Lord Lolorito does indeed control most of Ul'dah (money wise), his own paid employees inspect Merchants wears coming into the city. In 1.0 he also wanted peace with the Garleans as he sold and bought goods from/to them. He also had the Alacran, which you'll have to do the Gladiator sidequest to see how that goes.
Whether Leavold's death ends the Alacran or not, it remains to be seen.


Ul'dah is all about money (even the Thaumaturge guild is about money i.e. how much it costs to have oneself "prepared" for burial), the Sultana loses support every day. Raubahn is the only thing keeping her from losing the crown and possibly her head. Also why did an Ascian orchestrate the theft of her crown in the first place? If the Ascian controlled the Alacran at that time, what would the Sultana losing her crown really result in...her looking bad and the Syndicate garnishing more support -- If the item that the Ascian wanted was whatever the Sultansworn handed over, he would have taken it from the Alacran/Sultansworn not stood by idly as they were captured by Papashan and Co. The item I mention being said to the ability to bring the dead back to life and control them. Also Lord Lolorito would be giving the orders, not an Ascian..unless Lord Lolorito had been taken over by an Ascian himself. Lord Lolorito has been given a sort of humorous air about him like with the CUL quest, the Lolorito I know from 1.0 is so different, after all it's a high probability that he was the one who ordered the assassination of Niellefresne.