Pierre-Vanderfield Trials

The Pierre-Vanderfield Trials were a series of trials against Last Defense Worldwide CEO, Steven Vanderfield by LDW's largest competitor, Blacklist Private Military Contractors CEO Pierre Boucher. The trials were generally considered a complete sham, yet ended with the dissolution of Last Defense Worldwide and the imprisonment of Vanderfield.

Previous Troubles
Blacklist and Last Defense Worldwide were set up to be competitors from day one. The two companies had never had favorable relations and even when they worked together on contracts the two companies were hostile at best.

Eventually, this came to a head when LDW and Blacklist had a competition for several high paying contracts with the UEG. At the end of the competition, LDW took the majority of the contracts with Blacklist forced to take several lower paying ones.

This led Blacklist into plans to dismantle LDW who had become a stronger and more threatening competitor. Blacklist planned to use LDW's previous notoriety in the Red Square Massacre in order to convince the UEG to dismantle the company.

Finally, in 2307, Blacklist had gathered enough 'evidence' (mostly through a series of bribes, favors and blackmail) that they managed to convince the UEG to try LDW for supplying anti UEG groups in South America and Africa.

The Trials
The trials lasted from December 2307 to April 2308. Over the course of the trials, Blacklist pulled all the stops in order to bury LDW as much as they possibly could.

The trial became a parade for the media after only days of the trial beginning. Most considered the trial nothing more than an insult to the judicial system, the trial inadvertently exposing problems in the system just by existing.

Leaks of blackmail and bribes by Blacklist went public a week before the final decision by the court but this did little to deter LDW's fate. The leaks were covered up long enough for LDW to be dismantled and its leader given a prison sentence of fifty years.

Aftermath
The trial caused a massive uproar due to the obvious unfairness in its execution. Despite this, no action was made to free Vanderfield or punish Blacklist. Blacklist's reputation would take months to recover.

However, Blacklist had little reason to care, as it was now the largest PMC company on Earth and the UEG had little means to dismantle it without trouble. Blacklist bought the assets of LDW shortly after, cementing it as the largest company.

Blacklist's dominance would continue for nearly seventy years until it was briefly disbanded by then CEO Henri Boucher. The trial is generally remembered as one of the worst failures of the UEG judicial system, though Blacklist has never been punished for it and Vanderfield's family never compensated.