The investigations have been complicated by elaborate supply chains involving multiple cross-border middlemen.

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Purchase cards from chains with multiple brands like The Gap, which owns Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piperlime.com or Williams Sonoma with its Pottery Barn and West Elm stores.

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All three were provided wine lists from nine steakhouses, most of them chains with multiple U.S. and even some international locations (the exception being New York's Peter Luger, which only has two locations).

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Checkout fees also could prove challenging for big chains that have locations in multiple states.

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What this creates is chains of counterparty risk, where multiple re-hypothecation borrowers use the same collateral over and over again.

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Two of the world's best boutique luxury hotel chains, Aman Resorts and Como Resorts, have multiple lodges here set up for logistically easy - and decadent - explorations of Bhutan.

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But Defense officials say they believe the page count is inflated by multiple copies being included as replies piled up on replies in various email chains.

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However, profiting from the mispricing of risk in multiple-currency financial derivatives, or from the fact that a particular supermarket chains are undervalued, are harder for people outside the enclaves of Wall Street or the City of London to understand.

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There are real and fundamental reasons why companies continue to purchase, deploy, and even customize packaged software on-premise or via hosting partners, including uniqueness in their value chains, specific requirements in their industry, or a myriad of complex regulations across multiple countries.

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