American Tax Officer

"Because government subsidies for private prisons are conditional, they only grant subsidies once a prison reaches 90% occupancy."

"This leads to private prison operators looking for ways to incarcerate more prisoners after setting up the facility."

"As a result, these private prison managers would lay out a significant amount of money to bribe local judges and prosecutors."

"Once these judicial officers accept the money, they naturally adhere to the principle of 'taking money to avert disasters for others,' either by imposing disproportionately heavy sentences for minor offenses or by intentionally extending prisoners' sentences to meet the private prison's occupancy rate."

"And this Floyd was probably a case where the police took the money and wanted to use him as a 'performance' for the private prison, which led to this tragedy..."

After hearing this explanation, even David gained some new insights.

They say art comes from life.

In the past, I often saw the darkness in American prisons in various TV dramas, such as 'Prison Break.'

But now, hearing Saxton describe it, I feel that the TV shows might actually be conservative and that in reality, especially in these private prisons he is talking about, even darker and dirtier things could be happening."

"Of course, the corruption and exploitation of prisoners involved don't concern us at the IRS, nor do they fall under our jurisdiction."

"What I mainly want to express is that, regardless of the corruption or exploitation of prisoners, they involve a large amount of money transactions, and much of these funds are beyond the supervision of the IRS, which is why I have approached you!"

David nodded to show he understood, then replied, "So, you are asking me to investigate a private prison case, but I suppose you've already begun a preliminary investigation? What's the estimated scale of the funds involved?"

That was what he was most concerned about.

"According to our initial investigation, the conservative estimate of the funds could reach a scale of hundreds of millions of US Dollars!"

On hearing this, a spark shot through David's eyes, but it quickly faded away as he asked somewhat skeptically, "Director Saxton, it's been just over three months since the Black Tax Act was passed. Even if these private prisons are making huge profits, they couldn't have reached a scale of hundreds of millions in such a short time, could they?"

"Director David, you are correct that the Black Tax Act can only track illicit income accrued after December 3, 2021."

"But let me put it this way, we have investigated, and found that this prison has been exploiting prisoner labor for many years."

"But as you know, if the exploitation of prisoners by private prisons was to get out, it would definitely cause public outcry."

"Therefore, every year they use accounting tricks to produce a set of 'reasonable' books, and all the IRS can do is collect taxes on these 'reasonable' figures."

"As for the rest, we cannot collect anything at all!"

Upon hearing this, David suddenly saw the light.

It's like working overtime in an electronics factory. The standard shift is 8 hours, but the factory requires an additional 4 hours of overtime. Although the workers are reluctant, they pinch their noses and agree for the sake of their livelihoods.

But as a prisoner in jail, your labor time is supposed to be about 8 hours a day, and the prison administrators want to push it to 12 hours.

And they don't even pay for overtime, plus you're under someone else's roof and have to bow your head. That's exploitation.

And the benefits derived from this exploitation of prison labor, can you say they are illegal income?

It might or might not be seen as such.

After all, prisoners are supposed to work in prison, and if you increase labor time without letting the media find out, then the prison has the interpretative power.

If it's not illegal income, then it must be considered legal income.

And if it's legal income that is not reported to the IRS, then it's pure tax evasion, and they can be pursued and taxed without the Black Tax Law provisions!

And if we pursue this...

Considering the years the prison has been operating and generating revenue, reaching a scale of hundreds of millions seems to be quite normal...

A scale of hundreds of millions of US Dollars, by a conservative tax rate, is a tax revenue of 40 million US Dollars, and even if I get 60%, that's a colossal tax sum of 24 million US Dollars.

But that is only the preliminary estimate from the Sand Bay Area. Compared to previous cases, the real scale of the funds is surely much higher.

Thinking of this, David began to get excited.

But soon, as if remembering something, he turned and asked, "Oh right, you mentioned that this case is a bit troublesome. In what ways exactly?"

"First, there are difficulties in obtaining evidence."

"Second, America has three major, top-tier private prison companies: GCO, CEA, MTC. These three companies each have an overt annual income of over 5 billion US Dollars."

"Moreover, these companies have close cooperative relationships with our Justice Department and its subordinate agencies such as the FBI, DEA, Immigration Bureau, police departments, and other major law enforcement departments."

"The private prison we have here in Rio City is owned by GCO, so taking action against them might involve pressure from all sides, from different departments."

After hearing all this, David fell into deep thought.

Gathering evidence isn't a problem for someone with a 'golden finger' like himself.

But GCO being one of America's top private prison businesses, their capital backing is definitely strong.

And with close ties to various law enforcement departments, if action were to be taken, as Saxton said, it might indeed prove troublesome.

Yet, given the scale of funds involved has reached hundreds of millions, I couldn't just let it go either.

After all, there's only five days left in the evaluation period.

And I've been working my tail off these days, but so far, I've only managed to just keep up with Bellamy Hattie from Los Angeles. To catch up or even surpass Brown Soros from New York seems a bit far-fetched.

But now, this prison case presents an opportunity!

An opportunity for me to catch up to or even surpass Brown Soros!

With this thought, David steeled himself and declared, "Alright, I'll take the case, give me the files to review in detail first!"