New Seagate Friendly Merchants Association
The NSFMA is an informal organisation of 'merchants' who have found some sembalance of respectability in numbers. It is untrue that the ships of these merchants are all swift, shallow hulled and armed. It would be perfidy of the highest nature to suggest that many of those ships were aquired by less than honest means. It is mere coincidence that piracy has fallen since the establishment of the NSFMA.
Nevertheless all these things are true. Most, if not all members of the NSFMA were pirates, buccaneers, swashbucklers, smugglers and the like. They have been forced into respectability by the influence of Seagate Guild of Adventurers and a desire to survive. Most have found that being a more or less honest merchant still allows them to get really rich.
The NSFMA house has offices, clerks and other devices of commerce as well as meeting rooms where members can meet each other and prospective clients.
The NSFMA is not hierarchial in nature and it's leader, if they had one that is would not be Carlos Verdici.