“The LLC has an account at the closest bank, which is managed by family members. This bank has branches all over Colorado. There were 300 deposits with 300 different named LLC members over a significant number of weeks for thousands of dollars. A few months later, right about now actually, more thousands of dollars will be deposited. That gets 2.7 mil into the Family LLC. Dek and a couple others have check writing privileges, effectively giving that 2.7 mil to the Riders without any documented transfers to their accounts.
“Over approximately the same period, members and or the families of the Riders LLC deposited cash into that LLCs account. Those deposits were marked as recapitalization funds. That gave us a total of 5.4 mil spread over two LLCs. In this way the Riders have access to 5.4 million in two separate LLCs. It’s taken the last 3+ months to get to this point, of course. The remaining 3.2 mil is being held in cash at this time. As many cash purchases as we can make comes from that 3.2 mil. In some cases we can receive a 10% discount for cash, so that cash is working in two ways for us.
“We have several other LLCs that have been around for years that have been used in various family businesses. If we need to we can use a similar method to fund one of those, then merge or fold it into our main LLC if we feel the need.”
“Good deal Madd, but will that stand up to the test of time?”
“It should, Al. The Riders already had a million plus bank account and we have quite a few business ventures. That should help disguise it. The Family LLC has had a lot of large swings in its history over the years. As monies are saved for reinvestments for the next growing season, it is quite common for members to deposit their monies in the LLC to gain better investment percentages. Best estimates by our money people say it should be small enough to fly under the government agencies’ radars. I don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs. That’s why we have some very high-powered money people in the family. To take care of these things.
“If for some reason it does come to someone’s attention, what are they going to find out? If they send someone to investigate, we will know it before they even get there. We have contacts. When they get there, what will they discover? The people in this room are the only ones who know where the money came from. No one at home has done anything illegal to obtain the money that was invested in their names. No one has engaged in any illegal business. Every member says, oh ya, I saved up a total of $18,000+ over my lifetime. Going to be pretty hard to prove they didn’t, especially if they have no illegal activities going on. Keep in mind that ranchers/farmers who have had dealings with the big banks have been burned a number of times in the past. With all the farm foreclosures and liens on properties it is quite common for country folks to keep money anywhere but in a bank. All of them I know squirrel away cash so that no banker can get ahold of it.
“You said you had a couple of questions Al; that answers one, but what else were you curious about?”
“It may sound silly, Madd, but I was wondering what the first big purchase was going to be.”
“That’s not silly, it’s logical. You put your ass on the line, of course you want to know what you enabled us to do. The first big ticket item is a gas well on the old homestead land.”
“Gas well? Do we have enough to afford that?” asked Al. “Won’t that eat up all the money at one time?”
“Valid question, and by way of an answer I will give you some insight into drilling for gas.”
Land acquisition and leasing: $2.1 million
Permitting: $10,000.
“It really depends on how far down you have to go. Gas has been found at much less than 1,000 feet, so those wells are fairly inexpensive to drill. There was a study done on various types of well drilling. The estimated average cost for recovering gas from deep sedimentary rock layers can be 7.6 mil, which sounds way out of our reach, but when you examine how that figure was arrived at it gets much more affordable. Roughly the costs to drill a well break down this way:
Vertical drilling: $663,000
Horizontal drilling: $1.2 million
Hydraulic fracturing: $2.5 million if needed
Completion: $200,000
Production to gathering: $472,000
“Keep in mind that not every well drilled is going to cost exactly that. The prices I quoted are for recovering gas from deep sedimentary rock layers. Fortunately, we don’t have to go that far. Fracturing isn’t necessary in our area.
“We have a geologist in the family who believes we only need a more standard well, with no fracturing needed. Those figures were merely to show you how expensive drilling can become. We own the land, so no purchasing. We intend to drill in secret, so no permitting. We expect to not have to drill horizontally, so no fee for that. No fracturing, so no fee for that. We don’t need production gathering since we will only need one well head.
“The family geologist has already laid and staked out the appropriate space. For the whole operation we will need minimal space and when it is all cleaned up the well head will be about 3’ wide and 8’ tall with a small metering system. Even if we have to drill a vertical shaft down to the shale we believe it can be done for under 1 mil. That’s worst case; it’s believed we can do it for about one third of that price.”
“How are you going to drill a gas well with no outsiders knowing about it? How does one drill a well in secret?” asked Al.
“It won’t be easy, but we believe it can be done. Right now there are gas drilling companies that are either going into bankruptcy or filing for chapter 11 protection. The family knows an older gentleman that got out of the business two steps ahead of bankruptcy. Right now his equipment is his, but in a short period it will go on the auction block to satisfy some debts. He will lease it to us for a cash price.”
“I imagine he isn’t going to report the leasing payments?”
“I have no idea Al, but I would be surprised if he did. I suspect he has a way of hiding money at this point, before his personal shit hit the fan event comes crashing in. We know about him because seven cousins worked for him at various times. Some of them are out of a job because those types of jobs are hard to get right now. They are happy to help the family and themselves be protected from any shit hit the fan events. They have been working for him for years and know all the steps to start a drilling operation. As he got older they took over all of the drilling operation, leaving him to spend most of his time at home. In addition to leasing his drilling rig we got all our piping and some earth moving equipment from him for 30 cents on the dollar. Stuff he had in stock when his business went belly up.
“Site preparations have already been completed. That includes clearing land, pouring the drill pad and laying down about 18” of gravel for stability. Usually everything is clear cut around the operation but in our case all the tall trees close by will be left. We will hide the operation amongst the trees. The tower sticking up will be camouflaged. With help from the Riders they have carefully laid out a dirt road to the site with the least amount of impact. Hopefully in such a way that it can be restored at some future time.
“Even before they started preparing the drilling job we brought in a commercial cement mixing operation. One like you would see in a ready mix yard. Our dry stream bed can supply all the sand and gravel we need for both the drill site and all the foundations and walls we need for the new housing. All we have to do is haul in the grey Portland cement. The rule of thumb for cement is 1 cement 2 sand 3 gravel by volume. For our foundations and various pads around the new farm we will be adding rebar or fibers to strengthen the concrete. We will be pouring a much better grade of concrete than the old formula would produce.
“Generally speaking, it takes between 15 and 30 days to drill a well with 3 shifts per day, 5 men per shift. That’s dependent on how far down we have to go, of course. We have some older members who used to work the drilling rigs and who are in good enough shape to work on the rig. The 7 cousins are giving them a refresher course in drilling. The drilling pad was cured and ready
to mount the rig days ago. The rig is up as we speak.”
“How long before we know if it is going to work, Madd?” asked Al.
“Approximately 2 weeks, our geologist says.
“We know a guy from serving with him. He is out now and returned home to South America. He wanted to buy his father-in-laws contracting/carpentry business. When we got the cash you secured, we loaned him the money for the down payment. We don’t know for sure if he will ever be able to pay it back. That being said, he knows us pretty well, and I doubt he will intentionally shaft us.”
Al was positive he wouldn’t like to owe money to the cousins and not pay it back. Still, he just had to ask.
“Why would you do that?”
“Just an idea I had. What we are doing is getting him to hire a crew he trusts and have them shipped up here to work on the new family farm buildings. That way we don’t have to hire any nosey workers from around home who might later remember our little project,” said Madd.
“We have a business where we rent, sell and modify shipping containers. Like the ones we now live in. We sell them to emergency services and for housing in third world countries. We manufacture them on a daily basis and have some stockpiled for emergency orders. I’ve had some of them built to be like the wet 4 man CHUs we see here. We already own the containers so all we have to do is fix them up. I am having a total of 14 20’ ones built this first time. Right now there are 7 of the 20’ ones already there. In addition there are 12 40’, with 8 more being built. They are as plush as yours and are already placed on the property.
“We’ve made arrangements with our old friend in South America and he is assembling a crew. We are getting them issued with visiting work permits and bringing them to the states. We will pick them up at the border and take them to the farm in busses with blacked out windows. Before that we will check them for any type of tracking or GPS type systems. We will pay them 50% better than they would make at home, feed them better and provide entertainment.
“We will rotate them, 60 days here then another crew comes up for 60 more days. We will be paying their wages from our cash reserve. When we no longer need them, we will declare our friend’s debt paid in full. That way we will never have to worry about local tradesmen knowing about our retreat.
“Right now we have 11 family groups living on the farm and more about to head up there, for a total of 51 people. With Riders that are employed in family businesses, we arrange their schedules so that they get 2 to 3 days off in a row so that they can go up and help out for several days at a time.
“They have laid out the foundation of the main house, and are digging out the basement. We are digging out what was an old mine on our little plateau and building the new house over the excavation. It will give us a huge underground storage facility. As soon as our South American crew gets there we will be ready to pour the foundations. Old fields are being fenced and pastures are being readied for growing graze for our animals.”
For Al, finding out about these plans was exciting. It made the chance he took seem worthwhile. For the first time in a long time, he could feel good about one of his missions. No reservations, no second guessing.
“Sounds like a really good start, Madd.”
“It is Al, but there is a lot to do. Won’t be long before winter comes and some of that outside work is going to slow down,” said Madd.
“There is something that has been bothering me ever since I managed to snag that cash and get it back home. Now that we have a start on the money issues, what about weapons? Not only are modern weapons expensive, if you have to start stockpiling AR15’s etc., you are taking the chance of getting on the radar of ATF or Homeland.”
“Weellll, actually I think we have that covered. Cast your mind back to when we were all back home and had the discussion about the mission you pulled off here. When it was over you left to spend time with Rose, and we continued with family business. Zeb had pieces of another mission for us. I’ll lay it out for you.”
Madd went over that meeting in his mind before telling Al about it.
Southeastern Colorado. Madd’s house, before the cousins left for Afghanistan.
“Ever hear of the Contra scandal?” said Zeb.
“I read about that in my school work. It was a scheme to raise money to purchase weapons for the Nicaragua Contras, wasn’t it? To help them fight the Sandinista government?”
“Something like that, Ivan. The Iran–Contra scandal was a political scandal that occurred in United States during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. They hoped to secure the release of several US hostages, and to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.
“The scandal began as an operation to free the seven American hostages being held in Lebanon by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the United States would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of the U.S. hostages.
“The plan deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages. Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapons sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua.
“While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, the evidence is disputed as to whether he authorized the diversion of the money raised by the Iranian arms sales to the Contras. Handwritten notes taken by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on December 7, 1985, indicate that Reagan was aware of potential hostage transfers with Iran, as well as the sale of Hawk and TOW missiles to ‘moderate elements’ within that country.
“Weinberger wrote that Reagan said ‘he could answer to charges of illegality but couldn't answer to the charge that “Big strong President Reagan passed up a chance to free the hostages”’. After the weapons sales were revealed in November 1986, Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages.
“The resulting investigation was impeded when large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. On March 4, 1987, Reagan returned to the airwaves in a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for any actions that he was unaware of, and admitting that ‘What began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages.’”
“I can see that politicians haven’t changed much. Seems that a long stream of politicians have tried to suppress their underhanded practices and their missing papers or phone conversations right up until today. Hillary Clinton comes to mind,” Madd pointed out.
“Agreed, Madd. It seems that politicians can’t or won’t play by the rules. There was a congressman that ran on a platform that was built around the idea he wouldn’t engage in political favoritism or back room deals if he was elected. He did get elected, for as much good as it did. After a couple of terms in office he came right out and said, ‘You may be honest and a straight shooter when you enter politics, but you will be forced to become everything you hated about politicians if you want to get anything done in Washington.’” said Zeb.
“To get back to the subject at hand, not only does our government play fast and loose with our own congress, as well as other governments, it repeatedly has tried to interfere in the politics of our neighbors to the south. The Contra scandal may have started out as a plan to release hostages from the Middle East, but it devolved into a scheme to
help the Nicaraguan Contras by doing an end run around congress. It is just one more example of the US meddling in the governments in South America. They always claim to have a high moral purpose. They keep trying to meddle in the power bases down there in the hopes that they will get a government sympathetic to the US. It seems those in power haven’t learned their lessons yet.
“Hugo Chavez was a thorn in our side for his whole career. There was hope that with his death, relationships would improve. However Nicolas Maduro seems to be following in his predecessor’s footsteps. He is still supporting Cuba and he still whips up the populace to believe the US is evil. He has the support of a large portion of the poor people, not all, but a significant number. As for the small middle class, he has totally alienated them as well as the better-educated of the country. There is a large expatriate community in the US who would like nothing better than to overthrow Maduro. Many of them are quite influential both here and back home.
“Some powerful people in our government plus big businesses have been bought, and not necessarily with money. Promises of a partnership in the Venezuelan oil industry is a carrot that would be hard for those who crave power and money to ignore. As you know, I don’t much care for our current president, his advisors or political hangers-on. Unfortunately I have no hard proof they have sanctioned what I am about to tell you. I am still working to see how far up the chain this all goes.
“For a price, some powerful people have arranged to support an armed overthrow of that country. This option has been in the planning stages since Chavez first went to Cuba for cancer treatments. Now that Maduro seems almost as bad as Chavez, the plan has been set in motion. I have been watching this develop for over three years.
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