America 1982-Chapter 33: Validating Comprehension (Added for Alliance Leader Mengmeng Quan)

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Validating Comprehension (Added for Alliance Leader Mengmeng Quan)

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

"This here is Martha’s Vineyard, part of Dukes County in Massachusetts. Even if you haven’t been there, you should have heard of it."

"It’s known as a vacation spot exclusively for Black people," Melanie nodded, but ultimately didn’t utter the unfriendly term designed for Black individuals.

Martha’s Vineyard has been a popular travel destination since the 1960s, but the majority of those who travel, vacation, or even settle there are Black people, specifically wealthy and educated Black people. Even foreigners who come to visit America often make a point to stop by Martha’s Vineyard.

Some white people maliciously interpret the Black community’s fondness for vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard as follows: before their ancestors officially set foot on the American mainland, they were first taken to the Vineyard to be stripped, washed, examined like cattle, branded, and then auctioned off across the country. Now, their descendants like coming to the Vineyard because without a shower here, they can’t quite capture that sense of being a ’Negro’ in the United States.

The Black community says quite the opposite, claiming that they travel to Martha’s Vineyard and even settle there after the anti-discrimination movement of the 1960s as a way to comfort their ancestors, showing that they have transformed from America’s slaves of old into today’s owners of America.

Tommy Hawk, however, had no qualms about using the blunt term: "That’s right, the ’N****r’ exclusive resort. It’s easy to get to, with a cheap flight from Providence Airport landing you on the island in thirty minutes."

"You think Black people will help you evade taxes?" Melanie asked, looking puzzled at Tommy Hawk.

"It has nothing to do with Black people. There’s a piece of Native American reservation land on the island, about five hundred acres in the Wampanoag tribal reservation located at the southernmost part of Aquinnah. They have casinos, resorts, and every holiday season, people from big cities like Boston or Worcester flock there for fun. Our money has to pass through a casino on the reservation, eventually coming out clean for taxes, transforming from unsightly cash into a respectable checkbook."

The history of Native Americans in America is, of course, filled with blood and tragedy, and the Wampanoag tribe is no exception. When the colonists landed, they were kindly taught by the Wampanoag people how to whaling, helped to select living areas, and to build houses. However, the colonists then declared the entire island property of God and themselves, demanding the Wampanoag tribe to leave the island and fend for themselves in the distant western wilderness. The indigenous people who had lived there decided to fight bravely, suffering a miserable fate where the tribe of over eight thousand was reduced to just over three thousand. Had it not been for the persuasion of colonial missionaries, the entire tribe might have been completely wiped out that year.

Not until 1924 did the Wampanoag, previously sequestered near California, officially gain American citizenship, not until 1963, long after Black people had begun to gain social status, did the United States Government formally recognize the tribe, and not until 1972 did the United States Federal Government and the Massachusetts state government approve the tribe’s request to return to Martha’s Vineyard and establish a reservation.

But the dream of turning the whole 200-plus-mile Vineyard Island into a reservation was just that, a dream for the Wampanoag. In the end, the United States Government granted only five hundred acres on the island, arguing that the once nearly ten-thousand-strong Wampanoag tribe, now reduced to under a hundred members, already had ample land for their needs.

Most of these Wampanoag tribe members are illiterate, with barely any understanding of what reservation privileges entail. They know simply that with a reservation, they can operate casinos, bars, and other recreational facilities, attracting customers, and earning money. In order to develop their vacation business, they often choose to collaborate with white people to run these establishments.

Going to the reservation to pay taxes was a classic money laundering case that Hawk had learned about in business school. The opportunity for legal money laundering arose in 1977 in reservation casinos and wasn’t discovered by the IRS until 1994, with a loophole that only existed in Native American reservation casinos.

The process seemed no different from the failed laundering operations at other professional casinos.

"The process is simple, two people can handle it. One person takes the dirty cash to the reservation casino and gets two tax forms issued by the tax department: one for recording winnings, one for losses. But instead of actually recording wins and losses, the person converts the cash into chips, and waits for another person to come to the casino, get the forms, and then complete them using opposite numbers to the first person’s sheet. Then, the chips from the first person are handed over to the second," explained Tommy Hawk earnestly to Melanie:

"It looks as if the first person’s chips were legitimately won by the second person at the casino, who submits a proper declaration of the winnings, and taxes are deducted by the tax department accordingly, or the casino could deduct the taxes. Once taxes are paid, you can openly deposit the money in the bank, and it’s yours, won fair and square."

Melanie eyed Tommy skeptically, "It’s that easy?"

"No, that’s just the first step. And if you try these tricks in a professional casino like Las Vegas, the IRS will see right through you. No casino will shoulder such tax burden for players; as long as the casino submits their regular business data, once matched with data from the other two parties, the tax department will immediately discern whether the money’s coming in for gambling purposes or laundering. Compared to the player, the casino provides much more detailed data to the tax department, such as which table the game was played at, who the dealer was, table number, chip serial numbers, and so on. That means, without the full cooperation of the casino helping you modify their intricate records, it’s virtually impossible to launder money through US professional casinos without getting caught by the tax department," Hawk shook his head, took a sip of coffee, his eyes fixed on the small island on the map, and said fluently:

"But the casinos on reservations are different from the professional casinos in Las Vegas. For starters, the stakes are mostly capped. The United States Government doesn’t want every Native American becoming a billionaire casino tycoon, so the customers of these reservation casinos are usually ordinary Americans who just want to play a few hands on the weekend at the nearby reservation casino. This makes these reservation casinos very inconspicuous against the backdrop of large-scale casinos."

"Secondly, although Native Americans hold U.S. citizenship, there is a separate agency that manages them, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has remained almost unchanged for over a hundred years. In short, all affairs of the Native American reservations, including casinos and financial accounts, are the responsibility of this department, which is mostly managed by the chiefs of the various Native American tribes."

"If the tax department wants to access a reservation casino’s data to determine if someone is laundering money, they first need to go through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has control over all the reservation casino financial accounts. This bureau is held by educated Native American chiefs and their children, who are close to white people. The casinos are also operated in collaboration with white people, and most of the money earned is taken by the shrewd white partners, leaving not much for the chiefs."

"To make money, the Native American chiefs came up with their own money laundering service. To clean a sum of cash that isn’t too large, one only needs to make a donation at the cultural heritage fundraising booth established in every reservation casino. The fee should match the amount of money they wish to launder, and then the chiefs can make the Bureau of Indian Affairs provide the tax department with the gambler’s reported data or directly withhold taxes. This ensures that the data submitted to the tax department by the casino and the two gamblers is exactly the same, achieving a three-party consistency."

"By then, our money would have become completely legitimate income, and while the donation is nominally given to the Wampanoag tribe, it is still controlled by the chiefs, essentially serving as their cash purse. We get clean money, the chiefs receive a donation, and everyone is happy." Tommy Hawk explained his method of laundering and taxing money in one breath, then exhaled and came to a stop.

It wasn’t until more than a decade later that the American tax authorities discovered this loophole. One reason was that the amounts involved were too small to attract attention, especially since at that time the large casinos in Las Vegas and Hollywood Movie Companies were busy providing elaborate money-laundering methods for the mafia or corrupt politicians—any one of those cases alone would almost match the annual turnover of a reservation casino. Second, the tax authorities probably never realized that after being corrupted by white people, the supposedly simple Native Americans could become so greedily unappetizing."

Noticing that Melanie hadn’t responded, Tommy turned his gaze away from the map and looked up at Melanie across from him, only to find her staring blankly at him.

"Was I too vague? Did you not understand?" Tommy tentatively asked Melanie, "Melanie, are you listening?"

With a complex look, Melanie slowly nodded: "Of course, of course, I was listening."

"I can’t enter the casino now, so I need you to go find out what’s going on," Tommy Hawk said with a smile after he received her response. "You could take a vacation at the casino, show your goodwill towards the Native American tribe in advance, and find out roughly how much they need in donations to withhold our taxes for us. If we can do that, it would be the most convenient method. Otherwise, we’ll have to go with Plan B, which is less secure and convenient and also comes with a higher fee."

Melanie was silent for a long while; by now, she probably understood the effort behind Tommy’s saying that he "just wanted to be absolutely sure." This guy had everything well-thought-out and even had a Plan B ready.

It seemed that all she and Tony needed to do was to work like assembly line workers and complete the task according to his plan.

At that thought, curiosity got the better of her, and she asked Tommy:

"Did you learn all this from Penthouse magazine and comic books? Those are about the only two categories of your books that I haven’t read."

"If you want to see them, I can dig them out from under the bed to lend to you," Tommy said with a smile. "As for what can be learned, it depends on the person’s ability to understand."

Melanie sighed: "I’ve been to college, so why do I feel like an idiot in front of a high school student like you?"

After speaking, she turned and walked towards her bedroom. After a few steps, she turned around and returned to Tommy, who was gathering up the maps, and in a tone of lofty indifference, she demanded:

"Give me the magazines and comic books. I want to verify this understanding ability myself."