American Entertainment 1982

Melonie watched as Tommy Hawk took out a travel map of Massachusetts from the bedroom, spread it out on the dining table, and pointed to an island very close to Rhode Island:

"This is Martha's Vineyard, which belongs to Dukes County, Massachusetts. Even if you haven't been there, you should have heard of it."

"It's called a black... black-only resort." Melonie nodded, but in the end she didn't say the word that was not very friendly to black people.

Martha's Vineyard is an island belonging to the state of Massachusetts. It has become a popular tourist destination since the 1960s. However, most of the people who travel there for vacation or even settle down are blacks, rich and educated blacks, and even foreigners. Many blacks come to the United States for sightseeing, and they are also used to visiting Martha's Vineyard.

Regarding blacks' love of going to Martha's Vineyard for vacation, some white people have a vicious understanding of this. Before the ancestors of blacks officially set foot on the American continent, they first landed on Vineyard Island and were stripped of their clothes, washed and inspected like livestock. The teeth are numbered and then auctioned all over the country. Nowadays, these black people of later generations like to come to Vineyard Island, but they don’t take a shower here, and they can’t find the feeling of being a nigger in the United States.

What the blacks say is just the opposite. After the anti-discrimination wave in the 1960s, they continued to come to Vineyard Island for vacation or even to settle in order to comfort their ancestors. They have changed from the slaves of the United States to the current masters of the United States.

Tommy Hawke had no taboos, and opened his mouth to say the standard address: "Yes, it is the exclusive resort for niggers, it is very convenient to go there, buy a cheap ticket from Providence Airport, and you can land in 30 minutes On that island."

"Do you think black people can help you avoid taxes?" Melonie looked at Tommy Hawke with some puzzlement.

"It has nothing to do with blacks. There is an Indian reservation on the island. The Wampanoag tribe's reservation in Aquinas Town, the southernmost tip of the island, has a total of about 500 acres. There are casinos, resorts, and every holiday. People from big cities such as Boston or Worcester go to have fun, and our money has to go to the casinos on the Indian reservation for a round, and finally pay taxes, from unseen cash to generous checks book."

The history of Indians in the United States is of course bloody and tragic, and so is the Wampanoag tribe. When the colonists landed, the people of this tribe friendly taught the colonists how to hunt whales and helped the colonists choose settlements. Houses were built, but then the colonists declared that the entire island belonged to God and them. The Wampanoag tribe was asked to leave the island and move to the remote western wilderness to fend for themselves. The Indians who lived here decided to fight bravely. The end was miserable. The tribe of more than 8,000 people was killed and only 3,000 people remained. If the colonists and missionaries hadn't dissuaded them, the entire tribe would have been completely wiped out as early as that year.

It was not until 1924 that the Wampano Yager tribe, which was previously kept in captivity near Western California, officially had American citizenship. It was not until 1963 that even the blacks had won social status, and the US government officially recognized this tribe. Until In 1972, the U.S. federal government and the state government of Massachusetts approved the tribe's request to return to Vineyard Island and establish a reservation.

However, it can only be the fantasy of the Wampanoag people to turn the entire vineyard island of more than 200 kilometers into a reserved land. In the end, the US government only approved 500 acres of land on the island. The Wampanoag tribe of 10,000 people has less than 100 people, and 500 acres of land is enough for them to live.

Most of the Indians of the Wampanoag tribe are illiterate, and they don't know what the privilege of reservation is. They just know that with reservation, they can open casinos, bars and other leisure and vacation places to attract customers and earn money. , In order to develop the holiday business, they often choose to cooperate with white people to operate entertainment venues.

Paying taxes on reservations is a classic case of money laundering that Hawke learned in business school in his last life. Legal money laundering occurred in reservation casinos in 1977. It was not discovered by the US tax department until 1994 that this only existed in Indian reservation casinos. Money Laundering Vulnerabilities.

The process looks no different than going to other professional casinos for a failed money laundering operation.

"The process is very simple, and two people can complete the operation. One person takes the cash to be laundered to the reserved casino, and receives two personal income declaration forms issued by the tax department from the casino. Of these two forms, one is used to record Winning money, one is used to record losing money, but do not actually record winning or losing after getting it, but change the cash in your hand into chips, wait for another person to come to the casino, get the form, and then the second person compares the first person's Fill out the form with the opposite number, so that the first person’s chips are handed over to the second person.” Tommy Hawke explained to Melonie seriously:

"It looks like the chips of the first person were legally won by the second person in the casino, and the second person submitted the winning return normally, the tax department can deduct the tax according to the money won by the second person, Or it can simply be withheld by the casino, as long as the taxes are paid, you can generously deposit the money in the bank, and that is the clean money you have won legally."

Melonie looked at Tommy suspiciously: "So easy?"

"No, this is just the first step, and if this method is used in professional casinos such as Las Vegas, the US tax department can easily see through, because no casino will bear the pressure of the tax department for gamblers, as long as the casino Obediently hand over your normal business data. After comparing the three-party data, the tax department can immediately check whether the gamblers are here to gamble or launder money. Compared with gamblers, the data provided by casinos to the tax department is more detailed There are a lot of details, such as which gaming table, who is the croupier, table number, chip number, etc. That is to say, there is no casino to fully cooperate with you to modify the cumbersome record data of the casino. Gamblers want to use American professional casinos. Complete money laundering and avoid being chased by the tax department is tantamount to fantasy." Tommy Hawk shook his head, took a sip of coffee, stared at the small island on the map, and said in a fluent voice:

"However, reservation casinos are different from professional casinos in Las Vegas. First of all, most of its bets are capped. The U.S. government does not want Indians to become billionaire casino tycoons. The casinos are filled with modest Americans who only go to the nearby reservations when they want to play a few hands on the weekends, which makes these reservations very inconspicuous compared to the larger casinos."

"Secondly, although native Indians have U.S. citizenship, they have a separate agency that manages them, the American Indian Affairs Agency. This agency has been established for more than a hundred years and has hardly changed. This department is in charge, including casinos and financial accounts, and in order to express its lenient treatment of Indians, the managers of this institution are almost all the heads of Indian tribes.”

"If the tax department wants to check the data of a certain reservation casino to determine whether someone is money laundering, the procedure first needs to contact the Indian Affairs Office, which holds all the account numbers of the reservation casino funds. In the hands of those highly educated Indian chiefs and their children who are close to whites, casinos are also run by them in cooperation with whites, and most of the money earned by casinos is divided among shrewd white partners. The real pockets of the chiefs are not many."

"In order to make money, the Indian chiefs figured out a set of money laundering services. If you want to launder a small amount of cash, you only need to donate a sum of If a donation matching the money to be laundered is used as a handling fee, then the headman can ask the Indian Affairs Agency to provide the tax department with the data provided by the gambler or directly withhold the tax, so as to ensure that the casino and the two The gamblers submitted the exact same data to the tax authorities, and it was three-way consistent."

"At that time, our money has completely become legal income, and the donation, although it is donated to the Wampanoag tribe in name, is actually still controlled by the headman, which is equivalent to the headman's cash purse , We got the clean money, the leader got the donation, everyone is happy." Tommy Hawke finished his money laundering and tax payment method in one breath, then exhaled and stopped.

It took more than ten years for the U.S. tax department to discover this loophole. First, because the amount involved was too small to attract attention. There are various methods of money laundering provided, and the amount of any case can almost be compared to a year’s turnover of a reserved casino. The second is that the tax department probably never realized that after the simple Indians were polluted by whites, Eating will also become so greedy and ugly.

Noticing that Melonie didn't respond, Tommy withdrew his gaze from looking at the map, looked up at Melonie on the opposite side, and found that the other party was staring at him with a dull expression.

"What I said was too general, you didn't hear clearly?" Tommy tentatively asked Melonie, "Melonie, are you listening?"

Melonie nodded slowly with complicated eyes: "Of course, of course I'm listening."

"I'm underage now, I can't step into the casino, I need you to understand the situation." After getting the answer from the other party, Tommy Hawk smiled: "You can go to the casino for a vacation and show some goodwill to the Indian tribe in advance , find out how much they need to donate to help us withhold taxes. If it can be realized, this is the most convenient way. Otherwise, you can only choose Plan B. The confidentiality and convenience are slightly worse, and the handling fee is relatively high. high."

Melonie was silent for a long time. Now she probably understands the hard work behind Tommy's saying "I just want to be safe". This guy has considered everything very clearly, and it sounds like he even prepared a plan B.

Be it myself or Tony, it seems that he just needs to be like an assembly line worker and complete according to his established plan.

Thinking of the end, she couldn't help the curiosity in her heart, and asked Tommy:

"Did those "Penthouse" magazines and comic books teach you this? Of your books, I probably only have those two categories that I haven't read."

"If you want to read it, I can dig it out from under the bed and lend it to you." Tommy said with a smile, "As for what you learn, it depends on your understanding."

Melonie sighed: "I've been to college, why do I act like an idiot in front of you, a high school student?"

After she finished speaking, she turned and walked towards her bedroom, walked a few steps, turned around and walked to Tommy who was packing up the map, and said in the indifferent tone of an elder:

"Bring me the magazines and comic books, I'm going to verify my understanding."