ALL SMALL BUSINESSES ARE CRIMINALS ACCORDING TO THE GOVERNMENT!

Get this, our nasty Senators and Congressmen have now activated a LAW that considers all businesses with less than $5 million in revenue and 20 employees or less to be FIRST considered as financial criminals.

LUCKILY PRESIDENT TRUMP STOPPED THIS FARCE!

On March 21, 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that, consistent with the Department of the Treasury’s March 2, 2025, announcement it was issuing an interim final rule that removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act. FinCEN published this interim final rule on March 26, 2025.

In the interim final rule, FinCEN revises the regulatory definition of “reporting company” to mean only those entities that are formed under the law of a foreign country and that have registered to do business in any U.S. State or Tribal jurisdiction by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or similar office (formerly known as “foreign reporting companies”). FinCEN also exempts entities previously known as “domestic reporting companies” from BOI reporting requirements. Thus, through this interim final rule, all entities created in the United States — including those previously known as “domestic reporting companies” — and their beneficial owners will be exempt from the requirement to report BOI to FinCEN.

The law now mandates reporting of the BENEFICIAL OWNERS of ALL companies and businesses operating in the USA FINANCIAL CRIMES ENFORCEMENT NETWORK (FInCEN) or face fines and JAIL!

AS SMALL BUSINESS YOU ARE ALL SUSPECTED CRIMINALS1

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule implementing the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act’s (CTA) beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting provisions. The rule will enhance the ability of FinCEN and other agencies to protect U.S. national security and the U.S. financial system from illicit use and provide essential information to national security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies; state, local, and Tribal officials; and financial institutions to help prevent drug traffickers, fraudsters, corrupt actors such as oligarchs, and proliferators from laundering or hiding money and other assets in the United States.

Illicit actors frequently use corporate structures such as shell and front companies to obfuscate their identities and launder their ill-gotten gains through the United States. Not only do such acts undermine U.S. national security, they also threaten U.S. economic prosperity: shell and front companies can shield beneficial owners’ identities and allow criminals to illegally access and transact in the U.S. economy, while disadvantaging small U.S. businesses who are playing by the rules. This rule will strengthen the integrity of the U.S. financial system by making it harder for illicit actors to use shell companies to launder their money or hide assets.

Recent geopolitical events have reinforced the point that abuse of corporate entities, including shell or front companies, by illicit actors and corrupt officials presents a direct threat to the U.S. national security and the U.S. and international financial systems. For example, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 further underscored that Russian elites, state-owned enterprises, and organized crime, as well as Russian government proxies have attempted to use U.S. and non-U.S. shell companies to evade sanctions imposed on Russia. This rule will enhance U.S national security by making it more difficult for criminals to exploit opaque legal structures to launder money, traffic humans and drugs, and commit serious tax fraud and other crimes that harm the American taxpayer.

At the same time, the rule aims to minimize burdens on small businesses and other reporting companies. Millions of businesses are formed in the United States each year. These businesses play an essential and important economic role. In particular, small businesses are a backbone of the U.S. economy, accounting for a large share of U.S. economic activity and driving U.S. innovation and competitiveness. U.S. small businesses also generate millions of jobs, and in 2021, created jobs at the highest rate on record. It is anticipated that it will cost reporting companies with simple management and ownership structures—which FinCEN expects to be the majority of reporting companies—approximately $85 apiece to prepare and submit an initial BOI report. In comparison, the state formation fee for creating a limited liability company (LLC) can cost between $40 and $500, depending on the state.

Beyond the direct benefits to law enforcement and other authorized users, the collection of BOI will help to shed light on criminals who evade taxes, hide their illicit wealth, and defraud employees and customers and hurt honest U.S. businesses through their misuse of shell companies.

The rule describes who must file a BOI report, what information must be reported, and when a report is due. Specifically, the rule requires reporting companies to file reports with FinCEN that identify two categories of individuals: (1) the beneficial owners of the entity; and (2) the company applicants of the entity.

The final rule reflects FinCEN’s careful consideration of detailed public comments received in response to its December 8, 2021 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the same topic, and extensive interagency consultations. FinCEN received comments from a broad array of individuals and organizations, including Members of Congress, government officials, groups representing small business interests, corporate transparency advocacy groups, the financial industry and trade associations representing its members, law enforcement representatives, and other interested groups and individuals.

Balancing both benefits and burden, the following are the key elements of the BOI reporting rule:

Reporting Companies

The rule identifies two types of reporting companies: domestic and foreign. A domestic reporting company is a corporation, limited liability company (LLC), or any entity created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office under the law of a state or Indian tribe. A foreign reporting company is a corporation, LLC, or other entity formed under the law of a foreign country that is registered to do business in any state or tribal jurisdiction by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or any similar office. Under the rule, and in keeping with the CTA, twenty-three types of entities are exempt from the definition of “reporting company.”
FinCEN expects that these definitions mean that reporting companies will include (subject to the applicability of specific exemptions) limited liability partnerships, limited liability limited partnerships, business trusts, and most limited partnerships, in addition to corporations and LLCs, because such entities are generally created by a filing with a secretary of state or similar office.
Other types of legal entities, including certain trusts, are excluded from the definitions to the extent that they are not created by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or similar office. FinCEN recognizes that in many states the creation of most trusts typically does not involve the filing of such a formation document.

Beneficial Owners

Under the rule, a beneficial owner includes any individual who, directly or indirectly, either (1) exercises substantial control over a reporting company, or (2) owns or controls at least 25 percent of the ownership interests of a reporting company. The rule defines the terms “substantial control” and “ownership interest.” In keeping with the CTA, the rule exempts five types of individuals from the definition of “beneficial owner.”
In defining the contours of who has substantial control, the rule sets forth a range of activities that could constitute substantial control of a reporting company. This list captures anyone who is able to make important decisions on behalf of the entity. FinCEN’s approach is designed to close loopholes that allow corporate structuring that obscures owners or decision-makers. This is crucial to unmasking anonymous shell companies.
The rule provides standards and mechanisms for determining whether an individual owns or controls 25 percent of the ownership interests of a reporting company. Among other things, these standards and mechanisms address how a reporting company should handle a situation in which ownership interests are held in trust.
These definitions have been drafted to account for the various ownership or control structures reporting companies may adopt. However, for reporting companies that have simple organizational structures it should be a straightforward process to identify and report their beneficial owners. FinCEN expects the majority of reporting companies will have simple ownership structures.

Company Applicants

The rule defines a company applicant to be only two persons:
1. the individual who directly files the document that creates the entity, or in the case of a foreign reporting company, the document that first registers the entity to do business in the United States.
2. the individual who is primarily responsible for directing or controlling the filing of the relevant document by another.
The rule, however, does not require reporting companies existing or registered at the time of the effective date of the rule to identify and report on their company applicants. In addition, reporting companies formed or registered after the effective date of the rule also do not need to update company applicant information.

Beneficial Ownership Information Reports

When filing BOI reports with FinCEN, the rule requires a reporting company to identify itself and report four pieces of information about each of its beneficial owners: name, birthdate, address, and a unique identifying number and issuing jurisdiction from an acceptable identification document (and the image of such document). Additionally, the rule requires that reporting companies created after January 1, 2024, provide the four pieces of information and document image for company applicants.
If an individual provides their four pieces of information to FinCEN directly, the individual may obtain a “FinCEN identifier,” which can then be provided to FinCEN on a BOI report in lieu of the required information about the individual.

Timing

The effective date for the rule is January 1, 2024.
Reporting companies created or registered before January 1, 2024 will have one year (until January 1, 2025) to file their initial reports, while reporting companies created or registered after January 1, 2024, will have 30 days after receiving notice of their creation or registration to file their initial reports.
Reporting companies have 30 days to report changes to the information in their previously filed reports and must correct inaccurate information in previously filed reports within 30 days of when the reporting company becomes aware or has reason to know of the inaccuracy of information in earlier reports.

Next Steps

The BOI reporting rule is one of three rulemakings planned to implement the CTA. FinCEN will engage in additional rulemakings to (1) establish rules for who may access BOI, for what purposes, and what safeguards will be required to ensure that the information is secured and protected; and (2) revise FinCEN’s customer due diligence rule following the promulgation of the BOI reporting final rule.
In addition, FinCEN continues to develop the infrastructure to administer these requirements in accordance with the strict security and confidentiality requirements of the CTA, including the information technology system that will be used to store beneficial ownership information: the Beneficial Ownership Secure System (BOSS).
Consistent with its obligations under the Paperwork Reduction Act, FinCEN will publish in the Federal Register for public comment the reporting forms that persons will use to comply with their obligations under the BOI reporting rule. FinCEN will publish these forms well in advance of the effective date of the BOI reporting rule.
FinCEN will develop compliance and guidance documents to assist reporting companies in complying with this rule. Some of these materials will be aimed directly at, and made available to, reporting companies themselves. FinCEN will issue a Small Entity Compliance Guide, pursuant to section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, in order to inform small entities about their responsibilities under the rule. Other materials will be aimed at a wide range of stakeholders that are likely to receive questions about the rule, such as secretaries of state and similar offices. FinCEN also intends to conduct extensive outreach to all stakeholders, including industry associations as well as secretaries of state and similar offices to ensure the effective implementation of the rule.
THIS RULE HAS BEEN STAYED FOR NOW:

jansen@sterlingcooper.us sent you this article.

Comment:

Benficial owmersip rul

Monday, January 13, 2025

The law aims to curtail the use of anonymous shells and track illicit money.

Ownership-Reporting Law’s Return Sought

Supreme Court is asked to stay an injunction pausing its implementation

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the national injunction issued by a lower court that paused the implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act, a law requiring companies to disclose their true ownership.

The Justice Department, on behalf of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, in an application filed on New Year’s Eve asked the Supreme Court to stay the injunction issued by a Texas district judge in early December.

The attorneys representing FinCEN said the government is likely to succeed in defending the constitutionality of the law and that the district court’s injunction was “vastly overbroad,” according to the filing.

The lawyers said the Supreme Court, at a minimum, should narrow the injunction to the plaintiffs in the case.

THE ULTRA WEALTHY IN THE WORLD SURGED IN 2025!

Ranks of Ultrawealthy Surged in ’25

Number of those worth more than $30 million jumped by 14.4% last year

The ranks of the ultrawealthy hit a high in 2025 as the AI trade lifted global markets, according to a new report by wealth-intelligence firm Altrata.

The number of ultrawealthy individuals—those Altrata defines as having a net worth of more than $30 million— jumped by 14.4% last year to 556,850 people worldwide by the end of 2025. That’s the fastest pace of growth since 2017.

“What we’ve been seeing in the past decade is, on the whole, it’s been going up over time and it’s been growing quickly,” said Altrata Senior Director Maya Imberg, referring to the number of ultrawealthy people.

Lower inflation, resilient corporate earnings and enthusiasm for AI investment also bolstered the number of the ultrawealthy individuals and the value of their holdings in 2025.

One of the fastest-growing subgroups of the ultrawealthy in recent years has been centimillionaires, or those worth more than $100 million, mainly from founding or investing in rapidly-growing technology companies, according to Altrata. That echoes findings from other research showing that the world is get–ting wealthier, but with riches disproportionately accruing to the wealthiest.

One such study, the World Inequality Report 2026, found that the wealth of the richest b i l l i o n a i re s from 1995 to 2025 had grown at about 8.5% a year compared with about 3.4% a year for the bottom half of the global population.

The researchers said that by their count, around 60,000 people— the top 0.001% wealthiest in the world—are each worth at least $254 million.

“The population that can fit in a football stadium own three times more wealth than half of humanity combined,” said Ricardo Gómez-Carrera, lead author of the report, when it was released, referring to the w e a l t h i e s t 0.001% of the population. The Altrata report showed that those worth more than $30 million made up a little over 1% of the millionaire population—defined as those worth $1 million or more—but held 32% of that group’s wealth. Zooming out, the ultrawealthy made up 0.01% of the global adult population but held 11% of all private wealth held by individuals. Imberg said the Altrata numbers tell a story about the outsize returns possible from financial wealth, including from investments, from successful entrepreneurship and from ongoing intergenerational wealth transfers.

The U.S. remained home to more of the ultrawealthy than the rest of the top 10 countries combined, with 37% of the population. China and Germany came in second and third, respectively, with about 10% and 5%.

The New York metropolitan area continued to have the largest number of ultrawealthy residents, followed by the metropolitan areas of Hong Kong, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Portion of the ultrawealthy in the U.S. last year, the most of any country.

SPACEX …WHERE FOOLS PUT THEIR MONEY????

SPACEX: The Seven-Headed Hydra at the End of Finance

What has SpaceX become?

By Charlie Warzel

SpaceX had its initial public offering last week. Now Elon Musk is a trillionaire on paper. But what is SpaceX? On one level, of course, SpaceX is a company that builds rockets and spacecraft and launches them into space. (Occasionally the rockets explode.) It is also the company that birthed Starlink, a satellite-internet business that generated more than $11 billion in revenue last year.

But the company can be defined in many ways. SpaceX is a financial instrument for Musk. Before the IPO, SpaceX acquired xAI, Musk’s artificial-intelligence company, which itself acquired X, the social-media site, back in 2025.

The maneuver allowed SpaceX to claim that it believed it had “the largest actionable total addressable market in human history”: $28.5 trillion, to be precise. $26.5 trillion of that, according to the filing, would come from AI infrastructure and applications, meaning not from SpaceX’s core business of aerospace engineering and satellites.

Maybe most important, SpaceX is a story, even a meme. Musk is arguably a better salesman than an inventor, and what he began selling early on was a techno-utopian dream—of himself as a Tony Stark–style genius, of an environment-saving EV revolution, of securing a future for humanity by getting us all to Mars. He intuitively understands the warped dynamics of the attention economy. Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian, the authors of the book Muskism, describe his strategy on social media as “trolling is infrastructure”: “Every joke, every poll is a stress test of responsiveness,” they argue. “Can he still move markets with a post?” Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency based on a 13-year-old meme of a shiba inu, is the shining example of Musk’s ability to lavish attention on something—in this case, a fake asset whose entire joke was that it was worthless—and make it worth more to others as a result.

SpaceX is obviously not Dogecoin. Its rocket business is a genuine success story, as is Starlink. But the company’s appeal, particularly in the face of setbacks, is also reliant on a combination of story and Musk’s own image in ways that are not necessarily connected to reality.

Musk has frequently set unrealistic timelines for projects, including putting a spacecraft on Mars by 2018. Last year, SpaceX’s flagship rocket underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” on three test flights (it blew up). But SpaceX’s IPO filing was more oriented around its future ambitions and assumed triumphs, such as its desire to mine asteroids, promote space tourism, and “extend the light of consciousness to the stars.” An adviser to the deal told the Financial Times last month: “From a strict corporate finance perspective, the valuation makes no sense. But Elon is great at getting people to dream.”

What do you get when you combine SpaceX the business with the financial instrument and the meme? An unfathomable amount of money, it seems. Last week SpaceX opened trading at a market capitalization of $1.7 trillion. The scale of Musk’s own net worth is now almost impossible to comprehend, such that, on Monday, SpaceX’s stock rallied, and Musk’s one-day gain was more than the net worth of Bill Gates, once the richest person in the world. In short order, SpaceX has become the sixth-most valuable public company despite the fact that it posted a net loss of $4.94 billion last year on $18.7 billion in revenue.

On Tuesday, SpaceX announced it is using some of that value to purchase Cursor, the AI-coding start-up, for $60 billion, all in stock. In reaction to the news, Bill Ackman, the hedge-fund manager (and inveterate poster), wrote on X: “One of the things that makes SpaceX so valuable is how valuable it is.” Ackman’s reasoning rings true in a financial sense: According to the deal, the price that SpaceX will pay for Cursor will be set by its own share price in the seven trading days before closing, which in effect will mean that the more valuable SpaceX is, the less Cursor will cost it. But Ackman’s koan is also correct in a more absurdist way. It highlights the irrationality of the modern stock market and reflects a lesson of the past decade: If a person or group of people is able to marshal enough genuine attention toward an idea—no matter how ridiculous it might seem—they can usually bend reality toward their preferred outcome.

ther than perhaps Donald Trump, it’s difficult to argue anyone has been more successful at this than Musk. Musk excels not because he can’t stop winning, but because he understands that, in the financialized logic of our age, winning is less important than the perception that you will win. Speculation beats fundamentals.

One way to look at Musk’s personal brand is as somebody who has borrowed obsessively against his own reputation, each loan used to invest in and service the debt of the last, until it becomes impossible to follow the money. One of the things that makes Elon Musk so valuable is how valuable he is.

With SpaceX’s IPO, you could argue that Musk has either won or broken capitalism. His wealth, in our current system, makes him a chaos agent with no real comparison. He is virtually impervious to fines. His money, should he wish to spend it, has the potential to drastically influence the outcome of elections.

That leverage could be used to benefit Musk’s businesses, securing further contracts with the government and entrenching him deeper into the infrastructure of everyone’s lives. This power isn’t theoretical; Musk’s dominance in satellite connectivity has already made him geopolitically relevant in places including Ukraine and Iran.

SpaceX and Musk are, of course, not inevitable. Analysts are predicting volatility for the stock as lockup periods end and people sell shares. The AI bubble could pop. Musk could mismanage the company as he did with X, or he could become so radioactive that institutions stop associating with him.

But you can also imagine the SpaceX flywheel spinning out of control, perpetuating itself as Musk and SpaceX become fully untethered from reality. On X, Will Manidis, a start-up founder and investor, argued recently that, given the dynamics of SpaceX’s stock, it could continue to purchase some of the internet’s foundational software companies at a cost of basically nothing. Neither Musk nor SpaceX responded to a request for comment on SpaceX’s direction, and such tweets, at this moment, are little more than fan fiction.

But they represent the absurdity of Musk’s current position in the modern economy. Musk has long fantasized about creating a massive, vertically integrated constellation of services—from banking to social networking—he once dubbed “the everything app.” So far, he’s failed in that quest (the phrase trust Elon Musk with your routing number would still strike fear in the hearts of most people). But it’s not difficult to see Musk using his cheap and abundant money to build toward the Everything Holding Company.

Is any of this possible? Would it even be legal? That’s unclear. But as Bloomberg’s Matt Levine once noted, it seems like “Elon Musk’s recent career is a long experiment to prove that, if you are successful enough, the regular laws do not apply to you.”

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi memorably described Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

Goldman Sachs, he wrote, “positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble,” enabled by “a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules.”

Revisiting that article in the age of Musk the trillionaire feels almost quaint. Musk and SpaceX have a true nose for money, including sniffing out government infusions and contracts. The aerospace company has figured out how to position itself firmly in the middle of the speculative hype of the AI cycle, and numerous financial organizations have amended rules designed to protect retail investors.

The vampiric Goldman Sachs that Taibbi describes is an institution, a system that became too big to fail, and thus ungovernable. Musk is a person, not a system or institution, but he owns more than 40 percent of SpaceX and controls more than 80 percent of its voting shares. According to Reuters, in the lead-up to SpaceX’s IPO Musk was dictating terms to Goldman Sachs and other banks.

If Goldman Sachs is the vampire squid, what does that make SpaceX and Musk?

The natural world offers few good comparisons. What we’re seeing in terms of hype, valuation, and fortune is without precedent, even when stacked up against the wealth concentration of the Gilded Age.

SpaceX and Musk are better served by a mythological comparison, in part because the entire enterprise is built on a story told over and over until it transcends reality. SpaceX is a rocket company, a complex financial instrument, a meme, a monument to a broken financial system.

It is the seven-headed Hydra at the end of finance, the teleological endpoint of money. It is a myth kept alive by blind faith, devotion, and even aggression, which makes it dangerous whether you believe in it or not.

TOM CRUISE HAS AN AIRPLANE COLLECTION!

What Planes Does Tom Cruise Own?

Credit: Photo: Austin Deppe/Shuttertock

Tom Cruise is a licensed pilot with qualifications as a multi-engine instrument-rated pilot and helicopter flying skills.
Cruise owns a collection of airplanes, including a vintage P-51 Mustang fighter from World War II and a Gulfstream IV G4 jet.
There may be additional aircraft in Cruise’s fleet, such as a HondaJet and a Bombardier Challenger 300 jet, according to a travel expert.

It wasn’t just a show for ‘Top Gun.’ Tom Cruise is one of the few actors who genuinely love aviation. He has been a licensed pilot since 1994 and is able to fly several types of aircraft. However, it doesn’t stop with a license. The famous Hollywood actor also has a collection of airplanes varying from vintage fighters to business jets.

What kind of license does Cruise have?

In various discussions, Tom Cruise has revealed that his affinity for aviation was crucial to his initial attraction to the original ‘Top Gun.’ He shared that he holds qualifications as a multi-engine instrument-rated pilot and has continued to enhance his skill set throughout his life. Notably, he acquired helicopter flying skills for the remarkable stunts seen in the 2018 film ‘Mission Impossible: Fallout.’

Plane collection

North American P-51 Mustang fighter

During a segment on The Late Late Show, Cruise took host James Corden for a ride in his own vintage P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Tom Cruise acquired this World War II fighter in 2001, which was initially built in 1946.

The P-51 Mustang was an American long-range fighter bomber that served alongside other conflicts during World War II and the Korean War. It was developed by North American Aviation and was retired in 1984. Nevertheless, even today, the fighter is utilized for air racing by civilian pilots. After being donated to an Illinois museum, the plane underwent restoration in 1997.

Get the latest aviation news straight to your inbox: Sign up for our newsletters today.

Making his recent performance in ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ Tom Cruise takes to the skies in the P-51 Mustang fighter. What adds intrigue to this is the revelation that he wasn’t just portraying the pilot on screen – he was actually at the controls of his very own P-51 Mustang fighter.

Gulfstream IV G4 jet

With an estimated price tag of $20 million, this jet boasts the capability to accommodate as many as 19 passengers. Notably, it reportedly comes furnished with luxuries, including a jacuzzi and a dedicated movie-screening room, according to Business Insider.

The Gulfstream G4 jet landing during the evening — Photo: Anton Volynets/Shutterstock

The Gulfstream IV G4 is a long-range executive jet designed and built by Gulfstream, a General Dynamics company based in Savannah, Georgia, United States, from 1985 until 2018. Its production spanned from 1985 to 2018, resulting in over 900 G4 units taking to the skies. This jet can cover distances of up to 7,100 kilometers and achieve a top speed of 850 kilometers per hour.

Is there more?

Whether the actor has more aircraft in its fleet has been under speculation as it was never officially confirmed. But according to a Business Insider report, in addition to the vintage fighter jet and the Gulfstream IV G4, Jack Sweeney, who is famous for reporting the travel habits of numerous celebrities, including Elon Musk, said he has been able to identify Cruise’s HondaJet and a Bombardier Challenger 300 jet.

FIVE JOBS THAT ARE STRESSFUL AND NOT WORTH IT INCLUDING ONE FOR $9 MILLION ANNUAL COMPENSATION!

Despite the difficult job market, many dissatisfied Americans are seeking new roles.

Some 69 percent of workers cite higher pay and benefits as their reason for looking for a better position, according to a March survey from polling firm Gallup. However, a bigger paycheck doesn’t always mean a better job.

“What I’m noticing now, especially since the pandemic and all the layoffs we have recently had, is that people are starting to reassess what is truly successful,” Trevor Houston, CEO at ClearPath Wealth Strategies, told The Independent in an email. “More people are asking, ‘What is this all costing me?’ Not just financially, but personally, too, because after all, your career should serve your life, not replace it.”

The Independent asked career and industry experts about high-paying careers – those at least 50 percent higher than the $64,000 national median salary – where the costs significantly outweigh the perks.

Senior corporate leader

Senior corporate leaders – such as senior vice presidents – get the satisfaction of making major company decisions and earning a median salary of $105,350, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite the appeal, many senior leaders leave their coveted roles since the paycheck and status no longer seem worth the high cost to themselves and their families, Houston said.

“Many of them feel worn down by the never-ending demands and the pressure to always be on,” he said. “They feel like they’re missing out on family, while their mental, physical, and relational health suffer. Some feel like they’ve sold out their identity for the sake of their paycheck.”

Even when senior leaders realize their responsibilities are hurting their quality of life, the pay can become a trap – other roles with less pressure may have less pay, too.

“I call this the golden handcuff effect, where you have to stay even though you know it’s costing you because of the lifestyle you’ve built [around the salary],” Houston said.

A senior corporate leader’s salary doesn’t always account for how sustainable the job’s demands are, Houston said. Ultimately, the pay may not seem worth it if keeping the job means damaging health or relationships.

Commercial trucker

Commercial trucking pays up to $100,000 per year and doesn’t require a degree, making it an attractive high-paying position for those without a degree, said Andrew Brown, CEO of Immediate Movers and Storage. But many underestimate the costs and risks of long-distance driving.

“Long-term sustainability in commercial trucking is challenged by a combination of physical stress, mental burnout, and time away from family,” Brown told The Independent in an email. ”The average driver sits for 10 to 14 hours without moving, causing the body to ultimately break down in ways that usually do not appear at first.”

Truck drivers also face physical risks on the road. The job is part of the most dangerous occupation in the country based on fatalities – transportation, according to a February report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

‘Families pay a price for a driver’s time away from home that is not factored into the hourly wage,’ one expert said. (Getty Images)

Typically, commercial trucking doesn’t allow for a life that balances professional and personal needs. That can impact the driver’s relationships and sense of meaning, Brown said.

“A driver can leave home for an extended period, and during that time, holidays or weekends have little or no meaning compared to delivering a load,” he said. “As a result, families pay a price for a driver’s time away from home that is not factored into the hourly wage.”

Big law partner

Some partners at big law firms bring in as much as $9.3 million a year, depending on the firm, according to a 2026 report from legal recruitment and placement firm BCG Attorney Research.

But the prestige and pay come at the cost of a frenetic work environment, said Loren Margolis, an executive coach and Stony Brook University faculty member.

“The hours are thankless and brutal because you must make your ‘billable hours,’ which is doing client-facing work or client-oriented work on legal matters that move your client’s needs forward,” Margolis told The Independent in an email. “You have a threshold that you must meet in order to maintain your partner title.”

An on-call schedule that destroys work-life balance is a reality for these attorneys. This means working nights, weekends, and even vacations, Margolis said. Unsurprisingly, partners may find the prestige underwhelming, given the toll on their personal lives.

“The external rewards quickly fade as a source of satisfaction because all you have is your work life, not a home life or anything else,” Margolis said.

Other workplace factors create an environment that can lead to job dissatisfaction, too.

“Firm politics can be brutal, where others elbow you out of clients, deals and leave you out of the room during important meetings so they can get ahead,” Margolis said.

Management consultant

Management consulting -giving businesses advice on how to improve efficiency – offers strong job prospects and a median salary of $101,190, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the career is a tough one, given shaky job security and high competition, said Joel Marotti, senior managing partner at resume writing firm Vertical Media Solutions.

Business consultants can earn as much as $285,000 at big firms, but turnover rates and AI’s influence make openings risky for those looking for a long-term role at a company (Getty Images for Community Catal)

An employee with a master’s in business administration working for a major strategy firm, such as BCG or McKinsey, might start at $260,000 to $285,000, according to Marotti.

But many don’t stay for more than two to four years, raising questions about longevity and future career plans.

“At one of the top firms, 43 percent of the workforce has been there for less than two years. 77 percent have been there for five years or less,” Marotti told The Independent in an email.

Job security depends on earning frequent promotions and doing what’s necessary to compete, including traveling often and working 60 to 70 hours per week, Marotti said. AI is also playing a role.

“The firms themselves have cut thousands of jobs over the last couple of years as sort of client demand has shifted and AI has really started to carve out a lot of the analysis work that these junior consultants used to do,” Marotti said.

Investment banker

Investment banking offers an average salary of $127,933, according to career site Indeed.com data. Yet, it often requires employees to endure extreme pressure and long hours, according to Indeed.

“The core issue in [investment banking] is that it’s optimized for big deals and client service, not for human development or flourishing,” Margolis said. “The money is genuinely extraordinary – but for many people, the life it requires is extremely hard.”

Long advancement timelines to a high-paid managing director role also mean potentially spending many years in a lower-paying analyst role with less autonomy or direct client work, according to Margolis.

“Making [managing director] takes at least 10 years of making it in a ruthless, ‘up-or-out’ culture where the majority of analysts and associates burn out or don’t make it.”

Investment bankers at firms like JP Morgan Chase can earn good money but face burnout and long paths to promotion (Reuters)

Additionally, pay volatility makes the high salary less certain than many believe, Margolis said.

“It’s highly dependent on the market,” she said. “If you don’t bring in a big deal as a [managing director], you can have a very low-paying year.”

Roles at private equity firms offer the highest payoff, though getting there may require toughing it out for “a decade or two,” she said.

CALIFORNIA’S PROPOSED WEALTH TAX IS MAKING SOME LEAVE ALTOGETHER; WHY LIVE IS A STATE THAT WANTS TO STEL YOUR WEALTH AND GIVE IT TO ILLEGAL ALIENS OTHERS PLAN STRATEGIES TO AVOID IT

Rich Californians Are Finding Creative Ways to Get Ahead of the Billionaire Tax© Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ; iStock

Veteran tax-and-estate adviser Andrew Katzenstein was in his Los Angeles home earlier this year when he got a call from the family office of a longtime client about the proposal to impose a one-time, 5% tax on the net worth of California billionaires. His client, a real-estate investor with family in the state, was loath to pull up his roots and wanted Katzenstein to work with his team to figure out its implications for him.

The team of six set to work valuing the investor’s private company and tallying his net worth. His client plans to pay the tax if it is implemented and he’s subject to it, Katzenstein said. In the meantime, the investor has been looking at strategies that are as “tax-efficient” as possible, like speeding up his and his wife’s charitable-giving plans.

With help from their phalanx of tax and trust-and-estate advisers, California’s ultrawealthy are getting creative in the face of the proposed billionaire tax. If it becomes law, it would tax the net worth of billionaires who resided in California as of Jan. 1 this year, based on their net worth at the end of the year.

The state has already seen a few high-profile departures. Other billionaires plan to stay put. Some are looking to lower their net worth tally to slash their potential tax bill under the proposal, or trying to escape from the wealth tax’s net entirely. Others simply want to know where they stand so they can begin preparing, if necessary.

“People take steps to take advantage of the tax law before it changes all the time. This is just another example of that,” said Katzenstein, a partner at accounting firm HCVT who is advising multiple clients on the proposed tax.

It is a high-stakes question. The 5% tax would kick in at a net worth of $1.1 billion and higher, while lower tax rates would phase in at wealth levels ranging from just over $1 billion to just under $1.1 billion.

Katzenstein’s client has given away hundreds of millions of dollars to charity with his wife over the years. The investor said that, given the choice, he would rather their money go to charities that he and his wife know do good work than to California’s government, which he doesn’t trust to use the funds effectively.

He isn’t alone. An early employee of an artificial-intelligence company who has shares that vest to the tune of $300 million this year is worried that the payout will push him into wealth-tax territory, said Jon Feldhammer, a former IRS trial attorney who now is managing partner of Baker Botts’s San Francisco office. He and his client are trying to negotiate with the company so the unvested shares can be donated to charity.

A founder of a private company is considering the delay of a funding round to put off a higher valuation for his equity stake in his company, Katzenstein said. The delay could extend until 2027, but the founder could proceed with the raise earlier if the tax is voted down.

Tax-and-estate advisers are also helping clients restructure their balance sheets to make them more tax-efficient. They are advising on the pros and cons of transferring real estate out of limited liability companies into clients’ own names or into revocable trusts. Real estate “held directly” by a taxpayer or a revocable trust isn’t included in net worth under the proposed tax because it already is subject to property taxes. Advisers are also presenting the option to clients of splurging on a vacation home that they have had in their sights and owning it outright or placing it into a revocable trust.

Another strategy under discussion: buying expensive assets like art or yachts located outside the state and keeping them out of California, perhaps near or in an out-of-state vacation home. (The Act excludes from net worth “tangible personal property located outside California” if it has been outside the state for at least 270 days this year, assuming it hasn’t been temporarily moved “with a substantial purpose” of tax avoidance.)

An approach that likely wouldn’t affect a person’s net-worth tally but could lower a tax bill, advisers said, is taking money from other investments and putting them into Treasurys, as federal law doesn’t allow states to tax Treasurys.

But the available suite of potential workarounds is “relatively narrow” and likely to be of most use to the slice of the ultrawealthy near the threshold at which the tax starts taking effect, said Mike Harman, a wealth adviser at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Irvine, Calif. He and other advisers caution that any moves could trigger other, cascading tax implications.

Whether any of the strategies ultimately works will depend on the specific facts in play, said David Gamage, a professor at the University of Missouri law school who helped draft the proposed tax.

“I like to tell my students this maxim of tax-planning: Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered,” Gamage said. “You can often get away with some amount of restructuring affairs, but if you go too far and get too greedy, you can get in trouble.”

The healthcare union behind the proposed wealth tax has estimated it could raise $100 billion in revenue to offset cuts to healthcare in President Trump’s signature tax-and-spending law last year. Critics have said the tax threatens innovation and the appeal of what is already one of the highest-tax states for the wealthy.

Debru Carthan, a radiologic technician and executive with the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, said in a statement, “It’s offensive that when so many people are struggling to afford gas, groceries and life’s necessities, there’s a group of billionaires who are fixated on avoiding paying their fair share.”

Advisers said one group that may have fewer planning options is Silicon Valley founders who are billionaires on paper but have relatively little in the way of liquid net worth. That’s partly because those entrepreneurs made the money themselves, Feldhammer said.

According to Feldhammer’s reading—which some take issue with—the Act taxes net worth when a wealth creator has transferred assets to trusts himself or herself. But those provisions don’t necessarily tax wealth transferred to trusts by others—say, parents or grandparents, said Feldhammer. “This targets self-made entrepreneurs more than multigenerational wealth,” he said of the proposed tax. “You have more options if you’re not the one who contributed assets to the trust.”

A complication: Advisers say the proposal leaves room for interpretation, making possible challenges from California’s Franchise Tax Board in the form of audits or assessments, which could, in turn, kick off legal battles. (The board is expected to issue regulations dispelling at least some of the ambiguity if the wealth tax takes effect.)

The proposal also contains an anti-avoidance rule, meaning measures taken that reduce a tax bill need to have “economic substance,” or a material reason for being made other than avoiding taxes.

Advisers said their clients typically have significant alternative reasons to make the changes they are contemplating. Clients worried about geopolitical instability or inflation are looking to shift a portion of their wealth into safe-haven assets like Treasurys, Katzenstein said.

Jennifer Kowal, a senior income-tax strategist at San Francisco-based IEQ Capital, said giving to charity can quickly and effectively lower a client’s balance sheet. The proposal says a charitable pledge won’t reduce net worth if it was made after Oct. 15, 2025; Kowal draws a distinction between a pledge versus a gift that actually is made.

She also thinks charitable gifts generally comply with the anti-avoidance provision. “I can’t imagine the state of California saying, we’re going to trigger the anti-abuse rule because you made a large charitable donation” given that donors have many nontax reasons to give, she said, loosely referring to the anti-avoidance rule.

Similarly, Kowal said moving real estate out of limited liability companies can remove the annual financial and administrative costs that come with maintaining LLCs.

Some of her clients have joked about divorcing, as the assets of married couples count toward an individual’s net worth.

UFC WHITE HOUSE OCTAGON FIGHT RING GIRLS EXPLAINED…

Every Ring Girl’s Costume For UFC Freedom 250, On A Scale Of Sexy Martha Washington To 10

By: Elle Purnell

June 13, 2026

4 min read

Denise Richards in "Drop Dead Gorgeous" wearing a Mount Rushmore headdress

I’ve rated all the ring girls’ costumes for Sunday’s fight, in a feat of journalism so bold Scott Pelley might mistake it for combat.

The aesthetics of the fight have been the subject of left-wing ire, with the loudest objections coming from people like Hillary Clinton, who knows a thing or two about improprieties on White House grounds. But nothing offended leftists more than the outfits UFC revealed for the “ring girls,” the women who walk around the octagon with signs announcing each successive match. Because U.S. flag code prohibits wearing an actual American flag like a beach towel, media concluded, the star-spangled getups must be against the law.

UFC dropped the outfits the Octagon Girls will be wearing at the White House this weekend 🇺🇸

— Turning Point Action (@TPAction) June 10, 2026

Created by costume designer Marina Toybina, the outfits feature everything from typical cheerleader hot pants to dramatic trains. The best ones are reminiscent of the classic American tradition of high school drill teams, which is to say, they’re fabulous.

In a feat of journalism so bold Scott Pelley might confuse it with combat, I’ve rated all 10 styles, from worst to Sexy Martha Washington to best.

2/10

These are the least interesting of the set. What’s going on with the neckline of the one on the right, and why aren’t they the same? The bustier cut is very juniors’ department, and the velvet is an odd choice for a 90-degree June day.

Image Credit@ufc and @maximmag / Instagram

Marie Antoinette/10

There’s a lot going on here. The embroidery, train, and corset feel like a Sexy Martha Washington Halloween costume, but maybe that’s what they were going for?

5/10 and Rodeo Queen/10

The costume on the left looks like a 1950s cigarette girl, which could have worked really, really well. The silhouette is great, but the white contrast trim makes the costume look cheap. This also would have been a good opportunity to depart from the repetitive corset-style bodices.

The girl on the right looks great, if slightly like she needs a cowboy hat to complete her ensemble. The blending of patterns and textures is exactly right, as is the draped sash. But it looks like she got her earrings from Claire’s, and she’s going to spend her whole night tugging down her hemline. Some tall white boots would have helped balance out the proportions.

Lynda Carter/10

These feel very retro and Wonder Woman-inspired, down to the silver cuff bracelets. Skimpy, but more sorority girl than statutory indecent exposure, which is more than can be said for the trans twerker Biden welcomed on the South Lawn.

The bright red satin is more appropriate for early summer than the dark velvet version a few entries above, and the belts are a natural nod to the occasion. Not sure why the silver trim on the blue corset top doesn’t match the red one, but I wish it did.

7.2/10

Similar to the other long-skirted one but more “Columbia Pictures” than colonial hottie. The gold embroidery on the blue is gorgeous, and something about it reminds me of those World War I posters where a woman representing “Victory” is decked out in stars and stripes. It’s over the top, but in the right way. But the red and white stripes visually overpower the rest of the outfit a bit — replacing the stripes with a solid red underskirt would have softened it. Extra 0.2 points for the shoulder sash.

9.9/10

This looks comfortable, fun, and flattering. Definitely giving off “cheerleader,” which is appropriate for an iconic American sporting event. If the New England Patriots decided to adopt something like this for their cheer team, I wouldn’t blame them.

The sparkly boots are an upgrade from the velvet ones, but this outfit loses 0.1 point because, again, white boots would have looked better!

Miss America/10

She’s beauty, she’s grace. There’s not too much going on here, and the proportions are flattering. The shoulder sash is fun and coordinates with the skirt without distracting from it. It’s somewhere between “U.S. Olympic figure skating costume” and “Andrews Sisters tribute show,” which is basically a perfect place for a Flag Day UFC ring girl costume to end up.

A missed opportunity with all of these costumes, though, is headwear. Even if they didn’t want to go full Becky Ann Leeman in Drop Dead Gorgeous, a tiara headband like this would have completed the look nicely.

SULTAN OF BRUNEI OWNS THE WORLD’S LARGEST HOME? DOES HE REALLY NED THAT MUCH SPACE?

The Sultan of Brunei owns a vast collection of cars, but he’s also the owner of the largest residential palace in the world.

It’s called Istana Nurul Iman and it cost $1.4 billion to build… in 1984.

For reference, that’s equivalent to around $4.6 billion in today’s money.

But what’s truly impressive is the number of bathrooms.

The Sultan of Brunei is a real estate mogul

Obviously, most heads of state own public properties at home and private estates abroad, but the Sultan takes this to the next level.

Through the Brunei Investment Agency, the Sultan owns the Dorchester Hotel in London, the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles County, Le Meurice in Paris, Hotel Eden in Rome, and a few more.

It’s a nice portfolio, and the value is spectacular, although the real estate market in Europe isn’t the same as it is in the US, which means it goes up but it can also go down.

Benutzer Chtrede/Wikipedia Commons

Still, to a man worth billions of dollars, that probably doesn’t matter much.

And if all else fails, he can always go back to the majestic palace he owns back home.

The Sultan’s place is is a big as some villages and towns in Europe

In his homeland, he owns (among other things) a $1.4 billion grand palace with 1,788 rooms and 257 bathrooms.

All in all, the estate spans over 2.1 million square feet – roughly the same as the Old Town in Monaco.

Located on a riverside sprawl, the palace is situated on the banks of the Brunei River, a stone’s throw from the country’s capital Bandar Seri Begawan.

The Guinness World Records actually states the location as the largest residential palace in the world.

The interior is adorned with gold-woven carpet, and some of the fixtures feature actual diamonds.

On top of that, the Sultan had silk imported from China, and marble imported from Italy.

Benutzer Chtrede/Wikipedia Commons

In addition to the 257 bathrooms, the palace also includes a banquet hall with enough capacity for over 5,000 guests, a mosque that can hold up to 1,500 guests, 110 garages for the Sultan’s immense car collection, an air conditioned stable for the Sultan’s 200 polo horses, and five swimming pools.

The icing on the cake? It apparently includes 44 stairwells and 18 elevators.

CHINESE ELECTRIC CARS ARE POPULAR ALL OVER THE WORLD, EXCEPT IN CHINA!!!!

A Xiaomi SU7 Max car is displayed at the entrance to the Xiaomi EV Factory in Beijing.© greg baker/Afp/Getty Images

The world is applauding the latest Chinese vehicles and sales are surging almost everywhere the cars are available. The one exception: China itself.

New-car sales in China, the world’s largest new-vehicle market, fell 22% in May compared with the same month a year earlier to around 1.5 million vehicles. That was the eighth straight month of year-over-year declines, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Year-to-date car sales are running nearly 20% below last year, hitting profits at the country’s leading carmakers.

Monthly vehicle sales in China

The troubles at home are pushing Chinese carmakers—including foreign brands that manufacture there—into an even more aggressive expansion overseas. The Chinese auto industry shipped 784,000 cars abroad in May, according to the association, 75% more than in the same month last year.

In January, Beijing halved a tax exemption for plug-in vehicles and reduced subsidies when people trade in an old vehicle for an electric vehicle, hitting EV sales. Then, in March, the Iran war led to rising gasoline prices, hurting sales of traditionally powered cars as well.

Many consumers were already hesitant about big-ticket purchases in an economy hit by deflation and high youth unemployment. Retail sales in China grew just 0.2% in April, the slowest in more than three years.

“We need to do something to really rebuild consumer confidence,” said Stella Li, executive vice president at BYD, China’s largest carmaker.

For the first quarter, many Chinese automakers reported their worst results in years. BYD’s net profit roughly halved to the equivalent of $590 million, its lowest since mid-2022. Smaller players, such as EV maker XPeng, are suffering losses in a market crowded with dozens of competitors and hundreds of models.

Quarterly net income

BYD has sought to revive business with technology announcements such as five-minute flash charging, long battery warranties and pledges to cover the cost of any accidents caused by its “God’s Eye” driver-assistance system.

The focus on innovation marks a change from the price cuts that drove BYD’s spectacular growth in earlier years. The Chinese government last year clamped down on what it saw as excessive competition in the EV industry, fearful that a vicious price war was hurting suppliers and contributing to the deflationary mood.

With its unusual automated-driving promise, BYD wants to “put money on the table, give consumers confidence,” said Li. “I’m more focused on quality than quantity.”

As the local market struggles, Chinese carmakers are accelerating their export push. BYD founder Wang Chuanfu said at the company’s annual general meeting Tuesday that it planned to be the world’s largest automaker within five years, according to a summary of the meeting.

China’s monthly vehicle exports

Among the few countries not experiencing an influx of Chinese cars is the U.S., which has introduced high tariffs and other restrictions to keep them out.

On Monday, the Pentagon added BYD and NIO, another Chinese carmaker, to a list of companies deemed to have links with China’s military, a move that bars them from carrying out work for the Defense Department. The companies said they didn’t have military links and were wrongly included on the list.

Elsewhere, the rapid growth of Chinese vehicle exports has raised alarm bells and prompted moves to restrict trade. China’s carmakers have responded by building factories and joint ventures, particularly in Europe.

“The key is to find a way to really partner and join forces,” said Brian Gu, XPeng’s vice chairman. “Ultimately, we need to invest more.”

DREAMS OF THE FUTURE WORLD-MUSK’S DREAMS YOUR MONEY!

Science fiction? Musk’s lofty SpaceX goals unrealistic, skeptics say

SpaceX has placed a big bet on the success of its newest rocket, Starship, but it is still under development (TIMOTHY A. CLARY) (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/AFP)

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has made awe-inspiring achievements since its founding over two decades ago and has big ideas — colonies on Mars, orbital AI data centers, rapidly reusable rockets — for the future.

But as SpaceX makes its record-breaking public market debut, some experts express doubts it can reach its lofty goals, especially on its planned timeline.

“We achieve what others think is really the impossible, and we make that possible,” CFO Bret Johnsen said in a recent video.

Indeed, the company’s development of a partially reusable rocket — which has allowed it to conduct more launches than all other providers combined — was once thought unattainable.

“SpaceX has accomplished a great deal, that’s quite real,” Robert Zubrin, an engineer and president of the Mars Society, told AFP.

“On the other hand, Musk frequently makes claims that are not real,” he said, citing deadlines that are regularly pushed back.

– Fairytale timelines –

While many experts believe they will see SpaceX send humans to Mars in their lifetime, the prospect of a mass inhabited colony will take much, much longer — if ever.

“The simple answer is that I don’t see this as realistic at all,” said Christian Bach, head of the space transportation division at Germany’s Technical University of Dresden and co-author of a critical analysis of Musk’s Mars plans.

He said that even just settling a handful of people on the Red Planet is unlikely this century due to unsolved technological and biological challenges.

To make the roundtrip journey to Mars, which takes about three years, Musk and Spacex are counting on their newest rocket under development: Starship.

However, perfecting launches with Starship will not be enough, warns Scott Hubbard, a former senior NASA official. Astronauts will also need new life-sustaining systems, such as oxygen and water recyclers.

“They like to portray it that they can do it on their own, they cannot,” said Hubbard.

He believes NASA — which is planning future missions to explore Mars but not to colonize it — will have to join the project for it to become a reality.

SpaceX also faces a major hurdle, Hubbard noted, over its goal of refuelling rockets in-orbit.

The idea would be to launch several rockets, one carrying crew or cargo, and the others carrying tanks of liquid oxygen and liquid methane that would be offloaded through coupling.

That capability “is something that is absolutely crucial to their plans that has never been done before,” he said.

“They have extraordinarily good engineers…so they will solve the problem, the thing is the schedule,” he added.

– New-age Napoleon? –

SpaceX has other major projects on its plate — including building a modified Starship to use as a lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program, and developing a new satellite constellation to serve as orbital AI data centers.

While the idea of moving energy-intensive AI data centers off-Earth may sound appealing, most experts remain skeptical.

“If you do conquer all the technical hurdles, there’s still the economic aspect, and it’s just not financially reasonable at this point in time,” Kathleen Curlee, a space analyst at Georgetown University, told AFP.

Zubrin was more blunt: “This AI data centers in space thing is fiction,” he said.

“If you owned a company that could build ocean ships better than anyone else, you would say the place to do AI is in the middle of the ocean,” he quipped.

Thanks to the unprecedented influx of cash from SpaceX’s IPO, the company will nonetheless have plenty of resources to devote to the project and others.

While flying high for the moment, SpaceX could still face unexpected turbulence — as evidenced by competitor Blue Origin’s recent launchpad mega-explosion.

Zubrin linked Musk’s potential for failure to French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s calamitous campaign in Russia.

If he were to fail, Zubrin said, it’d be because “he had succeeded in everything he had done before, and so no one could tell him that he was wrong.”

USA MUSLIMS NOT WANTING TO INTEGRATE INTO AMERICAN SOCIETY. THE ISLAMIC TAKEOVER IS REAL!..

National Security Threat: Pakistani Imam Converts 165-Acre Illinois Holiday Inn Into Muslim City — Runs Visa Pipeline and Brags His Pennsylvania Islamic Retreat Sits Beside the ‘Underground Pentagon’

A Pakistani imam is quietly turning a 165-acre former Illinois Holiday Inn into a $400 million all-Muslim gated city – a self-contained enclave with its own mosque, school, and economy, built so residents never have to step outside its walls into American society. It is one node in what he claims is a $2.5 billion empire of hotels, properties, and Sharia-compliant investment platforms stretching across the United States.

He markets it worldwide, runs a visa company and a six-month pipeline that funnels foreign nationals and their money into the country, and brags that a second property he owns in Pennsylvania sits atop America’s “underground Pentagon,” the government’s nuclear-war bunker. In Urdu-language interviews never meant for American ears, he drops the talk of “love” and says it plainly: “The next war is of the merchants” — Islam, he explains, will spread through commerce the way it once spread through traders, not armies.

By his own numbers, the Illinois project is designed to lose money, which raises the question no one in authority has asked: Who is really funding the construction of a parallel society on American soil, and why is no one watching?

Muslim Pakistani man is quietly constructing a $400 million Islamic gated resort community in Illinois while operating a retreat center directly beside America’s most sensitive government bunker, and almost no one is paying attention.

Jamil Ahmed Sukhera, an imam, real estate developer, and founder of several Sharia-compliant businesses, has acquired a 165-acre former Holiday Inn resort located approximately one hour from Chicago and 30 minutes from both Naperville and Aurora. He is redeveloping the property into “V Resort Living”, a planned Muslim residential community intended to provide residents with a wide range of amenities and services within a gated setting. The resort is largely move-in ready and includes more than 330 residential units, with prices ranging from $135,000 to $280,000. The Muslim enclave is designed so residents will truly never have to leave the gated community for anything.

At the same time, he promotes his Marifah retreat center in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, as sitting atop a mountain adjacent to the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, the hardened “underground Pentagon” that serves as the nation’s top continuity-of-government facility for senior U.S. officials during nuclear war or national emergencies.

openly boasts about its ultra-secure, no-fly-zone location.

This is a major national security threat, being advanced by a Muslim Pakistani man who has built a vast, unnoticed empire of properties, hotels, visa services, and Islamic initiatives across America.

The significance of this location stands out because Sukhera is not simply a real estate developer. He oversees a growing network of businesses, including hospitality properties, immigration-related services, religious retreats, investment platforms, and large-scale real estate projects aimed at Muslim buyers in the United States and abroad.

The Pennsylvania retreat’s proximity to Raven Rock raises questions that warrant scrutiny as Sukhera continues to expand his footprint across the United States through a network of properties, businesses, and religious initiatives.

The Illinois resort project, therefore, cannot be viewed in isolation. It is part of a broader ecosystem of organizations, real-estate holdings, and international outreach efforts connected to Sukhera’s long-term vision for community development and investment.

This first-of-its-kind Muslim resort, V Resort, is a one-stop mini town open to foreign investors. Its owner, Jamil Ahmed Sukhera, also runs another business where he helps people obtain visas. This makes the new Islamic community a destination spot for all Muslims worldwide.

The Muslim resort will include:

golf course
basketball and volleyball courts
cricket pitch, tennis courts
indoor waterpark
walking trails, lakes
two Olympic-sized swimming pools
waterpark
school
mosque
halal dining and restaurants
marketplace/retail
future grocery store
future shopping centers
and much more!

You will truly never have to leave the gated community for anything.

“Look, it’s not just about this community. In the entire United States, the promotion of Islam is not happening in the right way. Islam is a religion of love. Islam is a religion of inclusion. Islam is not just about Muslims coming together in one place. What does Islam mean? Islam is the religion of all nations. And the purpose of Islam is to connect with everyone. To share love with everyone. And to welcome every culture. So that everyone who comes here, gets a new face full of love for Islam.

I see that in the next 25 years,this wave will start from here. This wave will spread all over the world. And everyone will see a new image of Islam in the last 25-30 years. And this will be our first role model. How good of a people we are. How loving of a people we are. How beneficial we are for society. If we follow Islam properly, how we can become millionaires. How we can lead the world in an ethical way. And that is what I think. That we should create the next generation of billionaires. This is what I think. And you will see it from here.” – Jamil Ahmed Sukhera

This is not a message of love or inclusion. It is a candid admission of a supremacist vision. While Sukhera speaks of “love” and “welcoming every culture,” he is simultaneously building a gated, Muslim enclave explicitly designed so residents never have to leave or assimilate into American society. His stated goal is to erase the existing image of Islam and replace it with a new, sanitized one, not through genuine reform, but through demographic expansion, economic power, and parallel institutions. By openly declaring that this resort will launch a global “wave” and produce the next generation of Muslim billionaires who will “lead the world ethically”, a phrase that, in Islamic usage, means under Sharia. Sukhera reveals the real objective: using American soil, American infrastructure, and American freedoms to grow a separate Islamic power base that ultimately seeks to dominate, not integrate. This is linguistic jihad dressed up in soft language: words that mean one thing to Western ears and something entirely different to the Ummah. It is precisely why this project represents a national security threat, not a harmless housing development.

Muslim Resort Foreigners WantedFrom cradle to grave, V Resorts, a Muslim resort, will provide everything you need so you never have to leave. Just an hour outside Chicago and 30 minutes from Naperville, a former Holiday Inn resort is being transformed into an Islamic residential community. The project will feature more than 330 residences, private lakes, swimming pools, a water park, a mosque, a school, halal dining options, a golf course, and other amenities. It even has a specified complex for the elderly community. As a gated community, access will be restricted, and visitors will be required to check in before entering.

Once marketed as a family vacation destination where visitors would spend a week enjoying the resort’s amenities, the property is now being transformed into what developers describe as a “faith-based community” centered around Islam. The vision is to create a permanent Islamic enclave where residents can establish their homes and help shape the neighborhood’s character. The 165-acre property already includes a mosque and educational facilities, providing key infrastructure for the community from the outset. It is a private gated community where visitors must register upon arrival.

The development is also being marketed internationally. Its owner, Jamil Ahmed Sukhera, operates a business that assists foreign nationals with obtaining U.S. visas, which is noteworthy given the project’s outreach to overseas buyers.

This town will have a population of approximately 1200-2000 people, whether they are Americans or Muslim foreigners buying property in America. Jamil explains that when people come to America, what they miss most is their culture and values, and this town will provide them with that. But it is generally understood that in Muslim polities like Pakistan, “culture and values” nearly always means the sharia.

Apartments will be offered at several price points, with studios starting at $135,000, one-bedroom units at $180,000, and two-bedroom units at $280,000. Sales will be on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be 60 studio apartments and 210 one-bedroom apartments, with the remaining units consisting primarily of two-bedroom apartments, along with a limited number of larger four-bedroom units that are not being advertised. Buyers who purchase early will have access to the best available properties.

Jamil describes several groups of buyers he believes will be attracted to the development. The first group consists of retirees who will be supported and cared for within the community. Another target group is work-from-home families who are concerned about how their children are being raised in America and who might otherwise consider relocating back to countries such as Pakistan, India, the UAE, or Saudi Arabia because they feel local schools and social environments do not align with their Islamic values. Jamil believes this community will offer many of the same values and cultural benefits found in Muslim-majority countries, particularly because it is envisioned as a gated, Muslim-oriented resort-style community.

He reflects on his own childhood, recalling how elders played an active role in supervising and mentoring children, and he hopes to recreate that sense of community on the property. A third category of buyer is the investor who purchases units as rental properties. Jamil explains that the early-bird price for a studio unit is $135,000, while he estimates the market value at approximately $210,000. Once the early-bird inventory is sold (30% of the units), units will be offered at market rates. He believes this pricing structure will allow investors to purchase at a lower cost and generate returns through rental income. The development is also open to foreign investors interested in purchasing property in the United States and earning profits from their investments.

According to Jamil, wherever there is a mosque or a school, demand automatically increases. This private gated community will have both. The last ideal candidate for this community is those who want to start a business in America to “give their lives a fresh start.” Jamil promises to connect these people with other entrepreneurs and secure good deals for them. He will provide them with guidance.

Despite being marketed as a luxury resort-style community and a five-star gated development, these prices are relatively low compared to many similar projects in the Chicago suburbs. As a result, the units may be attractive to a broader range of buyers, including lower-income households and international purchasers seeking an affordable entry point into the U.S. real estate market. All units will be fully furnished and move-in ready, a true turnkey living experience.

Each unit isn’t just fully furnished, TVs are provided, as well as $2,000 jaccuzi tubs in the master baths. Some units are equipped with board games. The bathrooms themselves are set up according to the Sunnah, explains Jamil, which is why the toilets are all separate. Islamic tradition strongly recommends separating the toilet from the bathing area mainly because the toilet is a dwelling place of devils and jinn.

Sahih al-Bukhari (Hadith 142) and Sahih Muslim (Hadith 375): Narrated by Anas ibn Malik. The Prophet , when entering a place to relieve himself, would say:
“Allahumma inni a’udhu bika min al-khubthi wal-khaba’ith”
(O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the male and female devils/jinn).

Each unit even comes with patio furniture. Some units can be split into two; a bedroom can include a small kitchenette, allowing more than one family to live in a unit. Everything one needs to start a brand-new life in America is provided, all while upholding the shared Islamic values of one’s home country.

We the people in America, Pakistan, and elsewhere need to change our mindset that if we go to America, we will see poverty everywhere. It’s not like that; it is a beautiful standard of living here, too. We live a life of our own values closer to Islam than in Pakistan.”- Jamil Ahmed Sukhera said while being interviewed about the resort.

Not offered on their website but showcased in their video are four-bedroom/4-bath apartments modeled after the million-dollar apartments in Manhattan, NY. Jamil claims that many Muslims are confused because they believe being rich is a bad thing, and believes it isn’t, and wants them all to live a luxurious lifestyle within this community.

According to V Resorts, the development is the first project of its kind in the United States. The $400 million project is being promoted as a 5-star gated community spanning 165 acres and featuring 332 ready-to-move-in, fully furnished residential units. The residences are organized into multiple apartment complexes throughout the property, alongside a variety of recreational and community amenities with an Islamic mindset.

As visitors enter the resort, one of the first attractions they encounter is a miniature golf course designed for children. According to Jamil, the purpose extends beyond recreation. He has stated that “most of the billion-dollar deals in the world happen on golf courses,” adding that the goal is to instill a “billionaire mindset” in children from an early age. Jamil believes the kids follow people like Elon Musk, Jimmy Buffett, and Steve Jobs because they want to become billionaires, which he sees as an issue, since he wants them to become religious and wealthy.

Upon entry, there is a registration and activities center where all guests are required to check in. The facility also serves as a halal restaurant and gathering space for residents and visitors. This ensures that all guests are approved and adhere to Sharia guidelines while visiting and dining.

At one point in the promotional video tour, the camera shows a dinner tray set with a fake bottle of wine and an imitation half-glass. Sukhera immediately assures the crew that none of it is real and confirms the props will be removed before any clients arrive — a clear signal that the entire resort will be strictly Sharia-compliant and alcohol-free.

The resort’s mosque spans more than 10,000 square feet and is designed to accommodate both residents and their guests. Jamil isn’t just the owner of this property, but he is also the resident Imam. Even though the property isn’t open yet, the mosque is already functioning for Friday prayers.

Adjacent to it is a 10,000-square-foot school facility, placing the community’s religious and educational institutions side by side at the heart of the development.

The original building, which has since been converted into a mosque, was constructed in 2015 for Holiday Inn’s regional sales operations. The senior living facility is conveniently located across the parking lot from the mosque. The facility is currently under construction, and the necessary permits are being obtained as part of the building’s transformation.

The Sisters’ hall, where women will pray, is already built. It faces Mecca and has a picture of the Kaaba, the giant black cube in Saudi Arabia, which is the central focus point of Islam. The main hall will have an even bigger picture of the Kaaba to replace the painting of American farmland.

One of the property’s lakes covers approximately 10 acres and is planned as a fishing area for residents. The development’s “Presidential Suites,” consisting of one- and two-bedroom apartments, have lakefront views. The lake connects to the Fox River, which originates in southeastern Wisconsin and flows roughly 185 miles through northern Illinois before joining the Illinois River.

The Fox River watershed contains important ecological resources and wildlife habitats. Areas within the watershed support migratory birds, including greater sandhill cranes, as well as a variety of fish and other native species. As this large residential development brings new residents and increased activity to the area, questions remain about how growth, recreation, and increased human presence could affect the surrounding ecosystem and whether adequate measures will be taken to protect the region’s natural resources. Have the requisite environmental impact studies been done on the plans for a full-year, full-occupancy community?

Jamil explains that the need for this type of community in the United States stems from the current American lifestyle. He claims that it is a hard challenge for Muslims. He goes on to say they love their homeland and their countries very much, but there is a major gap between the values here (in America) and there (in their homeland). Jamil claims that it is hard for Muslim families to settle in America, so he wanted to build a community where they would feel more comfortable and have a similar lifestyle.

This community isn’t about integrating into the United States; it is about moving here and keeping the traditions of their old countries in a private gated community locked away from American society.

If the total project cost is $400 million, there is no way he will make money by selling 332 units at these prices. He could potentially lose $200-300 million. This plan does not make any financial sense. However, Jamil explains that grocery stores and local retail stores will be built on the property in the future. This could generate additional income.

A major selling point for this resort is that it is 60 minutes away from Chicago and O’Hare. O’Hare is a major international hub where people from all over the world travel in and out. Jamil claims that Chicago has the largest Muslim community and that will attract more to come. The resort itself is next to a highway, making it easily accessible.

The entire area is designed into mini neighborhoods. Each neighborhood or parcel has 8 buildings. There are 8 parcels total, or 64 buildings. There is already a functioning waterpark in the community where halal restaurants can set up, and it will have two marketplaces. The Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool is ready for its first guests. They hope to use it for training purposes. Surrounding the welcome center/registration center is a restaurant, a game room, an outdoor swimming pool, a tennis court, and a basketball court.

Jamil claims that Muslims are people of love. That they should spread that love through the United States, North America, and South America so that it becomes the “Markaz of Deen,” meaning they should spread Islam throughout the Western Hemisphere.

“When You Wear the Bracelets of Kisra”: A Prophecy of Conquest

In his presentations, Sukhera reaches for a story that every Muslim audience instantly recognizes, the tale of Suraqa bin Malik. During the Hijra, the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, the Quraysh placed a bounty of 100 camels on the Prophet’s head. Suraqa, a skilled tracker, set out to collect it. But as he closed in, Muhammad — a hunted fugitive with a price on his life — turned the moment around with a prediction: “O Suraqa, what will you do when you are wearing the bracelets of Kisra?” Kisra was the emperor of Persia, one of the two superpowers of the age. Years later, after the Muslim conquest of Persia, the caliph Umar is said to have placed the defeated emperor’s golden bracelets on Suraqa’s arms, fulfilling the prophecy. (The account appears across the early Islamic histories of Ibn Ishaq, al-Tabari, and others.)

The story’s enduring power is its message: a movement that looks weak and hunted today will, in time, overrun the great powers of the earth. It is a lesson in patience, generational planning, and inevitable triumph over empires — and it is precisely the lens through which Sukhera frames his own work. In the same breath, he tells audiences that the “bangles of the superpowers” will be delivered to the migrant, the entrepreneur, the believer who refuses to be afraid.

That a man who invokes this particular prophecy, a fugitive foretelling the fall of a superpower, has chosen to plant a retreat directly beside Raven Rock, the bunker where America’s leadership would shelter if this superpower ever fell, is not a coincidence anyone in authority should wave away.

The Man Behind VResort Living, a Muslim Sharia Resort, Jamil Ahmed Sukhera

Jamil Ahmed Sukhera has a worldview that promotes a global “Ummah-wide system.” Right now, he is executing that vision inside the United States. He owns the exact infrastructure needed: V Resort Living as the flagship Muslim town, Vmigrant to import foreigners with U.S. visas, VAIRT to channel Sharia-compliant foreign investment, Marifah retreats to convert and train new Muslims, and a growing portfolio of hotels and properties to house them.

Sukhera is not just building hotels and resorts. He is deliberately constructing his “Ummah-wide system” on American soil. While he smiles and talks about “Islam is love” and “diversity and inclusion,” he is using U.S. land, U.S. freedoms, and overseas Muslim capital to create self-contained Islamic enclaves designed to expand and dominate — one visa, one Sharia investment, one gated resort, and one new convert at a time.

Jamil Ahmed Sukhera is the CEO of VAIRT, a Sharia-compliant real estate investment and crowdfunding platform launched in 2019 that focuses on fractional ownership, tokenization, hospitality assets, and blockchain-enabled liquidity, and is the owner of this new resort.

VAIRT helps investors grow their wealth. Property investments can start at $25,000.

VAIRT allows investors to bypass public markets and access private real estate. This will be helpful with his new project, VResort, which is being built in Illinois.

He is marketing it as “passive income” to foreign investors. Meaning they can profit from private real estate in the United States from their home countries.

His business is Sharia-adherent; it was built because he felt the United States system was broken.

In a separate Urdu-language interview, Sukhera put a number on the empire behind these ventures, one far larger than the $400 million resort would suggest. Asked the total worth of his projects, he answered, “At the moment, the assets under management are 2.5 billion.” The host stopped him to make sure he had heard correctly, “with a B?”, and Sukhera confirmed it: “Yes.” By his own telling, the Illinois enclave is not a standalone development but a single node in a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, and, in his words, “this is just the start.”

How that portfolio is assembled is the detail that should command federal attention. Sukhera described a model in which he acquires large commercial buildings and hotels — properties he values around $100 million each — outright, in cash, before any outside investor is involved. “We don’t ask money from anyone,” he said. “We buy the properties with our own cash.” Only after purchasing a building and converting it into an LLC does he invite investors to buy fractional stakes of one to five percent. He listed holdings across Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. The obvious question writes itself: where does a man who entered the United States on an investor visa in 2016 obtain the cash to buy $100 million properties outright, again and again, before a single investor contributes a dollar?

The returns he advertises and the institutions he is building only sharpen the concern. Sukhera claimed his platform generates as much as 44 percent annual return — roughly 9 percent in rental income and 35 percent in property appreciation — figures he markets to Muslim investors worldwide as Sharia-compliant “passive income.” He told the interviewer he intends to launch his own Islamic bank, calling it “a whole revolution,” and he credited a Portuguese government accelerator program and an international accelerator called Ocean as among his “core investors” — foreign capital embedded at the foundation of his American operation. Real estate, he explained, is not merely wealth but leverage: “Real estate is not just money, it’s also power. When you own real estate in a city or state … you own a lot of influence.”

Before immigrating to the United States in 2016, Sukhera lived and worked in Pakistan, a country whose constitution requires that laws conform to the Quran and Sunnah, and that maintains a Federal Shariat Court. As an Islamic scholar and imam, Sukhera has continued to emphasize Sharia-compliant principles in his business ventures, including real estate investments and his latest resort project.

Jamil’s entrepreneurial journey began during his college years, when he launched a tutoring business that helped develop his business acumen and leadership skills. Prior to moving to the U.S., he contributed to several large-scale government and institutional projects in Islamabad, including initiatives with the National Highway Authority.

Jamil built a tutoring organization with over 300 tutors, making it one of Lahore, Pakistan’s top academies. He is no stranger to starting and expanding a business.

Realizing that the United States does not practice Sharia and has no financial halal system, he set out to make sure this could be an option for Muslims. He worked for an architecture firm, which gave him the background to design the kind of resorts and retreats he now owns.

In 2020, he founded Marifah, an organization that hosts retreats around the world, advertised as helping people “deepen their understanding of Islam.” These retreats are held in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania; Petersfield and Cambridge in the United Kingdom; Lillestrøm, Norway; Rødovre, Denmark; and Lahore, Pakistan. This makes Sukhera no stranger to the resort world.

Jamil focuses on what Islam calls the revert; one converts to Islam, but is said to be converting back to the one original faith. he hosts monthly gatherings at his retreats for those who have recently converted to Islam. He also offers several guides for them. He is the author of books including “The New Reverts Guide” / “The New Muslim Guide: An Inner Journey of Awakening.” His new project in the United States will all be Sharia-compliant.

Of all his retreat locations, the Waynesboro property stands apart and Sukhera himself draws attention to why. In promoting the Pennsylvania retreat, he highlights that it sits atop a mountain he describes as an “underground Pentagon,” boasting that it is “the most secure place” and a no-fly zone. He is referring to the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, a hardened military installation built into the mountain that serves as the federal government’s continuity-of-government bunker. The site where the nation’s most senior officials would be relocated and sheltered in the event of nuclear war or catastrophic national emergency. It is among the most sensitive national security sites in the United States. That a foreign national operating a network of properties, businesses, and religious initiatives across America would acquire a retreat directly beside it and then advertise that proximity as a selling point is not an ordinary real-estate footnote. It raises an obvious question that no one in a position of authority has yet asked: why here, and who is paying attention?

Sukhera is the proprietor of multiple lodging establishments in the United States, including Marifah Inn in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania; Four Points by Sheraton in Peoria, Illinois; and the Colfax Inn in Colfax, Iowa. He claims to own more than a dozen multi-million dollar properties in America.

Sukhera is systematically acquiring American properties to spread Islam and house foreigners on U.S. soil. Through his Sharia-compliant crowdfunding platform, VAIRT, he funnels overseas Muslim capital into U.S. real estate, starting at just $25,000 per investor, while his Pakistan-based visa company, Vmigrant — launched in 2025 — fast-tracks foreign buyers into the country, helps them set up LLCs, and provides guidance on obtaining visa approval the right way. Vmigrant assists with B1/B2 visitor visas, F-1 student visas, and business and work visas, claims a 90% success rate, and even helps previously denied applicants revise and resubmit their cases. By its own account, it has handled over 1,500 visa applications, started 400 U.S. companies, and operates in more than 20 countries. His Marifah retreats recruit and train new converts, and his growing hotel portfolio provides immediate housing. The result is a self-financing pipeline that imports both people and money to build Muslim enclaves across America, exactly as his “Ummah-wide system” demands.

And the financing is the question no brochure answers. By the developer’s own numbers, V Resort Living cannot recoup its $400 million cost through the sale of 332 modestly priced units, which is a gap of $200 to $300 million that must be filled elsewhere. A project engineered to lose money, marketed to overseas investors, and tied to a visa operation that moves foreign nationals and their capital into the United States raises exactly the questions American authorities exist to answer: Where does the capital originate? Is any of it state-linked, or routed through foreign intermediaries? Who, ultimately, is underwriting the construction of a private Islamic enclave on American soil? These are not accusations. They are the precise questions that demand federal scrutiny under the laws governing foreign investment in U.S. real estate — and they have not been asked, let alone answered.

Following RAIR Foundation’s research into Vmigrant, the website was taken down and is now under construction. Their Instagram account is still up. As well as their LinkedIn account.

Another one of Jamil’s businesses is VWurk. VWurk allegedly connects freelance workers with job opportunities.