IMTU, Inchin is a bit more interesting than it's presented in the Wiki. For example, a persistently failing starport construction project makes for a terrific cover for a money-laundering machine.
Believe me,
anything is better than what's found in the Wiki.
My vision of the place is slightly incompatible with yours though, as the Big Secret (second layer under the money-laundering) that I've set up relies on nobody paying the place much mind these days (1105-ish).
The Wiki's risible
"Build it and they will come/Failed investment" story works up to a point. Having it start in the 1080s and last past the 5th FW does not, especially at the expenditure levels claimed. I could see a failed project passing through a number of different owners via bankruptcies and sales while beating a tambourine across the region for new and credulous investors. I could also see the project either starting out as or eventually becoming something like the railroad project at the center of Trollope's
"The Way We Live Now"; a pyramid and stock manipulation scheme meant to enrich the one man or group rather than build the project. What I can't see is a 57th Century of Ford, Hammer, or Hughes running through billions across decades on a whim without the brakes eventually being applied by market forces.
There are three levels of wealth. At the first level, you work for your money. At the second level, your money works for you. At the rarefied level of the third, the money works for itself. In the late '20s, Ford set up a rubber colony in the Amazon. He had all the money it needed or would ever need, but the plug was pulled on the colony by the mid-30s because Ford's money worked for itself. Even someone as eccentric and tyrannical as Hughes couldn't spend forever without reason because his money worked for itself too.
The Wiki's laughably simplistic story doesn't work to the extent and duration it claims because the eccentric billionaire's money should be working for itself.
As for money laundering, that requires the front company having an income stream. That needed income, preferably a predominately cash income, is why businesses like laundromats, bars, strip clubs, auto body shops, junkyards, restaurants, and the like have been traditional favorites for money laundering. Having a "pet" bank, preferably overseas, is another method. The port on Inchin doesn't have an income stream and I seriously doubt any bank located there is big enough so Inchin can't be used.
Also, that's a good point about Collace; it's 3I in all but name. That said, the world-level politics around that status could be interesting. It's a fairly high-population Representative Democracy with some resource constraints, making it a useful proxy setting for political science and international relations issues.
IMTU, the "geopolitical" (interstello-political?) climate of the District is drive by the geopolitical climate of the Marches and that, naturally, relies completely on my personal interpretation of canon. As such, my take on the District works for me and may very well not work for others.
That being said, we've been told as far back as
CT that Collace has already started whatever process there exists for Imperial membership. How long that process has been going on is anyone's guess. Collace is already a client state and hosts an IISS base so, when I looked at the maps to "fix" the "problem" with the Five Sisters' sole x-boat link passing through Biter for
MTU, Collace was a no-brainer. IIRC, Inchin was only chosen because it had a gas giant and a low population. (Given jump4 Avastan, Mewey, and Ochecate could have worked too, but the first two had large populations and the last has no gas giant.)
The reasons for the low key 208th deployments to Inchin are also part of
MTU. I never went into great detail in order to keep flexibility, but
IMTU Texalon, Forine, and Kwai Ching are part of a vague anti-Imperial bloc. Perhaps it would be better to describe their thinking as anti-Imperial membership or anti-annexation than strictly anti-Imperial. Anyway, as such they receive various levels of backing on various issues in various times and places from the Swordies and Zhos. Like I said, this lacks specific details on purpose.
IMTU on the Imperial "side" is Collace, the Imperial member wannabe, and to a much lesser extent the Ag Worlds Combine, Motmos, and Elixabeth. What little influence the Imperium usually exerts passes through them. The Imperium generally "walks small" in the District and maintains a strict "hands off" for reasons having to due to the centuries long "hangover" from the 3rd Frontier War - something which belongs in another thread entirely. The Imperium's adherence to those policies it not uniform because the Imperium has factions too.
IMTU for obvious reasons, the Duchy of Glisten has long been the Imperium's "point man" for the District. It doesn't just follow Imperial policy, it created most of it. The 208th Fleet is the other Imperial player in the District. It not only sees things differently, it acts differently too. The 208th has a more "muscular" outlook and not simply because it's a military organization. The Five Sisters is a redoubt of sorts. It's separated from the Imperium facing threats from Zhos and Swordies, plus whatever comes out of Foreven, the Beyond, and the Trojan Reach. Annexing or otherwise absorbing the District in the Imperium would help the Five Sisters' strategic position. These two factions each work their respective "sides" of the Distict, Glisten to trailing and the 208th to spinward, meaning Imperial influence is expressed differently in those regions, more "overt" to spinward and more "covert" to trailing.
IMTU the Duchy does hold the trump card in this because the Imperium's military is under "civilian" control. (Actually noble control, but most should understand what I mean.) If the 208th gets too bumptious on it's "side" of the District, the Duchy can "snitch" or complain up the chain of command to the Delphine or Archduke. Of course, the more the Duchy plays that trump card, the weaker it becomes.
