Chapter 51

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“At this level, the entire nation will know.”

“Right. All the media outlets are only bursting out Hanjong Shipping good news?”

Kangsung is Kangsung indeed.

I wondered what method they’d use to dry Elliott to death.

Chairman Kang Seong-ho mobilized Kintetsu, which Kangsung is currently devouring.

Using Kintetsu, which operates department stores, hotels, and even distribution, to burst out good news.

Honestly, if you’re someone who knows Kintetsu’s situation well, you’d know this good news is likely false.

But in the stock market where you live on good news and die on bad news, what does that matter?

Just like Elliott intentionally spread malicious reports and articles, Kangsung was shooting good news through all media outlets as if Hanjong Shipping would fly up any moment.

“Kangsung Group used their heads well. Concluding major contracts with overseas companies like Kintetsu would definitely appeal better to people.”

“Plus Daegwang moving too is unexpected. This.. Can’t be seen as coincidence, right?”

“Absolutely can’t call it coincidence. Daegwang also got hit badly by Elliott before. Plus everyone in the world knows Kangsung and Daegwang don’t get along at all. Yet they cooperated..”

“Elliott must be that much of a public enemy.”

In the past, Kangsung and Daegwang always fought over the number 1 business ranking.

Though now the gap has widened as Kangsung grew too big, past resentment still remains so they’re famously on bad terms.

But this time, the two companies joined hands.

“But will Daegwang really help Hanjong Shipping? They’re probably just saying it to float good news, right?”

“Honestly now isn’t the time for Daegwang and Hanjong to fight each other. Daegwang Shipping is almost dying too. Rather, it might be better for Daegwang and Hanjong to cooperate to show our country’s trade system is much better than other countries’.”

Of course, there was a reason Daegwang got involved.

Crushing Elliott is good, but if Hanjong collapses like this, Daegwang will likely be next.

Being in the same industry, they compete with each other, so it might seem good if one of them dies, but now they judged it’s better to unite and break through this crisis rather than wishing each other dead.

“Plus our country’s retail investors adding strength was big too. As posts spread in communities about saving collapsing Hanjong Shipping with retail investors’ hands, everyone started picking up shares one by one.”

Now Hanjong Shipping’s stock price is rising at a frightening speed.

The market cap that fell to mid-2 trillion won returned to 3 trillion won, then finally exceeded the 4 trillion wall, and now is looking at 5 trillion won.

I invested 1 trillion won receiving continuous good news for first pumping, secondly retail investors lit the fire, and institutions and foreigners who had dumped shares and pulled out joined too, literally shooting a rocket.

“At this rate it’ll just exceed 50%. It’s scary wondering how far it’ll really go?”

“What mood must Elliott bastards be in seeing this graph right now?”

“Wow. I imagined briefly. They probably don’t even have strength to get goosebumps.”

I also imagined briefly.

If it weren’t Elliott but me who took such a short, what mood would I be in now?

Wouldn’t I just be spacing out blankly staring at the screen?

***

“…”

The expressions of all employees at Elliott Management were the same.

Blankly staring at screens.

Usually when a short squeeze happens, cold sweat flows and they run around not knowing what to do, trying somehow to break through the situation.

But this exceeded that level.

That’s why they were losing their minds in dismay.

“..How did this even happen?”

Robert Stinger, founder and CEO of Elliott Management, had a pounding headache.

Due to the Mossack Fonseca incident, the assets he buried there got blocked under investigation pretext, and the incident burst while he went to resolve it.

“No matter how I look at it, this was money we were eating, so why did this happen?!”

For each project, managers write reports and create strategies to start aggressive investments.

Since Robert rolls such large amounts, he didn’t manage everything in detail.

He just roughly looks at reports and approves if judged appropriate.

That’s why it was strange.

Clearly even roughly looking, this Hanjong Shipping case should be a picture of Elliott eating tons of money.

But it became the opposite.

“According to what we found out, Kangsung, Daegwang, and Gwangwoon. These three places seem to have laid traps.”

“You mean our position got exposed?”

“Yes. It was good until we took positions, but Hanjong Group’s owner and executives dumped most of their shares, drawing attention, and our position naturally got exposed too.”

Just because your position gets exposed doesn’t mean you automatically get liquidated.

But two large corporations joined the battle and deliberately worked to kill Elliott.

Though they gain nothing from it, they plotted this.

The reason is simple.

They wanted revenge.

“These petty bastards. Running a company emotionally!”

The problem was the blade of revenge was too sharp.

“What’s really serious is, we took a short position at 300 billion won, and leveraged 2x.”

“Wh-what?! No. Leverage? What crazy bastard leveraged 2x with 300 billion? I never received such a report!”

“That.. The content is in the report. But back then, the broker side hadn’t approved the leverage yet.”

But judging that a scale like Elliott could be allowed 2x leverage, the broker side approved.

That was the starting point of the problem.

“Originally, we would’ve really eaten big and come out this time. Everything went according to plan. But suddenly it becoming like this..”

“Who’s responsible for this? Why don’t I see their face?”

“..After the situation burst, all the project managers went into hiding.”

“These irresponsible bastards!”

From several hundred billion units onward, prime brokers don’t easily allow leverage.

But if the opposing asset management company rolls large asset scale and has solid backing, they allow it.

As that interlocked, the loss amount is now growing exponentially.

“The loss already amounts to several hundred billion. The problem is the margin we need to pay the broker is insufficient with just company funds. We need to cover it..”

The executives’ eyes turned to Robert.

It was silent pressure to put out the money he has to overcome this crisis.

That’s what asset management companies are like.

Though Elliott currently rolls over 30 trillion won in assets, the company’s own assets aren’t even 1% of that.

Because profits from here are all taken as performance bonuses and busy going into their own pockets.

Why use their own money when they can invest with customers’ money?

“Are you all crazy? You want me to put out raw cash? Several hundred billion units? No. It could even be trillion units! Others caused the accident and made it like this!?”

“But at this rate it’s forced liquidation. What’s even more serious is if we face forced liquidation, credibility sharply drops and all customers who entrusted money to us will likely recover funds.”

“Already rumors are spreading that our position got exposed and we’re facing forced liquidation crisis, so customers recovering money are increasing one by one. We need to resolve this quickly.”

That Robert’s fortune reaches trillions of won is already publicly known fact.

But he too is going crazy right now.

Because he tied up money in Mossack Fonseca to hide funds and avoid taxes, he couldn’t save the company from crisis even if he wanted to.

Plus someone seems to be intentionally spreading exaggerated rumors.

Customers were swarming to recover money from funds.

“Block it somehow. Right now I can’t do anything.”

“But there’s no way to block it..”

“There must be investment money scattered in other places? Block with that first and handle it.”

“What? I-if we touch that without customer consent, it’s embezzlement.”

“I know too. But do you want to face forced liquidation like this and close the company? This place I’ve protected for a whopping 40 years! I’ll resolve the rest somehow.”

They earned money tormenting many companies all this time.

Sometimes even bringing down opposing companies.

But is this karma?

For some reason, Robert felt like he was facing karma payment for all the debts he’d put off all at once.

***

[Major overseas fund company, Elliott Management’s CEO Robert Stinger was arrested for embezzlement charges and asset concealment plus tax evasion. Behind this arrest is connection to Elliott Fund that came to Korea, and after placing massive shorts on Hanjong Shipping and getting caught in a short squeeze..]

Elliott, caught in the short squeeze, seemed to endure until the end but eventually liquidated all positions and raised the white flag.

Until then, they thought Elliott company resolved it with their own assets before facing forced liquidation.

But it was revealed they patched it with customer money in other funds, bursting into a major financial scandal.

“Look at that face saying how wronged he is. This won’t do. I’ll record that to replay whenever I’m depressed.”

“You seem very pleased.”

“Of course I’m pleased. Revenge is really exhilarating. My father should’ve seen this before passing.”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho drank his glass pleasantly watching Robert being dragged away under arrest.

“But usually such financial scandals take long to investigate and just slide by, don’t they? This is quite fast.”

“Can’t help it. This bastard blew 300 billion won of customer money this time. Where’s that money from? Quite many politicians. Those people are pissed about the lost money and beating him up now. Plus people who suffered from Elliott also think it’s opportunity to pile on together.”

Behind that was Kangsung Group’s covert participation.

They spread word in advance not only domestically but overseas too that Elliott would face forced liquidation and lose all money.

As a result, customers who entrusted money there heard the news and started recovering funds, and in the process it was revealed Elliott used customer money to plug holes.

“Thanks to Department Head Jeong, a ten-year grudge went down in one go. Thank you.”

“Did I do anything? Kangsung and Daegwang did it all.”

“That’s not important. Who united us is important. Look now. Not just our two groups but companies overseas that suffered from Elliott are all stepping up. Department Head Jeong caused this global unity.”

Didn’t intend this when entering.

But Elliott company that rolled a whopping 30 trillion won collapsed in just one blow.

The domino called Hanjong Shipping toppled a giant company.

“Looking at it this way, the financial world is really scary. A company that looked fine on the outside instantly falls when all customers turn their backs and recover funds. Honestly I didn’t know things would grow this big either.”

I never dreamed things would spread this big either.

“So, Department Head Jeong. What will you do with the shares you’re holding? They say your shareholding exceeds a whopping 40%.”

“Yes. The stock price also jumped 2x.”

“Wow. You made 1 trillion won into 2 trillion won? I think it’s been a while since I saw our country’s stock price jump double short-term.”

Domestic stocks doubling short-term like America isn’t an easy thing.

That much madness-filled surge.

But I haven’t sold the stocks yet.

“Think it’ll rise more?”

“No.”

Actually I brought my hand to the sell button several times, but no signal came.

No. To be precise, should I say the sell button spread deep red as if I really shouldn’t press it?

So that’s also why I didn’t press it.

“Wise. Department Head Jeong knows too. Selling the shares you’re holding now makes you the same bad guy as Elliott bastards.”

One reason the stock price rose crazily this time was various good news, but the fact spreading that Gwangwoon Securities stepped forward pouring money was also one reason.

Securities firms invest to make money.

But the problem was our Gwangwoon got packaged as if we stepped up to rescue retail investors trapped in Hanjong Shipping.

“Don’t misunderstand. That’s not an article I spread. Elliott bastards couldn’t die alone at the end, so they took a dump before leaving.”

“I know.”

The ones who packaged us like that were none other than Elliott.

Since they couldn’t die alone after we gave them a big dump, they did such image-making and left.

Anyway they were impressive bastards.

Being stubborn until the end.

“Thanks to that, Gwangwoon can’t throw shares now either.”

“If we throw now, we’ll get all kinds of finger-pointing. Elliott left making us some kind of heroes?”

Maybe because they’re bastards originally good at public opinion warfare.

They made us like real apostles of salvation and died.

“Still, if you thought of a way to sell, you would’ve sold somehow. Securities firms are originally good at that.”

“Yes. There are ways. We just didn’t do it.”

But even trying to press the sell button, intuition blocked me from doing so.

To the degree that button turned eerily red warning me.

“Good job. If Gwangwoon tried to sell off all shares, you would’ve really gotten hit big.”

“What?”

“I also received a report earlier. The Financial Supervisory Service was watching for an angle to stir up Gwangwoon. Seems other financial groups competing while Gwangwoon earns tons of money are starting to be wary. Especially KS side.”

KS is currently Korea’s number 1 financial group.

“Probably they put some pressure there. That Gwangwoon Securities is suspicious. Honestly the profit rate doesn’t make sense. So if Gwangwoon sells the Hanjong Shipping shares they’re holding, they planned to wage public opinion warfare with that to properly shake you down. Binding with charges like stock manipulation and such.”

“But since we didn’t sell, they can’t do that.”

“Right. Doing that now would receive tremendous criticism from citizens. Look at public opinion. Gwangwoon Securities is the apostle of justice that saved countless retail investors?”

It was truly ironic that Elliott created that image.

Probably Elliott hoped we also couldn’t sell shares and would be anxious.

“Now what will you do? Though the stock price got pumped and rose, it’s established fact Hanjong Shipping will collapse soon.”

Securities firms only buy and sell.

They absolutely don’t do management.

However, this time seems like we can’t follow that principle.

“I can attach an oxygen respirator.”

“How?”

“That good news about contracting with Kintetsu Group, I’ll make it real.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

But Chairman Kang Seong-ho has no reason to show such goodwill.

If the other side gives something, naturally this side must also put out something.

“It’s not because of such public reasons. It’s personal. Department Head Jeong did the revenge I couldn’t do. Plus.. My late father also had much built up against Elliott. How much they made him suffer in his later years.”

As if choking up a bit, Chairman Kang Seong-ho drank his glass quickly.

“Probably my father is laughing exhilaratingly in the afterlife now. This is repayment for that.”

Quite hefty for repayment.

If he really contracts with Kintetsu Group, Hanjong Shipping can attach an oxygen respirator.

But even so, the future was the problem.

Thanks to Elliott, our company became a national hero.

But we actually can’t sell the shares.

And we who have no shipping experience can’t do management either.

“Ah. And this.”

“What’s this?”

“Institutions and investors holding shares in Hanjong Shipping now. And list of executives currently holding positions. Personal details and such are written in detail too. Since things ended up this way, you have to save it somehow not to lose money, right?”

“You don’t need to do this much..”

“It’s a place contracting with our Kintetsu, so if it suddenly collapses, what about us? I’m doing it for myself, so take it.”

I skimmed through the list Chairman Kang gave.

As expected, being information from Kangsung side, it was very detailed.

First, what’s certain is Hanjong Group side people dumped almost all their shares so not much remains.

Not knowing things would turn out this way, they escaped fastest.

But they shamelessly kept executive positions.

“Whether you’ll cooperate with those bastards or boil them, discuss well with President Hwang. The already messed-up company.. Won’t be easy. Chasing out existing people isn’t the solution either. Being people who know the company system, it can be hard even if you refill them.”

I know too.

But how can I discern that with just this?

My heart wants to just sweep them all out..

“..?”

That was exactly the moment.

‘This is..’

About when I finished looking through the list.

Something like colorful paints spreading starting from my thumb were coloring people written on the list one by one.

Most executives were dyed red to the degree you couldn’t even confirm their faces.

However, exactly one person showed blue.

‘What’s different about this person?’

Other executives are mostly Hanjong Group relatives or people who came from other places.

However, Kim Du-yeong, the person uniquely dyed blue, was truly an executive who worked and rose from the very bottom for a long time.

‘He didn’t even sell shares and held them until the end.’

While other executives all sold shares, only this person held shares until the end even if a small amount.

Should I say the feeling comes that he wants somehow to protect the company he’s been with for so long?

“Probably judging with just that will be difficult. So think well and decide.”

“Yes, I should. Thank you, Chairman.”

“What thanks. If you’re really grateful, I’ll set up a gathering soon, so then..”

The rest didn’t even enter my ears.

Because my head was full of only the list my intuition showed me.

Who to kick out, and who to take, etc.

‘Thanks to this, I’ve made up my mind.’

Now what remains is the time of purge.