The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 399



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399. Extortion (4)

Two days ago, a grand inauguration ceremony was held.

It was an inauguration ceremony in which all executives of Taewoo Group attended, and even executives from many financial companies residing in the financial tower were present.

However, the atmosphere of the first half of the event and the second half of the event were completely different.

Tremendous cheers poured out for Vice Chairman Taewoo Group and Vice Chairman Park Man-deok, who was resigning from his position as head of the financial affiliates.

This was proof that Vice Chairman Park Man-deok’s character and ability were outstanding.

As someone who had protected the Taewo Group for a long time, he was highly respected.

However, the atmosphere of the second half of the event, President Han Jeong-hoon’s inauguration ceremony as vice president, was different.

He was a president who was younger than most executives and was labeled as having left Taewo Group for Wall Street and then returned.

Therefore, there were no loud cheers.

However, there were no voices opposing his inauguration as vice president.

This was because the rumor that Taewu Group’s finances were tightly controlled by one president was widely spread within Taewu Group.

That’s how Han Jeong-hoon became vice president.

He was invited to a dinner at the Blue House just one day after assuming the position of vice president.

And today, it was a vice president who came to see me early in the morning to report on what happened at the banquet hall.

“When I became Vice Chairman, the atmosphere started to change. If I had created this atmosphere at the Blue House event, the story would have gone very well.”

“······Chairman, did you know that the goal of this Blue House dinner was extortion?”

“Extortion? I don’t know.”

“I received a similar offer of threats to collect money and donate it to the foundation according to the ranking of the business community. We are also putting pressure on them through the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI).”

I continued to pretend not to know.

Vice Chairman Han continued speaking, pounding his chest with his fist as if he was feeling frustrated.

“They asked me to contribute a total of over 77 billion won. I even heard them blatantly say that since Taewoo Group is number one in the business world, they should pay the most money.”

“So how much was Taewoo Group allocated?”

“First of all, it is 20 billion won. We pointed out Taewo Group and Samjin Electronics and asked them to contribute 20 billion won.”

20 billion won was by no means a small amount of money.

Although we say we made tens of trillions of dollars in the first quarter.

That was a result achieved through our efforts, but donating 20 billion won to the foundation was a problem on a different level.

“But why were we and Samjin Electronics allocated the same amount? Since we are number one in the business world, shouldn’t we pay more?”

“I was a little suspicious, so I did some research. I’m guessing that Samjin Electronics is probably in the process of succession, so they pay the same amount as us.”

“Have you conducted other investigations as well?”

“It has been confirmed that compensation plans have been provided to each company in return for supporting the foundation. It appears that the government has promised to help with overseas construction orders, support for temporary MOU agreements, and even succession succession.”

As large corporations were large, they had many problems.

In particular, large corporations specialized in the domestic market were often greatly influenced by the government.

The current situation in the Korean business world was such that if the government explicitly pushed one company, rival companies would lose work and sales could plummet.

“But we don’t really have anything to receive, do we?”

“The head of the Blue House did offer some compensation in passing. He said he would push the highway project to Taewoo Construction and guarantee several energy-related projects.”

“These are not very appealing suggestions.”

Most of Taewo Group’s sales were coming from overseas.

Of course, we occupied a large portion of the domestic market, but our sales were less than a quarter of those coming from the United States.

So there was no need for us to accept the offer.

This was because it was capable of winning a large number of orders without support from the Korean government and was also able to expand overseas.

“It’s not appealing, but shouldn’t we have no choice but to support it? Since it is for the sake of hosting the Olympics and nothing else, the moment you refuse, you could be branded an unscrupulous company.”

“I don’t mind being branded an evil company, but the government will harass Taewo Group in various ways.”

“Starting with a tax investigation, problems can arise with the new headquarters and financial tower. And if there is controversy every time a license is granted, it will be difficult for all affiliates.”

It was the Blue House with imperial power.

Although it may not be able to destroy the Taewo Group, it possesses enough power to harass it.

“It would be a waste to give it all at once, so let’s do it little by little.”

“Are you suggesting we pay the contribution in installments? I don’t think the government will be very happy about it.”

“But that doesn’t mean we won’t give it to you, so at least it won’t put you at a disadvantage.”

“Then how can I divide the payment?”

“Say you will contribute 2.5 billion won each this year and next year, and 15 billion won the year after.”

“Is there a reason to pay only KRW 2.5 billion this year and next year? From a group perspective, it is best to pay KRW 5 billion annually for four years.”

That’s because you don’t have to pay after three years.

Even next year, the foundation’s corruption issue would be in the media.

Since the impeachment of the president will be carried out next year, we were able to save 15 billion won.

“You don’t know how things will change at the end of the administration, right? So for now, let’s pay as little as possible and see what happens during the presidential lame duck period.”

“It doesn’t seem like a bad plan. After attending the dinner party, I got the feeling that the lame duck would come sooner than expected.”

“Why is that so?”

The atmosphere at the banquet hall must have been friendly.

Nevertheless, it was Vice President Han who discovered the abnormal airflow.

“Chairman Cho of Hyunjin Group is the chairman of the Olympic bid committee. However, he even appeared to raise his voice with the head of the Blue House as if something was not going well.”

“Chairman Cho is definitely a strong-willed person. He probably doesn’t like meddling in personal matters.”

I thought this might be the starting point.

Even before the return, there was a story that Hyunjin Shipping went bankrupt due to hatred from the Blue House.

A dispute between the foundation and the Olympic bid committee chairman.

Due to the aftermath, the scenario that Hyunjin Shipping went bankrupt without receiving help from the government was not unrealistic.

“It is questionable whether he will be able to maintain his position as Olympic bid chairman. The power of the foundation appears to be stronger than that of the bid chairman.”

“Chairman Cho’s personality means he won’t just be patient.”

In the face of living power, even the chairman of a large company cannot do much.

Chairman Cho would probably have to step down from his position as bid chairman, and would have to wait for the administration to end under pressure from the government.

“I’ll just watch from afar so I don’t get hit by accidentally falling sparks.”

“That’s right. Now forget about the Blue House and only focus on China.”

“$60 billion in funds from Taewoo Group and Financial Tower have safely infiltrated the Chinese stock market. We plan to gradually increase short selling volume, and we believe we will be able to release all $60 billion in short selling volume before June at the latest.”

The larger the investment, the more complicated the process became.

In order to proceed with short selling with an amount of as much as $60 billion.

You had to short sell a wide variety of companies, and the returns could vary greatly depending on the company.

“We will proceed on our own, but please coordinate well so that financial tower financial companies do not feel that they are the only ones being discriminated against.”

“Even if Taewoo Securities suffers some loss in return, we have created an investment portfolio aimed at increasing the return on financial towers.”

“Don’t give them too much. If they get into the wrong habit, they might later take it for granted that we feed them.”

We needed a hunting dog.

A hunting dog that is too full will not want to hunt.

So, you had to give it the right amount of food to habituate it into a good hunting dog that obeys commands.

“I will do so. However, after receiving information from China, it appears that the real estate market is already in a recession. It is said that there are hundreds of small and medium-sized construction companies going bankrupt.”

“Money that had been pouring into the real estate market flowed out into the stock market, so it’s natural that real estate would be shaken first.”

“Maybe that’s why financial companies are flooding the financial towers with plans to short sell construction companies.”

“Please make arrangements so that you can short sell wherever you want as much as possible.”

The larger the scale of money, the more destructive power it has.

That’s why I moved with the financial companies in the financial tower.

If the entire financial tower conducts short selling rather than Taewoo Securities alone, the Chinese stock market will fall more dramatically.

When the US-China hegemony war begins.

The financial companies in the financial tower would become hunting dogs and protect me.

Therefore, I continued to feed them and raise them.

“And there is news from Wall Street. It is said that the number of hedge funds that Canos has bankrupted is as high as 20.”

“Most of the hedge funds that participated in short selling went bankrupt.”

“It is said that even companies that have gone bankrupt are being shaken off. Perhaps that is why people on Wall Street say they do not want to make eye contact with Canos or even be in the same space.”

It was Kanos who established himself as a true Shinigami.

At first glance, you might think that you are an outcast on Wall Street.

I had to assume that I couldn’t approach him out of fear, not bullying.

They were financial companies on Wall Street who were afraid that they, too, would be captured by the reaper and face the death of bankruptcy.

“It’s refreshing to have a knife. When the knife is finished, tell them to go to China. Soon, there will be a lot of places in China where they have been cut.”

“Do you plan to entrust Kanos with the reorganization of bankrupt Chinese companies?”

“Wouldn’t a person the size of Kanos get scared and spit out money if he made a move? And now Kanos is engulfed in madness. He is the only madman in China, a communist country, who can cut with a knife.”

What if large-scale short selling is carried out against Chinese companies?

No matter how deep the relationship with China is, the link is bound to weaken.

Even if a portion of the profits were shared with the Chinese government leadership, the relationship could not be the same as before.

Moreover, if the Korean War was activated due to THAAD, the relationship could become irreparable.

So now we had to prepare for a new relationship with China.

So far, we have deliberately taken a low-key stance toward the Chinese leadership.

In the future, the Taewo Group would emerge as an axis of the U.S.-China struggle for hegemony, so dialogue or negotiations had to be held on equal terms.

“Once we finish our work in China, we will entrust Kanos with short selling major companies. So make sure to share the necessary information.”

“Are you saying you are raising Kanos to be a hitman exclusively for the Taewoong Group?”

“Rather than a hitman, he’s closer to a cleaner. Assassination requires you to move quietly, but cleaning requires you to sweep up every speck of dust in front of everyone.”

There will be endless opportunities for short selling in the future.

Especially when the Corona era comes, many companies will collapse.

In preparation for that day, it was necessary to turn Kanos into the perfect corporate cleaner.

While I was talking about Kanos with a vice president for a while.

Center Director Cheon Min-jeong rushed into the office.

Just by looking at her heightened expression, I could guess that something huge had happened, and I had no choice but to jump out of my seat at the words she said.

“I received a call from Robo Nordisk! They say they plan to dispose of the new drug!”