Gastess' Finance, Inc.

Gastess' Finance, Inc. was a holding company operating in the Parmic Sector of the Outer Rim Territories during the Imperial era. It was run by a Gotal named Sarlim Gastess, who lacked the usual Gotal ability to sense emotions with his head cones (making him a ruthless psychopath by Gotal standards.)

Gastess' Finance operated by executing hostile takeovers of smaller companies, firing the existing management, and running them into the ground for a quick infusion of credits. Gastess would send executives from his company to strip his new acquisition's assets. His chief lieutenants were Halleb, K'yne, and Sarell Harmion, three brothers who shared their boss's enjoyment of raiding and destroying successful corporations.

After Gastess' Finance had squeezed all possible short-term profits from it, the company would be disposed of. If no buyer could be found, it was simply disbanded, and its assets liquidated. Eventually, even planetary-sized corporations were targeted by Gastess' Finance. After Gastess was finished with a planetary corporation, the inhabitants of the planet it once dominated were unemployed and usually heavy in debt. This left them open to exploitation or even slavery by the Empire, which was probably the reason the Empire quietly approved of Gastess' operations.

The Alliance to Restore the Republic considered Gastess' Finance to be instrumental in the supply of slave labor to the Empire. Thus, starships and other assets of Gastess' Finance were listed as targets by Rebel privateers.