MC&D Cleanup

B57TS/0R632/58Y94
Status Selling Demand High
Identifier Citrus Vitae Value 5,000 - 7,500 USD per Litre
(4,090 - 5,725 GPB)
Availability 1,041 Litres (Current Season's Inventory), Established Supply Chain, with Expected Seasonal Output (ESO) of 1,875 Litres
Description Sold in 1-, 3-, or 7- litre crystalline decanters, the fluid is a dark scarlet reminiscent of old blood. Grown with organic EVE, Citrus Vitae is all natural and contains 98% human DNA. Declared by even the harshest food critics as "the most delicious fruit on the planet"; people are literally dying to try it.
Marshall, Carter, and Dark, LLP

Initial Report
Author Simon Eleazar Date September 13, 2013
Interest High Identifier Citrus Vitae

When Peterson first suggested that I travel with him to some backwater old Orange plantation in Paraguay (of all places), I thought the old bastard had finally lost what sense he had left. We've been in Paraguay for some time now, and I hardly expected to find anything of value there.

I could not possibly have been more wrong. It seems as though the family that owned the place had fallen onto some hard times, what with the global recession and all. They were desperately attempting to revitalize their product, and revitalize they sure did. In a very literal way.

Imagine my surprise when I showed up there and my Kant meter started going off like a Geiger at Chernobyl. Apparently they'd gotten some old mystic to come down out of the mountains and set up some sort of ritual that siphoned EVE out of a couple of poor schmucks and were pouring it straight into the trees. The processes was horribly inefficient, and they were running through the local homeless population fairly quickly.

Even so, the product they were producing was fucking delicious. When Peterson had me try that diluted sample back in Caracas, I was interested enough to come all the way the fuck out here. Now that I've gotten a good look at the operation and tasted the real thing? I think we can streamline the operation a great deal and get something that will really work.

And none of this watering-down crap. Let's just bump production a bit and sell the thing straight. Put it in some crystal decanters and we'll have a product that will sell better than any cognac out there. They'll never believe it's just fucking orange juice.

File Opened Under B57TS/0R632/58Y94
Marshall, Carter, and Dark, LLP

Archived Correspondence
Ruprecht Carter / Simon Eleazar
Records from 09/20/2013, 21:03-21:32
Time User Message
21:03 R. Carter Your report just came across my desk. You have my attention, so tell me what needs to be done to upgrade this operation.
21:03 S. Eleazar Certainly. As I said, the process is being handled by this old mystic. Guy is probably 83 years old, so he's clearly not using the EVE himself. I was thinking we hook up something similar to what you have in your chair, but simplify it to feed into a tree. Trees are easier than people, right? I was thinking we could probably set it up so we get 4 or 5 trees on one machine/subject.
21:06 R. Carter That's probably doable. We have some of the prototypes for my chair over in storage. I can release a few of the more finished ones to your department. Do you have a cost analysis done yet?
21:06 S. Eleazar Yeah. I can send the projections immediately. One moment.
21:07 S. Eleazar FILE: Citrus_Vitae_Cost-Profit_Projection.pdf (1.64mb)
21:19 R. Carter I see. The potential sunk cost is a little higher than I anticipated, but I see that you've included a line item for mass producing my EVE machine in addition to the anticipated R&D cost. How many of these are you expecting to need?
21:20 S. Eleazar I am thinking we want to keep this operation fairly small. Fewer trees mean fewer subjects each season. Fewer subjects mean less loss in maintenance and "sundries". Local law enforcement is pretty much federal, but the district chief's gonna need to be paid off. All told, I am factoring for a grove of 40 trees, so 20 active with 2 immediate replacements.
21:29 R. Carter That sounds more than fair, but I want a stronger market analysis. Can you get a few flutes to the Hong Kong office by the first? We're having a fete for some of our more exclusive clientele. I'd like to gauge their reactions personally.
21:30 S. Eleazar Certainly. I'll have a crate shipped immediately. With an extra decanter for yourself, of course. I'm certain you'll appreciate it.
21:32 R. Carter Keep it. I already have a supply of EVE.
21:32 S. Eleazar Of course sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?
21:32 R. Carter DISCONNECTED
Log End
Marshall, Carter, & Dark, LLP

Memorandum
From Ruprecht Carter Date October 4, 2013
To Simon Eleazar Regarding Citrus Vitae project

Your 'orange juice' went over exceptionally well at the fete and we have already secured orders for 13 litres at the top end of your price estimate. I anticipate that price to only increase once news of this gets around.

Additionally, I was approached by Igor Olenicoff about the possibility of moving our operation to Florida. He pointed out that the citrus industry in Florida is experiencing a bit of a boom at the moment and he made certain to tell me that he already owns several large plantations. I think he anticipates some sort of partnership, though I am not interested in the slightest.

What I am interested in is potentially moving the operation closer to our primary logistics network. That will make it easier and cheaper for us to move the product where it needs to go and we could merely use the operations of a much bigger industry as a façade. There is a fairly significant population of transient field workers available in Florida, so I don't see acquiring more subjects for the EVE engines to be much of a problem.

I want you to revise your original cost analysis to include a move to Florida. Don't worry about including property or operation acquisition, that has been budgeted elsewhere. Be sure to include a line item for the clean up in Guatemala. We don't want competition.

Item File No. B57TS/0R632/58Y94
Marshall, Carter, and Dark, LLP

Tracking Information
B57TS/0R632/58Y94
Owner Date Comments
S. Eleazar 09/13/2013 Initial discovery.
Bank of Guatemala 10/24/2013 Utilized assets within the Bank of Guatemala to seize the property in Monjas, Guatemala.
MCD Property Holding Group 10/25/2013 Property acquired by MCD, LLP subsidiary for a nominal sum.
MCD Property Holding Group 10/30/2013 Property surveyed. Thaumaturgic Engineer B. Alguera assigned to retrofit & transplantation project.
B. Alguera 11/08/2013 Samples from grove in Monjas transported to property holdings in Arcadia, FL. Test on grafting and/or direct agricultural development commencing.
B. Alguera 12/06/2013 Initial progress promising. EVE engine redesign functioning within expected parameters. Direct transplant process successful. Graft specimens incompatible with Florida local species.
Marshall, Carter, & Dark, LLP 01/13/2014 Transplantation project successful. 28 trees successfully shifted to Arcadia. Assets in Monjas liquidated & primary operation in Guatemala closed.
Eleazar Farms, Limited 06/23/2014 Assets shifted to MCD subsidiary. Initial operational phase complete.
Eleazar Farms, Limited 08/7/2014 Graft experimentation with local species showing limited success. Initial problems with species adaptation neutralized. Climate adjustment procedures for transplanted Monjas specimens complete with a loss rate of 6.45%. Within expected loss parameter of 18.21%.
Eleazar Farms, Limited 02/14/2015 First seasonal output at 117% projected output. 2193.75 litres extracted.
Marshall, Carter, & Dark, LLP 03/28/2015 Initial Sales Figures have exceeded expectations. 1,054 units sold at average price of 6,945 USD (5,665 GBP) per unit with 563 buyers. Projected demand exceeds production. Remaining units re-priced at 6,500-8,000 USD (5,300-6,525 GBP).
Eleazar Farms, Limited 04/2/2015 Exploration into utilizing graft experiments to expand production initiated. Thaum. Eng. Alguera to resign, effective immediately. Cites irregularities in experimentation process & instability of the local species post-grafting. Thaum. Eng. Matherson assigned to graft project.
Eleazar Farms, Limited 02/12/2016 Second seasonal output at 97% projected output. 1818.75 litres extracted.
Marshall, Carter, & Dark, LLP 04/15/2016 Second seasonal sales met expectations. 1,785 units sold at average price of 7,255 USD (5,918 GBP) per unit with 611 buyers.
Eleazar Farms, Limited 08/19/2016 T.E. Matherson reports complete success with graft into local species. Projected output for third season expanded to 3140 litres.
Eleazar Farms, Limited 12/01/2016 Graft procedure failure imminent. Spliced trees do not produce fruit despite forced growth procedures. T.E. Matherson unable to provide adequate explanation. Projected output for third season reduced to 1,875 litres
Eleazar Farms, Limited 12/15/2016 Backspread of contamination from splice failure discovered in Monjas trees. Multiple cascade failures in EVE transfer engines. Remaining stock isolated to prevent total colony collapse. Projected output for third season reduced to 603 litres.
Eleazar Farms, Limited 01/02/2017 Isolation procedures inadequate to prevent further spread of containment. Cascade failure discovered in remaining EVE transfer engines. T.E. Matherson's methods have been declared to be at fault and Matherson has been permanently dismissed. S. Eleazar has been recalled, F. Gibbons has been assigned to liquidate subsidiary assets. Projected output for third season reduced to 0 litres.
Marshall, Carter, & Dark, LLP 01/15/2017 Projected sales shortfalls & failure-to-deliver fees deducted from remaining S. Eleazar assets. Project Citrus Vitae terminated.
Log End
Marshall, Carter, & Dark, LLP

Project Termination Notice
Author Ruprecht Carter Date January 15, 2017
Interest Null Identifier Citrus Vitae

The Citrus Vitae project has been declared an unmitigated failure. Despite initial earnings exceeding expectations, the overall profit/loss ratio is barely enough to produce a 7% profit margin. Excessive startup and closure budget shortfalls essentially depleted the initial project accounts and multiple in-kind cash infusions were necessary in order to fund the failed attempts at saving the project.

Despite the Board's reservations at this costly attempt to save the project, Asset Manager (Retired) S. Eleazar convinced the Board to move forward the endeavor by leveraging his own assets as collateral against failure.

Initial efforts seemed to contain the spread of the contagion, though additional spread of the EVE leakage into the surrounding grafted specimens proved to be unpreventable, and the entire project was forced into closure. S. Eleazar assets were able to cover the anticipated shortfalls, though without the infusion of assets, the Citrus Vitae project would have represented a net loss of 16%

This was deemed absolutely unacceptable and S. Eleazar chose to accept early retirement instead of forced dismissal. He wagered everything and lost. We do not need that kind of failure to foresee catastrophic failure in any position of management, so their efforts on behalf of the Board have been permanently sealed.

Eleazar Farms, Limited has been shuttered and the Arcadia grove was destroyed prior to abandonment. The current instability in the citrus market has made resale of the property distinctly unprofitable. Thus the equity in it has been leveraged to acquire liquid assets elsewhere in the financial market, and the property itself will be allowed to fall into foreclosure.

File Closed B57TS/0R632/58Y94
Marshall, Carter, and Dark, LLP


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