FIFTEEN
BUILDING AN EMPIRE

The offices of Captains Marco’s Gourmet Foods Inc. was in downtown Los Angeles, Kloch had chosen this location for a number of reasons.

First it was a long way from Hollywood and Beverly Hills where it was just possible that someone might recognise him in the street, indeed his previous catastrophic escapades in the film business had left him with a lot of enemies. Secondly downtown LA was very convenient for Chinatown where the Chinese banks never asked you the questions that American banks do.

But most of all, downtown LA is inhabited by a large number of tramps who live on the streets and alleyways. Many of these vagrants are workers and executives from the financial companies based in this part of the city who, for one reason or another, have lost their jobs. Fallen from their hi-tech offices and hi-speed lifestyles to end up penniless in the gutters, these people reminded Kloch that every dollar in your pocket is a good one. The contradiction of the American Dream, so long as you make money anything is permitted and everything can be accomplished, but if you have no money then you are nobody, the world is moving too fast for memories or loyalty.

Kloch’s food empire was doing rather well. He had started detailed negotiations with a fast-food chain who wanted to create Captain Marco’s Gourmet Drive-In and Take-Aways, the internet site “how-to-fool-your-dinner-guests-and-make-them-think-that-you-are-a-gourmet- chef.com” was actually making money, overall sales had dramatically increased since their TV show had been on air.

Kloch was especially proud of the Jean-Marc lookalike that he had found to present the TV show, the fact this TV chef knew nothing about cooking was a minor detail as most of the dishes just came out of the freezer, the show was more about presenting food, not cooking it. Kloch had proudly entitled it THE GOURMET SHOW, based upon an idea and a wonderful brochure that Jean-Marc had given him years before. In fact this precious document, with Jean-Marc’s name all over it, had be very useful in assembling the complex puzzle which was now making Kloch very rich.

In the past, many of Kloch’s brilliant money-making schemes had backfired simply because people from his past, most of whom he owed money to for one reason or another, had caught up with him. This time he had decided to make someone else responsible while keeping all the money for himself. Jean-Marc was an ideal candidate and victim for Kloch’s plan: there were plenty of recipes on his website, he owned a restaurant that was featured in numerous guide books, and from their acquaintance over 20 years or more Kloch knew enough details about him to make the “partnership” credible. Together with considerable help from information gleaned from the internet, Kloch had set up everything in Jean-Marc’s name except that the signatures were false. If anyone questioned the existence of Jean-Marc or “Captain Marco” they just had to switch on their TV sets and ...voilà, there he was in flesh and blood.

While the cash was flooding into his accounts at the Chinese Banks in downtown LA, Kloch was telling all the creditors and suppliers that Captain Marco was dealing with his restaurant in France but he would be back soon to settle all the outstanding bills.

In the meantime Kloch was enjoying his new lifestyle, he had used his offshore company in the Cayman’s to purchase a number of houses, including one in Key West, and he had recently flown out to Dubai where he had visited Map of the World Palm island project, he was rather interested in buying “Australia” and developing a luxury resort in the Arabian Gulf. A tribute to his Australian origins, a place where his creditors would have difficulty finding him and, most of all, a very appropriate retirement plan.