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Old 02-02-2020, 08:07 AM   #62
Icelander
 
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Default Kessler's Occult Research Budget

I posted this in another thread and it occurred to me that this was suitable for this thread, to give some idea about the scale of Kessler's influence with academic and scientific institutions that might be useful to occult investigators.

Short version of Occult Research Budget

Average Budget per Year (1985-2018): $40 million
Budget in 1985: $3 million
Budget in 1990: $20 million
Budget in 1995: $30 million
Budget in 2000: $50 million
Budget in 2005: $55 million
Budget in 2010: $56 million
Budget in 2015: $44 million
Budget in 2018: $50 million

There have been some ebbs and flows in the academic and scientific research budget, largely caused by a shift in allocations to intelligence, security and paramilitary activities, such as surveillance and monster hunting, as the threat of the supernatural became more active from 2010 onwards.

While it's impossible to get accurate budget numbers, as Kessler funds his occult and monster hunting activities through a compex web of shell companies and corporate ownership ties, diverting all sorts of otherwise ordinary business assets to non-profitable occult activities, a good guess might be that his total yearly budget for all occult-related activities is $240 million.

Est. Total Yearly Budget (2018): $240 million
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Kessler's Occult Research Funding - Wordier Version

Just to get some idea of the scale of Kessler's investigation into the occult, since the mid-1980s, he's been spending millions of dollars a year on funding research, hiring consultants, endowing chairs, commissioning surveys and otherwise buying influence and expertise in academic and scientific circles.

By 1995, Kessler had probably spent around $200 million (adjusted for inflation, in 2018 dollars) on research that had to do with investigating the occult. By the end of 2018, when the campaign is currently set, Kessler has spent well over a billion dollars over the last three decades ($1,400,000,000). This is only for the research part of Kessler's activities, excluding security, monster hunting and other paramilitary activities.

The vast majority of this money is in tax-deductible donations to universities or institutions, either from Kessler personally, or, more likely, from one of the companies he controls. Very often, the recipients may not know why the grant is made or how their research benefits Kessler's occult investigations. Only a comparatively small part of the academics or scientists who have consulted with one of Kessler's companies or had research funded by them are even aware of the supernatural, although, obviously, in the course of their research many came to suspect or even understand all kinds of things about the occult.

Most of Kessler's money has been spent on academics/scientists that have some connection with places he lives, works or operates, so while there are connections with French academia and various African experts, the bulk of the money is spent in Texas, then the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-05-2020 at 08:40 PM.
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