days. The talking heads outdid themselves trying to explain the myriad global factors that were creating the swings. Only two men knew that it was all about two children fighting over a toy, with the entire world hanging in the balance.

It would take several more weeks before Stewart would be able to refocus on the settlement funds and payment process.

Chapter 27

August 6, 2013

Stewart could tell her patience was wearing thin. Ever since his return from his 80 times around the world trip, his answers to her questions had gotten vaguer by the day. He wasn’t being intentionally deceptive but separating fact from fiction lately had become a struggle. As she always said, “it’s easy to spot the lie, finding the truth is a lot harder.”

Some urgent group business suddenly materialized every time he attempted to broach the subject of the payouts. The source of the urgency seemed to move as well, making it impossible for him to pinpoint the interference. When he was finally able to ask about a start date, the answers were a vague “soon” or “shortly”. His favorite responses always started with “as soon as we….”

On top of everything else, the wedding dress he was designing for his best friend’s fiancé wasn’t finished and the wedding was in three weeks. If that wasn’t bad enough, his mother was on his case and seemed to insist all of his problems could be attributed to “that woman.”
Finally he was told that he could start the movement of the funds. The transfer from “safe haven” to the three accounts went perfectly.

That night, he was excited to tell her that the process would be ready in the morning. The next morning, while he was waiting for the confirmation from the bank, he received another call. This call told him the funds would be unavailable for distribution for an undetermined amount of time. Like a crushing blow, they had finally told him what he had suspected all along. He had seen it before. Once the group got control of someone’s money, they never saw it again. The group motto in these circumstances was “we’ll give it back when they force us to.”

In all the fish stories he had heard it hadn’t happened yet and though he knew it was the coward’s way out, he never spoke to her again.

Chapter 28

December 12, 2013

Stewart couldn’t say it wasn’t great being back in his own bed again, but the abrupt change in schedule had caught him by surprise. After over two months in New York, he was glad to be home.

The last few months had been the worst of his life. She had not taken his abrupt disappearance quietly. After her initial fear, anger, frustration and disappointment, her messages made it clear this matter was far from over. Also, he was beginning to realize she knew a lot more than he ever imagined and was ready, willing and able to turn this into an international incident. How she knew so much, completely baffled him, he was sure he hadn’t told her. His biggest concern was that she had made it clear, she didn’t care who ended up under the wheels of a double decker bus in the process.

On the local front, because the group had him running hither and there, the dress and waistcoats for the wedding were completed with only minutes to spare, and both his mother and his best friend weren’t speaking to him. Okay, when it came to his mother that was a bonus.

Slightly further afield, a certain German judge was getting impatient. Even his uncle’s golden tongue was not appeasing his annoyance with the perpetual delays.

The biggest surprise had come when he was told to commence the payout process. After clearing his ears, and asking for the statement to be repeated, he started making calls. His euphoria was quickly dispelled after the first call to the administrative lawyers. Because the first recipient was in the US, he would have to commence the process from their New York office. Within a few days, all of the appropriate procedures, documents and personnel were shifted to New York and he was settled into one of the group’s apartments.

Now came the hard part. “Do I contact her before I arrange for her to arrive in New York? Or do I arrange her transportation before I contact her? If I contact her, and something goes wrong, they will be finding my body parts scattered along the entire east coast. But how do I make transportation arrangements without contacting her?”

He finally decided to make partial arrangements. The ground transport and accommodations were easy and could be adjusted at a moment’s notice. That just left secure air travel. Though he had been given approval to start the process, he knew the decision was not universal and that further attempts, some potentially life threatening, might be used to stop him. Not being able to use group resources, as per the agreement, made the task a bit more challenging. He knew a network of private plane owners he could contact that might be willing to help.

At first, the calls to procure use of a plane were met with great success. Then suddenly strange things started to happen. First the weather caused delays, then pilots fell ill, and planes suddenly needed parts. His favorite was that the plane wasn’t certified to fly into the US.

After three weeks of frustration, delays and very acrimonious calls with Dr. Porter, he had no choice but to request assistance from his uncle. The judge had demanded Lord Rodgers be present on the last call and had elicited promises from both of them that the process would be started within the week.

His uncle’s involvement always made Stewart nervous. Though it was true, Lord Rodgers could get things done quickly, he always seemed to have numerous agendas, sometimes seemingly competing, and always unknown. It was his uncle’s opinion that no further arrangements could be made until Stewart made contact with her.

For three days, Stewart found a multitude of reasons he couldn’t make the call and his uncles famous temper was starting to show the strain. “I never knew calling a woman could be so hard, or maybe just this woman.” thought Stewart. Finally, Stewart was told that other group business required that he fly to an unknown location and retrieve an unknown person.
Stewart was driven to the airport, boarded his uncle’s private plane and landed three hours later. Just before he was to give Stewart further instructions, the pilot received a call. After refueling, they would be immediately returning to New York to pick up his uncle, then proceed on to London.

As Stewart was about to re-board the plane he noticed a newspaper on the terminal desk. It said Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Chapter 29

December 28, 2013

Still in a daze from the experience in New York, Stewart tried to regain a sense of normalcy by going back to his office. He had barely adjusted to the time zone when he received a call from the judge threatening forcible detention.

Then calls started coming in from various group members. A deal he had worked on before he left had blown up in volcanic fashion and somehow it was his fault. The fact that there were several other members involved seemed to be ignored in their ranting. Most notably the guy at the center of the deal who was using his wife’s money, while she was threatening to divorce him, and who’s mistress was threatening to leave. “How can I be blamed for that?!”
And his uncle had started sending him written notes telling him to get the payments started. His uncle knew full well, Stewart could not and would not make THAT call. Not only was he afraid of what she might do, but he had none of the skills necessary to perform the task. He was a dress designer. She was the one that always knew exactly what needed to be done. “How did I get myself into this mess? And more importantly, how do I get out?”

His confidence shattered, and trust a scarce commodity, Stewart started hiding from the world. A summons from his uncle was ignored. Then another. In the third “request”, Stewart was told if he did not show up, parties would be sent to retrieve him. Said parties found him several hours later near the family estate in a state of near collapse.

All he could remember of the four days he was in and out of consciousness was Mickey and Minnie Mouse sitting on his shoulders telling him he would be okay and someone asking how to unlock his phone.

Once he could eat solid food again, he was told that he had slept through Christmas and Boxing Day, and that his uncle wanted to speak with him. He walked into the den and saw his uncle standing next to the fire. Lord Rodgers softly asked how he was feeling, then without waiting for an answer, he started bellowing. “What did you think you were doing?”

“Why should your inability to get these payments made be so troubling to you? Forget the payments. Those peons will never see a penny of my money.” Seeing Stewart’s puzzled face, he continued. “You think that money belongs to them?! Don’t be ridiculous, I was smart enough to find it, I am not about to give it back.”

Trying not to stammer, Stewart asked, “Then why was I in New York?” “Because I needed time! I knew you wouldn’t cooperate again after the problems we had in the spring and Woods had tied the funds up so they couldn’t be used. I have to give him credit, he knew what he was doing,” Rodgers voice softened when he thought of the ingenuity of his friend. Then he turned back to Stewart and stated, “It was necessary for the funds to be rolled into the Austrian government guarantees before they could be encumbered again.”

“I also thought if I got you more involved in my other business matters, without your knowledge, you would forget this foolishness and would come to understand the importance of retaining the funds.”

Almost afraid to ask, Stewart said “What about the judge?” Without missing a beat, Rodgers started ranting again. “The Germans will do what I tell them to do! There is no case related to this matter, so all Porter can do is huff and puff, and he knows it. Now you know it!” “If Schartel wants to keep his career and protect his boss he will keep his mouth shut.”

“But there are group members with accounts involved, ventured Stewart. What about them?” This statement only seemed to raise his uncle’s ire further. “What group? There is no group! I am the group. Do you really think, my distant in-law, Nathan Rothschild was interested in sharing power? His only interest was in expanding his empire by using other people’s money. The group is a valuable illusion, but an illusion none the less!”

Rodgers smiled at the thought, then stopped and turned to face Stewart. The look on his nephews face told him he had said too much. In over 50 years he had never revealed the truth to anyone. Then he quickly relaxed, he had made Stewart afraid of his own shadow.
He had ways of ensuring Stewart continued to do exactly what he was told.

Chapter 30

February 25, 2014

Farming was her vocation, but software was her game. An experienced understanding of human nature and a degree in accounting and finance didn’t hurt either. She knew exactly what she needed next. The German judge in charge of the matter. Available information had verified Dr. Graeme had handled the case for the Federal court, but where did it go after the Barker’s fiasco? In all of their conversations, Stewart had been very evasive about the details.

To answer that question, she needed a better understanding of the German court system. To understand the German court system, she needed a German lawyer. To find a German lawyer, she needed her extensive back channel.

Throughout this project she had learned the two greatest weaknesses of her enemy; their inability to understand the power of the internet and their egos. They had used both to take the beneficiaries funds, but did not understand how effective the internet could be in getting them back.

They now call it crowd funding, but she discovered the amazing power of a group of internationally diverse and talented people years before anyone attached a funny name.
With the assistance of a well developed network, years in the making, new contacts were established in Germany and a German Federal lawyer was retained. Not an easy task for an American after the NSA disclosures. Through the process of obtaining counsel, it became clear that in order to properly move the project forward a trip to Germany was required.
At an amazing speed, and with the incredible support of many, trust accounts were established, funds were collected and even plane tickets were arranged.

Within 30 days, a simple farmer was on her way to Germany.

Chapter 31

March 9, 2014

After deplaning in Frankfurt, she recognized a language of her childhood. She vividly remembered her great grandmother frequently swearing a blue streak in German. Though her grandmother spoke fluent English, it seemed she felt her point could be more fully expressed in her native tongue.

Upon arrival, the farmer met her charming translator. While chatting about the purpose of her trip, he very considerately showed her a few of the high points of the city. On the way to her hotel, he also pointed out the necessities, of the grocery, pharmacy and shopping center.
The next morning the farmer met with her new German lawyer, Mrs. Schroder. The challenge in retaining a German lawyer had been threefold; the farmer was American, the lawyer needed to understand English and there were only 36 lawyers allowed to represent matters in front of the German Federal Court. Mrs. Schroder fulfilled all of the criteria and sight unseen, had agree to assist.

After introductions, Mrs. Schroder quietly listened as the situation was explained. Over the course of the explanation, a look of disbelief and incredulity slowly crept across her face. When she finally spoke, she said “that is an incredible story, but it simply couldn’t happen here. First, there is no such thing as a sealed case in Germany. Our laws require that all legal matters be open and registered. Secondly, no computer system would ever be installed in the federal court for the oversight of any case. After dispensation the matter would be sent back to the originating lower court.”

She went on to further explain that the German court system was broken into two district halves, civil and criminal, and rarely if nary do the two meet. When the farmer told her which federal judge had been responsible, she looked him up on her laptop and explained that the matter must be part of the criminal court system. “If what you say is true, the case would have been sent back to either the Appeals Court or the Lower Court in the appropriate district.” She then went on to explain how the file numbering system worked and that the entire system is driven by the case number. “Without the case number, no one can help you with the specifics, but feel free to contact me with any further questions.” She concluded.
The farmer left the meeting a bit disillusioned but better informed about where to go next. Returning to the hotel, she started making calls to her network. It was decided that there were two tracks that needed further investigation. Current available information had narrowed the courts to one of two, and where was the computer?

It was decided that sometimes the best place to start is at the bottom and in this instance it was the literal truth. The IT department for the district was located in the basement. IT seemed the most obvious place to start, as the same team serviced both potential courthouses. Here the always charming, and quick thinking translator struck gold. While attempting to contact the lead IT administrator, the request was transferred to his assistance. While the translator was explaining the situation, the young lady suddenly lite up. She remembered the installation for two reasons; the unusual nature of the install and the cute British technician.

With one telephone call, the farmer now knew which court was handling the case and on what floor the computer was installed. However, the assistant couldn’t remember which judge.

Adding her second very clever translator to the task and again starting at the bottom, it took a few more calls to find a very chatty and bored court clerk. He was happy to explain how each of the segments of the court worked, and their specialties. He went on to describe the court case registry system and how it could be used to find a case without a case number. After numerous attempts, using every variation of the information presented to him, he finally admitted defeat.

Then he commented, that given the details of the matter, it must belong to Dr. Schaller’s court. With the luck of the Irish on his side, the translator got Dr. Schaller on the phone. While appreciating the difficult situation, the judge was sure the matter was not before him. On further reflection, Dr. Schaller stated, “If this is a criminal matter, associated with international civil orders, it must be one of Dr. Porter’s cases.”

A quick call to the IT assistant jogged her memory. “Except, she said, it wasn’t Dr. Porter’s office at the time, it was Dr. August’s.” A second call to a select member of the farmer’s back channel confirmed she had found the right man.

That evening while going over the events of the last few days, she realized she had seen firsthand evidence of the openness of German society. None of the people she contacted had any reason to believe this matter was any different than any other. They had no way of knowing that, despite numerous laws to the contrary, this was one of Germany’s, more recent, closely held secrets.

Chapter 32

March 22, 2014

Upon arriving back at the farm, it was apparent nothing had been done while she was away. The stalls were knee deep in dirty wet bedding, the feed needed to be mixed and the hay needed to be moved from central storage into the barn. The jetlag caused by the seven hour time change would have to wait.

She had learned years ago, the underappreciated benefits of living on a farm. The first was focus and routine. The animals expected to be fed on-time 365 days a year, and if you valued your life, it was impossible to be dwelling on anything, no matter how important it may seem, while standing between 1200lbs of horse and their feed. The animals always reminded her what was really important, and what was not.

Secondly, the mundane, less dangerous tasks, allowed the mind to wonder. Her staff always got a bit worried, about what she would dream up next, when she left early to work on the farm.

Today she was musing on Stewart. Over the course of six years and thousands of telephone calls, they had discussed every topic under the sun, but she had never pressed him for personal or professional details he did not openly choose to disclose. Nor had he queried her. Information was shared with the understanding that phones and email were accessible, the matter complex, the opposition formidable and that sources had to be protected.
The trip to Germany changed everything. It was time to start creating an official paper trail and to put details to his wonderful stories. Actually, it was past time, and she knew she had trusted Stewart more than his recent actions had proven was wise, but dwelling on the past was a waste of effort.

The first task was to make an official demand for documents and payment from the fiduciary administrator, Mr. Stewart Chambers. He had confirmed his appointed role, to at least two other people that she knew. The letter drafted and signed, demanding a response in 10 days, was sent FedEx, signature required, tracking guaranteed to his home address. It was signed for, by his father, two days later.

She hoped he would use the letter as an opportunity to initiate communication to commence the payout process. But to quote Dumbledore, “evidence so far suggests that would be optimistic to the point of foolishness.”

If knowledge is power, she needed a lot more than she had. Who were these nefarious foes? He had given her a lot of little details over the years but not much tangible information. Admittedly, without Stewart’s knowledge, she had pieced together enough to find his uncle, the group lawyer, and a couple others. Also, the chain of events was easy to follow in the international press, once he taught her what to look for.

One of his favorite topics, besides the numerous ways you can define rain in Britain, was history. It was a running joke that the old stories got wilder and bolder with each telling over the decades. Understanding the group was quite old and established, she went about searching for more group members. There appeared to be two main avenues of research. Misanthropic billionaires in general and Rothschild specifically.

Knowing that membership ran in families, she queried numerous forms of “secret”, “private”, “billionaire”, and “death” in the primary first world countries. This created a very short list of families. The group did an amazing job of hiding the majority of its member’s wealth but the first billion or so was trickier. Next she looked for signs that normally reported details were missing, or deaths that were reported weeks after the fact. Further research usually found redacted portions of documents, deeds and books.

It wasn’t long before a couple common threads emerged. The first could be best described with bullets, bandages, biscuits and banks. Later, the addition of insurance, or more specifically reinsurance. The second was King Ferdinand, Austria and Rothschild loans. Put more specifically, war was profitable. No one knew better than Nathan Rothschild. He also understood the value of advantageous marriage and of children born on both sides of the blanket.

She did not go back further than 1905, but the story and connections became very clear. The Rothschild family loaned investment funds to affiliated family members and well placed families to expand industries that directly benefited from conflict, before, during and after. Then created the conflict. Tracing forward with both the Rothschild family tree and the list of old family money, she had an intriguing, and a bit concerning list of men. They had destroyed continents to obtain their power.

“Now what do I do with this?” she wondered.

Chapter 33

April 9, 2014

The first thing she did was to make copies of all of her notes and documents and send them to her lawyers. Second, she contacted her back channel and asked for confirmation of her findings.

Back channels are interesting mechanisms. Before this project, she had never even heard of the concept. The idea that anything could get done by indirectly contacting someone, who contacted someone, who contacted someone, seemed insane to her. She had been raised to achieve tangible results by the most efficient means possible. If she wanted to get from point A to point B she took Highway 5. If she wanted to meander on a three day weekend listening to J. K. Rowling or P. G. Wodehouse she took the Pacific Coast Highway, figuratively speaking.

The other interesting nuance of her back channel was that they would not proactively divulge information, but would confirm what she already knew. She didn’t even know who “they” were. Only that her opposition had made a lot of enemies, and within certain parameters, “they” were willing to assist. By the response to her request, it was clear her back channel was surprised by the depth of her knowledge, and had even learned a few new things themselves.

Putting her new found information on the back burner, she went about expanding her paper trail. It came as no big surprise when 10 days came and went with no response from Stewart. On day 12, she sent an official copy via FedEx return receipt, signature required, of her request, to Dr. Porter, as well as, an unofficial copy via e-mail.

While in Germany, she learned that mail and faxes are official forms of legal communication with the court, e-mail is not. Also, though the court clerk was unwilling to give out specific e-mail addresses, the e-mail address of the courthouse gave her the nomenclature. When the e-mail to Dr. Porter’s personal address did not bounce back, she knew spending 20 years in the software business was not for naught.

With the assistance of a dozen or so other investors, additional requests for information and payment were drafted, signed and again sent to the fiduciary administrator. These were also sent via e-mail to Dr. Porter.

The purpose of these maneuvers was to slowly and carefully demonstrate to all parties involved that every effort to commence processing was being made and that this issue was not going to just go away.

With each step, the bands of exposure would get larger, like ripples in a pond.

Chapter 34

May 15, 2014

The planting and spring cleaning season was in full swing. The worst snow in years had finally melted and the damage was tangible. The most notable problem was the 100 year old cottonwood that had taken out a 30 foot section of fence when it toppled. Its removal, the repair and the several smaller problems caused by the reality that horses will inevitably make a beeline for any weak spot that separates them from a newly sprouting anything, kept her busy from dawn to dusk. She was painfully aware of the origins of the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”

She was also aware of the deafening silence from both the fiduciary administrator and the German court, though not surprised by either. Even if Stewart’s reticence was not a primary problem, his lawyers would most certainly be a major hurdle. She was convinced that if a lawyer had wandered into the Garden of Eden, Adam would have been advised not to give up a rib. “We need to consider all of the potential personal liability,” would have been the lawyer’s response. Of course, as soon as he realized Adam had nowhere to hide a wallet in that fig leaf, he would have just wondered out again.

Then there was the German court. Nowhere are there more petty bureaucratic fiefdoms then in government agencies. To use another biblical reference, she was sure there were some serious noses out of joint when Moses had the audacity to only consult God and then made just one copy of the Ten Commandments.

Having tired of the nonresponse, she decided it was time to file claims directly with the State of Germany and Dr. Porter. It was important that the claims be filed separately. Dr. Porter was both the presiding judge for Special Matters representing Germany and the Finance Ministry appointed overseer of the transaction. Two separate roles with differing and potentially conflicting responsibilities.

A claim and demand for payment against the guarantee was sent to Dr. Porter, as presiding judge for the State of Germany and Dr. Schartel, signatory as Finance Minister via FedEx return receipt, signature required. Both were also e-mailed.

At the same time, a demand for information and payment, including account and identification verification, was made to Dr. Porter, as overseer. Again, FedEx return receipt, signature required and e-mailed.

Now all she could do was wait. She knew that the court rules allowed up to 90 days for a response and 36 had elapsed since her first request of the court. The clock was ticking.

Chapter 35

July 14, 2014

Once the planting was done the summer maintenance began. The joy of spring’s arrival quickly turns into a battle to keep the farm from reverting back to its natural state. Fertilizer to strengthen the grasses, herbicides to beat back the weeds and perpetual mowing. Of course, a good working knowledge of engine and tire repair is a necessity along with a thorough understanding of how to leverage a lawn tractor off a two foot high gopher mound.

Most people, taking a leisurely drive through the countryside, imagine it to be the most idyllic life. Little do they know!

After she had sent her requests to Dr. Porter, her network suggested that it was unfortunate that a German citizen had not also demanded information and payment. “A German citizen will have more influence and rights within both the court and the government,” they said. Two calls and a translator later, a German citizen officially filed a demand for information and payment with the court, Dr. Porter and Dr. Schartel.

By this time, she had a hefty file of documents sent to both the fiduciary administrator and the court, and still not a peep. She was tired of this game and a game it was. It was time to shake things up a bit. She contacted about 15 trusted investors and gave them Dr. Porter and Dr. Schartel’s contact information, including phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses and told them to contact their offices as often as they wanted demanding a response to their requests. She didn’t expect this to accomplish getting payments started but it was time they understood this matter was only going to get more public.

To her surprise, two of the members actually spoke with Dr. Porter. A bit shaken, he confirmed he was aware of the matter and advised them both to get legal counsel.
She knew that in addition to presiding over the virtual jurisdiction that enveloped the matter, Dr. Porter had been granted universal jurisdiction to address the international class of investors. This required him to respond to any and all legal requests presented. Within a day of his statement to find a lawyer, her American counsel officially faxed another request for payment and information.

On day 89 her phone rang. She was unable to reach it in time, but the phone number on the display was Dr. Porter’s antechamber. No message was left.

It was time to find the right German lawyer.

Chapter 36

July 15, 2014

In the meantime, unbeknownst to her, Dr. Porter requested Stewart’s presence in Germany. It was one thing to allow Stewart and his golden tongued uncle to give him excuses about why the payment process hadn’t begun, when no one seemed to be aware the matter even existed, but entirely another with a bulging folder of demands in his office.

When he agreed to take the position after August had been asked to retire, he was promised that the matter would not be an issue, so he could just ignore it. Now some woman from the US was sending him registered letters to both his role as a judge and as the German overseer. “How does she know who I am?” He wondered. To make matters worse, dozens of other beneficiaries had obtained his contact information and his phone was ringing more than it had in the previous years since his appointment. “How stupid was I to believe a politician,” he thought, knowing his promised appointment to the Federal Court was hanging by a thread.

His other problem was that he hadn’t read any of the 5 rooms of documents related to the matter and had been told to make it appear that the German government was intent on protecting the beneficiaries of the agreements while doing nothing to force the issue. Also, because somehow the case had vanished from the entire court system, his authority as a judge was limited.

All the same, he had to do something, or more specifically, he had to appear to be doing something. Hence the demand for Stewart and his legal representative to present themselves to his office. Even that request took weeks as the young man seemed to be suffering from some severe anxiety.

When the meeting between Porter, Chambers, and his lawyer finally happened, it was very disappointing. When Chambers was asked when the process would get started, he had no intelligible response. No matter what questions were asked, the response was the same, multiple long winded versions of “I don’t know.”

Frustration getting the best of Porter’s temper, he picked up the book sitting on his desk by his right hand and threw it across the room, missing Stewart’s head by inches. Then he called his security team into his office and asked them to escort Stewart to a designated secure location.

Stewart was asked to relinquish his mobile and any other electronics and to exchange his attire for a white jumpsuit and escorted into a small white room. The only light in the room came from a small window at ceiling level. The few furnishings which comprised of a narrow bed, and a chair were all in the same color white, or if he looked closely, tinted with a touch of pink.

For four days he sat with nothing to distract him but three meals a day slipped into the room. He was told that he would be allowed to leave when he had something constructive to say. On the fifth day he was given back his clothes and escorted back to the judge’s office. Again he was asked when the process would start, and again he responded that he didn’t know.
The following day, Stewart and his lawyer left Germany. Dr. Porter had done as he was instructed. No one could say he hadn’t made it look like he was trying to assist the beneficiaries.

Chapter 37

August 22, 2014

Midsummer on the farm started to follow a predictable routine. The steady spring rains had turned into a periodic downpour, and the grass was growing at a slower pace, allowing her a few days between cuttings. Hybrid corn seed had made the old adage “knee high by the fourth of July” antiquated. It was usually over her head by mid-July. What did remain true, however, was that if you listened carefully you could hear it grow. She always wondered what grew faster, the corn or the dandelions.

Given both the experience and challenges she had encountered finding the first German lawyer, she hoped the second would be a bit easier. Her past involvement with lawyers in general and those involved in this matter specifically, had taught her a few lessons.

The first and most important was one of priorities. No matter what a lawyer told their current client, their priority was always their next client. Put more simply, the legal profession was no different than a small community. The lawyers and judges they dealt with today were the same people they would be drinking with tonight, and would have to appear in front of tomorrow. Though some skillful maneuvering was respected, it was only allowed within the narrow frame of the community. Angering the community greatly impacted the second lesson.

Money and position. She was sure no profession could smell a pot of gold faster, except maybe politicians. Perhaps that was why over 80% of all politicians were lawyers. Not only could they find the money, but had created the laws to ensure they could skim a large portion off any top.

Of the 20 or so beneficiary lawyers that had been involved in the matter over the years, they all had one thing in common. They had started working for the beneficiaries after recognizing the size of the settlement, then changed sides the moment they saw the bigger nest egg on the other side.

Her other concern was that Rodgers was very, very well connected. How could she find a firm that was large enough to handle the complexity of the situation, but not already in his pocket?

It was time to get her longtime personal lawyer involved. She had been keeping him updated over the years, if for no other reason but to give him a glimpse into a world neither of them had ever even imagined existed. Two days after a quick call to him, explaining what she needed, he produced a list of two potential candidates. Several lengthy conference calls later, she had her new German counsel.

Within two weeks, a formal request for documents and payment, had again been sent to Dr. Porter.

Chapter 38

September 9, 2014

By early September the harvest was in full swing. In fact, she could honestly say, she was tired of lettuce, spinach and kale. Peas, radishes, carrots, beans, and beets were not far behind. Since as far back as she could remember, her father had a rule. Every seed in the packet had to be planted. Not only did this make for a very large garden, but also necessitated canning, pickling, freezing, squeezing, and jamming. In later years, he finally acknowledged there were only so many cabbages that could be shredded into sauerkraut and started taking the extra to the local food shelf.

Three weeks after her new German attorneys had sent an official request for information to Dr. Porter, they received a response. It was short, and very carefully worded. It said, as an officer of the court, there was no such case in his courthouse, and that no court would handle administrative duties of the nature described. To add a bit of color and make sure her lawyers would not bother him again, he added that representatives for their client had been told this information before, and she didn’t seem to get it.

She couldn’t say he had lied about anything. She already knew the court did not officially have the case, it was in a virtual jurisdiction. Nor was the court directly responsible for the distribution of funds. Those duties were supposed to be handled by the fiduciary administrator that Dr. Porter was personally overseeing.

Also, days after he had acknowledged to two investors his awareness of Secure Income he had yelled to her translator, he knew nothing of the matter (she received a translation of the conversation).

It wasn’t what he said that struck her as interesting, it was what he didn’t. For example, he didn’t answer any of the questions asked about Mr. Stewart Chambers or any of the previous judges, courts, fiduciaries or payments to the 42 accounts paid under his oversight.

His carefully parsed response reminded her of the numerous games she had encountered, played by the various lawyers, judges and administrators involved. The phone calls from legal clerks telling her they weren’t handling the matter, instead of official signed letters from the barrister addressed. The carefully drafted official looking letters from addressed barristers that weren’t signed. The e-mailed judicial responses from jurisdictions where e-mail is not recognized. Splitting the court orders into numerous pieces, and having each piece sealed by a different court claiming government security interests.

The most common was no response at all, even in jurisdictions where this was in direct violation of the court rules. And her favorite, a barrister telling a judge they failed at attempting to contact her counsel, when he had only dialed 9 of the 10 digits of the telephone number.

It was time for a more direct German approach.

Chapter 39

November 5, 2014

The days started getting shorter, the ground wetter and a chill was creeping into the air. There was a more hurried feeling to tasks. Winter could come without notice and preparations needed to be finished. The last of the tomatoes had to be canned, 300 bales of hay had to be stacked, and harvesting of the soy beans had started. Once the beans were picked, the corn would follow.

It was time for her to leave. Her daughter had just started her senior year, and she needed to be closer to school.

The decision had been made months ago, that following the expected legal channels would not be in the best interest of the beneficiaries. In the first place, for every dollar she could spend on lawyers, Rodgers could and would spend a million. Secondly, the letter from Porter had proven that Rodgers and his cronies already owned the politicians and judges. Those they didn’t own they had bamboozled with smooth talking, and fancy footwork.

Another approach had to be found. The parties involved were politician, judges and group members whose success depended on secrecy and discretion. It was time to broaden the exposure of events without risking outright criminal accusations that would surely be used to initiate an investigation that Rodgers could use to prevent the payments for decades.

Over the years, she had told bits of the story dozens of times, but the entire story was so complicated, and unbelievable, she and Stewart were the only people that had a grasp of its enormity. Then she recognized the magic word in that thought. “Story.” She had been sending silly stories to Stewart for years, always starting with “Once upon a time.” Her favorite was “Hank, the Easter Bunny” told over four days at 140 characters a chapter. Why not write her adventure out as a fictional story? Post it publicly, and slowly and carefully distribute it to beneficiaries, interested parties, and select members of the press.

Within two weeks, a blog site had been created, and the first chapter of Secure Income, the novel was posted. The chapter was then sent to a select group of beneficiaries, Stewart and Porter, the later with a little personal note.

Now that she had started her project at exposure, it was time to get back to the more mundane legal steps needed to bring this to a close. The German gentleman convicted of fraud in one German court while another German court had all the documents to exonerate him seemed a good place to start.

Chapter 40

December 19, 2014

Legend’s winter coat had started to fill out, but was always thinner than his Mother’s had been. St. Joan was the horse she had always dreamed of having. A dark almost red dappled palomino quarter horse, with a white mane and thick tail. On the headstone of her grave it read “she loved being beautiful”.

St. Joan had died too soon, but her son, though without a trace of resemblance, was still a wonderful reminder. He was tall, gangly and chestnut red with an unruly mane and an obstinate disposition. Actually he was just lazy. If she would let him, he would lean against the barn wall just so he could rest his legs.

Apparently patience, respect, consideration, and discretion were not traits prized by any of the parties opposing the distribution of funds. In 2010, Mr. Jochen Alt was convicted, in Germany, of crimes directly related to actions stemming from withheld Secure Income funds rightfully owed him. Prior, during and after the trial he had tried several times, without success, to obtain the documents he knew existed that detailed the situation and would help exonerate him.

Then she gave him Dr. Porter’s name. Hoping he had finally found an avenue to assist in clearing his name, he contacted the judge. With a lot of persistence and a little luck, Jochen got him on the telephone. Though with hesitation and concern apparent in his voice, the judge acknowledged he was aware of Secure Income. “At last, someone in authority acknowledging the matter even exists.” With careful deliberation and wording he drafted a letter requesting “any and all professional and personal knowledge whether derived from professional or personal means in any and all jurisdictions, recognized or virtual that could be construed as relevant to Secure Income and or any related persons, alive or dead, and or entities, active or inactive.” This sentence was followed by 17 specific detailed requests.

Being careful to follow court protocols, he then sent it via registered mail, fax and e-mail. Believing this was also the moment to make all parties aware of the communication he added a lengthy cc list of politicians, judges, lawyers and other beneficiaries. Now all he could do is wait. He knew that court rules required a response within 90 days.
While they were waiting for Mr. Alt’s response, she felt it was time everyone was reminded this was an international matter.

Chapter 41

December 24, 2014

Holiday preparations had certainly gotten easier over the years. Her daughter was now 18 and the only thing Ellie wanted were slips of cloth with pictures of dead statesmen on them, her favorite wasn’t even a president. What she got were all the accessories to the computer she had gotten for her 18th birthday. Tradition was a car, but she was already on her second, having totaled the first one which she got for her 17th birthday. Ah, the joys of children.
The only other thing she had yet to purchase were the dried cherries for the furry rugrats hiding under the bed. Ellie had gotten the two bunnies for her 9th birthday. Widget, the 4lb black one and Gizmo, the almost 3lb white one. Two more spoilt furballs couldn’t possibly exist. And carrots for the big chestnut bundle of fuzz.

The holiday allowed for a break, and a moment of contemplation, in the frenzy of games being played by judges, lawyers, politicians, and other opposing forces manipulated by the Gold King.

This game had been played to require one final move. A call to her was all that was required to get the process moving. The bad news was, that a call to her was the only thing that could get the process moving. The King measured success by the day, and had so far succeeded for over 3,000 days.

Her first thought went to Stewart. She knew he was just a pawn, amongst hundreds of pawns, used by the King to get whatever he wanted at any given moment, but that didn’t always assuage the frustration she had with him.

He was but an example of the game being played over and over again. After finding a pawn suitable for the specific task required, the King, through his knights, bishops and rooks, would spin a yarn that held the least possible amount of truth necessary, and sprinkled with touches of bribery, extortion and fear. Once the pawn’s task was completed, it would be quickly discarded with no thought given to the wreckage that was left behind. She felt for these people because they had no real say in their destruction. Many times they were just in the right place at the wrong time, and vulnerable to the foibles of human nature.

It was the knights, bishops and rooks for which she had little patience. Admittedly, many of them had been enticed into the game in the same way as the pawns, but unlike the pawns, at some point they saw the game being played. Without exception, at that moment they each were able to choose. She had now found enough of these pieces to understand why the King was so successful. There had been a few, that when confronted with the facts of the situation had exited the game, but most had stayed.

She had a large stack of proofs. Politicians, who upon discovering where their bailout funds originated, against the laws of the country, chose to bury the documents.

Judges, who upon discovering to whom the funds belonged, chose to not read the documents, then expend the effort to draft a letter carefully parsed as to feign deniability instead of making the effort to use their enviable wordsmith to start a dialog.

Bankers and lawyers who were happy to accept exorbitant fees until threatened with discovery, who destroyed documents and sent unsigned, again artfully crafted letters of deniability instead of reporting the matter to the appropriate authorities, or performing their ethical duties.

Then there was the money. She had been told several times the funds were only temporarily being used for the “greater good”, then it would be rightfully distributed. She had no doubt that when the King made that statement, for the space of a nanosecond, he believed what he was saying. Then the thought passed so quickly, he would be hard pressed to remember it.
Even if there was an ethical bone in his body, the lawyers would surely suppress it. The misdeeds had only been covered up to shortly after the Asian family had been relieved of its burden. Discovery of any later activities would guarantee exposure.

And the amount was staggering. The King, through his consortium of banks, brokerages, and institutional fund management entities controlled the bond market. The joke goes, what is the largest organism in the world? The answer, the bond market. She would let others do the actuarial math, but in simple calculations, even at a paltry 1/8% processing fee, if you started with a 2 and 11 zeros after the decimal, leveraged by a minimum of 800% compounded daily and could do transactions faster than a Univac 1, it would not take long to get to a 2 and 14 zeros. With each day he could cause further delay the King crept closer to 3 and 4.

But unlike the Gold King, the Platinum Queen did not see things in the same way. She understood the meaning of words like “enough” and “reasonable” and the long term cost of so much human wreckage. She had done everything in her power to not destroy anyone while pursuing what she knew was not only the right thing to do, but could very possibly shift the balance of power. It was time for more self-empowerment, and less hidden dictatorships. The King saw these as a weakness, but he should have been grateful for them. She now had the power to destroy his Queen, and family for many generations.

All she wanted was reasonable negotiations to begin.

Chapter 42

February 10, 2015

The short days and bitter cold somehow became more difficult to bear after the holidays. This fiasco was supposed to be long over, and she was tired of spending the winters in the snow. She felt cabin fever slowly creeping in after days of clouds and nary the sun in sight.

Even the girls seemed to be a bit more irritable than usual. Widget was picking on Gizzy again and it reminded her of the inalienable rules of bunnyness. Rule No. 1, bigger bunny wins. Rule No. 2, see Rule No. 1.

She also struggled with her thoughts about, opinion of, and anger with Stewart. She had been informed he spent the holiday at the courtesy of the Germans. She couldn’t say whether he would consider that better or worse than the holiday his mother had planned for him.

She knew he had started as a pawn, but now it was more difficult to define his role. He knew as well as her, that she had to be reengaged to even start the process, yet no attempts to make contact had been made. Was he now a willing participant of his uncle? His position was certainly difficult, with potentially divided loyalties. On the one hand, he had agreed to become the fiduciary administrator and to work for the best interests of the beneficiaries. On the other, he was a group member. In the opinion of the group, they had appropriated the funds, hidden any evidence they had ever belonged to anyone else, and along with any profits earned, belonged to them.

No matter what his position in the past, it was time for him to stop hiding under the bed and make a stand. She knew he would make enemies no matter what he did, but making a stand was the only way of earning respect not only from his friends and enemies, but also for himself. Besides, the bunnies lived under the bed, and they were not known for their sharing disposition.

Mr. Alt was still waiting for a response from Dr. Porter. She knew that move had been necessary, but given the judge’s, or in this matter overseer’s, previous responses, she wasn’t optimistic. It was time to remind all parties involved that she was not working alone, and not only were others involved, but they came from many other countries. If the time came to go judge shopping, she could choose from thousands of jurisdictions in dozens of countries. Ultimately, all she needed to do was ask for an audit.

But the formalities had to be observed. The gentleman from Australia graciously offered to be the next to make official contact with Dr. Porter. In a letter sent return receipt, faxed and emailed from his lawyer, the Australian made a similar request for information as that of Mr. Alt.

This time he added a new twist. He sent the same request to three other German government officials intimately involved in the matter, and cc’d the document to everyone else involved. This maneuver finally brought all parties involved to light.

Now all she could do was wait to see what new move “the overseer” would make.

Chapter 42

February 10, 2015

The short days and bitter cold somehow became more difficult to bear after the holidays. This fiasco was supposed to be long over, and she was tired of spending the winters in the snow. She felt cabin fever slowly creeping in after days of clouds and nary the sun in sight.
Even the girls seemed to be a bit more irritable than usual. Widget was picking on Gizzy again and it reminded her of the inalienable rules of bunnyness. Rule No. 1, bigger bunny wins. Rule No. 2, see Rule No. 1.

She also struggled with her thoughts about, opinion of, and anger with Stewart. She had been informed he spent the holiday at the courtesy of the Germans. She couldn’t say whether he would consider that better or worse than the holiday his mother had planned for him.

She knew he had started as a pawn, but now it was more difficult to define his role. He knew as well as her, that she had to be reengaged to even start the process, yet no attempts to make contact had been made. Was he now a willing participant of his uncle? His position was certainly difficult, with potentially divided loyalties. On the one hand, he had agreed to become the fiduciary administrator and to work for the best interests of the beneficiaries. On the other, he was a group member. In the opinion of the group, they had appropriated the funds, hidden any evidence they had ever belonged to anyone else, and along with any profits earned, belonged to them.

No matter what his position in the past, it was time for him to stop hiding under the bed and make a stand. She knew he would make enemies no matter what he did, but making a stand was the only way of earning respect not only from his friends and enemies, but also for himself. Besides, the bunnies lived under the bed, and they were not known for their sharing disposition.

Mr. Alt was still waiting for a response from Dr. Porter. She knew that move had been necessary, but given the judge’s, or in this matter overseer’s, previous responses, she wasn’t optimistic. It was time to remind all parties involved that she was not working alone, and not only were others involved, but they came from many other countries. If the time came to go judge shopping, she could choose from thousands of jurisdictions in dozens of countries. Ultimately, all she needed to do was ask for an audit.

But the formalities had to be observed. The gentleman from Australia graciously offered to be the next to make official contact with Dr. Porter. In a letter sent return receipt, faxed and emailed from his lawyer, the Australian made a similar request for information as that of Mr. Alt.

This time he added a new twist. He sent the same request to three other German government officials intimately involved in the matter, and cc’d the document to everyone else involved. This maneuver finally brought all parties involved to light.

Now all she could do was wait to see what new move “the overseer” would make.

Chapter 43

February 12, 2015

What a difference a day makes, or in this case two. The sun was shining, snow was melting off the roof and the thermometer had crept above freezing. Widget was chasing Gizzy again and Gizzy was threatening to run away from home. She explained to Giz that it might be hard to find a home where a bunny the size of a cereal bowl, weighing less than 3lbs and expecting to be fed six times a day could be the bigger bunny. Gizmo asked for a cookie and decided to sleep on it.

But on the other hand, some things never change. Admittedly, she was surprised when the Australian gentleman called to say his lawyer had received an e-mail response from Dr. Porter via his secretary. She was not surprised it denied all knowledge.

Besides its speed, there was another interesting aspect of note, in the response. Fax and mail are recognized forms of communication in the German court system, e-mail is not. Yet, though the lawyer had furnished both his address and fax number neither appeared on the letter. This would ensure that the response could not accidentally be sent officially, and could only be transmitted unofficially. Clearly they had hit a nerve or no such nuances would have been necessary.

While still waiting for a response to Mr. Alt’s request she was diligently doing research for what she believed would be inevitable, a court action. Though law was not her forte or really even an interest, the research was fascinating. She believed that Lord Rodgers was under the impression or at least had given others the impression, that because the beneficiaries did not possess the three key documents, the settlement agreement, the court orders or the guarantee, all of which the German Federal Court should have required be delivered immediately after the agreements were signed, that they could do nothing. At some time in the past and in specific jurisdictions, that may have been true. Today, however, the law had evolved and transparency had become the new norm. The rules of evidence were broader, and entire specialties had been created around virtual jurisdictions and internet contracts.

The decision was finally made to first pursue civil action. There was plenty of criminal activity to go around, and that option was always available, if needed. The easiest way to get the most bang for the buck was to ask for an accounting, starting with the original trust funds. This would include all financial transactions including all payments going back to at least 2005, a copy of the complete and comprehensive database and details of all banks, courts, judges and administrators involved. The only remaining question was what jurisdiction should she begin with, and how many orders, in how many jurisdictions, can she have filed at a time.

While the legal research was evolving, other parties were busy researching journalism outlets. It was important that this matter be handled by someone already familiar with the general subject matter, if not the specifics. Lo and behold, the perfect candidate was found. He worked for one of the major international networks and was already involved in numerous current investigations into large banking “anomalies”. He had contacts at the IMF, World Bank, Bank of International Settlement and several large international banks. Upon further discussions, it became clear many of these investigations were stalled because two bits of information remained elusive. The names of the parties behind the activity and which string to pull to trace the money. She knew both, and had 35,000 human interest stories. Enough to satisfy any and all journalists’ dreams.

It was time someone made her an offer she could not refuse.

ps to Stewart….. the bunnies bite.

Chapter 44

March 20, 2015

The night was cold, the wind still. The two men were seated in a small room, at the private airport, specifically designed for such clandestine meetings. The first man to arrive, though retired from public life, represented the German Chancellery. The other, arriving a few minutes later represented “his very wealthy valued client.” Given their professions as politician and lawyer, respectively, the conversation was cordial and not surprisingly, cryptic.

The meeting had been requested by the Chancellor’s office. An embarrassing matter, that was supposed to have been resolved years ago, was being bandied about like water cooler gossip. The silver tongued lawyer assured the politician that it would never be more than a trite irritation and the whole matter would die away quickly if the Germans just continued their program of denials. “My client needs a bit more time to make arrangements to start the process and would appreciate any additional assistance he could be afforded,” said the lawyer. “He advised me to assure you, he will honor his obligations to all recognized parties involved.”

The politician’s face betrayed no signs of his thoughts on the statements, thanked the lawyer for traveling such a distance and left. After re-boarding his plane, he made a secure call. “Be prepared for serious trouble ahead,” was all he said.

The ninety days allowed by his court for a response was over and Mr. Alt had received no word from Dr. Porter. The follow up e-mail the Australian gentlemen had sent had also been ignored. Discussions between interested parties now revolved around notifying the German prosecutor’s office.

In normal circumstances, upon learning of Dr. Porter’s involvement and the computer in his office tied to the investor database, prosecutorial notification would have been the next step in his attempt at exoneration. He was persuaded to try the less confrontational approach first. If that failed, all available information would be given to him to pursue a more direct means.
She explained to Mr. Alt that his government had been given numerous opportunities to correct the situation, and had decided to follow Lord Rodger’s recommendation of bury, destroy and deny.

“First the German Federal Court knew that no notification of the terms of the original settlement agreement had been distributed to the beneficiaries,” she said. “Second, neither overseer had ensured nor even bothered to ascertain, whether the plaintiffs on the court orders had received appropriate notice. There were months between the issuance of the orders and the questionable seal placed on them. Thirdly, there were several changes of fiduciary administrator that had to be approved by the German Court. Again not a word. Lastly, when Dr. Schartel signed the guarantee, he knew the beneficiaries were required, by his own country’s law, to be notified and again did nothing.”

“Even when my German lawyers contacted all appropriate parties, trying to get a complete copy of the public document that contained the guarantee, they could not get a response,” she stated.

To date, besides her attorneys, and a few select interested parties, she had kept all of her information and documents to herself. Now, not only did Mr. Alt deserve whatever was necessary to clear his name, but the journalists needed information to further their investigations. She didn’t know what to give them first. The cheat sheet for the novel. The banking details for the $20T in “added” investor distributions. The names of group members. The title of the German public document that is in the hands of other government bureaucrats. To start telling human interest stories. Or all of the above.

Once upon a time….

Chapter 45

April 7, 2015

When Stewart’s lawyer, Psmythe entered the lobby of his hotel, a distinguished gentleman approached him, handed him a package and left. He was expecting the package. Before he had left for the holiday he had been given a message by Stewart to relay to his uncle.
The communication channel had been established months ago. Psmythe gave the message to his head of chambers, who then called the silver tongued lawyer, who in turn called his “very wealthy valued client.”

The message meant nothing to Psmythe, but given the strangeness of the statement, he assumed it was a secret code. The delivery of the package had been the reply. Psmythe opened the box and took out a phone. Looking in the box for instructions, he found nothing else.

The next morning, after getting permission from the judge for his client to receive a call from his uncle, the phone suddenly rang. Seated in the small private room they had been using for months, they listened as Lord Rodgers expressed in eloquent terms his desire to have Stewart do everything in his power to get the process started. What Psmythe didn’t know was that within this eloquent speech was a secret response that only Stewart understood. What Lord Rodgers was really telling his nephew was to sit tight, stick to the plan, She nor the Germans can do anything, and keep your mouth shut.

After ending the call, thinking he was finally going to get some answers, Psmythe asked Stewart what he felt was the first step in starting the payment process. Stewart grabbed a piece of paper and pencil, started drawing dress designs and began equivocating again. The same thing he had been doing for months. Psmythe, being a smart man, knew he had missed something, but damned if he knew what it was. “Was this just another game of smoke and mirrors,” he thought.

In one of the numerous conversations she had every day with investors, lawyers, judges and journalists in countries scattered across the globe, someone made a casual comment. She couldn’t remember who said it, or exactly what was said, but she suddenly realized she had made an error. More specifically a math error.

She had started her calculation, of the current beneficiary trust account balance, with the amount of the 2007 settlement agreement. She had forgotten about the interesting route of most of the accounts paid by Barkers in 2008, 2009.

These payments gave the administrators several additional streams of income. Over 90% of the accounts paid were affiliated accounts and would ultimately end up back in the administrator’s hands. But the ride they could go on before coming back would rival the best roller coaster.

She knew she would miss a few income streams, but she thought it started with the wire fees. Contracts had been negotiated, on a per wire basis, with Barkers and the other distribution banks. Over 2000 wires were being processed on most days at £20 a wire. Then there were the receiving entities; banks, brokerages and international hedge funds. Even if they had to split the fees, after a couple of years the pounds add up.

Then there were the trading fees and profits. The average daily distribution was $10B a day, with the funds circulating for approximately a week. Doing the simple math, $50B leveraged 800% at 1/8% a day is a great deal of money, and doesn’t even include compounding.

Someone once asked her why she continued after it appeared she had lost every battle. She responded, “Perhaps, but with every confrontation they lose an ally.”

She didn’t need to win the battles, just the war.

Chapter 46

April 25, 2015

The cuteness of Gizzy can’t be denied, but let’s not forget the marvels of Widget. Weighing in at 4lbs of pure muscle, in a body standing 8” at the shoulder, covered in lustrous black fur, Widget can perform amazing feats. Able to leap small buildings, made of Legos, standing between her and her dried cranberries, in a single bound. Faster than a lion, when dashing under the bed in a thunderstorm. And the Tote would give you 4 to 1 on a 2 bit bet between her and a ferocious teacup poodle in a tug-of-war. But nothing can quite describe the shock of hearing their combined weight chasing each other around the house, like a herd of hippos, at 3am in the morning.

But onto more serious matters. The UK gentleman and his lovely wife had become a marvel onto the little band created by this endeavor. Actually not so little, it now numbered over a thousand rapt readers.

After she gave him the name, address and biography of Stewart’s barrister, the gentleman penned a polite letter, requesting information, to said barrister and his head of chambers, giving them a reasonable 10 days to respond. The letter was sent e-mail and registered mail to all UK parties, mailed and e-mailed to all other parties. The cc list now numbered 17.
Respond they did. The first letter arrived unsigned from the head of chambers stating that they knew nothing of the matter, but that there were many barristers with the name Psmythe, and we must have the wrong one. The UK gentleman quickly penned a response which included the phrase “we would appreciate that you not insult our intelligence”. He then sent it again registered mail, and e-mailed both documents to all parties on the cc list.
The second letter to arrive came unsigned from Psmythe. This one was a bit disquieting. It wasn’t just that we had now gotten two unsigned letters from the same chambers, but somehow it didn’t read right. No matter what the circumstances, it was not a letter that a man like Psmythe would craft. Upon reading it, she called the gentleman in the UK and asked him to not share the document with anyone else. Something was wrong and she needed time to think.

Why would someone send such a letter? What was its purpose? She did not believe for one moment, that it was an accident. The first one perhaps, it read like it was half done and certainly had not been edited. However, this one had an expressed purpose.
Doing what she always did at times like this, she went out to work on the grounds. Another spring had sprung and left the normal wear and tear of winter. Suddenly she knew! Much to Lord Rodgers chagrin, Psmythe had turned out to be an honorable man with a moral compass. Attempts to corrupt him in the usual ways had failed.

If, however, he could be discredited in the eyes of the German court, he could be removed without Rodgers direct involvement. He knew she had sent the first unsigned letter to all parties including Dr. Porter. Rodgers assumed she would do the same with the second. She didn’t. She called the UK gentleman, explained her reasoning and asked him to bury the letter. “Stewart has finally been given a barrister worthy of the name, I am not about to be Rodgers’ stooge in destroying him,” she said.

For some time, something else had been bothering her about this matter, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She had the feeling that the Secure Income payments were no longer the game, but only a part of a longer game. The payment of these accounts was now inevitable, so why was Rodgers concerned about Psmythe? What was she doing that Rodgers wanted her to continue and why?

Whether by happenstance or divine intervention, the UK gentleman sent her an e-mail about the demise of a large international bank in Austria, and if you had been standing next to her, you would have actually seen a brightly lit bulb appear over her head.
The story goes like this…

Rodgers is the head of a group she’ll call the Crimson Crest. They have been around for hundreds of years and if scrutinized closely, every conflict and catastrophic event in the world can be indirectly linked to them. She could not say if they were just not a creative lot, or if their philosophy was “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but either way, once recognized their fingerprints are easy to spot.

In this instance, there were three telltale signs. The first was the country of origin. A banker didn’t sneeze in Austria unless it has been orchestrated, and approved by the group. The second, was a sudden change in the confidentiality laws moments before, as part of the investigation, the public hearings were scheduled to begin. Thirdly, the fall guys. Two of the biggest stakeholders were German.

Bear with me, there is a point to this story, but it takes a bit of explaining…
The first thing to understand is that there is no way in anyone’s fantasies to pay off all of the current debt in the world. The only solution is a unilateral default.

This is the group’s end game. Once that fact is clearly understood, the rest of the pieces fall nicely into place.

Step 1. Cause the collapse of the Euro. The Germans are the lynchpin of the Euro. Their social conscious has proven a thorn in the side of the group’s attempts, by assisting more vulnerable countries in avoiding debt default. Also, the German administration struggles with the idea of destroying billions of people to further enrich a few.

Step 2. Suggest the only way for the world to survive the Euro collapse is to unilaterally forgive between 1/3 and 1/2 of the world’s debt.

A couple more important facts. The first is that the majority of all government bonds are held by banks, insurers, municipalities, pension funds, retirement accounts and other socially affiliated institutions. Secondly, all of the trillions of dollars the group has given to the governments of the world in bailout funds, were in government guaranteed loans.
The one thing Rodgers and his group did not have, unrelated to their maneuvers, was a catalyst that could be shouted from every street corner. The publicity she was creating, surrounding Secure Income, and the culpable involvement of the German administration was giving him just such a catalyst. The demise of the current German administration, under another scandal, would cause the Euro to collapse. The collapse of the Euro would allow current private conversations about unilateral debt default to become a reality. Use the debt default to destroy the livelihoods of billions without risking the group’s investments. Then use the group’s “machinery of money” to further control governments by creating new debt and more loans. And the game starts over again.

The success of the Crimson Crest motto of “All for a Few” has had Lord Rodgers smiling for years. What has him smiling even broader is turning her desire for a win/win into a “if she wins/the world loses.”

For the sake of the world, it is time, if necessary, for Psmythe to “tackle and steal” the documents from the overseer.

Chapter 47

May 5, 2015

The house she moved into was a beautiful 1905 colonial. It was the house she had helped her friends renovate. It reminded her of the family manor house she grew up in, with its high ceilings, tall windows, decorative cast iron radiators, and richly carved woodwork.

Renovating old houses is an art, and the process is arduous. At any given time, over the year it took to transform the treasure, there were usually four different craftsmen working at any given time. A pattern quickly emerged. If she heard “Oh Sh!t,” the price went up over $100 and was going to require at least two trips to the home improvement store. If she heard “Oh F@ck,” ring out, the cost just went up over $1,000 and at least four trips would be needed. She decided the real goal was to not go bankrupt before the curtains were hung.

After completion, her friends didn’t quite know what to do with the property, so they made her an offer she couldn’t refuse and handed her the keys.

A few days after the unsigned Psmythe letter, the UK gentleman received a signed letter from the head of chambers. This one was simply a more polished and slightly less insulting version of the first. She told him to file it away for safekeeping. “It may still be valuable in the future,” she said.

The main stumbling block, as she saw it, still centered on the documents. The lawyers could potentially claim they had no knowledge. The Germans, on the other hand, had papered themselves into a corner. They had allowed years and numerous legal decisions to be made with no notification to the beneficiaries. Allowed Mr. Alt to be convicted while in possession of the evidence necessary to exonerate him. Had told her German lawyers no such matter existed, and had told the Australian gentleman’s lawyer the same.

They now knew she wasn’t going to stop until she got what she wanted, and Psmythe was bound and determined, to properly represent his client.

Problem. How do documents suddenly materialize after years of denying they exist?

Answer. Execute Operation Red Panties.

The basic premise was to have someone suddenly discover the reference document that referred to the five rooms of files, located in an archive, in such a way that everyone involved could maintain deniability. A plot was hatched.

Find a young starry eyed lad who was interning at the Justice Ministry and promote him to clerk in the Finance Ministry. While he was still celebrating his incredible fortunes, introduce him to the gorgeous assistant to the undersecretary. After spending a couple days showing him the ropes and cooing in his ear, she set a stack of old files in front of him. “Would you please go through these for me, I just haven’t had time,” she whispered. “If you find anything important let me know.”

An hour later, he came running up to her, holding a file, wondering what she would give him as a reward. Waving a red cape in front of a bull would have been less obvious, but both are effective.

They had now created a story for “discovering” the documents. The next problem was how to keep them away from Psmythe. True, he hadn’t asked for them yet, but it was only a matter of time. Lord Rodgers willingly, and Dr. Porter, less so, had successfully distracted him for months.

Though perhaps a bit slower than expected, but quicker than they had hoped, he had come to the conclusion that Rodgers was causing interference to prevent the one thing that could assist his client, make a call to her.

Without skipping a beat, the Germans took their posts to cause further delays. First they would invite him to endless pointless meetings in obscure secure locations to give Psmythe the appearance of their serious commitment to the matter. Then when he finally demanded the documents, they would respond with a list in German and tell him it would take three weeks to retrieve them from the archives.

Knowing Psmythe couldn’t read German, and didn’t know that every document had a reference number, they would modify the titles, and omit the reference numbers. This would ensure the clerks would come up empty handed. The biggest secret they were keeping from him, was that the documents were of little or no value to starting the process. But if they could keep him chasing them, it would give them plenty of time to create another layer of the maze Psmythe had unknowingly entered, without string or even breadcrumbs to guide him out.

She didn’t know whether there was a Minotaur in the center of the maze or not, but she was sure there were no documents. The one person who had to give him what he wanted, was the one person they were leading him away from, the overseer.

Chapter 48

May 8, 2015

Doing the landscaping around the house was allowing her to better understand the neighborhood. The house was beautiful, but the neighborhood was considered one of the roughest in the city. Admittedly, she was the only person for blocks who could be definitively recognized as Western European.

Albeit different from the pastoral peace she was accustomed to, there was a certain rhythm too life that doesn’t change no matter where you go. The students at the school on one side of her, washing cars to raise money. A family with six children on the other, constantly in motion, and the recreational pharmaceutical wholesaler across the alley that seemed to generate a fair amount of suburban traffic. The likes can be recognized by the vehicles they drive, Mercedes, Lexus, and Range Rovers.

The legal actions had been filed and all she could do was wait and allow the courts to move at pace. While waiting, the landscaping was occupying a considerable amount of time. So far she had only said “Oh Damn” twice so the additional costs were minimal. The first problem was plastic, probably put down in 1950, four inches below the dirt blocking all drainage. The second was the 45 degree slope in the front yard that was impossible to mow and covered in trash and weeds. But the lilacs she put in looked beautiful.

There is an interesting phenomenon that seems to happen in every neighborhood in which they had improved a property, and she was watching it happen again. As she killed the weeds, over seeded the grass and put mulch around the new bushes, the neighbors took notice. She can’t say the change was significant, but certainly noticeable. A silly example, was the kids being told to pick up their trash, and toys and put them away.

It got her to thinking about the word “proactive”.  Webster’s dictionary definition is “acting in anticipation of future problems, needs or changes.” As often as she had heard the word “proactive” bandied about, in regards to this project, it would lead a person to think this should have been done years ago.

But put the word “not” in front of it and you have a stagnant pool of complete inactivity. Such as the administrator being told he can proceed as long as he is “not proactive”. The German overseer being told he can assist as long as he is “not proactive.”

So for years, the administrator is unable to create a plan of execution. His appointed lawyer can be given no documents, and his questions go unanswered. The overseer can only provide documents when asked, or enhance a plan that cannot be created. A guaranteed stalemate.

What strikes her as interesting is, how is it that two parties, namely the administrator and the overseer can get the exact same instructions in the exact same verbiage from two supposedly autonomous parties?

Chapter 49

May 25, 2015

Holidays are interesting events. If looking at a global list of holidays, one will observe that almost every day of the year can be celebrated for one reason or another. Yet even the term holiday is a misnomer. The celebrations come in many names, such as observances, silent observances, festivals, gazettes, restricted holidays, local holidays, national holidays, bank holidays, seasonal holidays and even eves of holidays are holidays.

Today is Memorial Day in the US. In the UK it is the Spring Bank holiday, not to be confused with the Early Spring Bank holiday, which in Australia is called May Day.  In dozens of other countries, by coincidence, it is Whit Monday. Not to be confused with Whit Sunday, which is not an excuse for a day off, so not only is the first day of Pentecost celebrated, but in some countries expanded to the entire week. Given the global calendar it is incredibly impressive that anything gets done.

In all the years that she and Stewart worked together, they had developed a synergy. She is creative, he is artistic. She couldn’t design herself out of a paper bag, but give her a multilayered, intercontinental puzzle and she could work miracles. He couldn’t decide what he was having for dinner, but give him a plan, and he could find the right resource, in the exact right place, to guarantee perfect execution.

This puzzle was just her “cup of tea,” as he would say. She would say “right up her alley.” Either way, there was always complete understanding. Though the project seemed complicated in the extreme. When broken into pieces, it was no different than the hundreds of others that had made her reputation.

After the core dozen critical pages of the necessary documents had been separated from the extraneous several thousand, put there for no other reason but to baffle, buffalo, and bamboozle, the first step had to be establishing the viability of the database. Its vulnerabilities had been exploited in numerous ways in the past, and its integrity had to be tested. Also, the beneficiary gateway had proven to be a weak spot and would need to be properly secured.

While the technical aspects were being tested and upgraded, the other expertise needed would have to be determined, sourced and vetted. Also, language issues would have to be resolved, as the beneficiary group was multilingual.

Thirdly, or in some opinions first, an accounting of the funds would need to be performed, and group control removed.  In just the last two weeks Lord Rodger had made an additional, let me think, do I add another zero or just change the 4 to a 5?

Then the fun begins…..

Chapter 50

May 29, 2015

Her father is a “body” man. For years, she didn’t know what it meant either. All she knew was that he fixed cars. When she was small, she remembers going to the stock car races to watch Dad’s car. It means he specializes in repairing the body or “skin” of anything on wheels. At 76, she still finds him in the shop more often than not.

When she was nine, in preparation for painting, he taught her how to mask a car. When she was 15, he told her she could have the Opel if she could replace the alternator. She did. By the time she turned 20, she learned if she smiled and looked helpless, she could get the good looking guy that stopped to help, to fix her tire. Though she usually had to give him a few subtle hints, so the wheel wouldn’t come off five miles down the road, and still allow him his dignity.

That knowledge helped a situation, that could have been a costly disaster, become a minor annoyance when the temperature gauge in her car sky rocketed on the interstate highway. She quickly pulled off into the closest parking lot and popped the hood. Only a glance told her the highway had just acquired a new broken alternator/water pump belt. A quick call to her mobile “jack of all trades with every tool Craftsman ever made” guy and two hours later she was back on the road.

Over the years she had acquired a plethora of little known facts and surrounded herself with amazing talent. She couldn’t remember the last time a problem couldn’t be solved with two telephone calls or less. This situation was no different. The talent and amazing feats performed by the people that were helping her, could be called nothing less than miraculous.

All of that talent would be needed in order to complete these payments. The payments of large amounts of money to 35,000 account holders scattered around the world was an enormous task all of its own. Add 8 years of delays and the situation gets even more onerous.

Fortunately she has done onerous before and there is a process to solving any problem. The first and most important thing is the one most forget. Understand exactly what the problem is. Then break it down into pieces. It is much easier to solve each piece of the whole than trying to solve the whole.

In going through her process on this project, she had developed a list of 35 issues that had to be addressed. Admittedly it seemed like a lot, but remember that a fighter jet can be built with only a three level bill of materials. In other words, some of the issues are related to each other, and others have established precedence that can be used as a guide.

Some of the issues on her list included items common to any such payout and are not affected by time, size of payment or nationalities. These items include administrative facilities, office equipment and personnel, communication channels, technical support, financial software for tracking administrative costs and investor advisors in such fields as tax and banking.

Other issues are related to the unique structure of this project. These items include, lost documentation, inactive email accounts, death and heirs, banking regulations, language barriers, government treaties and simple incredulity.

All problems that will be addressed and solved, the moment the two people who started this project, are brought back together.

Chapter 51

May 29, 2015

When she and Stewart started this fiasco, Ellie was knee high to a grasshopper. Today was her last day of high school. Ellie wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do next. Her interests were in science, writing and languages. For the summer at least, she had a full time job in the unique retail niche of recycled clothing. Her mother had no idea it was such a huge new industry. What her mother did know, was her baby girl was all grown up.

While browsing one of the several newspapers she read most days, she came across an article about two Swedish banks being fined for money laundering. One $6.1M, the other $4.3M. She found this humorous. “Laundering” money was a multi trillion dollar business that had started many a bidding war amongst the largest banks. Because of the high margins and fees it was generally considered a bank’s largest profit center.

Most people think of money laundering as the transfer of illicit funds generated by illegal activities such as weapons, drugs, and prostitution. Actually these activities account for only a small percentage of the trillions of dollars that flow illegally throughout the world.

The large majority of laundering is done by governments. The most common purpose is to fund “black” operations of one sort or another. Everyone is now aware of the NSA spying operations, but has anyone ever researched how they were funded. If an individual keeps two sets of books, one for the IRS and one for real expenditures, they would spend 10 to 25 years at the courtesy of the federal government. All governments, on the other hand, keep dozens. One for general accounting, one for politicians, one for special committee members, one for the president, one for… etc. Well, you get the idea. But somewhere there is a real bank account being funded with real money that has to come from somewhere and be paid to somewhere else.

The second purpose is even better hidden, but far more profitable and accounts for the majority of the “laundered” funds. Payment of principle and interest on off book loans to governments and government agencies. The largest “money launderer” in the world is the Federal Reserve Bank. They are required to pay interest payments quarterly on trillions of dollars in loans that no one is supposed to know exists. This requires a series of complex maneuvers that allows them to circulate a large number of small transactions through hundreds of banks before it finally arrives at its destination. Imagine what the markets would do if they knew the US government actually owed $25T more than is reported.

Because of this subterfuge, which happens in almost every country in the world, money laundering is big business. In order to hide the true nature and enormous breadth of the industry, a few small transactions are found occasionally and shouted from the highest mountain top. Fines are imposed, improvements are promised, and business goes on as usual.

On occasion, someone finds a settlement agreement worth billions of dollars covering 35,000 international investors and realizes it will make the perfect conduit for trillions of dollars in unseen transactions.

Chapter 52

June 6, 2015

She took the orange chocolate cheesecake out of the oven. There was a time when she was afraid to make them. Either sweet or savory, it wasn’t that they were hard to make, or that they didn’t turn out perfectly. It was that she could never figure out how to serve them. They always hit the plate looking like she had cut it with a dull axe. Then someone showed her the many uses of dental floss. Now, not only did cheesecake look amazing, but also layer cakes, quick breads, and soft cheeses.

Psmythe had finally figured out that the constant interruptions, created by Rodgers, his numerous “helpful” lawyers, and the German midlevel politicians, only purpose was to prevent him from demanding the documents. After one final burst of temper, he slapped a list of documents on the table and demanded they be produced immediately. The next day he handed the same list to Dr. Porter.

Dr. Porter had finally realized that the most recent demands, for him to be circumnavigating the country, were not for his brilliant judicial prowess, but to keep him out of his office and away from Psmythe. After two weeks of traveling and another day’s delay caused by some mysterious car trouble, he informed his superiors that he was not going to be removed from his office again, unless they removed him from office.

Finance and Justice Ministry lawyers could see they were losing control of the situation and she was closing in on all sides. Dr. Schartel had told them to keep the documents secure at all costs. Not knowing what else to do, they devised a new plan, Operation Sneak Thief.

While Dr. Porter was distracted somewhere near Munich, his clerk was sent a notice that his attendance was required at a weeklong training session. Without the standard 30 to 60 days advance notice, several trucks arrived at the docks of the basement archive and removed all of the court documents to a more “secure” location for “safekeeping”. If and when questions were asked, the response would be a bureaucratic mix up.

In this way they could hide the documents amongst tens of thousands of similar boxes in the same way they hid the guarantee, in thousands of pages of the EU Stabilization Agreement. And if they “accidentally” lost the paperwork, and “forgot” to enter the files into the computer system, it could takes months to find the documents. Plenty of time to dream up their next stunt.

However, in executing Operation Sneak Thief, they made two mistakes. The first was underestimating Dr. Porter’s temper. Lying to him about the case and the enormous power he had been given to oversee its completion, was one thing. Compromising his courthouse was another! Though there were times when it was hard to separate the politician from the judge, at heart he was an honorable man, and heads would roll.

The second was Psmythe. Aware the case was beyond his capability, he had surrounded himself with trusted advisors in the fields of finance, international law, fiduciary law and white collar crime. Being lawyers, their first instinct was to want as much paper as possible, for that matter, any would be nice. The first rule of any good lawyer is to “know the answer to the questions before you ask them.”

On reflection, however, they understood there was nothing normal about this matter. They quickly realized that making the documents officially public, without some tangible proof the payout process had been started, would spell disaster for their client. The question was not “where are the documents?” The right question was “why were they hidden, was it to protect the Germans, the fiduciaries, or both?”

If what Psmythe suspected was true, and the documents confirmed even part of what she had said, then having it in black and white would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, his client was over his perfectly coifed head, in trouble. If, on the other hand, negotiations had begun to request she be appointed to assist, then he might, just possibly have a defense for his client.

That being the case, he was happy to get the message from Dr. Porter, telling him the documents might take a few extra days to deliver. It would give him time to make the call he knew had to be made.

The matter had now moved to a new phase. Demands had been made, legal actions had been filed, and the blog was being translated into German and had just been posted on an open news wire service. As she carefully stored the rest of the cheesecake in the refrigerator, she realized that starting Monday her schedule was going to get very busy. For a bit, this would be the last chapter she would have time to write.

Bon appetite.

Chapter 53

June 12, 2015

First she put down the black erosion blanket, then blocked and marked out 12” spaces. Creeping Thyme was the perfect ground cover for the hill in front of the house. After carefully bedding each plant, on a slope so steep she felt like she needed toe holds, she covered them with mulch, watered and fed them. Now all she could do was watch, wait and hope the whole hill didn’t slide onto the sidewalk.

The reason she recognized Operation Sneak Thief so quickly was she had already seen the Swiss version. For reasons it would take far too long to explain, Lord Rodgers found it advantageous to report to the Swiss authorities, what he would describe as suspicious behavior on the part of a Swiss Trust Fund

However, in the window he created between dismissing all of the fund employees and the arrival of the authorities, Lord Rodgers dispatched a dozen of his lawyers to search every record available. When the lawyers left 36 hours later, all records incriminating the group had been removed, records incriminating opponents had been manufactured and inserted, and databases had been modified.

Given their past history, she wished she could say she was surprised when she heard a rumor that suddenly all of the court documents had disappeared. Admittedly, this operation would be riskier, but if the only copy of the original database that was in the possession of the German Overseer, was ever disclosed, it would spell disaster for the group.

She could see how such a maneuver could be carried out without anyone being none the wiser. Except those whose best interests, would be served by saying nothing.

The German version of Operation Sneak Thief.

Step 1.  Use an existing program, developed by the German Justice Ministry, to move all archive documents to a safe and secure central bunker, as the guise to remove the documents from the courthouse.

Because there is no way to find the incriminating records while in the courthouse, all documents have to be removed. This includes not only archive files but also all current case files.

Step 2. In order to buy time, the shipment is rerouted to a specially designated warehouse. This warehouse has been completely fitted to the task of scouring thousands of boxes of case files as quickly as possible.

Any paperwork needed for the transfer is left intentionally vague or incomplete to ensure it could takes weeks to determine where the bureaucratic mistake was made.

Step 3. Upon finding the appropriate case files, the experts go to work. Database records and any corresponding hard copy records related to specific parties are removed. Legal records are modified, and signatories changed.

Step 4. The documents magically appear at the secure location and get buried amongst the thousands of other boxes causing yet more confusion.

No proof will ever be found of any improprieties and the delay will be put down to a paper work mix up.

But she knows, and wonders what would happen if every lawyer that ever had a case in front of the court found out the documents had disappeared for weeks.

Personally she wouldn’t mind if they stayed missing while Psmythe finally called her counsel. Then she and Stewart could get the process started using the standard rules that guide such payments without the fear of potential improprieties being disclosed.

When the files finally turn up, she can just smile and ask the Overseer to get the copies that are currently in the possession of the Finance Ministry, and the UK Court in addition to the computer in his office.

Chapter 54

June 19, 2015

The little girls next door came over to see what she was doing. “You must really like plants,” Tata said, looking at the trays of little plants she was carefully nestling into the dirt. “I am a farmer, this is what we do”, she replied.  The two girls then offered to help. She found them a watering can and set them to work. She had to admit that their “assistance” slowed her progress significantly, but they were so enthusiastic, she couldn’t say no.

After all the planting was done, they asked if they could come and visit. “After dinner,” she said. Sure enough, they promptly appeared at her door at 6:00 with Monopoly tucked under an arm. She hadn’t played Monopoly in decades. Now the money went from $10,000 to $5,000,000 and the properties included an Internet Service Provider, O’Hare, and Disney World. An hour and half later the game was a draw as they packed up and left for their beds.

The court actions were finally bearing fruit. The first copies she received bore the US case number GD-06-013722. She was expecting a second to arrive in a few days. “Now, what will Porter and Psmythe do with these?” She wondered.

Her legal gurus explained that they could go down one of two paths. The first option would be to embrace the opportunity of having a recognized case from a recognized jurisdiction. This option would allow Dr. Porter to assert all of the power he possessed as not only the overseer, but as a judge.

Such powers included demanding Stewart commence processing immediately and holding him in contempt if he didn’t comply. Appointing her as co administrator or at the very least, inviting her to Germany as an “amicus curiae” to further his understanding of the matter. And, using her case to allow all of the documents currently in “hiding” to become public record. As a smart man, she was sure, if he chose, he could find at least a dozen other ways to use the case to finally make progress.

The second option, was to continue to do nothing. However, that same smart man would quickly understand this path would force her to take more drastic actions. With the full weight of the US court system behind her, she could use the case to amend, extend, and expand, as well as, begin discovery proceedings.

These proceedings included, but were not limited to, interrogatories, depositions, and document demands from German and UK judges and government officials, past and present administrators, and bankers from Schaefers, HPBC, Barkers, RSB, Llinds, Lexia, and Commerce Trust. If she still got stonewalled, she could file additional cases in Germany, Austria, the UK and any other country associated with the 35,000 investors.

She hoped they would choose the first option and get this process started. She was sure that if this continued much longer someone was going to get seriously hurt, or worse. The only thing that could keep the “barbarians” away from the gate, was the one thing they would do anything to avoid, sunshine.

Chapter 55

June 25, 2015

Ladies and gentlemen, we have finally connected the judicial dots. Using a combination of old cases and new cases, filed in specifically significant countries, we can now lay an open court matter at the feet of Lord Rodgers, Stewart Chambers, and Dr. Porter. It will take another couple of weeks to get all of the applicable paperwork in order, but once that is done, it will be forwarded to all of the above via our German Lawyers.

The request to the court will include a demand for the first payee to be appointed as co-administrator of the payment process. That Mr. Chambers be made available to answer all questions via personal interviews, interrogatories and depositions. And that all court and computer records be made available immediately.

The quest for the pieces of the puzzle took a long and circuitous route. The last stages started to come together when she was reminded that court copies of the records may disappear, but all case files are available in the law services, such as Westlaw and the Atlantic Reporter.

Though they did everything in their power to obscure their tracks, we have to give some credit to World Law Direct. Other legal entities agreed to, and indeed did, represent investors to the best of their ability. World Law took a unique and decidedly self-serving approach.

While others, who knew very little of the players behind the scheme, called it a Ponzi and chased after the pittance in e-gold accounts, World Law knew exactly who, what, when, how and most importantly where to find the money. Instead of wasting their time representing investors, whom would be allowed all court documents, they purchased investor accounts. This allowed them to sue on their own behalf and ensure no one would be competing for the cash. Part of their payment agreement was to go away quietly. That is why nary a peep was heard from them after the German 2006 order.

But no matter how hard people try, the court and money leave bread crumbs. She can only apologize that it took her so long to find the trail. Though in her defense, this was an intentionally complicated trail, and the crumbs were very small.

If the above named parties, most specifically Dr. Porter, choose not to use the legal matter to compel compliance by the administrator, she has been introduced to the European Union Court of Auditors. She was very impressed by their mission statement.

“To contribute to improving EU financial management, promote accountability and transparency, and act as the independent guardian of the financial interests of the citizens of the Union. The ECA’s role as the EU’s independent external auditor is to check that EU funds are correctly accounted for, are raised and spent in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations and have achieved value for money.”

Instead of her chasing after the elusive guarantee, she is happy to explain the situation to the auditors, starting with where the over €6T German bailout funds came from, and who they belong to, and ending with where in Germany’s budget is the $300B plus interest, and punitive damages that is owed.

Maybe the Greeks should know why Germany had so much available cash. It appears they could use a little leverage.

Chapter 56

July 20, 2015

Technology is great when it works, when it doesn’t, it resembles a tumbling line of domino’s.

Case in point. What should have been a few hours project of picking up the triple seal copy of a US court order and getting her affidavit notarized, turned into a five day debacle when her phoned died.

After her third trip to Verizon, and the assistance of a very helpful banker, she had all the pieces she needed. Now all that was required was the German translation. “Easier said than done” was the response from her two brilliant translators.

Apparently all that eloquent legal jargon is a “beast” to translate. But as always, they came through with their usual flair. Unfortunately, the schedule had been set back by over a week.

Finally, she was able to deliver all of the necessary documents to Secretary Bird. After he worked through his own version of technical domino’s, all of the documents necessary to either force the German court to act, or move the entire matter to a US court were delivered.

Copies were sent to Dr. Porter, Stewart Chambers and Psmythe via e-mail and registered mail, with a 10 business day response window. The first document was an existing and still active US class action suit.

Though a small amount had been paid out years ago, it was still open in pursuit of additional assets. The recapture of the $20T paid out to preferential accounts certainly qualified. It could also be extended to 2026, expanded to add more plaintiffs and amended to include current responsible parties.

The second was a very small default judgement in a very small UK court. The judgement accomplished several things. It established both Lord Rodgers, and Stewart Chambers as current administrators on the Secure Income accounts and brought the matter to a more current date.

Also, since the accounts must be paid in specific order and the account on the UK default judgment is #32,527 in the database, accounts #1 through #32,526 must be paid first. In addition to payment, the order also demanded a complete accounting from July 1, 2006 including details of all banks, transactions, and activity related to the Secure Income escrow accounts.

The last document was an affidavit from her. This document laid out a list of all the facts she had obtained from six years on the phone with Stewart, and hundreds of hours of research compiled by her and others to connect the dots.

If indeed Dr. Porter had universal jurisdiction over the Secure Income payments, as she had attested in her affidavit, he now had everything he needed to force the administrators to commence payments. The US court order gave him subject jurisdiction and placed a matter before the court and the UK court order gave him personal jurisdiction over the administrators.

Now, all she could do is wait.

Chapter 57

August 6, 2015

They say learning a third language is much easier than the second. That was the reason she taught Ellie sign language as a baby and made her take 12 years of Spanish with a smattering of Mandarin.

Her own efforts to learn French had been much more sporadic, starting with one class in high school, two in college and later a couple classes at the local technical school. But she decided that the unpredictable “hurry up and wait” schedule of this project allowed for an opportunity to take on the French verb forms. Bound and determined, she went to the library and checked out the intermediate Pimsleur language system and a French dictionary. She is now on Chapter 2.

It would not be unusual to wonder why she is learning French when we are working with the Germans. There are several reasons. First, French is a Latin language, German is NOT. Second, something strange happens when learning a foreign language. The ears and tongue learn to adapt, making the third language, no matter what it is, easier to pick up.

Lastly, she didn’t know how much she wanted this process to continue in Germany. There was far too much evidence of impropriety by the German government for her to trust anything. Her preference was to operate the administrative duties from Switzerland or if the current administrator decides to cooperate, the UK. Or better yet, barring seasickness, a boat.

To no one’s surprise, no response was received from any of the parties involved. After the 10 business days plus acceptable mailing time had expired, a short simple letter was sent. It informed all parties that this matter would now be moved to the US Court system, The Hague, and the EU Court of Auditors.  She forgot to mention the new German court, oops.

It was time to go after the money. With both the US and UK court actions in hand, she could now file liens against the current administrators, all previously paid investors, and every bank that had ever touched a $,€,£, or yen of the Secure Income funds.

She could also file a complaint against the German government in The Hague and the EU Court of Auditors. These would not only allow her to demand documents, but she was sure, there were many parties, besides the Greeks, who would like to know how a country of 80 million people has so much spare change.

Then there was the little action in a little German court. This allows her to link the German judges to the UK administrators, and to the banks. It was also the fastest way to make headlines in Germany.

Maintenant, nous’ll voir si nous obtenons leur attention!

Chapter 58

August 21, 2015

Another canning season had started at the farm. The peaches had been frozen, the strawberries jammed, and the beets pickled. But her favorite was the taste of fresh sweet corn. One of the many wonderful things about living in the most fertile region of the world was being surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of sweet corn.

Unbeknownst to most, the sugars in sweet corn start to breakdown within minutes of being picked. Within four hours, the taste has moved from sugar to starch. That is why all preparations for immediate blanching were prepared before she went to the fields. Within an hour, a dozen pints of corn were safely being quick frozen. Prepared for enjoying during the long winter months.

A wise, and very informed gentleman told her recently that major movement was finally happening in relation to her project. “Because of the enormous political implications involved, you may not see direct results immediately, but you will know you have succeeded when you start seeing movement around the edges.” And movement she saw.

First, Secretary Bird received a bizarre e-mail from someone purporting to be Stewart Chambers. It read like the script of a Mexican soap opera. At first glance, she spotted several minor and one major inconsistency. On the second read, she realized it looked to be written by at least three different people, none of whom actually knew Stewart personally.

She saw no reason not to accept the contact in the manner it was NOT intended, as an invitation to the party. The next day she penned an elegant response as well as a request for confirmation of identity. Within 24 hours she had received an e-mail from the same parties. It was clear the senders did not understand the close relationship she had with Stewart. The confirmation of identity was missing and it appeared to be written by a first year lawyer. Something Stewart is NOT.

Along with the written communication, Mr. Bird received two telephone calls from Supposed Stewart. Both careful not to leave any voice recordings that could have confirmed an identity. Upon receipt of these confusing communiques both she and Mr. Bird contacted Stewart’s home. There they both encountered Fishy Father.

Stewart’s father has a very traveled past and in all the times she had spoken to him, she always enjoyed listening to his unique accent. In the conversations held with him over the last few months, that accent had mysteriously vanished.

Next she got word that parties supposedly representing Lord Rodgers had contacted the German government professing no knowledge of any connection between Secure Income and the settlement agreement or guarantee. Having communicated with Lord Rodgers about this matter dozens of times over the last three years, the Germans were understandably confused. First, the Germans and Lord Rodgers knew that each possessed a copy of the documentation that confirmed the transaction. Second, the manner by which the message was transmitted was “stupid” and “obvious.” “Lord Rodgers was many things, but “stupid” and “obvious” were not amongst them.” If the politician’s involved were afraid the exposure of a $300B guarantee was a risk with Lord Rodgers involved, they should be simply terrified by the behavior of the newcomers.

She had now started an all-out manhunt for the real Stewart, a man who had been last seen in the company of a German judge. The same judge whose office had just knowingly misrepresented Stewart’s whereabouts to the British Consulate.

Besides being unable to think of any GOOD reason someone would want to impersonate Stewart, she was getting frustrated with the inactivity. As far as she could ascertain, she had given all parties involved a simple and discreet way to get out of this mess. All that was needed, was for the Dr. Porter to arrange a private introduction between her well connected and experienced German lawyer and Psmythe. This would accomplish three things: To begin the dialog necessary to restart the payment process. Add a politically savvy, experienced German lawyer to the administrative team. Allow her to become a valuable asset instead of an annoying liability.

She knew someone was finally listening. Now it was time to act.

Chapter 59

September 11, 2015

She slowly strolled through the shelves looking for something to catch her eye. She knew no matter which one she chose, between its cover she would find a true gem. Whether it had been her broke years while attending college, her lean years starting her software business, or the more recent struggling years, she learned the greatest treasure of all was not the trillions she was fighting for, but the books, music, movies and art she could find at the library, for free. The Ancient Library of Alexandria may be the most famous depository of knowledge but her county library system was one of the best in the world. From Birth of a Kingdom by Jan Guillou to Zorro by Isabel Allende, treasures could be found in every nook and cranny.

Her hope was that when the funds started rolling in, that she and all of the investors that had learned the greatest lessons of life during the lean years would not forget them.

The blog posting may have been slow of late but the activity was not. After extensive research the proper venue for the matter had been chosen…The Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague. This allows the matter to become immediately public in a respected forum. Also, not being a court, no one can try and turn it into a criminal matter and tie it up in investigations for years.

Since the format requirements were open, it was decided to write the filing documents to the US Federal Court standards. This will allow the documents to be easily modified for use in virtually any court in the world.

Besides the brief, the exhibits and notice of arbitration needed to be researched and drafted. To date, the structure has been completed and a good dent has been made in what is hoped to be a short 40 pager.

Meanwhile, at the side door, a letter was drafted, e-mailed and faxed to Dr. Porter and one of his jurist colleagues, along with spreadsheets, names and dates displaying every detail available of every payment made to date. Dr. Porter may be willing to risk his career playing politician first and jurist maybe, but she wonders if his heir apparent feels the same.

And through the back door, Dr. Porter has finally succeeded, after numerous old and not so inventive forms of interference, in putting Psmythe and her attorney together in the same room at the same time. It remains to be seen whether proper discussions are about to commence.

If the Barbarians at the Gate have half a brain between them they will now understand that like the fake e-mails, contact with her counsel had now directly involved her, and further interference would accomplish nothing but to expose them for the spineless Neanderthals that they are.

Chapter 60

September 29, 2015

What a difference a chair makes, or in her case eight. After over seven years she finally felt confident enough in the situation to remove some of her furnishings from storage. It wasn’t much, her dining room table and four chairs, the two chairs and coffee table for the living room, and the two big comfy chairs that used to sit in her study. She added a few pictures and a couple of rugs, and the transformation to both the house and her disposition was miraculous.

She was convinced she would be leaving soon. It just seemed to be the way the world worked, or at least her world, but at least for now she felt at home again.

Progress was running apace on the action for the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Running just over 80 pages including eight exhibits complete with pictures and graphs, it was officially filed this morning. Others had said it was a brilliant piece of work, and even she had to admit it made a very impressive compilation. All, she might add, information the barbarians had gone to great lengths to keep secret. Didn’t anyone ever tell them, there is no such thing as a secret!

Speaking of secrets, she got another interesting call. This one informed her that the sister to the computer in Dr. Porter’s office was presently located on the third floor of a building currently controlled by MI6. She wished she could be surprised.

And the revelations continued. Stewart Chambers had signed all the fiduciary trustee and guarantee documents using the alias Stewart Rodgers, and was sitting in Germany under the same name. Psmythe’s real name was actually four first names run together. This was just too English for the judge, so he secretly called him “NOC”.

On a sadder note, Lord Rodgers had died. Though it had not been made public yet, he was buried at a small, elegant funeral with close friends and family. But if his enemies thought they could breathe easy, they were sadly mistaken. Like in most families, he could abuse his nephew to his heart’s content, but even in death he would fiercely protect Stewart from any such behavior from others.

Files were compiled, copied and distributed in secret depositories around the world, for two purposes. To honor the promise he made to his nephew, that the payments could be completed upon his death, and to ensure Stewart had enough dirt on his opposition to keep them at bay for several generations. As was his habit while living, he left the location names in riddles and rhyme. None of which his opposition ever understood when he was there to explain them. It is unlikely they will figure them out now that he is not.

Everyone that had been threatened was now protected, and even though Stewart’s parents were safe, in her short conversation with his father, it was clear he is very unnerved by the situation and very worried about his son. She only hoped someone could reach Stewart to tell him it was safe for him to proceed as soon as the judge returned from his illness.

Chapter 61

November 6, 2015

As she watched the trees shed their leaves in the last vestiges of another fall, she realized yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the blog. The gold of the majestic oaks covered the ground so thick she couldn’t see the grass and landscaping she had spent the summer nurturing and who knew a squirrel could scamper so fast with an apple wedged between his teeth.

It was now approaching the six week mark and no official word had been received from The Hague but the legal beagles suggest the case number should be forthcoming. However, unofficially the game was afoot. It only took three weeks for her confidential filing at The Hague to circle the globe, become breakfast fodder at an international banking conference in Bangkok, Thailand, and for her to be informed that every banker, and related politician had a copy of the claimant/respondent list. If she had put it on a billboard in Madison Square it couldn’t have been leaked faster, or caused more panic.

It was nice to have the Barbarian’s stupidity and obviousness, as they continued to stumble in the dark, working for her for a change. But she had to admit she missed the subtle brilliance, circular maneuvering and careful placement of the mine fields that were the hallmarks of Lord Rodgers. She wondered if this was how Holmes felt after Moriarty fell over the falls.

Of greater interest was the ‘meeting.’ She knew the war was won when she heard of the super-secret meeting held in Germany last night. Though the entire affair was stage managed with the artistry rivaling a production of Nutcracker, the message was simple. “The entire financial infrastructure of the EU is about to change and it is Germany’s responsibility to create a new one.” The literal translation of the statement, which almost no one in the room understood, is “the funds the German government has been illegally leveraging to support itself and its control over the EU are about to be distributed to its rightful owners, along with interest and damages that has already been spent, and how are the powers that be going to explain the gigantic hole in their finances?” Another meeting is scheduled in 45 days.

We, on the other hand, will be in contact with The Hague in a few days, and sending out the Notice of Arbitration to over 40 administrators, bankers, judges, politicians, and embassy officials, in seven countries, in the next week or so.

If they don’t act fast, Trump, VW, and Syria will be minor footnotes on page 10.

Chapter 62

November 24, 2015

Just in the nick of time. The leaves were raked, the winter car maintenance completed, the horse nestled in his stall, and the daughter moving into her first apartment just before the snowflakes start to fall. Any warm and cooperative weather after the first of November is always considered a gift.

Speaking of gifts. Lord Rodgers, or more specifically his two spineless minions who call themselves “Sir” and in some century took Silk for the Crown, have just handed her hundreds of new allies. It seemed that Rodgers had done the same thing to his investors that Schafers had done to Secure Income.

The first rule of becoming a Rodgers investor, required that effectively all their funds be signed over to an entity, unbeknownst to most of them, solely controlled by Lord Rodgers. The second rule required that no documentation be traceable to the “investment”. This ensured complete confidentiality and plausible deniability to its members and that no silly things like securities and investment laws interfered with their profit making.

For decades this worked perfectly. Lord Rodgers would “invest” the funds in opportunities that were benefited from the lack of annoying foolish oversight like loaning $25T to the Federal Reserve (the only bank in the world never to be audited) or $10T to the German government through a plethora of shell corporations and trust funds. Few if any questions were ever asked for fear someone might answer.

In, what he thought was one of his more brilliant moves, he found his nephew involved in an opportunity that could not be missed. Through an elaborate array of maneuvers, he takes control of another pot of gold and has the German government on their knees. All while making his nephew the dupe.

All goes well until it becomes clear that some woman, from the middle of nowhere and that has nothing, somehow seems to know everything about the stunt and is happy to expose him and everything he’s done to get what she wants. And what she wants is not just the pot of gold he “borrowed” but also a sizeable profit.

Knowing he is dying and his primary objective must be to protect his family, more specifically the nephew he got into this mess, he arranges a series of trusts, into which he deposits all of the investor’s funds. He then appoints three trustees, but gives total control over the accounts to his nephew.

Upon Lord Rodger’s death, the two trustees, not hiding under a bed in Germany, decide not to publically announce his death, hoping to forestall any questions from the investors about their money.  But slowly funds start to dry up, deals stop getting funded, international brokerage houses have to publicly blame “accounting errors” for shortfalls and distribution checks cease. After the two trustees are finally located, investors are told their funds are unavailable and may continue to be unavailable for several years.

Needless to say, this does not go down well, but what do the investors do? They have no documents and few details. Strange as it may seem to them, there are 35,000 investors who can tell them exactly how that feels.

But more important, she can tell them exactly where their money is, and how to get it. All they have to do is ask!

Chapter 63

December 14, 2015

The house seemed almost bare. It didn’t take Ellie long to understand that it was going to cost her more to fill the kitchen cabinets and the linen closet than it cost for her second hand furniture. Not to mention the time she suddenly didn’t have, now that Webster’s definition of “work” had taken on new meaning. And her classes had just started.

Enter Mom. Fortunately over decades, her mother had acquired not only her own mother’s houseware but also seemed to have two or three of everything. After adding a few new dish towels, pot holders and the essential new used copy of the 1983 version of Better Home and Gardens Cookbook, Ellie was fully equipped in her new apartment. Her mother, on the other hand, had to hide the joyous glee she felt at having the house to herself.

After the official Hague filing of the matter entitled “Demand for Administrative Accounting and Fiduciary Responsibility “ was completed, the next task was to send out the Notice of Arbitration to all 16 respondents. This included one notice each to the Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Board Legal Counsel of all eight financial institutions involved.  Then, of course, there were the ambassadors of all of the countries involved, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US.

And lastly the most interesting question…who should be served for the Republic of Germany? Sending a notice to every official in the German government seemed a bit of overkill, not to mention very expensive. It was decided that four judges, the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, and several ministers would be sufficient. By the time she had formally notified The Hague service was completed, 49 notifications had been sent in four languages, English, French, German and Swedish.

Now the clock started ticking. According to The Hague service rules, the respondents had 30 days from the date of receipt to respond. That raised an interesting question for Germany. Is the date of receipt the date the German ambassador to the US received his copy, or the date the Chancellor received hers?  Either way the days were numbered and there were no extensions.

On top of the 49 official copies the Claimant Representative had sent out, it had taken less than 48 hours for a redacted version to be published on a public forum.

24 hours after that, she had gotten a call from one of her contacts telling her the Germans were in a panic, and even other EU countries were asking questions. Their questions seemed to form along three main topics. The first was related to the fallout of another banking scandal, this one dwarfing all other combined. Second, where did $20 trillion go during the biggest banking meltdown in the history of mankind? Lastly, where is all the tax revenue that should have been collected on the proceeds?

Then just yesterday, she read an article about four US judges filing a lien in Colorado for $279 trillion. Their claim made her little demands looks down right miniscule.

How long before the press started calling?

Chapter 64

December 30, 2015

With Christmas over, and the kid ‘mostly’ moved she had time to reflect on the accomplishments of the last year.

Yes, she had found a place to perch. Yes, they had found old lawsuits, filed new suits and now had the matter in front of The Hague.

But most important was the amazing team of people and talent that had stepped into every breach. From sage legal advice, complex and lengthy language translations, secretarial services and contributions of funds large and small to “thank you for your good work”.

Each and every contribution is the reason we will persevere.

Thank you, she could not have done it without you.

Chapter 65

January 21, 2016

She and her furry companions had survived another Polar Vortex and slowly but surely the days were getting longer. According to Word, her blog was now on page 94 and 36,000 words. But what a difference a year makes.

Two replies were received in response to her Notice of Arbitration. One from a German ambassador and the other from a financial institution. Though she can’t say they were what she had hoped for, they were what she expected. The first said service to The Federal Republic of Germany could not be done through his embassy. The other was a fishing expedition from a well-respected Amsterdam arbitration lawyer. She thinks the next time he goes fishing he will demand a higher fee.

What he caught was an abbreviated three page detailed analysis of the 100,000 transactions processed by his client to the tune of $20T. Including little known tidbits such as the fact that there were not 100,000 funded accounts in the original database and 35,000 of those haven’t been paid yet. Though she did pose a few open questions, she left most to his imagination. Even for a lawyer, she suspects his mind is still racing to comprehend all of the implications, each one worse than the last.

She had not forgotten the ambassador. Another three page summary of his country’s past and current involvement was sent to his Chancellor. It advised Madam that in 10 days the same letter would be sent to all respondents and liens would start being filed against all parties shortly thereafter.

44 copies of the Chancellor letter along with cover were sent out three days ago. She is also in the process of developing a relationship with her county court recorder. The same court recorder that had to file thousands of foreclosures against good people while the bank executives received raises.

It has been decided to file the first lien against Barkers for a paltry $400M, as a training exercise. Since even a $1 lien can freeze every transaction, it should get someone’s attention. Then the rest will follow within days.

When will they learn, she says what she will do, then does what she says.

Chapter 66

February 24, 2016

The good thing about her spending a great deal, 13 years ago, on a Desq office system was that when she somehow misplaced a few pieces they were happy to replace them, free of charge. And the good thing about her finally putting her office back together is that she pulled out her passport, to file it in its proper place and discovered it had just expired. Fortunately the US State Department makes it almost effortless to get a passport renewed.

It had been a grueling month. Anyone who has ever plowed fallow ground, either literally or figuratively knows the mental exhaustion that can turn your brain to putty. It took a few days for everyone, including our lawyers and judges, to wrap their heads around the fact that 16 respondents, sued in an internationally recognized court and served in 49 different ways, had not responded. Everyone was sure that she and the court would be inundated by hundreds of bank lawyers and midlevel government officials. The court had gotten nary a peep.

Admittedly, she did receive two letters from Barkers lawyer and one from Llinds, on a similar fishing expedition as Schafers. Since they chose to not inform the court, and didn’t respond until well after the default, she found no reason to waste time with them. She had bigger fish to fry and the hardest task of all lay ahead.

The creation of the Summary Award Request. In essence she had an opportunity to ask for anything and everything, sort of. It’s much harder than you might think. Imagine for a moment that you just rubbed a lamp and a genie materialized before your eyes (add Robin Williams voice for proper affect) and told you he could grant you three wishes with a few provisos and quid pro quos (in her case limited by numerous laws).

But before she could make her wishes, she had to select three arbitrators. In essence, her genies, and there were 260 possibilities from 117 countries. After much research and deliberation the choice was made. The Presiding Arbitrator was an Italian, then a woman jurist from Ireland and a legal diplomat from Canada. Alternates were also selected from France, Finland and the Netherlands.

Now to choose her wishes. Fortunately her genies didn’t limit her to three. She started small with the laundry list of documents, everyone and their brother, had been trying to keep from her. Then she moved on to a bit of embarrassment by demanding that the award be published on the banks’ financial statements as long as a single investor remained unpaid.
Next she demanded that none of the respondents could be involved, in any way, with internet investing, again, until every investor was paid. The last thing she wanted was for them to steal from others to pay her. This money had to come out of their own pockets.
Then the big wish. Lots and lots of money. Billions paid to four claimants, turns into trillions very quickly, when multiplied by 34,996.

And then the pain. The word altruism not being part of their vocabulary, she requested an equal amount to her lots and lots of money be deposited in a nonprofit trust for the benefit of the investors, their families, communities, humanity and the planet.
And if that didn’t hurt enough, she demanded the entire matter be used as the model for payments of the remaining 34,996 accounts and be made public.

She was getting mixed messages as to when her wishes would be granted but when the head genie is Italian and has to struggle to decide who he hates more, the Germans who just announced a $19 Billion surplus or the banks that bankrupted his country, she thinks it will only take one very expensive bottle of Italian wine and a good dinner before he gives her everything she wants.

Chapter 67

March 31, 2016

All of the rain, instead of snow in the last few weeks, had the grass turning green, trees budding and dreams of tomato plants and tulips. But she wasn’t fooled. In any given hour, on any given day until at least the end of April, a blizzard could sweep in and destroy the fantasy of an early spring, not to mention the few flower buds foolish enough to pop their heads out early.

It had taken a couple weeks, but rumors started slowly flowing of questions being asked by both The Hague and the German Government. At first, the questions asked by The Hague centered on verifying the information she had presented in the documents and evidence filed with the court. The Milverton Barony did indeed exist, the banking instruments were as described, and yes, $20T could flow unnoticed through the big London banks over a two to three year period.

Once it was determined that the Secure Income claimants were not nutcases, the questions got more pointed and the investigation more intense. Where is Baron Milverton, and why has he not communicated with anyone in months? A vague answer about his being indisposed was received from a group of lawyers.

To the banks, questions centered on the availability of certain documents. This time the answer of “I don’t know” from a low level clerk changed to “We’ll get back to you” from bank lawyers as the demand went up the chain of command.

She was glad to see the court had asked IF specific documents existed, not a demand FOR specific documents. To some this might seem like an insignificant distinction, but she knew by the way the question was phrased that the court recognized the delicate nature of the case, and the careful way she had maneuvered to avoid directly accusing anyone of criminal activity. They too understood any hint of criminality could tie this matter up for decades.

As the Germans knew a great deal more about this situation, their requests were more direct. They didn’t need documents, they already had a multiyear paper trail that was politically very unhealthy and the administrator now hiding in an area of Germany jurisdictionally disputed for the sake of deniability. All they wanted was the cash, a lot of it and it better be available on short notice. The responses they received from the bank executives and their lawyers were declarations of innocence, ignorance and poverty, in that order.

The more vague answers and legal evasions the Court and Madam Chancellor received, the more annoyed they became. Their ever growing annoyance making them more determined than ever to not only right the wrong done to 35,000 investors but to ensure no individuals or entities could pull this stunt again.

When this all started, she would never have imagined that The Hague and Madam Chancellor would become the proxies for the Secure Income Investors and their cause, but she couldn’t think of anyone better.

Chapter 68

April 6, 2016

Sure enough, snow, wind and a white out. Fortunately in April they don’t last long and the sun is shining again. But it is still too cold to start playing in the yard.

What a difference a week and the Panama Papers make. Reading even a couple of the articles will give most a small glimpse into the inner workings of the rich, powerful and unscrupulous. Yes, that does seem a redundant description. However, read 20 articles from a dozen different sources, spend 10 years immersed in the Secure Income saga and do a bit of further research and it is clear she isn’t the only person that has been trying to fill in the puzzle. Just the only one with a couple of important missing pieces.

She was elated to see the exposure of how Barkers created over 2,000 offshore entities to use as conduits for payments. And also the detailed article of how an unsuspecting 90 year old UK gentleman’s credentials were used as cover for the payments of millions of dollars to keep the real recipient secret. That story explained how over 15,000 accounts were added to the settlement agreement database. And then there were the little details that tie all of the pieces to the Crimson Crest family, from a Prime Minister’s lineage to the CC Private Trust Bank.

Though the papers were certainly impressive, they were still missing a key piece or two. The first is the wizard behind the curtain, a little known Baron.  The other is the path of the money.  An even lesser known little settlement agreement.

Secure conduits for fund transfers were easy before the advent of regulations, sanctions and congressional hearings. Then came a gift from the gods….the internet. Open a private website, invite the ‘client’ to open an anonymous numbered account and under the guise of profits transfer their ill gotten gains. Then open it to the small investor to:

1. Hide the real activity.
2. Steal millions from the unsuspecting public.

Then just as the authorities are knocking at the door, a stroke of luck. A little known German court approved international settlement agreement creates the perfect conduit to transfer trillions of dollars with no questions asked. Couple that with the credentials of thousands of old bank depositors, employees and shareholders to cover the real recipients of the proceeds and business goes on as usual.

She also found it interesting that the German authorities were given the documents over a year ago yet details only started getting released this week. Perhaps it is just a HUGE coincidence that it was about the same time Madame Chancellor needed the banks to stop stalling and start forking over some $s, €s and £s.

It leads her to believe that if the banks don’t do what Madame is demanding, further disclosures, including names, addresses, and phone numbers, will be forthcoming.

Chapter 69

May 24, 2016

The thrill of smelling the lilacs and seeing the first blooms on the tomatoes never gets old, no matter how many years she has experienced them. On the other hand, the sound of gunfire and sirens gets old very quickly.  Fortunately both she and her garden are located out of harm’s way.

The activity of the last few weeks had neither been sexy nor particularly exciting, but it had been constructive. Her legal gurus had told her that if she had not heard from The Hague within 45 to 60 days with a rejection that it was very likely her matter had been accepted.  Though communication to that effect would have been nice, she decided to proceed as if the case was now before the court and negotiations were in progress. As there appeared to be no rules regarding direct communication with the Respondents after a complete default, her first move was to request permission from the court for two things:

1. To officially respond to communications she had received from Barkers and Llinds.

2. The ability to formally communicate with all 35,000 investors.

As the old saying goes, don’t ask for a ‘yes’ if a ‘non no’ will do, her request was accordingly worded. When no respond was forthcoming from the court, she proceeded to send letters to Barkers and Llinds detailing their involvement and requesting a dialog commence. She was still awaiting a response.

But to her, the more important development was her ability, as the official claimant representative, to finally and officially after almost a decade, communicate with the investors. The first formal communiqué was currently being drafted. As her opposition has been waiting for any opportunity to pounce on any missteps, real or perceived, the release needed to be very carefully crafted and should be ready for release in a few days.

The challenges of the last couple years have been formidable, but she knew the next stage would be the most difficult. She had to separate the investor’s funds from the grip of bankers and politicians who perceive the funds as their personal money machine. Let the games (of which she has now seen them all) begin.

Chapter 70

July 25, 2016

She had just picked the first Roma tomatoes of the season. Now the difficult decision of what to make first. A salad with light dressing? A BLT sandwich? Or fresh tomato soup?  Oops, they didn’t quite get to the kitchen. Yum.

Though on the surface all seemed quiet, the under current and back channel chatter was reaching a fever pitch. The first serious investigation done by The Hague was completed and now the matter was in the hands of the esteemed jurists.

A second investigation was under way by the Germans. They were still trying to answer questions such as: What exactly is this all about? How did we get involved? How deep a hole are we in?  And how do we get out of this mess? Their conversations with the banks had been everything but productive.

Now a third investigation had begun. After almost a year the second man in the room with Lord Rodgers had finally started asking questions. For her, the discovery of the name of the second man filled in one of the last pieces of the puzzle. After a bit of extensive research she was able to follow the money directly from Secure Income accounts to the investment trust of the most influential banking family in the world.

Second Man (she suspected he hadn’t been called that many times in his life) had finally started to understand that, Lord Rodgers, taught from childhood that family comes first, in a desire to protect his nephew, had tied a tangled web of the families’ trust funds and the completion of our payments into one scrambled package.

It was slowly, very slowly, becoming clear to all involved that the world’s finances and our payments were inexplicably linked and the only way to unravel it was to get her and the young administrator into a room together!

Chapter 71

August 24, 2016

Déjà vu. After reading countless articles about the troubled banking industry, she could not help but feel she had seen this story before. In as little as 7 years the financial markets had generated another $550 trillion in derivatives (and that number was ‘murky’ according to numerous banking experts). The significant difference was that this time it was not the Americans and mortgage backed bonds, but the Germans and European government bonds being used as collateral as unsustainable leverage.

Further in-depth research had unearthed startling bits of information, some gleaned from a sentence here, a passing comment there or reading between the lines of a financial article somewhere else. But it all drew an enlightening if not surprising picture.

She started asking some questions and doing a little math. Using the maximum leverage allowed legally (not taking into account the shadowy definition of that term), $300B in untouchable escrow funds could collateralize approximately $7.5T in government bonds, making the 35,000 small investors the foundation holding up the EU bailout. For most of the last 4 years that was where her thinking stopped.

She didn’t think about what the ‘powers that be’ did with an additional $7.5T in government bonds now held by the international banks. The stated intention of the bond bailout was to jumpstart the economies by generating loans to individuals and businesses. Who was anyone kidding?

The funds never left the banking system. The finance ministers, bankers, brokers, and hedge fund managers put a new spin on old financial products and started trading them amongst themselves, again playing a very risky game of musical chairs. As of last week Deutsche Bank was on the hook for over $70T.

All of the SI investors can be proud of the fact that they alone have brought the world out of the last recession. But now it was time to GIVE THE MONEY BACK and use someone else’s. She had no illusions they would use their own.

Chapter 72

October 13, 2016

Yesterday she awoke to see a very frightened and highly stressed little black bunny. One look told her that overnight one of Widget’s already slightly cloudy eyes had turned snow white with severe moon blindness. With careful and calming assurance Widget relaxed enough to eat, drink and rest.

Then this morning, something absolutely amazing happened. Widget had carefully found her way to the food and water at the other end of the house. She and Giz were quietly resting in their preferred morning spot when a loud noise frightened them. Suddenly she saw two bunnies flying down the hallway with Gizmo guiding Widget to safety.

Human kind might be finding new lows on a daily basis, but bunny kind knows “we are better together.”

On August 25, she sent an invoice, on behalf of the claimants, in the amount of US$11,960,615,632.34 to the current administrator, Stewart Chambers and the current paymaster, Commerce Trust.

Ten days later, the German claimant, filed a demand for payment with a Central Authority in the Federal Republic of Germany. Attached was a copy of The Hague “Notice of Arbitration” for good measure. The current Central Authority of the state in question is Dr. Porter.

These actions were taken for several reasons:

1. A current official claim for payment needed to be made. Since there is no available website that allowed others to make claims and request payment, an invoice was deemed legally acceptable.

 

2. The invoice immediately created an enforceable debt against not just the administrator and paymaster but also the Federal Republic of Germany under the International Uniform Commercial Code and the “Agreement to Facilitate Payments” signed by Lord Rodgers and Dr. Schartel.

 

3. It created a matter in front of Dr. Porter’s court, granting him immediate judicial authority and responsibility to resolve this matter. More specifically, he now has the ability and obligation, if needed, to toss Stewart in jail, force his lawyer to make contact and appoint an assistant administrator to commence the payment process.

 

4. Even if the German government could have somehow justified arguing lack of proper service of the 16 “Notices of Arbitration” she sent out last December, service to the Central Authority by a German citizen is impossible to disregard.

 

5. Again, if Germany could argue they were not in default of The Hague matter before, they certainly were now.

There are 16 states or “lands” in Germany, each with its own Central Authority, courts and government. Next week the German claimant will be filing the same claim in his home state. That only leaves 14 states left to pursue and the invoice amount increases $5,977,957.82 a day.

‘Looming’ over all of this activity is The Hague award creeping ever closer, with each passing day.

Chapter 73

December 28, 2016

Santa had come and gone leaving behind the girl’s favorite treat. Not the Life cereal, Vanilla wafers or cranberries they get every day but sweet, succulent dried cherries. At $9.99 a pound, they are almost worth the same as two pint sized bunnies.

On October 21, the German claimant sent a letter, accompanied by the $12B invoice and a copy of the “Notice of Arbitration” to his home land requesting assistance in getting payment on the invoice.

On October 27, the Minister of Justice, Migration, and Consumer Protection responded, acknowledging receipt of his letter but stating he was unable to help with a matter in another land.

She had expected the rejection, it was not their problem. However, whether intentionally or not, the invoice, request, and notice were now a part of an official public record in Germany. Something all opposing parties had gone to great lengths to avoid.

On December 12, after the Central Authority had violated its own 90 day rule, by continuing to ignore the German Claimants request, an invoice for $12,499,131,835.80, due upon receipt, was issued to the Federal Republic of Germany and the Central Authority (compound interest can get very expensive).

Unlike the August invoice which created a demand for payment and a debt against the current administrator, this invoice created a debt against the German government. No matter the size of the debt, the legal and accounting issues remain the same. There are only three things a debtor can do:

1. Pay the invoice. Which acknowledges not only their obligation to the four claimants, but all 35,000 investors.
2. Dispute the invoice. Which acknowledges not only their obligation to the four claimants, but all 35,000 investors.
3. Continue to ignore the invoice. In which case, in 30 days all of the details of the transaction will be posted on a public website and in 60 days the four claimants will have completed all of the documentary requirements to file liens against any and all German assets anywhere in the US, Australia, and, of course, Germany. All for the price of the filing fee.

However, the legal aspects of the debt are only part of the problem. The accounting issues present an even bigger challenge. The invoice is dated December 12, 2016. It must appear on the year-end financial reporting as an outstanding liability of both the Federal Republic of Germany and the State Central Authority or at minimum a footnote, if it has been formally disputed by year-end.

To ignore it completely, violates international reporting standards and opens up the country to lawsuits by anyone who owns a German bond, does business with any German government entity or even potentially any of its financial institutions that hold billions in German debt.

She had heard that certain responsible parties really, really want this matter resolved, but are afraid contact with her will only open Pandora’s Box and make matters worse. So she will repeat again, not only is constructive dialog with her necessary, but as the unofficial functional administrator, she is well versed in the procedures needed to bring this matter to a successful conclusion.

It is time for contact to be made.

Chapter 74

January 18, 2017

It is midterm exam time for her cooking students. The boys were told they needed to plan, shop and prepare 3 dishes they had never made before. The dinner must include a soup or salad (a lettuce leaf on a plate did not count), a main dish, and a dessert. Points would be given for preparedness, execution, service and table manners.

Her back channel had acknowledged the difficulties the receipt of a certain very large invoice created, but the same question that had been repeated for years still remained. How do we make these payments without bringing on Armageddon?

About 3 years ago, believing Stewart as administrator, was going to complete the payments, she created a comprehensive implementation plan. She decided it was time to share this plan with the powers that be.

On January 10, a complete implementation plan was sent, return receipt, to the Central Authority and cc’d to all of the usual suspects. Yesterday, she was informed that the Central Authority refused receipt of the documents. That information made her laugh. It confirmed she finally had their complete and undivided attention and they now officially had the invoices, but had rejected the plan to get them paid. Politicians are nothing, if not predictable.

It is important to understand what an implementation plan is and what it is not. An implementation plan is a comprehensive outline of how a project is to be completed. It does not address the questions of who, what, when, where and why. Those questions are answered in the more comprehensive project blue print. She could write a dissertation on the methods of designing a blue print, but all of them start with the first critical step of an implementation plan.

With a copy of the implementation plan firmly in hand, Dr. Porter and Germany have no more excuses.

Chapter 75

March 14, 2017

Another spring had sprung or so she thought. Then in 24 hours the temperature dropped from 45°F to 5°F with several inches of snow. Just another day in the frozen tundra of the north.

The time had come for another attempt at a face to face meeting with someone in authority. With the administrator still being hidden, her only option was a representative of the German government. In some research she had done a couple years ago, she discovered that besides the official German embassies in Washington DC and Chicago, dozens of honorary consulates were scattered around the country and one was only a few miles from her house.

But what was their authority, and how did she get a meeting? By fortuitous accident she called the local consulate during the four hours of the week they were open. After explaining her desire to set up a meeting, she was told that they were very busy but if she sent a short email explaining the issue someone would get back to her, eventually. Clearly the direct approach was not going to work. Hmmmm.

Research into the local Honorary Consulate disclosed that Mrs. Schmidt was an attorney. Attorneys like to speak to other attorneys. A call to her attorney, then a call from him to Mrs. Schmidt and a meeting was arranged.

On February 8, her and her longtime lawyer met with Mrs. Schmidt. In a short 90 minutes, Mrs. Schmidt recognized the importance of the matter as well as the risks posed to numerous parties within her government. She immediately contacted her superiors in Chicago. Five hours later, her attorney got a response. “Sorry, but we can’t help.” It was more longwinded than that, with legalese she had heard before that meant “I’m a political lackey and this is way above my paygrade.”

But she had accomplished what she intended. A face to face meeting with an official representative of the Federal Republic of Germany with her lawyer as a witness. Now how best to use this achievement?

The invoice the PCA team has issued to the Federal Republic of Germany had aged nicely with no response. Now it was time for the next step. According to UCC law, a notice of intent to lien is necessary with varying degrees of waiting periods depending on jurisdiction, but 30 days is the maximum wait.

On March 2, 2017 a ‘First and Final Notice of Intent to Lien’ was served on the Federal Republic of Germany, return receipt. Copies were sent to the usual suspects plus one. A complete copy of all the documents given to the local Honorary Consulate including the response from Chicago were sent to the German Ambassador to the US, thereby bypassing said same lackeys in Chicago and moving it up a few paygrades. The cover explained that with an internet connection and $20 she could sit in her pajamas and file a commercial lien for US$12.5B against everything Germany owns in the US any time after April 1. If that was not enough, Australia was next. And after that, there are 35,000 investors from thousands of jurisdictions in over 100 countries. Madame Chancellor is arriving at the Washington DC embassy today.

Welcome to the US Madame Chancellor! Trump is the least of your problems.

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