Andre Richardson (1958-2009) was an American CIA agent and the leader of the secretive "Black Monday" arms trafficking group.
Biography[]
Andre Richardson was born in New Mexico, United States in 1958, and he joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During the 1980s, Richardson and a number of fellow CIA agents went rogue with the objective of self-enrichment, trafficking weapons in Latin America and Asia and leaking classified information for payment. In 1987, this clique became known as "Black Monday" after the New York Stock Market crash it was accused of creating and manipulating, and, during the 2000s, Black Monday's trafficking of weapons to terrorists during the War on Terror led to the CIA launching an operation to crack down on the group once and for all. In 2007, the CIA and Japanese Defense Minister Ryuzo Tamiya masterminded an operation to lure out and destroy Black Monday: Tamiya would propose a bill in the Japanese Diet to expand the American military base on Okinawa to include an experimental weapons facility. Richardson, in his capacity as the covert leader of Black Monday, supported the idea, as Black Monday was interested in stealing information on the high-tech missiles which would be deployed there. Unbeknownst to the Japanese public, the bill was a ruse, as its objective was not national defense, but attracting Black Monday to Japan.
Richardson and Agent Joji Kazama were ordered by the CIA to ensure that the base expansion bill would come to fruition, and, in 2009, they visited Okinawa and stole the deed to the necessary land from the Ryudo-ikka offices, shooting Patriarch Shigeru Nakahara in the process. As, against Tamiya's will, the military base expansion bill was combined with a bill to create a resort on Okinawa, the CIA agents proceeded to fly from Okinawa to Tokyo to pressure Tojo-kai Chairman Daigo Dojima to back the resort bill as well; the Tamashiro-gumi of Okinawa, who aimed to require the land for the resort and the base, were an affiliate of the Tojo Clan. Dojima refused to betray his former mentor Kazuma Kiryu, whose Morning Glory Orphanage was located on the land in question, leading to Kazama attempting to take the deed from his pocket to show it to Daigo. Daigo mistook this for Kazama reaching for his gun, causing him to pull a gun, and forcing Richardson to shoot and critically injure Daigo. With Daigo out of commission, Richardson sought to collaborate with another party in the Tojo Clan to ensure that the project went through, supposedly for the CIA's purposes, and secretly for Black Monday's purposes.
Upon discovering that Kiryu had come to Kabukicho, Tokyo in search of the man who shot Nakahara and Daigo, Richardson and his men ambushed Kiryu in an alleyway, only for Kiryu to fight off the mysterious foreigners. Stymied, Richardson resorted to having an attack helicopter fire on the offices of the Kazama-gumi patriarch Osamu Kashiwagi as he met with Kiryu, mortally wounding Kashiwagi, while Kiryu survived. Richardson went on to partner with the Hakuho-kai patriarch Yoshitaka Mine to see to the resort deal's success. The two of them joined forces to kill Kiryu when he headed to Touto University Hospital to rescue Daigo from Mine, who intended to kill Daigo and take the chairmanship for himself. Kiryu fought through both Mine's Hakuho-kai henchmen and the CIA agents sent to apprehend Richardson, and Kiryu also took down Richardson after several fights. Kiryu found out from Richardson that Daigo was on the roof, and Kiryu defeated Mine and rescued Daigo. A recovered Richardson and the leaders of Black Monday arrived in time to confront Kiryu, the unconscious Daigo, and the weakened Mine, and Richardson decided to kill Mine, as Mine had outlived his usefulness to him. However, Daigo awoke from his coma and drew a gun which had been hidden in his stretcher, shooting Richardson's colleagues and shooting the gun from Richardson's hand. Mine proceeded to tackle Richardson and push him to the ledge of the building, and, remorseful for his willingness to betray his boss (who was now conscious), Mine decided to redeem himself by throwing himself and Richardson from the rooftop.