While in America, the system says Roosevelt was an emperor.

Tom didn't drive today, letting one of his men drive while he sat in the back, giving Luca instructions on the upcoming tax collection.

As Luca tried his best to memorize the information, he secretly rejoiced, thinking that he had now caught the eye of Commander Tom.

The group drove through three city blocks, reaching the edge of the Corleone family's territory.

Cities all over the world share a common characteristic: similar service industries tend to cluster on a single street.

For example, a food street, a clothing street, a car street, and so on.

And the engineering street is naturally full of engineering companies.

Edward Engineering Company, Strong Engineering Company, Speed ​​Engineering Company, Good Good Good Engineering Company...

Looking at the signs flashing by on the roadside, Tom couldn't help but mentally complain again:

"Americans really don't know how to name things."

"If I owned an engineering company, I would definitely name it Qiangsheng Engineering Company. Strong and prosperous for a long time, what a wonderful meaning."

"Unlike 'country bumpkins' and 'rednecks,' these are all vulgar names with no real meaning."

At Tom's direction, the three cars stopped under a sign that read "I Love Railroad Engineering Company".

That's right, this is the engineering company that Sean's family has run for three generations, founded by Sean's grandfather.

I love railway engineering companies. Don't be fooled by the silly name; it actually has a history.

Sean's grandfather was an Irish immigrant who founded the company around 1840, taking advantage of the booming railway construction.

The company was doing so-so for the first few years, but in 1845, a great famine broke out in Ireland.

Grandpa Sean, taking advantage of his Irish immigrant status, tricked many Irish people into coming to America to build railroads.

Grandpa Sean couldn't be entirely said to have lied to them, after all, he genuinely helped the villagers escape the Great Famine.

As for how many Irish people are buried under the railway, no one knows for sure.

Tell me, did you manage to escape the Great Famine?

It was by profiting from the disaster that Grandpa Sean made a small fortune and changed the company name to "I Love Railroad Engineering Company".

Before he died, Grandpa Sean hoped that Ireland would experience several more famines and that America would build more railroads.

As soon as Tom and the others got out of the car, all eyes in the vicinity turned to them.

This area is not entirely under the control of the Corleone family. Within this medium-sized engineering street, there are five or six gangs, all of which are immigrant gangs categorized by their original nationalities.

The Corleone family's cars are so eye-catching that it's hard for people not to notice them.

Ignoring the stares of those around them, Tom led the way toward the I Love Railroad Engineering Company.

Sean, sitting in his office, had already seen Tom and the others arrive.

Just as Tom entered the gate, Sean, carrying a heavy notebook, came to the door and stopped Tom.

Sean took the initiative, this was his company, and he couldn't lose face in front of his employees, so he said:

"Tom? What are you doing here, you coward?"

Tom ignored Sean's provocative words and directly pulled out his Finance Bureau ID to show everyone.

Finally, Tom held the ID up to Sean, less than a centimeter from the latter's nose, and said:

"Sean, you've lived in America for so many years, haven't you ever heard a saying?"

"Only death and taxes are inevitable."

"Today, I am here on behalf of the Finance Bureau to conduct a tax audit."

Sean suppressed his anger and uttered a sentence, one word at a time:

"Here's the ledger, go ahead and check it."

"You'd better audit the taxes carefully, and make sure you don't miss a single penny!"

Sean had anticipated that Tom was there to audit taxes. So what if he was auditing taxes? Who was afraid of who?

Although the Sean family's business has never grown large due to their inhumane treatment of their fellow villagers, they are already adept at dealing with tax audits.

What Sean was holding in his arms was a fake ledger, made so perfectly that it was flawless.

If we only look at the books, the current tax law would only require a few dollars in taxes at most.

Tom was well aware of the tricks small companies used to suppress profits and perfectly evade Roosevelt's tiered tax system.

Tom waved his hand, and Luca, quick to notice, walked over and took the ledger from Sean.

Tom said to Luca:

"Find a sharp-eyed guy to check the accounts, the rest of you come with me to the next company."

After saying that, Tom turned and left without saying another word.

Sean thought Tom was scared, so he snorted and turned to leave.

Sean, who was in a bad mood, went back to his office to play chess with his secretary to calm down.

(Playing chess - in English slang, specifically refers to taking deoxyribose orally and starting a game)

Luca, clutching the ledger, handed it to one of his men, whispered a few words of advice in his ear, and then left the I Love Railway Engineering Company.

The Italian who stayed behind was named Totti. He was tall and strong and had smuggled himself in from Rome.

Although Totti is not as shrewd as Luca, he was handpicked by Vito and is certainly not stupid; he will definitely be able to carry out orders without any problem.

Totti casually flipped through the ledger, pretending to read a few pages.

Totti, who doesn't even know all the Italian, couldn't understand English ledgers at all.

After looking at it for several dozen seconds, Totti casually pointed to a line of text and then said to an Irish employee next to him:

"What's your name?"

The other party replied in an Irish accent:

"Me? My name is Anqi."

Totti pulled a small notebook from his pocket and scribbled down a few Italian letters.

As he wrote, he said:

"Anqi, right? Go and call your boss down. There's a problem here."

Angie turned and left, going upstairs to call Sean.

Totti, meanwhile, was taking out a small notebook and asking each of the Irish employees for their names.

For each question, Totti would casually write down a few Italian letters in his notebook.

Everyone was puzzled; what was Totti memorizing?

A few bolder individuals came up and asked Totti what he was writing down.

Totti didn't say it directly, but simply replied, "We also levy personal income tax," and then dismissed the person who asked the question.

Sean, his face flushed red from being interrupted during the chess game, stormed over angrily.

Totti, undeterred, lifted his trench coat to reveal the calming communicator at his waist—a Colt M1911 pistol.

Sean immediately returned to normal and came up to help Totti explain the contents of the ledger.

Looking at where Totti was pointing, Sean was startled and thought to himself:

"This guy actually figured out that I deliberately inflated the price of sand."

Inflating material costs is a common tactic used by engineering companies to falsify accounts.

However, the unit price has not increased much, for example, by a few cents per ton of sand;

Then increase the dosage a bit more, and add some reasonable waste from time to time;

Besides sand, other materials are also accounted for in this way;

Of course, you can also falsify the accounts for labor costs, paying employees far less in reality than what's on the books, or finding a few people to hold nominal positions and paying them a fake salary on the books.

A combination of measures can increase the cost of a project by 10% to 20%.

Some daring engineering companies can even increase costs by half.

Projects that normally have a gross profit margin of over ten percent may, under such circumstances, have a gross profit margin of less than three percent on paper, or even result in losses.