"They're launching a class action suit against us in Xin?" Jiang Chen thought he heard wrong, so he repeated the question again.
If they were suing him in Xin, he could think of a hundred ways Blue Seagull International Marine Life Protection Agency could lose. Suing him on his territory was asking for trouble.
"They launched the class action suit on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Of course, we can also refuse to respond, but this will impact our international reputation. They also wrote in their lawyers' letter that they reserve the right to organize protests. All in all, it's a headache to deal with this kind of non-profit organization…" Xia Shiyu's voice sounded defeated.
"I'll head back right away. We'll talk soon." Jiang Chen hung up and headed out of the factory quickly.
Unlike the International Court of Justice, not only can The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea accept cases between states, but it also accept cases between states and political entities and even individuals. However, such borderless tribunals often lacked binding power and are ignored by countries.Future Group had been brought to court by a lot of countries, but this was its first time in court with a non-profit organization.
Jiang Chen visited the official site of the International Marine Life Protection Agency on his phone. He first saw a giant poster at the top of the site. Underneath an image of the sea was a rotor of blades and a bloody dolphin along with a slogan on the bottom: Please stop hurting our friends!
What made Jiang Chen exasperated was that all projects from the deployment of mining units to the construction of Penglai were equipped with sonar to remove any marine life. Their criticisms that lacked any factual basis were complete slander!
When Jiang Chen returned to the company, he immediately gunned for Xia Shiyu's office.
"Actively respond to the lawsuit. Also, send our lawyers to sue them for slander in UA and demand compensation for economic damages!"
"And investigate who's behind the slander. I want to see who's giving them directions!"
Jiang Chen didn't believe the slander was instigated by "Blue Seagull" just for the sake of environmental protection.Future Technology's subsidiary was located in Los Santos with a fairly friendly relationship with the State Justice System. As long as they managed their relations, it wouldn't be hard to win in court. He handed over the investigation to the Ghost Agents overseas.
Surprisingly, before he sent anyone off on the mission, the people behind the scenes revealed themselves.
A phone call came from B City, UA.
"This is just a warning. Withdraw from the Saudi project." A male voice came from the other side.
"A warning." Jiang Chen laughed, but his tone turned colder and he asked, "Are you from Matrix?"
The man didn't deny nor agree. He just said, with a collected voice, "If it was any other business, you could use business strategies to win the project from us and we wouldn't say anything. But this project was conducted under directions from the Capital, so we won't just stop here."
From his tone and choice of words, Jiang Chen detected arrogance and a curvature appeared on his mouth.
[You expect Future Group to fold? In your dreams!]
"Is that so? Then I'm looking forward to your next move." Without feeling deterred, Jiang Chen didn't back down.
"Arrogant."
With just one word, the person on the other side hung up.
The two sides were at an impasse; there was no need to negotiate further.
Jiang Chen immediately ordered the Ghost Agents within UA's border to trace the phone call, and it was determined to be from a public phone booth in B City.
When he obtained that information, he had to look through Matrix to determine the shareholders of the company. But since Matrix was a private company, it took some effort to acquire the information. It was Xie Lei who hacked Matrix's servers and obtained the information from an equity change agreement.
All the evidence led to one name.
The fifth largest consortium in UA – B City Consortium.
Speaking of B City Consortium, it has a rich history. As one of the top ten consortia in UA, although it is less powerful than Morgan and Rockefeller, it is certainly the oldest one. It dates back to the 19th century when the Lovell, Lawrence, Adams, and Lodge families in the Boston area formed the B City Consortium with the emerging Kennedy family, possessing almost complete control of the entire North American textile industry. Their presence could be traced to the Civil War.
Although their current influence has faded compared to before, its influence in UA can't be underestimated. The world famous Raytheon is one of its holdings. These large consorts that controlled UA are more or less inextricably linked to the interests of the Ministry of Defense.
Since it is the B City Consortium that controlled Matrix, everything made sense. The Capital wanted to use the freshwater supply project to increase their control over Saudi. Since the dollar was tied to oil, the Capital still prioritized expanding their influence in the Middle East even when oil prices were so sluggish at the moment.
And because of Future Group's intervention in the freshwater project, B City Consortium obviously wouldn't sit around with their business ruined.
Just like they said, the class action suit from "Blue Seagull" was just a warning. B City Consortium would attack Future Group from multiple fields until Future Group could no longer withstand the losses and compromise on the not-so-profitable freshwater project.
Jiang Chen wouldn't allow their desires to come true!
Future Group would eventually be in a conflict of interest with the "ancient consortia." If he folded whenever there was a conflict, how could he do business in the future? Jiang Chen would not compromise, so he responded to B City Consortium's aggression with a firm stance.
Fortunately, Future Group had no subsidiary that was public, so B City Consortium's traditional financial attacks were futile against Future Group. However, they still managed to determine two attacking points, one was Future Group's most profitable tech business, and the other was marine life protection.
On October 11th, the UA Department of Justice launched an anti-trust investigation against Future Group's subsidiary.
At the same time, two "environmental advocates" forcefully boarded Future Mining's Pacific platform by boat, but they were quickly detained by Celestial Trade's security. UA's embassy in Xin immediately responded and demanded their release.
B City Consortium started the fight with a hook and a straight punch to gain an advantage in the showdown, targeting Future Group's weaknesses.
If UA's Department of Justice ultimately determined Future Technology was guilty in the anti-trust investigation, it would be a detrimental blow to the development of Future Technology's virtual reality market. It would set a precedent for other countries.
Would Jiang Chen allow them to succeed?
The answer was an obvious no!
