A question about criminal branch offices

[SgtCinnamon]

Hey guys, went through a few pages of threads and many google attempts to find the answers, plus the wiki wasnt helping but,
What are the specific requirements to place a criminal branch office on a planet? I know they cant be another megacorp or a hive mind, and apparently it cant be allied nations. What about non megacorp subsidiaries of yours or vassals of allies?
Thank

[Unkgryn]

So you don't have to have a commercial pact like a non-criminal Megacorp, other than that the limits are generous. It must be a "regular" empire, meaning it would be any empire that takes the democratic/olig/dict/imperial green civics. This discounts hives, machines, and other Megacorps. The target empire cannot be anyone you are at war with or have/share a truce with. I'm not sure you can crime up a vassal or subsidiary since they are a subject empire and have no diplomatic freedom so they are not a regular empire. In general you should avoid defensive pacts as it will create long standing truces with enemies/allies during a period that you might want to criminalize their homeworld. Also the longer you can wait to make a branch, the better. I'd recommend waiting until most of the building slots on a planet are filled or close to being filled for a few reasons.

1) The AI tends to OMFFFGGG when it notices your crime houses and it cracks down. Early branch office is you taxing another empire a building slot by forcing them to build a cop building rather than an alloy plant. Later branch office, on a medium to large planet in an empire with lots of building colonies, the homeworld will have a high population (higher base crime) and high emigration push (slower growth/a while before more building slots). That is a good target. The AI tends to stuff buildings into any empty slot anyways, and is slow to react to crime below a certain threshold. Once it does act it acts with force.

2) Early branch offices are 50/50 for normal Megacorps that have methods of making them worth more. For scum and villainy like us it can be less than 50/50 early on.

3) The resources, upkeep, and sprawl you spend creating them would be better utilized in building up yourself early on

4) The resources, upkeep, and sprawl will be exactly the same early on when the office is worth less and more easily dealt with versus later when it is worth much more and will stay for longer.

5) Waiting until you can build 2-3 buildings as soon as you open the branch office means you can CRIME THE **** out of that planet all at once rather than slowly over time.

All statements above are my opinions