Relax Gaming Casino Supplier of Slots, Bingo, and Table ...

Development Diary XXI: The Country of Crossed Destinies
“Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches.”
--Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Hello and welcome back to another development diary for The New Order: The Last Days of Europe! I’m Mangolith and today we’ll be taking a tour through the declining bastion of the Mediterranean, the Italian Empire.
Upon the enactment of the Stahlpakt, the dreams of an Italy wooed into the allies were dashed, and with it, the planned peace of Europe. Hitler had planned on committing to the war in Europe by 1940, a time that would align almost precisely with Italian preparation for joining the war on with the rest of the Axis powers. As Paris fell to the ever advancing German Panzers, Italy would finally commit, fully prepared for the war in Africa. And commit they did.
While Italian troops struggled to advance in the Balkans, the African war was a massacre for the Allies. Mile after mile, town after town and city after city would fall to the unrelenting menace of the Italian effort. After a stunning victory at El Alamein, Italian ground troops and frogmen seized the port of Alexandria. Soon the very outskirts of Cairo proper would be occupied by Italian forces, and with a final push of German and Italian combined arms, the doomed British garrison would fall, and with it, the Suez Canal. As the Italians moved hurriedly to secure the Levant and merge with Iraq’s newly liberated army, it would seem that democracy’s foothold in the Mediterranean was crushed. With the war over in the north, it would seem that the only true issue was that of the East, and with it, the British holdings in Abyssinia and Somaliland. In the Horn of Africa, the Regio Esercito saw victories and defeats, before the war eventually turned into a stalemate which would be resolved only when Britain was invaded by Nazi troops. As the war turned towards its end, Italy stood as the uncontested ruler of the Mediterranean. The Italian Empire now ruled over almost a quarter of the African continent and nearly all of the Middle East, as Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, the Levant, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula were brought under the wings of the Roman eagle, either integrated into the Italian Empire or as protectorates; finally, Italy set up puppet regimes in the Balkans, specifically in Croatia and Greece, while annexing territories in Albania and Montenegro.
However, as it had happened in WWI, Italy’s victory soon took on a bitter taste. With the failure of the Atlantropa project and the collapse of the German economy, Italian-German relationships quickly soured. Mussolini distanced himself more and more from Hitler in all spheres of policy, ending racial laws and focusing on managing Italy’s new empire. It was in the years after the war that Galeazzo Ciano, Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mussolini’s son in law, truly started to shine as the star of the fascist regime - with Mussolini’s gradually worsening health, Ciano soon became the one man pulling the strings in the Italian government, reuniting around him a powerful clique of politicians and building up his support among the Grand Council and the Italian Parliament. It was largely thanks to his careful diplomatic work that the Triumvirate, an alliance between Italy, Turkey, and Iberia was created.
Benito Mussolini, first Duce of Italy, peacefully passed away, on April 25th, 1953. With his last official order, he compelled the Grand Council of Fascism to elect Ciano as his successor, and so the Grand Council did.
Now the year is 1962, and the vast Italian Empire is still as overstretched as it was since the end of the war. Unfortunately, the problems for the empire are not reserved for the external territories. The new Duce is far from an idealist or a fanatic - on the contrary, he sees that the fascist political edifice has cracks running from the very foundations. Increasing popular dissent, gerontocracy and stagnation in the upper ranks of the PNF, and a mismanaged empire might spell the end of Italy’s short period as a world power. To amend some of these problems, the Duce has started to take a more liberal stance over the years - relaxing censorship, limiting the operations of OVRA, and so on - but Ciano knows that this isn’t enough, and if Italy is to survive as a great power, everything has to change.
Starting Out
The European Italosphere!
Italy’s Starting Situation.
Forza vs Sicurezza.
With Duce Ciano’s lead in Italy, the Grand Council has taken on a more gentle approach to ruling - some of the fascist era restrictions on the press and the arts are lifted, and many fascist institutions have steadily fallen into decline. Unfortunately, there are some in Italy who wish to arrest this decline, believing that it will only weaken Italy on the world stage. One of these men is secretary of the National Fascist Party, Carlo Scorza.
Carlo Scorza serves as Ciano’s main rival within Italy - as the secretary of the Party, Scorza has rallied around him a large swathe of politicians, bureaucrats, generals, and other important names of the regime, all united by their opposition to the Duce’s liberalizing attitudes. While Ciano’s reforms may seem beneficial at first, Scorza argues they will only harm the Empire in the long run. Their tension in the party have grown to a climax in 1962 - fractures within the government are rising, and many are starting to believe that Ciano and Scorza will come to clash directly very soon. As debates start to rise regarding the stance that should be adopted towards puppet states and territories of the Empire, deciding between Ciano’s softer approach and Scorza’s hardline stance will provide one of the two with a head start.
The Malta Conference
Now that all has been dealt with, it is time for the Triumvirate to assemble once again! Tensions will have to be eased as the invitations will be sent out to meet in Malta.
The Triumvirate was formed as a bloc to oppose the German hegemony and quell the pains of Atlantropa. With the Malta Conference invitations being sent out, representatives of the Triumvirate nations will assemble yet again to discuss the problems ailing the group. Unfortunately for Ciano, most of those problems are centered around him.
Preparation to send invitations.
Iberia’s speech.
The Triumvirate will stand strong against the German menace! Our Iberian brothers stand alongside us in these trials!
Turkey’s demands.
Unfortunate, yet the claims are completely irrelevant to the problems caused by Atlantropa. Imperialism is not what we are discussing!
A secret meeting?
Forget it. Regardless of the onslaught of those against the beacon of light in Europe ushered in from the Triumvirate, the Triumvirate stands stro-
Oh my God!
The results.
How unfortunate. Agreeing to the demands will not change anything. The Triumvirate is doomed from the start.
Now on her own, the Empire of Italy is concerned with one thing: maintaining its sphere of influence. The failing states of Iberia and Turkey have decided to oppose the rightful claims of Italy in the shared bordering states.
Politicized Armed Forces
As the Grand Council faces a divide between 2 figures, the military unfortunately suffers similar yet even worse situation. Rivalry between fascists and monarchists in the branches of service has led to bitter infighting and rivalry, with the two factions each rallying under a leader.
Representing the fascists is the Black Prince, Junio Valerio Borghese, a war hero, celebrity, and staunch supporter of fascism. With the success of the Regia Marina and most notably Borghese's Decima Flottiglia MAS in the Second World War, Borghese was pushed into stardom across Italy, giving him a platform to expand his influence and ideals to the armed forces. Given his immense popularity and his connections in the PNF, he is not an easy man to touch.
Leading the opposite faction is Edgardo Sogno, a monarchist with liberal tendencies. Already an influential man before the war, with ties to the Royal House, the victory under the monarchy alongside his service in the war gave him the chance to move across the fascists' political game. Going from service in the war to now a diplomatic career, Sogno is not an easy figure to avoid, as he still has numerous contacts in the armed forces. His popularity among the generals of the armed forces only grew once he openly voiced his support for Ciano’s growing apathy for the fascist system.
Here is the indicator.
In 1962, the branches face a near even split between the 2 figures though many things may cause a change to occur.
Brawling in Basic
What’s In A Name?
Hands Down
These are just some events introducing the system - later on, the Italian government will have to carefully make sure that the faction hostile to them doesn’t become too influential in the armed forces. Having an unfriendly faction dominate the various branches will hinder their performance - and if a critical point is reached, something truly catastrophic might happen...
The Italian Nuclear Program
As the atomic age began with the utter obliteration of Pearl Harbour in 1945, Italy quickly realized that to truly become a world power, achieving a nuclear arsenal was of the utmost necessity. But the Italian nuclear program, dubbed Progetto Alfa, is not an efficient one, and Italy remains the only former member of the Tripartite Pact not to possess nuclear weapons. The program has faced a lack of funding and resources, as well as a dire shortage in theoretical and practical knowledge on the production of nuclear weapons, and a lot of work is still needed before a successful test can be complete. But as the death throes of the Reich set Europe ablaze, it cannot be denied that the safety of nuclear deterrence would be invaluable to the Italian Empire.
Here are the decisions regarding the program.
Maintaining such a program is not inexpensive, and depending on the leader of the endeavor, the overall cost and rate of advancement will change, along with other variables related to the project.
Each potential leader of the program will have a corresponding trait, which will impact 3 things related to the project, the amount of funding you spend per test, the speed of the tests, and the amount of progress you gain per test. The field of science is politicized, meaning certain scientists will be locked behind certain paths - some will refuse to work with a fascist government, for example.
In the end however, it will be worth it - if the Progetto Alfa is a success, Italy may have the perfect deterrent against the German menace.
The Verona Conference
With all the sappy introductions out of the way, the real meat for Italy comes in.
With rivalries in the PNF about to reach a boiling point, and Scorza’s faction becoming more and more powerful and threatening to Ciano’s rule, the Duce has decided that radical action is needed. A national congress of the National Fascist Party will be held in Verona, a city in northern Italy - here, the Duce hopes to isolate Scorza, retaking control of the PNF and discrediting the upstart secretary once and for all. However, Scorza isn’t going to Verona unprepared - leveraging all his support in the party, the secretary hopes to turn the tables, and deliver a killing blow to Ciano’s rule, in hopes of giving the position of Duce to someone more worthy, someone like Carlo Scorza himself.
The conference begins!
Both Ciano and Scorza have had a chance to prove themselves early before in the starting tree, this has given one of them a head start to what is expected to be a relatively informal event.
Up first on the agenda is the question about what to do regarding the Ministry of Popular Culture. The arguments surrounding the ministry root from the idea that keeping civilians under complete government influence is harmful to the growth of the country. Of course this leads to heated contentions within the conference.
The debate surrounding the ministry.
Ciano’s stance.
Scorza’s stance.
The council votes.
The next proposal will be put forth by Ciano himself, aimed at limiting the so often abused powers granted to the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, better known as Blackshirts. A political militia under the PNF's control, its glory days are long gone - but any attempt to touch the blackshirts will invoke the ire of many inside the party.
Introduction to the debate.
Ciano’s stance.
Scorza’s stance.
The council votes.
After that follows influence regarding trade unions in Italy. The main point of controversy roots from the radical idea of autonomous unions working independently from the government. A heavily contested issue, the outcome of this argument could signal trouble to the corporate nature of the fascist policies in Italy.
The debate begins.
Ciano’s stance.
Scorza’s stance.
The council votes.
Finally, a radical proposal is being floated by some of the most radical members of the PNF’s liberal wing - a change of the Italian electoral laws. A very important aspect of the fascist political edifice, this issue is sure to spark fierce debate in the party.
The council’s divide.
Ciano’s stance.
Scorza’s stance.
The final vote.
And just like that, the conference has come to a close, this leads to a fork in the road. Shall Ciano continue the liberalizations, or shall Carlo Scorza take reign and guide the country to follow his views of fascism?
Ciano’s Victory
Ciano’s victory.
Ave Ciano! Emerging victorious from Verona, he may now focus on the liberalization of the empire. Fascism has failed Italy, and Ciano sees democracy as the only way to rejuvenate the empire. Ciano does not support liberalization out of sincere commitment to democracy; rather, he supports it because fascism truly did not work out in the Italian experiment.
Ciano’s tree follows the weakening of fascist element and encouragement of democracy in the country. The main focus of the tree is negotiations and gaining support for the inevitable return of democracy - by allowing and encouraging the formation of new parties, keeping watch on radicalism, and ensuring that no further opposition will come from the PNF.
His coinciding tree follows his efforts to introduce democratic legislation in Italy - the two trees will proceed in parallel, with some focuses on one tree locked until certain focuses in the other have been completed.
In the Electorate, Ciano must end fascism for the masses and weaken the grasp that the party hold on the country. Compulsory membership will be ended at all levels, and the regime’s propaganda organisms will be dissolved. Next, Ciano will make sure people know there are faults from within, the personality cult that surrounded him, and that his step-father was a charlatan. Criticism of the government must begin.
In the Government, Ciano will crush the grasp that the PNF has over the country, allowing for the people to be represented. King Umberto II’s power will be veiled from him to fully transform him into a figurehead. The Grand Council of Fascism will be destroyed and the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will be opened up once more. The laws that binded fascism with Italy will be repealed as to allow the people to decide their own future.
In the Organizations, the fanatics and hardliners of the party must be finally expelled as to not meddle with the mold that Ciano is crafting away at. Scorza will be exiled as to not cause complications as well. The blackshirts will be finally dissolved, and Ciano may either send them home or hand them over to the army so they may properly serve their country.
Finally, the culmination of Ciano’s efforts. With Ciano stepping down, the position of Duce is abolished. For the greater good of Italy, Ciano dismantled the system his father in law worked so hard to build - Ciano was a fascist, but is an Italian first.
Now, the elections may finally begin!
Elections
During the transition to democracy, new movements, political parties and coalitions will set up. A new generation of younger politicians entered the nascent Italian democracy, and after some shifts and turns, three major coalitions will emerge in Italian politics. To the right, the Blocchi Nazionali - a large tent right wing coalition, made up of former members of the PNF close to Ciano, hardline conservatives and nationalists. To the left, the Fronte Democratico - a somewhat controversial coalition of moderate left wing politicians campaigning for social democracy, many of whom were exiled or were forced into hiding by the fascist regime. Finally, to the centre, the Democrazia Cristiana - a large coalition of moderate catholics, liberals, and centrists. In the race to elections, only one shall win!
Congratulations to the Democrazia Cristiana! Frontlining Aldo Moro, the centre has proven to be the popular choice, even receiving moderate support from Ciano himself! Though not securing a majority of seats, the Democrazia Cristiana plan for reform through compromise. Being moderates the party has surprisingly been able to find support from their opposition.
Here are just a few of the DC's 1966 term trees.
Congratulations to the Fronte Democratico! With Pietro Nenni securing the seat of Prime Minister, Italy shall be assured that the mistakes of fascism will never be repeated. Though Ciano was apathetic to the coalition, that didn’t stop him from making welcoming gestures to the group. The Fronte Democratico is a coalition which aims to bring social democracy to Italy; although they will encounter trouble from another coalitions, a select few from the Democrazia Cristiana have declared that they will support the FD’s cause.
Here are just a few of the FD's 1966 term trees.
Last but not least, please allow for the introduction of the Blocchi Nazionali! Giorgio Almirante has done the unthinkable, with his party’s victory showing the world that the Italian people are not quite done with fascism yet. Running as a right wing coalition consisting of staunch nationalists, moderate fascists, and hardline conservatives, the Blocchi Nazionali campaigned under a platform with ideals of Italian democracy being little more than a more relaxed flavor of the previous government. Though Ciano is somewhat sympathetic to the coalition, there is little love between him and Giorgio Almirante, leader of the BN - and of course, the other coalitions are harshly opposed to the new government. Trumpeting the idea of a strong executive during a time where many warn against repeating the mistakes of the past, their term will be an interesting one indeed - but should they attempt to slide back into fascism, there will surely be unforeseen consequences...
Here are just a few of the BN's 1966 term trees.
Scorza Victory
However, it is possible for the Verona Congress to have a completely different outcome. If Scorza manages to outmaneuver Ciano and sway a sufficient number of prominent PNF members to his side, the Secretary will convince the Grand Council to vote a motion to remove the Duce, naming Carlo Scorza as Prime Minister of Italy and Duce of Fascism in his stead.
Scorza’s victory.
Carlo Scorza’s victory in the Conference is met with a wave of enthusiasm and acclaim from those members of the PNF who feel that the original spirit of the fascist revolution has been betrayed over the course of the years. To gain support, Scorza will appeal to idealists in the party - those who feel that real fascism has yet to be tried in Italy. Fascist republicans, revolutionary syndicalists, “left-wing” fascists - many of these flock enthusiastically to Scorza’s side, hoping for a true renewal of the fascist revolution. In the somewhat chaotic days following the rise of Scorza to the position of Duce, several politicians of the PNF have organized a second Verona Congress - one where they hope the Duce will approve their plans for rekindling the fascist flame.
Approve The Congress
Of course Scorza shall attend! He may not truly lead if his peers do not deem him fit. Though it is impossible for him to meet failure at this congress, it could serve as a platform for him to speak for the empowering cause of fascism - or at least to strengthen his rule.
At this congress Scorza may either speak for the continuation of Mussolini’s legacy or agree to some or all of the proposed policies - promising organic democracy, socialization of the economy, and other such measures. Scorza may reshape fascism to what it was always intended to be!
Shut Down The Congress
However, the Duce might want to reconsider this. After all, a new Congress might be a threat to his rule - it’s probably just a den of would be usurpers and traitors, who want to exploit the current confusion to remove the new Duce for his position. The new Congress is a threat to stability and peace in Italy - it must be shut down.
There will be heat brought upon the Grand Council, and it is up to Scorza to decide how this will be handled. A diplomatic resolution of the crisis can be attempted, aiming at convincing the people in Verona to pack their bags and go home without much bloodshed - or a much more radical solution might be attempted, to let all of Italy know what the fate of traitors truly is.
Full tree.
Scorza is a complex and conflicted man - on one side, the fascist idealist, a firm believer in the original ideals of the fascist revolution. On the other side, the pragmatist, the machiavellian ruler who would do anything and everything to hold on to power. Scorza constantly oscillates between these two extremes.
The left side of the previous tree is reformist and represents the more revolutionary ideals of fascism. In modernizing the system, Scorza will follow a steady path of liberalization which can eventually evolve to follow the original ideals of fascism: limited democratic institutions, a reorganization of the economy along syndicalist lines, and a general liberalization of society. An idealist, Scorza is of the opinion that Mussolini’s greatest failures were twofold - one was overcompromising with anti-fascist institutions such as the church and the monarchy, and the other was naming a sniveling traitor like Ciano to take his place. Now, having taken the helm of Italy, Carlo Scorza can finally right these wrongs.
The right side of the tree is, well, a crackdown. Through repression of resistance and opposition to reformism, Scorza can drag Italy down the path of authoritarianism and submission of the people. This will have immediate positive results - the status quo will be upheld, the traditional power structures will be maintained, and the Duce’s hold on to Italy will be reinforced. However, it may not be the best option in the long run. A cynical and pragmatist Scorza will truly do anything to hold on to power, no matter the cost in money… or lives.
Of course, you have the option to take both sides, moving down the reform tree and then on the next tree taking the crackdown options. This may seem contradictory but that is exactly the point - with his massive amount of centralized power over Italy and the PNF purged of elements close to Ciano, the new Duce has near total freedom to reshape Italy in whatever fashion he likes. The decision basis of Scorza continues on in his next tree.
After his confirmation, Scorza will begin to reshape Italian society - his next tree will provide a more complete introduction to the Duce’s many dilemmas, and will deal with three cultural issues hotly discussed by Italian society and by the fascist government.
Addressing the issue of women’s role in society.
Marching in lockstep with the reformers, Scorza can redefine what fascism means to gender! All in Italy are Italians; so long as you love your country, you shall not face oppression! Equality of the sexes will only bring prosperity to Italy - let this message spread to all across the country! Perhaps women could even be fit for serving in the armed forces in a dedicated branch, the Servizio Ausiliario Femminile.
Then again, it was men who made Italy what it is today. Who will handle the home while the men are off at work? Fascism and tradition go hand and hand, and tradition hasn’t hurt us before, and it certainly won't hurt us in the future.
Addressing the ideals of the youth.
Giovinezza! Italy is still young! The youth have lived in a world where Italy has always been great - and the fascist revolution was done by the Italian youths against the old and crusty liberal partitocracy. If they have any gripes, they must speak them: Italy is great, but what makes it great is its willingness to be better! Scorza may encourage the youth to join the fascist cause by showing them what fascism can do for the nation, and for Italians everywhere.
Alternatively, the youth were not present during the empire’s expansion: perhaps those who have not built the nation on their blood and toil will not know how to help govern it. The elders have known rough times in the past. Following their lead will allow for Italy to turn that painful past into wisdom, and then into progress. Protestors and illegal media can only weaken Italy from the inside, like a heady wine - if the youth are drunk on reformist ideals that can only hurt the country, a long sobriety will be needed to rehabilitate them. Preferably far away from harmful influences.
Addressing the Church’s role within Italy.
The reform crowd believes fascism has no right to tie itself to with religion. Seizing the Church’s role in society, the people shall know that Italy is a secular nation! Scorza may remove the status of Catholicism as Italy’s state religion, remove the teaching of Catholic Religion in public schools, and even seize the Church’s assets in the country. Truly, the Vatican shall be made into the ghetto of Catholicism!
Yet the Church has played such a vital role in Italian culture! Italy shall renew the Concordat and reach common ground with the pope. By compromising and making deals with the Vatican and encouraging conservative Catholicism against the infinite threats of communism, liberalism, freemasonry, and other scarecrows, we will make sure that the population will be content under the close watch of God, and of the Duce.
The full tree.
Italy’s best days are not behind it, but ahead! With great effort and everyone’s persistence, Italy may change for the better and become the empire it was meant to be.
The Italian Empire is like a play - its stage is the Mediterranean Sea, and like all plays, it has many actors…
Join me again later as we take a tour through the Italosphere and cover the many problems plaguing the nations Italy has decided to interfere in.
This diary was pulled through hell and back by Italy Team composed of Mangolith, Nekronion, Liberian Acknowledgment Club, Highlord Thoranis, Exocamp, Targai, Asratius, AnarchOfEumeswil, Empona45, StannisTheAmish, and AC. Revisions were handled by Bread, Carvor and AnarchOfEumeswil. A special thanks to Italy lead formers of my tenure on the team Tiberium, Woodrow Wilson, and Gunnar Von Pontius, and to artists 422 and Legochiel, as well as greytide Charlesthe50th, for their help in creating this diary.
For more info regarding TNO you may check out the Discord, Reddit, ModDB, Paradox Forums, and Alternatehistory.com.

EPILOGUE
1919
V.
​
____________________________________________________________________
I

Conversations between Sidney Stencil and Mehemet the master of H.M.S. Egmont | the inconstant Fortune | what has changed and what remains unchanged of the earth, the society as a ship and its aging sailors | the tale of Mara | an undocumented part of Fausto Maijistral | and the reappearance of Veronica Manganese

​
HMS Egmont docked at Malta's harbour, and as the workers unloaded the cargoes, Stencil and Mehemet were having a conversation.
The master seafarer warned Stencil that were the sea to have a heart, its heart would be Malta, with beating pulses luring him away from the hush of the sea, its great silence. Yet this deceptive lull is not something to be trusted: for Fortune waxes and wanes inconstant, and so is Malta.
Armistice has been signed, soon to follow by Treaty of Versailles, but even as the wave of relief swept over the streets and even the usually sober Whitehall, Stencil, the tight-rope-walking man-of-politics, with his Stoic delusion of no safety ever at all anywhere, especially “on this shore,” remained dour, which passed for high celebration enough.
We learn that there was currently "an architecture of discontent" in Malta. Stencil thought about the change of time, and the falling out of virtù, its followers like his friend Porpertine, Mizzi, and himself, who “Belonged to a time where which side a man was on didn't matter: only the state of opposition itself, the tests of virtue, the cricket game? Stencil may have come in on the tail end.”
“It is perhaps a delusion - say a convenience - necessary to our line of work. But more honorable surely than this loathsome weakness of retreat into dreams: pastel visions of disarmament, a League, a universal law. Ten million dead. Gas. Passchendaele. Let that be now a large figure, now a chemical formula, now an historical account. But dear lord, not the Nameless Horror, the sudden prodigy sprung on a world unaware. We all saw it. There was no innovation, no special breach of nature, or suspension of familiar principles. If it came as any surprise to the public then their own blindness is the Great Tragedy, hardly the war itself.”
Something new, different, and terrible has come as a replacement for the repetition of wars as history like the “old campaigners” had clung onto. As for other like Mehemet, yet another implied time-traveler, it is a displacement, a home stolen, “a world taken from him,” only the nostalgia that occasionally rises along the nightly hashish… Stencil’s politic for him is but a shrug, a “noisy attempts to devise political happiness.”
A storm has passed over the Damascus plum-colored sea one evening. An old, damaged felucca called the Peri was on the sea without its crew. Only one Tuareg-speaking fellahin remained, absorbed in his task of painting the side of the boat in something like a deck-grey color. Mehemet's ship passed by, and he watched the boat and the fellah shrunk slowly into the distance.
Later on, the conversations between Stencil and Mehemet resumed. A discourse on changes ("The only change is toward death," sez Mehemet), society as “the Peri,” war as “Armageddon,” “a new and rare disease which has now been cured and conquered for ever." (according to the public), and the fate of the Earth:
“The Armageddon had swept past, the professionals who'd survived had received no blessing, no gift of tongues. Despite all attempts to cut its career short the tough old earth would take its own time in dying and would die of old age.”
Here we learnt of the tale of Mara through Mehemet. She was a minor saint, “a quaint, hermaphrodite sort of deity” who was captured by the Turks. All tied up to a ship’s bow like a figurehead, she was brought into Constantinople to be a part of the Sultan’s harem, where she proceeded to “raise hell,” drove eunuchs and concubines mad with lust, “detached” the Sultan’s head and sent it across ocean to Malta, and thus, helped La Vallette and the Knights, previously on the verge of defeat in The Great Siege, emerge victorious. But as a divine retribution or a price to pay for putting on such a show, she was confined as a guardian spirit in Xaghret Mewwija. But even there, warned Mehemet, she remained restless, still waiting for a chance to reach out.
Stencil, parting from Mehemet and back to his hotel, sang himself a little tune from his pre-war “music-hall” days as he relaxed in the bathtub. The tune narrated the becoming-father of Stencil, gay and expectant, renouncing his party life to go back home for his “bouncing baby boy” Herbert Stencil.
This short reminiscence didn’t last long. Maijistral came in and we eventually learn that he has been keeping Stencil updated as an informer, keeping an eye for all activities of dockyard workers, many of them Maijistral’s friends. Stencil, fearing a double standard, followed Maijistral as he left, encountered his old friend Demivolt on the way. We found out that Stencil was not Maijistral’s only employer: another was Veronica Manganese.
The target has changed: Stencil and Demivolt were at Manganese’s tail all the way to her Villa. In the near-darkness of Malta’s night making their way around the place, Stencil felt the tug of nostalgia and an “approaching second childhood,” “a childhood of gingerbread witches, enchanted parks, fantasy country.” Up until they were caught dead-on by a figure with a lantern, “a caretaker” with a face grotesque enough to give the veteran Stencil a mild shock, but what more shocking was that he seemed to know who Stencil are. In a dismayed tone, the figure asked England, or Stencil’s employer, to leave him and Manganese alone.
After that Demivolt said, "there is a tremendous nostalgia about this show. Do you feel it? The pain of a return home."
Stencil having realized this was not the first encounter between him and Manganese, expected to see her again soon.
​
____________________________________________________________________
II

Stencil and Demivolt’s speculation about the missing catalyst of the unrest | Father Fairing’s digression and exile | the plea of Carla Maijstral | the death of Dupiro the spy | V. showed herself

​
As dockyard workers were drummed up by both Bolshevists and Mizzists to their own purposes, the tension and civil discontent at the government swelled up in Malta’s “false spring,” just like Carla Maijistral’s belly, but the moments for both were yet ripen.
Meanwhile, Stencil and Fairing were still seizing up each other through their exchanges. Stencil was interested only in information and clear-eyed reportings, but Fairing remained coy and elusive. It’s worth noting this: “Father Fairing, S.J., after stating that anything that tugs in the direction of anarchism is anti-Christian in protestation to Stencil's views on “Paracletian Politics”… goes on to say: "The Church has matured, after all. Like a young person she has passed from promiscuity to authority. You are nearly two millenia out-of-date."
Stencil passed over Veronica Manganese, on her way out after praying at the altar: his spy sense tingling: Fairing, Maijistral, double agents, connections between Manganese and Italian higher echelon, and even British F. O. His musing continued about history, as a “… record of an evolution. One-way and ongoing. Monuments, buildings, plaques were remembrances only; but in Valletta remembrances seemed almost to live.”
Up until “One of Those Days” Stencil learned of Fairing’s displacement to America. Fairing assured him: “There’s no conflict of interests.”
As Stencil and Demivolt contemplated on theirs being old, as “brothers in exile," the “Situation” was up another notch: came in Carla Maijistral, informed by Fairing, begging Stencil to ‘release’ her husband Fausto from whatever “occupation” he was involved. To this Stencil remained uncertain, “The Situation is always bigger than you, Sidney. It has like God its own logic and its own justification for being, and the best you can do is cope.”… What are real are the cross-purposes.”
As Stencil began to think about “Is there a way out?”, the news about the gruesome death of Dupiro the ragman, the spy he installed at V.’s villa, hit his office. Stencil discovered the V./Manganese’s connection between I Banditti, D'Annunzio, and Mussolini. The living present of history here in Malta shed its guise as “a civilized affair,” like “the tide” threatening to carry Stencil into confronting forces no one could know.
At Fairing’s church, La Manganese stepped up at long last to greet Stencil in a familiar voice, and off they went to her villa.
Again Stencil and V. found one another, “To enter, hand in hand, the hothouse of a Florentine spring once again; to be fayed and filleted hermetically into a square (interior? exterior?) where all art objects hover between inertia and waking, all shadows lengthen imperceptibly though night never falls, a total nostalgic hush rests on the heart's landscape. And all faces are blank masks; and spring is any drawn-out sense of exhaustion or a summer which like evening never comes.”
We soon know that V. and Stencil were on the same side, having same purpose: "to keep Italy out of Malta.” One way or another, but with different means. From Stencil’s perspective, the method of V. was "Absolute upheaval,"… “Hysterical girl,” “Riot was her element,” “The street and the hothouse; in V. were resolved, by some magic, the two extremes. She frightened him.”
Somehow, for Stencil and perhaps Victoria, aside from her pushing forty with “a body less alive,” she was “same balloon-girl who'd seduced him on a leather couch in the Florence consulate twenty years ago.”
Later, as V.’s caretaker drove Stencil back to his place, the caretaker turned out to be Evan Godolphin.
​
____________________________________________________________________
III

Maijstral’s affair with V. | Stencil’s “last burst of duplicity and virtù” | the June Disturbances | and the death of Sidney Stencil

​
With events shaping themselves “for June and the coming Assembly,” knee-deep in the webs of relationships with Mehemet, Demivolt, Fairing, 2 Maijistral and most of all in the “treacherous pasture” of Malta. Stencil slipped further into a progressive melancholy.
Nostalgia was the only comfort, and “Veronica was kind.” The time they spent together were emptied out of appointments, secrets, whispers, nothing but a resume, or a reenact of their hothouse days.
Stencil thought in macro-politic scale: “There were no more princes. Henceforth politics would become progressively more democratized, more thrown into the hands of amateurs. The disease would progress. Stencil was nearly past caring.” Yet a thought of his son Herbert rekindled the humanity left in him. He promised hastily that he would do everything he could for Fausto’s safety.
The next evening, once again in V.’s drawing room, Maijistral discovered the acquaintance between V. and Stencil for the first time, to his confusion. Here Stencil, in his “last burst of duplicity and virtù” fulfilled his promise to Carla by retiring Maijistral from V.’s service forever.
June Disturbances happened, now known only as “A minor eddy in the peaceful course of Maltrese government,” with its main question – the autonomy of Malta – at that time yet to be resolved.
On Mehemet’s xebec this time, now it was Stencil’s turn to depart from the stage. “No one had come to see him off.” Except as the ship passed Fort St. Elmo, there was the mutilated face of the caretaker gazing at the ship, hand waved in curious motions both sentimental and feminine.
“Draw a line from Malta to Lampedusa. Call it a radius. Somewhere in that circle, on the evening of the tenth, a waterspout appeared and lasted for fifteen minutes. Long enough to lift the xebec fifty feet, whirling, and creaking, Astarte's throat naked to the cloudless weather, and slam it down again into a piece of the Mediterranean whose subsequent surface phenomena - whitecaps, kelp islands, any of a million flatnesses which should catch thereafter part of the brute sun's spectrum-showed nothing at all of what came to lie beneath, that quiet June day.”
We Who Fell In Love With The Sea
​
​
____________________________________________________________________
TRIVIA:
“Salaam aleikums” is the Arabic equivalent of "Peace be upon you".Mehemet is an alternative version of Muhammad, which means “phraiseworthy’ or "one who praises"
Mara, Juno, Hera, Astarte, Ishtar, Venus, Dellimara (quite an interesting article)
Among many of her symbols, there are “the crescent moon (or horns),” and “a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus.” ~ connection between morning star Sirius and Venus. “Astarte ties together fertility, sexuality, and war. She goes by the name of ʻAštārōṯ in Jewish myth as a female demon of lust.” ~ succubus Worshiped and celebrated by the ancient Levant among the Canaanites and Phoenicians, we see Mehemet talked about his feeling of Malta, understandably, in Levantine tongue.
Carob tree “Ceratonia, keration (Greek), keras, "horn" and refers to the fruit of the carob.” ~ V.
____________________________________________________________________
QUESTIONS:
(1) Please share your theories about the identities of V.
(2) Do you feel that all evidences demonstrated here are sufficient enough to convince you that V. was H. Stencil’s mother?
(3) What is your impression about Stencil’s thoughts on virtù, Right, Left, Moderate, man-of-no-politics, the Golden Mean, the street and the hothouse, and his Paracletian politics? (the transformations of politics)
(4) If the tale of Mara is a cautionary tale, what might be the lesson, aside from ‘never mess with evil’? (the transformations of gods/divinity)
(5) What did Fairing mean by “The Church has matured,” “… from promiscuity to authority” (the transformation of Christianity/the church)
(6) What is "the Nameless Horror, the sudden prodigy sprung on a world unaware. "?
(7) What is the role of the reversions of sexes? Do you think there’re common personality traits between the transvestite Weissmann and Victoria Wren with her fetishism? (a dangerous tendency)
(8) “But she was a teacher of love after all. Only pupils of love need to be beautiful.” What do you make of this sentence? Do you think the definitions of ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ here are reflected in the teaching of ‘the bad priest’?
(9) What do you make of Stencil’s dream of getting lost in a brain?
(10) What sort of ‘compasses’ do you think guided V. in all of her actions?
(11) Do you think Pynchon doesn’t like spring as a season? I mean “false spring” here, “reversal of spring” in Namibia chapter…
(12) Are you satisfied?
​
____________________________________________________________________
Read this article if you haven't:
Finding V.

Hey guys.
Merry Xmas !
I am coming back to you with a follow up post, as I have helped many people cash out this year and I have streamlined the process. After my original post, I received many requests to be more specific and provide more details. I thought that after the amazing rally we have been attending over the last few months, and the volatility of the last few days, it would be interesting to revisit more extensively.
The attitude of banks around crypto is changing slowly, but it is still a tough stance. For the first partial cash out I operated around a year ago for a client, it took me months to find a bank. They wouldn’t want to even consider the case and we had to knock at each and every door. Despite all my contacts it was very difficult back in the days. This has changed now, and banks have started to open their doors, but there is a process, a set of best practices and codes one has to follow.
I often get requests from crypto guys who are very privacy-oriented, and it takes me months to have them understand that I am bound by Swiss law on banking secrecy, and I am their ally in this onboarding process. It’s funny how I have to convince people that banks are legit, while on the other side, banks ask me to show that crypto millionaires are legit. I have a solid background in both banking and in crypto so I manage to make the bridge, but yeah sometimes it is tough to reconcile the two worlds. I am a crypto enthusiast myself and I can say that after years of work in the banking industry I have grown disillusioned towards banks as well, like many of you. Still an account in a Private bank is convenient and powerful. So let’s get started.

• A. What is required to open an account in a Private bank when you made your fortune through crypto.

There are two different aspects to your onboarding in a Swiss Private bank, compliance-wise.
*The origin of your crypto wealth
*Your background (residence, citizenship and probity)
These two aspects must be documented in-depth.
How to document your crypto wealth. Each new crypto millionaire has a different story. I may detail a few fun stories later in this post, but at the end of the day, most of crypto rich I have met can be categorized within the following profiles: the miner, the early adopter, the trader, the corporate entity, the black market, the libertarian/OTC buyer. The real question is how you prove your wealth is legit.
1. Context around the original amount/investment Generally speaking, your first crypto purchase may not be documented. But the context around this acquisition can be. I have had many cases where the original amount was bought through Mtgox, and no proof of purchase could be provided, nor could be documented any Mtgox claim. That’s perfectly fine. At some point Mtgox amounted 70% of the bitcoin transactions globally, and people who bought there and managed to withdraw and keep hold of their bitcoins do not have any Mtgox claim. This is absolutely fine. However, if you can show me the record of a wire from your bank to Tisbane (Mtgox's parent company) it's a great way to start.
Otherwise, what I am trying to document here is the following: I need context. If you made your first purchase by saving from summer jobs, show me a payroll. Even if it was USD 2k. If you acquired your first bitcoins from mining, show me the bills of your mining equipment from 2012 or if it was through a pool mine, give me your slushpool account ref for instance. If you were given bitcoin against a service you charged, show me an invoice.
2. Tracking your wealth until today and making sense of it. What I have been doing over the last few months was basically educating compliance officers. Thanks God, the blockchain is a global digital ledger! I have been telling my auditors and compliance officers they have the best tool at their disposal to lead a proper investigation. Whether you like it or not, your wealth can be tracked, from address to address. You may have thought all along this was a bad feature, but I am telling you, if you want to cash out, in the context of Private Banking onboarding, tracking your wealth through the block explorer is a boon. We can see the inflows, outflows. We can see the age behind an address. An early adopter who bought 1000 BTC in 2010, and let his bitcoin behind one address and held thus far is legit, whether or not he has a proof of purchase to show. That’s just common sense. My job is to explain that to the banks in a language they understand.
Let’s have a look at a few examples and how to document the few profiles I mentioned earlier.
The trader. I love traders. These are easy cases. I have a ton of respect for them. Being a trader myself in investment banks for a decade earlier in my career has taught me that controlling one’s emotions and having the discipline to impose oneself some proper risk management system is really really hard. Further, being able to avoid the exchange bankruptcy and hacks throughout crypto history is outstanding. It shows real survival instinct, or just plain blissed ignorance. In any cases traders at exchange are easy cases to corroborate since their whole track record is potentially available. Some traders I have met have automated their trading and have shown me more than 500k trades done over the span of 4 years. Obviously in this kind of scenario I don’t show everything to the bank to avoid information overload, and prefer to do some snacking here and there. My strategy is to show the early trades, the most profitable ones, explain the trading strategy and (partially expose) the situation as of now with id pages of the exchanges and current balance. Many traders have become insensitive to the risk of parking their crypto at exchange as they want to be able to trade or to grasp an occasion any minute, so they generally do not secure a substantial portion on the blockchain which tends to make me very nervous.
The early adopter. Provided that he has not mixed his coin, the early adopter or “hodler” is not a difficult case either. Who cares how you bought your first 10k btc if you bought them below 3$ ? Even if you do not have a purchase proof, I would generally manage to find ways. We just have to corroborate the original 30’000 USD investment in this case. I mainly focus on three things here:
*proof of early adoption I have managed to educate some banks on a few evidences specifically related to crypto markets. For instance with me, an old bitcointalk account can serve as a proof of early adoption. Even an old reddit post from a few years ago where you say how much you despise this Ripple premined scam can prove to be a treasure readily available to show you were early.
*story telling Compliance officers like to know when, why and how. They are human being looking for simple answers to simple questions and they don’t want like to be played fool. Telling the truth, even without a proof can do wonders, and even though bluffing might still work because banks don’t fully understand bitcoin yet, it is a risky strategy that is less and less likely to pay off as they are getting more sophisticated by the day.
*micro transaction from an old address you control This is the killer feature. Send a $20 worth transaction from an old address to my company wallet and to one of my partner bank’s wallet and you are all set ! This is gold and considered a very solid piece of evidence. You can also do a microtransaction to your own wallet, but banks generally prefer transfer to their own wallet. Patience with them please. they are still learning.
*signature message Why do a micro transaction when you can sign a message and avoid potentially tainting your coins ?
*ICO millionaire Some clients made their wealth participating in ETH crowdsale or IOTA ICO. They were very easy to deal with obviously and the account opening was very smooth since we could evidence the GENESIS TxHash flow.
The miner Not so easy to proof the wealth is legit in that case. Most early miners never took screenshot of the blocks on bitcoin core, nor did they note down the block number of each block they mined. Until the the Slashdot article from August 2010 anyone could mine on his laptop, let his computer run overnight and wake up to a freshly minted block containing 50 bitcoins back in the days. Not many people were structured enough to store and secure these coins, avoid malwares while syncing the blockchain continuously, let alone document the mined blocks in the process. What was 50 BTC worth really for the early miners ? dust of dollars, games and magic cards… Even miners post 2010 are generally difficult to deal with in terms of compliance onboarding. Many pool mining are long dead. Deepbit is down for instance and the founders are MIA. So my strategy to proof mining activity is as follow:
*Focusing on IT background whenever possible. An IT background does help a lot to bring some substance to the fact you had the technical ability to operate a mining rig.
*Showing mining equipment receipts. If you mined on your own you must have bought the hardware to do so. For instance mining equipment receipts from butterfly lab from 2012-2013 could help document your case. Similarly, high electricity bill from your household on a consistent basis back in the day could help. I have already unlocked a tricky case in the past with such documents when the bank was doubtful.
*Wallet.dat files with block mining transactions from 2011 thereafter This obviously is a fantastic piece of evidence for both you and me if you have an old wallet and if you control an address that received original mined blocks, (even if the wallet is now empty). I will make sure compliance officers understand what it means, and as for the early adopter, you can prove your control over these wallet through a microtransaction. With these kind of addresses, I can show on the block explorer the mined block rewards hitting at regular time interval, and I can even spot when difficulty level increased or when halvening process happened.
*Poolmining account. Here again I have educated my partner bank to understand that a slush account opened in 2013 or an OnionTip presence was enough to corroborate mining activity. The block explorer then helps me to do the bridge with your current wallet.
*Describing your set up and putting it in context In the history of mining we had CPU, GPU, FPG and ASICs mining. I will describe your technical set up and explain why and how your set up was competitive at that time.
The corporate entity Remember 2012 when we were all convinced bitcoin would take over the world, and soon everyone would pay his coffee in bitcoin? How naïve we were to think transaction fees would remain low forever. I don’t blame bitcoin cash supporters; I once shared this dream as well. Remember when we thought global adoption was right around the corner and some brick and mortar would soon accept bitcoin transaction as a common mean of payment? Well, some shop actually did accept payment and held. I had a few cases as such of shops holders, who made it to the multi million mark holding and had invoices or receipts to proof the transactions. If you are organized enough to keep a record for these trades and are willing to cooperate for the documentation, you are making your life easy. The digital advertising business is also a big market for the bitcoin industry, and affiliates partner compensated in btc are common. It is good to show an invoice, it is better to show a contract. If you do not have a contract (which is common since all advertising deals are about ticking a check box on the website to accept terms and conditions), there are ways around that. If you are in that case, pm me.
The black market Sorry guys, I can’t do much for you officially. Not that I am judging you. I am a libertarian myself. It’s just already very difficult to onboard legit btc adopters, so the black market is a market I cannot afford to consider. My company is regulated so KYC and compliance are key for me if I want to stay in business. Behind each case I push forward I am risking the credibility and reputation I have built over the years. So I am sorry guys I am not risking it to make an extra buck. Your best hope is that crypto will eventually take over the world and you won’t need to cash out anyway. Or go find a Lithuanian bank that is light on compliance and cooperative.
The OTC buyer and the libertarian. Generally a very difficult case. If you bought your stack during your journey in Japan 5 years ago to a guy you never met again; or if you accumulated on https://localbitcoins.com/ and kept no record or lost your account, it is going to be difficult. Not impossible but difficult. We will try to build a case with everything else we have, and I may be able to onboard you. However I am risking a lot here so I need to be 100% confident you are legit, before I defend you. Come & see me in Geneva, and we will talk. I will run forensic services like elliptic, chainalysis, or scorechain on an extract of your wallet. If this scan does not raise too many red flags, then maybe we can work together ! If you mixed your coins all along your crypto history, and shredded your seeds because you were paranoid, or if you made your wealth mining professionally monero over the last 3 years but never opened an account at an exchange. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I am not a magician and don’t get me wrong, I love monero, it’s not the point.
Cashing out ICOs Private companies or foundations who have ran an ICO generally have a very hard time opening a bank account. The few banks that accept such projects would generally look at 4 criteria:
*Seriousness of the project Extensive study of the whitepaper to limit the reputation risk
*AML of the onboarding process ICOs 1.0 have no chance basically if a background check of the investors has not been conducted
*Structure of the moral entity List of signatories, certificate of incumbency, work contract, premises...
*Fiscal conformity Did the company informed the authorities and seek a fiscal ruling.

• B. The tax issue I am not a tax specialist, but I can say that this year I have seen it all. Again I am not judging. You made $100m hodling, and still wouldn’t pay your taxes ? Your decision.I personally advise everyone to pay their taxes, but also to be generous, to give to charities. I mean you eventually made it. Good for you. What about you contribute to make the world a better place now? I will stop patronizing you. It’s just my 2cts, and it’s your money.

For the record, I am not into the tax avoidance business, so people come to me with a set up and I see if I can make it work within the legal framework imposed to me.
First, stop thinking Switzerland is a “offshore heaven” Swiss banks have made deals with many governments for the exchange of fiscal information. If you are a French citizen, resident in France and want to open an account in a Private Bank in Switzerland to cash out your bitcoins, you will get slaughtered (>60%). There are ways around that, and I could refer you to good tax specialists for fiscal optimization, but I cannot organize it myself. It would be illegal for me. Swiss private banks makes it easy for you to keep a good your relation with your retail bank and continue paying your bills without headaches. They are integrated to SEPA, provide ebanking and credit cards.
For information, these are the kind of set up some of my clients came up with. It’s all legal; obviously I do not onboard clients that are not tax compliant. Further disclaimer: I did not contribute myself to these set up. Do not ask me to organize it for you. I won’t.
EU tricks
Swiss lump sum taxation Foreign nationals resident in Switzerland can be taxed on a lump-sum basis if they are not gainfully employed in our country. Under the lump-sum tax regime, foreign nationals taking residence in Switzerland may choose to pay an expense-based tax instead of ordinary income and wealth tax. Attractive cantons for the lump sum taxation are Zug, Vaud, Valais, Grisons, Lucerne and Berne. To make it short, you will be paying somewhere between 200 and 400k a year and all expenses will be deductible.
Switzerland has adopted a very friendly attitude towards crypto currency in general. There is a whole crypto valley in Zug now. 30% of ICOs are operated in Switzerland. The reason is that Switzerland has thrived for centuries on banking secrecy, and today with FATCA and exchange of fiscal info with EU, banking secrecy is dead. Regulators in Switzerland have understood that digital ledger technologies were a way to roll over this competitive advantage for the generations to come. Switzerland does not tax capital gains on crypto profits. The Finma has a very pragmatic approach. They have issued guidance- updated guidelines here. They let the business get organized and operate their analysis on a case per case basis. Only after getting a deep understanding of the market will they issue a global fintech license in 2019. This approach is much more realistic than legislations which try to regulate everything beforehand.
Italy new tax exemption. It’s a brand new fiscal exemption. Go to Aoste, get residency and you could be taxed a 100k/year for 10years. Yes, really.
Portugal What’s crazy in Europe is the lack of fiscal harmonization. Even if no one in Brussels dares admit it, every other country is doing fiscal dumping. Portugal is such a country and has proved very friendly fiscally speaking. I personally have a hard time trusting Europe. I have witnessed what happened in Greece over the last few years. Some of our ultra high net worth clients got stuck with capital controls. I mean no way you got out of crypto to have your funds confiscated at the next financial crisis! Anyway. FYI
Malta Generally speaking, if you get a residence somewhere you have to live there for a certain period of time. Being stuck in Italy is no big deal with Schengen Agreement, but in Malta it is a different story. In Malta, the ordinary residence scheme is more attractive than the HNWI residence scheme. Being an individual, you can hold a residence permit under this scheme and pay zero income tax in Malta in a completely legal way.
Monaco Not suitable for French citizens, but for other Ultra High Net worth individual, Monaco is worth considering. You need an account at a local bank as a proof of fortune, and this account generally has to be seeded with at least EUR500k. You also need a proof of residence. I do mean UHNI because if you don’t cash out minimum 30m it’s not interesting. Everything is expensive in Monaco. Real Estate is EUR 50k per square meter. A breakfast at Monte Carlo Bay hotel is 70 EUR. Monaco is sunny but sometimes it feels like a golden jail. Do you really want that for your kids?
Dubaï

1. Set up a company in Dubaï, get your resident card.
   
2. Spend one day every 6 month there
   
3. ???
   
4. Be tax free
   

US tricks Some Private banks in Geneva do have the license to manage the assets of US persons and U.S citizens. However, do not think it is a way to avoid paying taxes in the US. Opening an account at an authorized Swiss Private banks is literally the same tax-wise as opening an account at Fidelity or at Bank of America in the US. The only difference is that you will avoid all the horror stories. Horror stories are all real by the way. In Switzerland, if you build a decent case and answer all the questions and corroborate your case in depth, you will manage to convince compliance officers beforehand. When the money eventually hits your account, it is actually available and not frozen.
The IRS and FATCA require to file FBAR if an offshore account is open. However FBAR is a reporting requirement and does not have taxes related to holding an account outside the US. The taxes would be the same if the account was in the US. However penalties for non compliance with FBAR are very large. The tax liability management is actually performed through the management of the assets ( for exemple by maximizing long term capital gains and minimizing short term gains).
The case for Porto Rico. Full disclaimer here. I am not encouraging this. Have not collaborated on such tax avoidance schemes. if you are interested I strongly encourage you to seek a tax advisor and get a legal opinion. I am not responsible for anything written below. I am not going to say much because I am so afraid of uncle Sam that I prefer to humbly pass the hot potato to pwc From here all it takes is a good advisor and some creativity to be tax free on your crypto wealth if you are a US person apparently. Please, please please don’t ask me more. And read the disclaimer again.
Trust tricks Generally speaking I do not accept fringe fiscal situation because it puts me in a difficult situation to the banks I work with, and it is already difficult enough to defend a legit crypto case. Trust might be a way to optimize your fiscal situation. Belize. Bahamas. Seychelles. Panama, You name it. At the end of the day, what matters for Swiss Banks are the beneficial owner and the settlor. Get a legal opinion, get it done, and when you eventually knock at a private bank’s door, don’t say it was for fiscal avoidance you stupid ! You will get the door smashed upon you. Be smarter. It will work. My advice is just to have it done by a great tax specialist lawyer, even if it costs you some money, as the entity itself needs to be structured in a professional way. Remember that with trust you are dispossessing yourself off your wealth. Not something to be taken lightly.
“Anonymous” cash out. Right. I think I am not going into this topic, neither expose the ways to get it done. Pm me for details. I already feel a bit uncomfortable with all the info I have provided. I am just going to mention many people fear that crypto exchange might become reporting entities soon, and rightly so. This might happen anyday. You have been warned. FYI, this only works for non-US and large cash out.
The difference between traders an investors. Danmark, Holland and Germany all make a huge difference if you are a passive investor or if you are a trader. ICO is considered investing for instance and is not taxed, while trading might be considered as income and charged aggressively. I would try my best to protect you and put a focus on your investor profile whenever possible, so you don't have to pay 52% tax if you do not have to :D

• C. The cash out itself So you have accumulated patiently a good amount of wealth. For some of us who have been involved in crypto since 2010, it took years. Remember when BTC was stuck at 200$ for months? I personally feel like it was yesterday. There is no way you screw up your wealth by cashing out in a hurry or with low security standards. Here is how the cash out takes should place.

Full cash out or partial cash out? People who have been sitting on crypto for long have grown an emotional and irrational link with their coins. They come to me and say, look, I have 50m in crypto but I would like to cash out 500k only. So first let me tell you that as a wealth manager my advice to you is to take some off the table. Doing a partial cash out is absolutely fine. The market is bullish. We are witnessing a redistribution of wealth at a global scale. Bitcoin is the real #occupywallstreet, and every one will discuss crypto at Xmas eve which will make the market even more supportive beginning 2018, especially with all hedge funds entering the scene. If you want to stay exposed to bitcoin and altcoins, and believe these techs will change the world, it’s just natural you want to keep some coins. In the meantime, if you have lived off pizzas over the last years, and have the means to now buy yourself an nice house and have an account at a private bank, then f***ing do it mate ! Buy physical gold with this account, buy real estate, have some cash at hands. Even though US dollar is worthless to your eyes, it’s good and convenient to have some. Also remember your wife deserves it ! And if you have no wife yet and you are socially awkward like the rest of us, then maybe cashing out partially will help your situation ;)
What the Private Banks expect. Joke aside, it is important you understand something. If you come around in Zurich to open a bank account and partially cash out, just don’t expect Private Banks will make an exception for you if you are small. You can’t ask them to facilitate your cash out, buy a 1m apartment with the proceeds of the sale, and not leave anything on your current account. It won’t work. Sadly, under 5m you are considered small in private banking. The bank is ok to let you open an account, provided that your kyc and compliance file are validated, but they will also want you to become a client and leave some money there to invest. This might me despicable, but I am just explaining you their rules. If you want to cash out, you should sell enough to be comfortable and have some left. Also expect the account opening to last at least 3-4 week if everything goes well. You can't just open an account overnight.
The cash out logistics. Cashing out 1m USD a day in bitcoin or more is not so hard.
Let me just tell you this: Even if you get a Tier 4 account with Kraken and ask Alejandro there to raise your limit over $100k per day, Even if you have a bitfinex account and you are willing to expose your wealth there, Even if you have managed to pass all the crazy due diligence at Bitstamp,
The amount should be fractioned to avoid risking your full wealth on exchange and getting slaughtered on the price by trading big quantities. Cashing out involves significant risks at all time. There is a security risk of compromising your keys, a counterparty risk, a fat finger risk. Let it be done by professionals. It is worth every single penny.
Most importantly, there is a major difference between trading on an exchange and trading OTC. Even though it’s not publicly disclosed some exchange like Kraken do have OTC desks. Trading on an exchange for a large amount will weight on the prices. Bitcoin is a thin market. In my opinion over 30% of the coins are lost in translation forever. Selling $10m on an exchange in a day can weight on the prices more than you’d think. And if you trade on a exchange, everything is shown on record, and you might wipe out the prices because on exchanges like bitstamp or kraken ultimately your counterparties are retail investors and the market depth is not huge. It is a bit better on Bitfinex. It is way better to trade OTC. Accessing the institutional OTC market is not easy, and that is also the reason why you should ask a regulated financial intermediary if we are talking about huge amounts.
Last point, always chose EUR as opposed to USD. EU correspondent banks won’t generally block institutional amounts. However we had the cases of USD funds frozen or delayed by weeks.
Most well-known OTC desks are Cumberlandmining (ask for Lucas), Genesis (ask for Martin), Bitcoin Suisse AG (ask for Niklas), circletrade, B2C2, or Altcoinomy (ask for Olivier)
Very very large whales can also set up escrow accounts for massive block trades. This world, where blocks over 30k BTC are exchanged between 2 parties would deserve a reddit thread of its own. Crazyness all around.
Your options: DIY or going through a regulated financial intermediary.
Execution trading is a job in itself. You have to be patient, be careful not to wipe out the order book and place limit orders, monitor the market intraday for spikes or opportunities. At big levels, for a large cash out that may take weeks, these kind of details will save you hundred thousands of dollars. I understand crypto holders are suspicious and may prefer to do it by themselves, but there are regulated entities who now offer the services. Besides, being a crypto millionaire is not a guarantee you will get institutional daily withdrawal limits at exchange. You might, but it will take you another round of KYC with them, and surprisingly this round might be even more aggressive that the ones at Private banks since exchange have gone under intense scrutiny by regulators lately.
The fees for cashing out through a regulated financial intermediary to help you with your cash out should be around 1-2% flat on the nominal, not more. And for this price you should get the full package: execution/monitoring of the trades AND onboarding in a private bank. If you are asked more, you are being abused.
Of course, you also have the option to do it yourself. It is a way more tedious and risky process. Compliance with the exchange, compliance with the private bank, trading BTC/fiat, monitoring the transfers…You will save some money but it will take you some time and stress. Further, if you approach a private bank directly, it will trigger a series of red flag to the banks. As I said in my previous post, they call a direct approach a “walk-in”. They will be more suspicious than if you were introduced by someone and won’t hesitate to show you high fees and load your portfolio with in-house products that earn more money to the banks than to you. Remember also most banks still do not understand crypto so you will have a lot of explanations to provide and you will have to start form scratch with them!
The paradox of crypto millionaires Most of my clients who made their wealth through crypto all took massive amount of risks to end up where they are. However, most of them want their bank account to be managed with a low volatility fixed income capital preservation risk profile. This is a paradox I have a hard time to explain and I think it is mainly due to the fact that most are distrustful towards banks and financial markets in general. Many clients who have sold their crypto also have a cash-out blues in the first few months. This is a classic situation. The emotions involved in hodling for so long, the relief that everything has eventually gone well, the life-changing dynamics, the difficulties to find a new motivation in life…All these elements may trigger a post cash-out depression. It is another paradox of the crypto rich who has every card in his hand to be happy, but often feel a bit sad and lonely. Sometimes, even though it’s not my job, I had to do some psychological support. A lot of clients have also become my friends, because we have the same age and went through the same “ordeal”. First world problem I know… Remember, cashing out is not the end. It’s actually the beginning. Don’t look back, don’t regret. Cash out partially, because it does not make sense to cash out in full, regret it and want back in. relax.
The race to cash out crypto billionaire and the concept of late exiter. The Winklevoss brothers are obviously the first of a series. There will be crypto billionaires. Many of them. At a certain level you can have a whole family office working for you to manage your assets and take care of your needs . However, let me tell you it’s is not because you made it so big that you should think you are a genius and know everything better than anyone. You should hire professionals to help you. Managing assets require some education around the investment vehicles and risk management strategies. Sorry guys but with all the respect I have for wallstreebet, AMD and YOLO stock picking, some discipline is necessary. The investors who have made money through crypto are generally early adopters. However I have started to see another profile popping up. They are not early adopters. They are late exiters. It is another way but just as efficient. Last week I met the first crypto millionaire I know who first bough bitcoin over 1000$. 55k invested at the beginning of this year. Late adopter & late exiter is a route that can lead to the million.
Last remarks. I know banks, bankers, and FIAT currencies are so last century. I know some of you despise them and would like to have them burn to the ground. With compliance officers taking over the business, I would like to start the fire myself sometimes. I hope this extensive guide has helped some of you. I am around if you need more details. I love my job despite all my frustration towards the banking industry because it makes me meet interesting people on a daily basis. I am a crypto enthusiast myself, and I do think this tech is here to stay and will change the world. Banks will have to adapt big time. Things have started to change already; they understand the threat is real. I can feel the generational gap in Geneva, with all these old bankers who don’t get what’s going on. They glaze at the bitcoin chart on CNBC in disbelief and they start to get it. This bitcoin thing is not a joke. Deep inside, as an early adopter who also intends to be a late exiter, as a libertarian myself, it makes me smile with satisfaction.
Cheers. @swisspb on telegram

​
EPILOGUE
1919
V.
​
____________________________________________________________________
I

Conversations between Sidney Stencil and Mehemet the master of H.M.S. Egmont | the inconstant Fortune | what has changed and what remains unchanged of the earth, the society as a ship and its aging sailors | the tale of Mara | an undocumented part of Fausto Maijistral and the reappearance of Veronica Manganese

HMS Egmont docked at Malta's harbour, and as the workers unloaded the cargoes, Stencil and Mehemet were having a conversation.
The master seafarer warned Stencil that were the sea to have a heart, its heart would be Malta, with beating pulses luring him away from the hush of the sea, its great silence. Yet this deceptive lull is not something to be trusted: for Fortune waxes and wanes inconstant, and so is Malta.
Armistice has been signed, soon to follow by Treaty of Versailles, but even as the wave of relief swept over the streets and even the usually sober Whitehall, Stencil, the tight-rope-walking man-of-politics, with his Stoic delusion of no safety ever at all anywhere, especially “on this shore,” remained dour, which passed for high celebration enough.
We learn that there was currently "an architecture of discontent" in Malta. Stencil thought about the change of time, and the falling out of virtù, its followers like his friend Porpertine, Mizzi, and himself, who “Belonged to a time where which side a man was on didn't matter: only the state of opposition itself, the tests of virtue, the cricket game? Stencil may have come in on the tail end.”
“It is perhaps a delusion - say a convenience - necessary to our line of work. But more honorable surely than this loathsome weakness of retreat into dreams: pastel visions of disarmament, a League, a universal law. Ten million dead. Gas. Passchendaele. Let that be now a large figure, now a chemical formula, now an historical account. But dear lord, not the Nameless Horror, the sudden prodigy sprung on a world unaware. We all saw it. There was no innovation, no special breach of nature, or suspension of familiar principles. If it came as any surprise to the public then their own blindness is the Great Tragedy, hardly the war itself.”
Something new, different, and terrible has come as a replacement for the repetition of wars as history like the “old campaigners” had clung onto. As for other like Mehemet, yet another implied time-traveler, it is a displacement, a home stolen, “a world taken from him,” only the nostalgia that occasionally rises along the nightly hashish… Stencil’s politic for him is but a shrug, a “noisy attempts to devise political happiness.”
There was an old damaged felucca called the Peri in the Damascus plum-colored sea deepened into a dark evening after a storm. There was an old Tuareg-speaking fellahin painting the ship, in a deck-grey color… dum de dum…
Later on, the conversations between Stencil and Mehemet resumed. A discourse on changes ("The only change is toward death," sez Mehemet), society as “the Peri,” war as “Armageddon,” “a new and rare disease which has now been cured and conquered for ever." (according to the public), and the fate of the Earth:
“The Armageddon had swept past, the professionals who'd survived had received no blessing, no gift of tongues. Despite all attempts to cut its career short the tough old earth would take its own time in dying and would die of old age.”
Here we learnt of the tale of Mara through Mehemet. She was a minor saint, “a quaint, hermaphrodite sort of deity” who was captured by the Turks. All tied up to a ship’s bow like a figurehead, she was brought into Constantinople to be a part of the Sultan’s harem, where she proceeded to “raise hell,” drove eunuchs and concubines mad with lust, “detached” the Sultan’s head and sent it across ocean to Malta, and thus, helped La Vallette and the Knights, previously on the verge of defeat in The Great Siege, emerge victorious. But as a divine retribution or a price to pay for putting on such a show, she was confined as a guardian spirit in Xaghret Mewwija. But even there, warned Mehemet, she remained restless, still waiting for a chance to reach out.
Stencil, parting from Mehemet and back his hotel, sang himself a little tune of his “music-hall” days before the war as he relaxed in the bathtub. The tune narrated the becoming-father of Stencil, gay and expectant, renouncing his party life to go back home for his “bouncing baby boy” Herbert Stencil.”
This short reminiscence didn’t last long. Maijistral came in and we eventually learn that he has been keeping Stencil updated as an informer, keeping an eye for all activities of dockyard workers, many of them Maijistral’s friends. Stencil, fearing a double standard, followed Maijistral as he left, encountered his old friend Demivolt on the way. We found out that Stencil was not Maijistral’s only employer: another was Veronica Manganese.
The target has changed: Stencil and Demivolt were at Manganese’s tail all the way to her Villa. In the near-darkness of Malta’s night making their way around the place, Stencil felt the tug of nostalgia and an “approaching second childhood,” “a childhood of gingerbread witches, enchanted parks, fantasy country.” Up until they were caught dead-on, by a figure with a lantern, “a caretaker” with a face grotesque enough to give the veteran Stencil a mild shock, but what more shocking was that he seemed to know who Stencil are. In a dismayed tone, the figure asked England, or Stencil’s employer, to leave him and Manganese alone.
After that Demivolt said, "there is a tremendous nostalgia about this show. Do you feel it? The pain of a return home."
Stencil having realized this was not the first encounter between him and Manganese, expected to see her again soon.
​
​
____________________________________________________________________
II

Stencil and Demivolt’s speculation about the missing catalyst of the unrest | Father Fairing’s digression and exile | the plea of Carla Maijstral | the death of Dupiro the spy | V. showed herself

As dockyard workers were drummed up by both Bolshevists and Mizzists to their own purposes, the tension and civil discontent at the government swelled up in Malta’s “false spring,” just like Carla Maijistral’s belly, but the moments for both were yet ripen.
Meanwhile, Stencil and Fairing were still seizing up each other through their exchanges. Stencil was interested only in information and clear-eyed reportings, but Fairing remained coy and elusive. It’s worth noting this: “Father Fairing, S.J., after stating that anything that tugs in the direction of anarchism is anti-Christian in protestation to Stencil's views on “Paracletian Politics”… goes on to say: "The Church has matured, after all. Like a young person she has passed from promiscuity to authority. You are nearly two millenia out-of-date."
Stencil passed over Veronica Manganese, on her way out after praying at the altar: his spy sense tingling: Fairing, Maijistral, double agents, connections between Manganese and Italian higher echelon, and even British F. O. His musing continued about history, as a “… record of an evolution. One-way and ongoing. Monuments, buildings, plaques were remembrances only; but in Valletta remembrances seemed almost to live.”
Up until “One of Those Days” Stencil learned of Fairing’s displacement to America. Fairing assured him: “There’s no conflict of interests.”
As Stencil and Demivolt contemplated on theirs being old, as “brothers in exile," the “Situation” was up another notch: came in Carla Maijistral, informed by Fairing, begging Stencil to ‘release’ her husband Fausto from whatever “occupation” he was involved. To this Stencil remained uncertain, “The Situation is always bigger than you, Sidney. It has like God its own logic and its own justification for being, and the best you can do is cope.”… What are real are the cross-purposes.”
As Stencil began to think about “Is there a way out?”, the news about the gruesome death of Dupiro the ragman, the spy he installed at V.’s villa, hit his office. Stencil discovered the V./Manganese’s connection between I Banditti, D'Annunzio, and Mussolini. The living present of history here in Malta shed its guise as “a civilized affair,” like “the tide” threatening to carry Stencil into confronting forces no one could know.
At Fairing’s church, La Manganese stepped up at long last to greet Stencil in a familiar voice, and off they went to her villa.
Again Stencil and V. found one another, “To enter, hand in hand, the hothouse of a Florentine spring once again; to be fayed and filleted hermetically into a square (interior? exterior?) where all art objects hover between inertia and waking, all shadows lengthen imperceptibly though night never falls, a total nostalgic hush rests on the heart's landscape. And all faces are blank masks; and spring is any drawn-out sense of exhaustion or a summer which like evening never comes.”
We soon know that V. and Stencil were on the same side, having same purpose: "to keep Italy out of Malta.” One way or another, but with different means. From Stencil’s perspective, the method of V. was "Absolute upheaval,"… “Hysterical girl,” “Riot was her element,” “The street and the hothouse; in V. were resolved, by some magic, the two extremes. She frightened him.”
Somehow, for Stencil and perhaps Victoria, aside from her pushing forty with “a body less alive,” she was “same balloon-girl who'd seduced him on a leather couch in the Florence consulate twenty years ago.”
Later, as V.’s caretaker drove Stencil back to his place, the caretaker turned out to be Evan Godolphin.
​
​
​
____________________________________________________________________
III

Maijstral’s affair with V. | Stencil’s “last burst of duplicity and virtù” | the June Disturbances | and the death of Sidney Stencil

With events shaping themselves “for June and the coming Assembly,” knee-deep in the webs of relationships with Mehemet, Demivolt, Fairing, 2 Maijistral and most of all in the “treacherous pasture” of Malta. Stencil slipped further into a progressive melancholy.
Nostalgia was the only comfort, and “Veronica was kind.” The time they spent together were emptied out of appointments, secrets, whispers, nothing but a resume, or a reenact of their hothouse days.
Stencil thought in macro-politic scale: “There were no more princes. Henceforth politics would become progressively more democratized, more thrown into the hands of amateurs. The disease would progress. Stencil was nearly past caring.” Yet a thought of his son Herbert rekindled the humanity left in him. He promised hastily that he would do everything he could for Fausto’s safety.
The next evening, once again in V.’s drawing room, Maijistral discovered the acquaintance between V. and Stencil for the first time, to his confusion. Here Stencil, in his “last burst of duplicity and virtù” fulfilled his promise to Carla by retiring Maijistral from V.’s service forever.
June Disturbances happened, now known only as “A minor eddy in the peaceful course of Maltrese government,” with its main question – the autonomy of Malta – at that time yet to be resolved.
On Mehemet’s xebec this time, now it was Stencil’s turn to depart from the stage. “No one had come to see him off.” Except as the ship passed Fort St. Elmo, there was the mutilated face of the caretaker gazing at the ship, hand waived in a curious motion both sentimental and feminine.
“Draw a line from Malta to Lampedusa. Call it a radius. Somewhere in that circle, on the evening of the tenth, a waterspout appeared and lasted for fifteen minutes. Long enough to lift the xebec fifty feet, whirling, and creaking, Astarte's throat naked to the cloudless weather, and slam it down again into a piece of the Mediterranean whose subsequent surface phenomena - whitecaps, kelp islands, any of a million flatnesses which should catch thereafter part of the brute sun's spectrum-showed nothing at all of what came to lie beneath, that quiet June day.”
We Who Fell In Love With The Sea
​
​
____________________________________________________________________
TRIVIA:
“Salaam aleikums” is the Arabic equivalent of "Peace be upon you".
Mehemet is an alternative version of Muhammad, which means “phraiseworthy’ or "one who praises"”
Mara, mara l-ħoxna,????
Juno, Hera, Astarte, Ishtar, Venus, Dellimara (quite an interesting article)
Among many of her symbols, there are “the crescent moon (or horns),” and “a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus.” ~ connection between morning star Sirius and Venus.
“Astarte ties together fertility, sexuality, and war. She goes by the name of ʻAštārōṯ in Jewish myth as a female demon of lust.” ~ succubus
Worshiped and celebrated by the ancient Levant among the Canaanites and Phoenicians, we see Mehemet talked about his feeling of Malta, understandably, in Levantine tongue.
Carob tree
“Ceratonia, keration (Greek), keras, "horn" and refers to the fruit of the carob.” ~ V.
​
____________________________________________________________________
QUESTIONS:
​
(1) Please share your theories about the identities of V.
(2) Do you feel that all evidences demonstrated here are sufficient enough to convince you that she was H. Stencil’s mother?
(3) What is your impression about Stencil’s thoughts on virtù, Right, Left, Moderate, Man-of-no-politics, the Golden Mean, the street and the hothouse, and his Paracletian politics? (the transformations of politics)
(4) If the tale of Mara is a cautionary tale, what might be the lesson, aside from ‘never mess with evil’? (the transformations of gods)
(5) What did Fairing mean by “The Church has matured,” “… from promiscuity to authority” (the transformation of Christianity)
(6) What is "the Nameless Horror, the sudden prodigy sprung on a world unaware. "?
(7) What is the role of the reversions of sexual orders? Do you think there’re common personality traits between the transvestite Weissman and Victoria Wren with her fetishism? (a dangerous tendency)
(8) “But she was a teacher of love after all. Only pupils of love need to be beautiful.” What do you make of this sentence? Do you think the definitions of ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ here are reflected in the teaching of ‘the bad priest’?
(9) What do you make of Stencil’s dream of getting lost in a brain?
(10) What sort of ‘compasses’ do you think guided V. in all of her actions?
(11) Do you think Pynchon doesn’t like spring as a season? I mean “false spring” here, “reversal of spring” in Namibia chapter…
(12) Are you satisfied?
​
____________________________________________________________________
Read this article if you haven't:
Finding V.