Empire of Shadows

The commissioner was discussing some issues regarding the lawsuit with their public relations team. It was clear that the Golden Port City Court was siding with the locals.

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

Lawyer Robben has been serving Lance for more than a year, and there is bound to be a connection between them.

The judgment result in Golden Port City made the commissioner and the legal team he brought believe that they were being influenced outside the court. Therefore, it was impossible for them to win the case locally, and they could only place their hope on the appellate court.

"We have already settled relations with four adjudicators. The appellate court will definitely accept the appeal, but this does not mean that we will be able to get what we want."

"Whether it's winning the case or something else, it won't be easy."

"I asked someone to inquire..."

The team's legal counsel paused for a moment and said, "Lawyer Robben's wife's father graduated from the Golden State University Law School, and he is an alumnus with many people in the Department of Justice."

"He himself also served as a judge in the High Court, until now!"

"But there is good news, Robben and his wife have divorced, the reason is not very clear."

The commissioner listened very carefully to these people's reports. He came to solve problems, not to live here for a long time.

After a little thought, he said, "The appellate court cannot solve our problem in the short term. We need to prepare some follow-up disposal plans. In addition, we need additional ways to exert pressure to make Lance and the Lance family take the initiative to negotiate with us."

He didn't know that the board of directors had decided to take action against Lance. This news was too private, so except for the board members, no one else knew.

As for who to send to do it and when to do it, only the chairman, president, and executor of the board of directors knew.

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

The commissioner did not refuse and asked the front desk to bring the police officers up.

He asked people to simply tidy up the things on the table, and then took a legal advisor to the reception room.

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

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

"Hello, I am the police officer in charge of managing wharf cases at the Port Branch. This is my partner."

The sudden visit of the two police officers made the commissioner a little confused, but he did not show that he did not understand, but reached out and shook hands with them, and then invited them to sit down.

"I remember I didn't..."

He flipped his wrist, indicating that he didn't ask them to come over.

The police officer who spoke first said with a smile, "I contacted the general manager of Liji Group's Golden Port Branch... He said that you are now in charge of this case."

"The branch reported the case before, and they suspected that the wheat germination was man-made and a commercial sabotage."

"We accepted the case and have been conducting detailed investigations and detective work."

The commissioner remembered this matter. The general manager mentioned it when he connected with him on this case. They had already reported it to the police.

However, he also learned through other channels that in Golden Port City, the gang forces were already above the police system. It was impossible to expect these police officers to find out the crimes of the gang.

Of course, those small gangs were not included. Here, it refers to the five major families, including the Lance family.

Therefore, from the beginning, he did not think that calling the police was a meaningful move. Of course, it was necessary because the judicial process was like this, but he did not have any expectations for the results of calling the police.

He crossed his legs and nodded slightly, "So, what progress have you made now?"

He said and laughed twice, "If you need some investigation funding, we may not be able to provide it here."

Due to issues such as the allocation of police resources, during this period and for a long time to come, there were situations where the person reporting the case paid the police to solve the case.

To put it nicely, it is sponsoring the police with some funds for solving the case. To put it bluntly, the police are unwilling to move without receiving money.

This is not only the case in Golden Port City, but also in the entire Federation. It is a symbol of an era.

You can't say that it is entirely the police's problem. For example, some cases require a large number of police officers to do basic work. You can't let the entire branch or the police in the entire city do nothing and focus on a certain case. This is unreasonable and impossible.

If the person reporting the case is very rich, then they can spend money to get support. The police will requisition some temporary police officers to be responsible for the detective work of the case.

Or transfer some police officers from surrounding areas without major police incidents, including state police, forest police, and road police, to come and cooperate in handling the case.

It costs money to transfer these police officers, so this money is used here.

But there are also some local police officers who use this method as a means of "extorting money."

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

There is no problem in the process, but if it is a major case or a more troublesome case, they may have to continue this detective work for several years.

It is an unspoken social rule for the person reporting the case to spend money to speed up the progress of the investigation.

The commissioner thought they were here to ask for money, so he was not so polite.

After all, for them, the police's assistance is not a plus, because from the beginning, the police could not stand on their side!

Listening to the commissioner's impolite words, the expressions of the two police officers also changed slightly, but they did not forget the reason for coming here today.

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

The commissioner's eyes slowly widened, and the legal advisor next to him also looked incredible. When did the police in Golden Port City become so capable?

Moreover, don't they care about the Lance family's influence on them?

They didn't understand at all!

Looking at the stunned looks of the two, the police officer continued with a smile, "Later, some conflicts occurred on the wharf again. Through understanding, questioning, and investigating these people, we found some clues."

"The staff of Liji Group may have had some problems with several workers on the wharf at work. The workers generally believe that your employees are too arrogant, and they will use vicious and mean language to stimulate the workers on the wharf."

"So, several workers may have developed a retaliatory mentality for these reasons."

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

"The other few have fled, and we have applied for an arrest warrant. I believe they will be brought to justice soon."

"I am here to notify you because your company reported the case. Now the case has made progress, that's it."

"After the others are brought to justice and interrogated, we will give you an accurate result."

"You can decide whether to assert your legal rights based on the information and confessions we provide."

"Of course, let me say something privately, these people are penniless, they may not even be able to take out a hundred yuan!"

The police officer smiled, "That's all we have to say. If there are no other questions, we will leave."

The commissioner glanced at the legal advisor, who quickly asked, "Can we contact those... suspects?"

The police officer nodded, "Within the scope allowed by law, of course you can."

"But we will send someone to watch you and record it."

"If there are no other questions, we will leave. The police station still has a lot of work to do."

These news came too suddenly. The legal advisor shook his head, and the commissioner was even less likely to have any questions. They even took the initiative to send the two police officers to the door, and the legal advisor even sent them to the elevator entrance!

Back in the room, the expressions of the people on the legal team were not very good, which made the commissioner realize that the problem might not be good.

This is very interesting. The criminals have been found, but the problem has become more troublesome.

So, sometimes the capture of criminals does not necessarily mean that things get better, but it may become worse!

After the legal advisor who came back from outside sat down, he lit a cigarette, "They didn't catch them sooner or later, but now they suddenly caught these criminals. It's not a good thing for us, and it looks like they plan to send them directly to court through the prosecutor."

The commissioner frowned. He had some guesses in his mind, but he didn't graduate from law school. He didn't quite understand. He needed an explanation, "What problems will this cause?"

The legal advisor said, "We have been pushing to treat the entire case as one case. Then, in terms of judicial procedures and judicial logic, there are many places that need to be proven, which is conducive to us dragging the case on."

"But now, if the local prosecutor directly prosecutes these workers, it can prove the point of view advocated by the lawyer of Garden Trading Company that the wheat germination and Garden Trading Company's claim for liquidated damages are two independent cases with no connection."

"The appellate court is very likely to reject the appeal and uphold the original judgment."

Once the original judgment is upheld, Garden Trading Company can demand enforcement!

If they are unwilling to comply, they will not only face huge penalties for breach of contract, but also late fees and punitive judicial fines for resisting enforcement!

You should know that punitive fines are no joke. Many companies may not be able to withstand this heavy judicial blow!

In cases that have already occurred in the Federation, there have been instances where a few hundred, a few thousand, or even tens of thousands of dollars have resulted in punitive fines of hundreds of thousands or millions!

Some companies are directly crushed by one punch!

The Ligee Group certainly won't be crushed, but they definitely won't feel good!

This time is different from the last time. Last time, they could find other problems to delay the case indefinitely, for example, they believed that Lance colluded with the appraiser and forged evidence.

Because the appraiser and the evidence they forged were in Jinzhou, they submitted these to the Jinzhou court instead of the Jingangcheng court.

That's their home turf, and they can drag the case on endlessly, but this time, it has nothing to do with the appraiser, and the trial is very fast and simple.

Their previous plans have now failed.

The commissioner frowned, "Then we have no way at all?"

Several legal employees looked at each other, and finally someone said, "The only thing we can do now is to start with the suspects."

The commissioner couldn't help but light a cigarette. He hugged his arms, raised his chin, "Continue."

"We have to get the suspects to admit that someone is actually behind the scenes, and then find a way to link this instigator with Garden Trading Company, so that we have time to supplement evidence to prove our claims."

"At least it can be delayed for a few months. During this time, we can continue to try to turn the entire case into contract fraud according to our previous ideas, then delaying it for a few years will not be a problem."

The commissioner nodded, exhaling a large cloud of smoke, "So now the core of the case is on those suspects?"

The legal counsel nodded, probably so.

The commissioner sat there thinking for a while, "I will find a way to create a time for you to be alone, you have to complete your work."

As he said that, he stood up, "I'm going to make a call..."

Although he didn't graduate with a law degree, he more or less knew some simple things.

For example, they must study these suspects and find a key person who is easy to "break through", and then find a way to persuade the other party.

And what he has to do now is to provide convenience for these things.

Soon he called the capitalists in the Bay Area who had close cooperative relations with the Ligee Group, and through the other party as an intermediary, he met with Chief Hunter.

As long as Hunter nods, there is a way to let their lawyers contact the suspects alone.

Because he was more anxious about this matter, and the intermediary was willing to contact Hunter for him, he quickly left the hotel and went to the city police station.

And in the chief of the city police station's office, he met Chief Hunter.

Hunter, like Charlie, is a loyal lackey of the Bay Area, or rather, they know better than others who is the real master in this city!

The call from the Bay Area asked him to meet this visitor, so he cleared his schedule.

When the commissioner handed over his business card, Hunter realized that it was someone from the Ligee Group.

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

"Is there anything I can do for you?" He lowered his posture.

The commissioner was still very reserved in front of this small role, of course, behind the reservation was arrogance.

"My lawyers need to be alone with a suspect for a while, they have some things they want to talk about."

This is not in compliance with the rules, but the rules do not restrict these big capitalists. Hunter's face was full of smiles, and he agreed without even asking, "This is just a small matter, I will arrange it for you!"

The commissioner also had some smiles on his face, "You have gained my friendship, Chief Hunter!"

Chief Hunter didn't know how much he would pay in the future for this friendship that he actually couldn't use, but at least he was happy now!

Everything is constantly advancing according to the script.

During this period, a very interesting thing actually happened. When Lance promised these scapegoat workers that he would get them out of prison as soon as possible, two of them even took the initiative to ask if they could serve their full term without missing a day?

After all, nearly two hundred dollars a month of "work" was the highest income opportunity they had ever had!

Leaving the prison and this opportunity, it was unlikely that they would encounter such a high-income opportunity in their lifetime!

Ten years may be a long time, but if you look at it as a job, then it may not be that long.

Moreover, Lance guaranteed that they would not be bullied inside. The Lance family also had their own people inside who could take care of them.

Then what they had to do every day was to work the same as outside, but the difference was that the working hours inside were only ten hours, and there were also free lunch and dinner every day, and rest days...

Where the hell can you find such a good job?

Ten years, twenty thousand dollars, if they missed this opportunity, they would probably never encounter it again in their lifetime!

However, Lance ultimately did not agree, which made them a little disappointed.

Later, Elvin told Lance that there were still people outside willing to actively lower the price to take the blame, and some even quoted a thousand dollars a year.

This may be taken as a joke, but Lance felt that this was actually a social problem of not being able to make money.

After the mid-term strike problem, the income of the docks has actually increased a lot, averaging forty dollars or more per person.

But the entire society and economic market are still lifeless, and some people have already noticed something is wrong.

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

These two days, the bars in Starlight District have officially started operations after the end of the trial operation. Although the business is not as good as before the closure, it is generally okay.

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

"We need to expand some business."

"The people who come here to drink need some girls, you know, if they are only themselves, they may only drink a glass of wine."

"But if there is a sensible girl, they may drink a bottle of wine!"

"We are too clean here now, we can't attract those rich and willing to spend young people..."