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Key words: Freedom, love, courage, strength, Calibrated Capitalism, monetary policy, financial systems, Global Financial Crisis, COVID, liberalism, totalitarianism, Eurasianism, democracy, oligarchy, tyranny, victory, Europe

Doctrine of Precedent: Five important real-life documents that inspired the story

Below are five documents discovered by the author as a student and graduate. A core topic that connects these five is a gap in the 'unipolar economic model', namely the resolution of Parex Banka Latvia. This resolution was highly controversial i) due to the usage of a secret put-option and ii) clientele involving Russian and Eastern-European oligarchs and political associates.

These are the following documents from left to right:

I.  Overview of JSC Parex Banka Takeover (13 pages) - Excerpt from the Bank of Latvia, (https://www.fktk.lv/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Parnemsanas_apskats_02.02Eng.pdf, no longer available)

II. Leaked Nomura report regarding the usage of a put-option agreement by the Latvian State in relation to the sale of Parex banka (6 pages) - documented by 925, excerpt obtained through Follow the Money, originally leaked at kargins.com

III. Letter by exiled whistleblower John Christmas to Mario Draghi regarding reversibility of put-option agreements and systemic risks (4 pages - December 28th 2013) - source: https://www.lawlesslatvia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ECB-letter-scan.pdf

IV. Page 4 of Eurostat report ‘FINAL FINDINGS Eurostat EDP dialogue visit to Latvia 7-9 June 2017’ confirming the reversion of the hitherto secret put-option following Latvia’s entry into the Eurozone in 2014 - source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/1015035/8054610/Final-findings-EDP-dialogue-visit-LV-7-9-June-2017.pdf - no longer available) 

V. Response by Walter Rademacher (Eurostat) to Pieter Omtzigt regarding reversible transactions and compatibility with ESA-95 norms (September 16th 2014 )- source: https://www.lawlesslatvia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Eurostat-letter-September-2014.pdf)

Relevant quotes for the storyline:

[ “This book, this is you. Remember that!” ] - Someone at Livraria Lello (Porto, November 2024)

[ “If I were your professor, I would have reported you for touting obscenities had you sent me these chapters.” ] - A female student, key to formation of heroine “Athena Theodori” (August 2021)

[ “The documents and their format, I believe are authentic because they are drafted in the proper way. I am only concerned about the signatures.” ] - Maria Efimova, whistleblower against Pilatus Bank, key source in the Egrant Inquiry, concerning documentation on the Ultimate Beneficial Owner of Egrant Inc. (registered in Panama) (Times of Malta interview, January 29th 2020) 

[ “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels” and listen to them, as we work to unite.” ] - James Mattis, former U.S Secretary of Defense (Quote from 2020) 

[ “Scars signal skin in the game.” ] - Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Skin in the Game (2018)

[ “An important aspect of the Eurasian worldview is an absolute denial of Western Civilization. In the opinion of the Eurasians, the West with its ideology of liberalism is an absolute evil” ] - Aleksandr Dugin, author of The Rise of the Fourth Political Theory (Approximately 2017)

[ “A pattern has emerged. The EBRD is covering-up frauds to sneak countries with corrupt governments into the Eurozone. The victims include all taxpayers in the 64 nations supporting the EBRD plus especially taxpayers in Latvia and Lithuania.

The integrity of the Eurozone is at risk if this problem is ignored. I fear a repeat of when Goldman Sachs helped Greece to hide its debt so it could issue bonds that later defaulted. I hope the ECB and hundreds of other letter recipients will confront the EBRD.” ] (Excerpt from a letter to Mario Draghi titled “RE: EBRD helping falsify financial statements of Latvia and Lithuania, sent from Rome on December 28th 2013)  - John Christmas, whistleblower against Parex Banka, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (and co-author of KGB Banker)

[ “The Matrix is a reflection of our times, or at least our anxieties. It reveals our fear of a mechanisation so complete, of a commodification of our bodies and enslavement of our minds so successful, that we are no longer even aware of it, having been made oblivious to our reality by the very technologies that rule us.” ] - Yanis Varoufakis (2013)

[ “I no longer believe Freedom and Democracy are compatible.” ] - Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal and Palantir (2009)

[ “The division of the future is not going to be the old one between Labour and Nationalist, but the new one between the liberals who want to inhabit the contemporary world and the illiberal who want to remain denizens of a non-existent past. You mark my words. It’s happening already.”] - (Excerpt from The Malta Independent, February 1st 2007) in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia, investigative journalist deeply involved in the publications of the Panama Papers, including writings on Egrant Inc., assassinated on October 16th 2017

[ “Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours.” ] - Ayn Rand (Quote from Atlas Shrugged, 1957)

[ “Is is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” ] - Adam Smith, author of the Wealth of Nations (Quote from 1776) 

[ “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.” ] - Napoléon Bonaparte (18th Century) 

Amazon edition (ISBN: 979-8-879-83578-6) 

Dutch edition available in Benelux stores (ISBN:978-94-6533-550-6)

English edition available in Benelux stores (ISBN: 978-94-6481958-8)