19 Amassing Wealth

2005 - Smallville, Kansas

Over the years, I've amassed hundreds of millions of dollars of stolen cash from drug dens, crime bosses, gang hideouts, and criminal repositories of cash used in money laundering. Since I've been patrolling Bludhaven, Metropolis, Gotham, and many other major cities, I've been able to cut their crime rates and rob them of any cash I could get my hands on.

Using this cash, I've systematically bought every piece of Smallville I could get my hands on and set up accounts to automatically pay the real estate taxes for all the land I've acquired. I've also bought a few apartment buildings in Metropolis and Gotham. Any farm land I've bought in Smallville was leased out to other farmers and brought under the Kent Farms name. I've bought out most farmers in Smallville and the surrounding areas, slowly branching out throughout the state of Kansas, acquiring as many farms as I could. I've consolidated the farms under the Kent Farms name as well. I plan on making Kent Farms like a Tyson or Dean Foods. I've hired a team headquartered in Smallville to travel to the different farms, oversee acquisition of the farms, monitor operations of my farms, and Martha Kent is in charge of the team, finally putting her business degree to a much better use than managing a coffee shop or diner.

Kelex has raided money from criminal enterprises all over the world, acquiring billions. Kelex has managed to infiltrate offshore accounts from corrupt businessmen who steal from pension funds and embezzle as much money as they can get away with. Kelex cleared out as many accounts as he could find in the Cayman Islands and other popular offshore account locations. Returning some money (the pension funds for example), and keeping the majority of it, has amassed billions of dollars through a jungle of accounts under many different names hidden stealthily by Kelex and any trouble from hackers or suspicious investigators will lead to immediate closure of the accounts and moving through proxies of proxies to hide the cash elsewhere.

My plan is to finish sweeping through Kansas and acquiring as much land as possible in the next few years, using Kelex to accelerate my gains through the stock market and asset seizures, using my hundreds of millions of dollars from single-handedly taking down criminals in the flesh and from Kelex's digital rampage to acquire cash. After Kent Farms gets big enough, I will acquire one of the top 10 top agriculture and food processing carriers in the U.S. and increase my acquisitions of smaller farms. Within 5 years, I'd like to acquire 2 or 3 more of the top 10 to become the number one agricultural company.

Rather than acting like America's food giants that swallowed family farms, my plan is to act more like a franchisee relationship. Being the owner and taking most of the profits, the risk to the families running the farms will be minimal, as I will be investing in the expensive equipment and providing bonuses depending on the farm's performance (just like a franchise). We will be expanding into organic produce and branding "Kent Farms" in the supermarket on as many things as we can get: salad dressing (like Paul Newman), butter, breakfast foods (like Jimmy Dean), and any other possible successful branding. It will start in Kansas as a sample market, then we will rollout throughout the United States.

If the Kents want to be farmers, then we will be the BEST damn farmers in the country. The wealth of Kent Farms will rival Wayne's and Queen's companies in market value, becoming a multi-billion dollar titan.

"Clark, we need to talk," Jonathan said.

"Uh oh. I don't like the sound of that," I said.

Jonathan sighed, "As much as I admire your business acumen with playing the stock market, buying some businesses, and buying up land, what are your plans with all of these farms? You know how our family has used farming as our lifeblood - it's what we do. Why are you buying out these farms like you're a Luthor?���

"Dad. Think about it. What did the Luthors do after buying out these farms? They used the land for chemical production and processing plants. They build these huge facilities that have nothing to do with farming. You know what I'm doing? I'm going to KEEP these farms running. The only thing I'm doing that may interfere with their legacies is by replacing their name with Kent Farms, but it's the right thing to do because under our umbrella, we can assume the cost of investment into their farm equipment, help ease their costs and stave off bankruptcy if federal subsidies don't help them." I explained, "Who would you rather be buying up this land and farms? The Kents or the Luthors? I'd much rather have Martha Kent overseeing Kansas farms, protecting farming, rather than gutting it like a heartless tycoon would. What do you think Dad?"

Jonathan smiled, "I guess you have a point there. Maybe I worried over nothing. It's just we've never been into big business. We've always ran a family farm. Are you sure we're cut out for this? What if we turn into the Luthors?"

I said, "I believe in this family's integrity. If there's anyone who the 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' adage doesn't apply to, it's the Kents. We can protect farming, oversee the ethical treatment of animals, control what pesticides we're using in comparison to some of the other big companies, and make sure our food is safer, protecting Kansan families. Besides… if we do well with helping Kansan families, maybe you can use our family's success to leverage a run for the state senate?"

Jonathan looked shocked, "You can't be serious."

"I absolutely am. You've railed against the Luthors for years. What would you do if you become a legislator? Would you take bribes like the rest of the corrupt officials, or would you prevent these crooks from corrupting our communities in the first place? You should seriously consider it, dad."

Jonathan looked thoughtful and said, "Don't count on me actually doing it, but I'll think about it, Clark."

I smirked in triumph.