Sovereign Landing anti-criminal policy

Version 1.0

About this policy

In a nutshell: This policy is our customer selection criteria, not “law”. We have a very strict honest people only policy.

You may find it strange that a business would have definitions on what is and isn’t criminal – of course that’s not up to businesses to say. We are not lawmakers, and this policy isn’t legislation. Naturally, you need to follow the laws of any country you’re in.

However, as an international company that wishes not to have criminals as customers, we are presented with a practical challenge. By definition, a criminal is someone who commits crimes (breaks criminal laws) but different countries have different laws.

This means that we would only be left with two unambiguous definitions for what makes something “criminal”:

  1. Breaking any law of any country
  2. If something is legal somewhere, then it can’t be a crime

Choosing definition #1 would make everyone a criminal immediately. There’s a lot of weird laws in the world!

Choosing definition #2 also doesn’t really work: many types of crime haven’t been defined as such in many countries, which would lead to an extremely narrow definition.

Of course, the third and most widely adopted practical solution for this is to only say that only the laws of the country you’re currently in apply, and a criminal is someone who has been convicted of a crime somewhere.

The problem with this approach is that it falls short and allows for all kinds of “legal crime”. While Sovereign Landing will never be able to stop this (we are not the police), this wouldn’t be sufficient customer selection criteria for us. Therefore, we need to have some definitions of our own – and in order to be fair and transparent, these need to be written down. That’s why this policy exists.

This policy tries to adhere to the rough concept of “natural law”. You can think of it as “common sense approach” to “law” (which this policy isn’t!), instead of legislation through tens of thousands of laws and regulations. It doesn’t and can’t have a strict legal definition, but it includes (and perhaps excludes) things that a normal person in any culture would (or wouldn’t) consider criminal. This policy is an attempt to have some kind of a decent, practically applicable solution to this problem, and we retain the right to adjust this policy at any time based on what we deem best for Sovereign Landing as a business.

Types of actions considered as against this policy

  • All violent crime (including threats of violence)
  • Theft
  • Scams
  • Extortion/blackmailing
  • Political corruption, including “legal corruption”

A word about political corruption, even if it's legal and doesn't involve direct bribes

There has been this trend in many different countries: politicians getting into power with promises they can’t fulfill and then using their power to drown these countries in debt and increasing tax burden – only to then move abroad after their time in power runs out.

Not all politicians may be corrupt, but the systems they work for are. Therefore all politicians should be considered suspect unless they have a clear track record of using their political power for reducing the number of politicians, theft, oppression and crime – which very few actually do. Most of them vote for the exact opposite.

If a politician has used their power to increase the tax burden and debt, at the very least they should “eat their own dogfood” and stay as a “happy taxpayer” in the country they’ve helped go bankrupt. Sovereign Landing will not be aiding these people flee the consequences of their own actions.

Your money needs to originate from an honest source, ie. from creating value to other people. Any “normal job” or being a freelancer or an entrepreneur checks that box. Scams, corruption and crime doesn’t. Common sense goes far in defining this.

Gray area crimes not necessarily against natural law (but against this policy)

While it can be argued that these crimes may not be against natural law (either there is no victim or the victim is unclear), this is mostly “true in a vacuum”. The powers that be – the nation states – violently disagree with this view. As a business, we can’t get caught in that crossfire, so we need to include these in this policy for risk management and reputational reasons:

  • Tax-related crime
  • Some other types of financial crime (many financial crimes are legal – if it has a victim, it should count as a crime)
  • Knowing/active involvement in criminal money laundering

NOT counted as against this policy

So called “moral crimes” are not against this policy. The definitions of a moral crime do vary and we admit this is a gray area, but here are a few examples of things that should not be considered crimes, and won't be considered as against this policy:

  • Altering your own body
  • Sex between consenting adults, even if not married or married elsewhere
  • Gardening
  • Picking up plants from the nature

Of course, the basic human rights should never be outlawed, so speech and thought crimes like this do not count, even if they are largely outlawed even in the west:

  • Telling the truth or making factual statements
  • Saying unpleasant things
  • Unfortunately these examples do not end here, too many to list

While minor civil offences (speeding tickets and other fines, etc) generally do not fall under criminal law in any country, it’s probably worth mentioning that those are not crimes and don’t count against this policy.

By continuing any of our onboarding processes, you declare that you are not a criminal as defined by this policy, and do not plan on becoming one. You understand that we may conduct reasonable background checks (based mostly on publicly available information) and reserve the right to end our business relationship with you at any point if this agreement is breached. We also reserve the right to make changes to this policy at any time.

If you have any questions about this policy, please read the background for the need to have this policy. Comments there are open, and you can also ask privately by contacting us.

Answers to common questions

How do you propose to catch these criminals?

We are not the police and our job is not to catch criminals or do investigative work. We work based on publicly available information and the information our customers provide us with. This is our customer selection criteria, not law, and shouldn't be thought of as such. When we talk about "crime" here, it is meant as a philosophical, not legal definition. We do not want to associate with criminals, even if they are sometimes clever with their legal status. Unfortunately in "these circles" there are many criminals who may or may not be defined as such by any official government bodies (yet). We need a clear and strong policy to be able to proactively deny any service to such people.