Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Translator: Dreamscribe

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

“Right? Every single media outlet is only blowing up good news about Hanjong Shipping.”

As expected, Kangseong is indeed Kangseong.

I had wondered what method they’d use to choke out Neriet.

Chairman Kang Sung-ho mobilized Jintetsu, which Kangseong is currently swallowing up.

They were using Jintetsu, which operates department stores, hotels, and even distribution businesses, to generate favorable news.

Honestly, anyone familiar with Jintetsu’s situation would know that this good news is most likely false.

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

Just as Neriet had deliberately spread malicious reports and articles, Kangseong was blasting favorable news through all media outlets, making it seem like Hanjong Shipping would skyrocket any minute now.

“This is a smart move by Kangseong Group. Signing a large-scale contract with an overseas company like Jintetsu will definitely appeal more to people.”

“On top of that, Daekwang’s involvement is unexpected. This… we can’t call it a coincidence, right?”

“There’s no way this is a coincidence. I heard Daekwang also took a big hit from Neriet before. And everyone knows that Kangseong and Daekwang aren’t on good terms. The fact that they’re cooperating despite that…”

“It must mean Neriet is that much of a common enemy.”

In the past, Kangseong and Daekwang were always competing for the number one spot in the business world.

Now that Kangseong has grown so large, the gap has widened significantly, but the old grudges remain, and the two are still known for not getting along.

And yet, this time, the two companies have joined forces.

“But do you really think Daekwang is trying to help Hanjong Shipping? Isn’t it just about generating good news?”

“To be honest, now’s not the time for Daekwang and Hanjong to fight. Daekwang Shipping is pretty much dying too. It might actually be better for Daekwang and Hanjong to cooperate and show the world that our country’s trade system is far better than others.”

Of course, there was a reason Daekwang got involved.

It’s all well and good to crush Neriet, but if Hanjong collapses like this, Daekwang might be next in line.

Since they’re in the same industry and in competition, one would think it’s better for one to fall. But right now, rather than hoping for each other’s downfall, it seems they judged that it’s better to unite and overcome the crisis together.

“Besides, the help from retail investors in our country also played a big role. Posts started spreading through online communities saying we should save the collapsing Hanjong Shipping with our own hands, and people began scooping up shares one by one.”

Right now, Hanjong Shipping’s stock is rising at a frightening speed.

Its market cap, which had dropped to the mid-2 trillion won range, seemed to recover to 3 trillion won, then finally broke the 4 trillion won barrier, and now it’s eyeing 5 trillion won.

I had injected 1 trillion won and sparked the first pump with a string of good news, then the second wave was ignited by retail investors, and now even institutions and foreign investors who had sold off and exited are joining in. It’s like we’ve launched a rocket.

“At this rate, a 50% rise is just a given. Honestly, it’s getting scary how far this could go.”

“By now, I wonder how those Neriet bastards are feeling looking at this graph.”

“Wow. I just imagined it for a second. I don’t think they’d even have the strength to feel chills.”

I also imagined it briefly.

If I had been the one shorting instead of Neriet, how would I be feeling right now?

Wouldn’t I just be staring blankly at the screen, dazed and helpless?

***

“…….”

The expressions on the employees at Neriet Management were all the same.

They were staring blankly at their screens.

Usually, when a short squeeze happens, cold sweat breaks out, people panic, and everyone runs around trying to find a way to recover.

But this had gone beyond that level.

That’s why they were in a daze, mentally checked out.

“……What the hell happened here?”

Robert Stinger, the founder and CEO of Neriet Management, had a throbbing headache.

Due to the recent Mossack Fonseca incident, the assets he had buried there were frozen under the guise of investigation, and while he was dealing with that, this incident had exploded.

“No matter how I look at it, this should have been money we made, why the hell is this happening?!”

Managers for each project wrote reports and created strategies to begin aggressive investment.

Because Robert was managing such a large amount of capital, he didn’t manage every detail closely.

He would simply skim the reports and, if he deemed them appropriate, give his approval.

That’s why this felt strange.

Even with a quick glance, this Hanjong Shipping case should have been a scenario where Neriet made a killing.

But the opposite had happened.

“According to what we’ve found, it seems Kangseong, Daekwang, and Kwangwoon, those three set up a trap.”

“Are you saying our position got exposed?”

“Yes. It was fine when we first took our position, but because most of the shares held by Hanjong Group’s owner and executives were dumped, it drew attention, and our position was naturally exposed as a result.”

Just because a position is exposed doesn’t automatically lead to liquidation.

But two conglomerates had joined the game with the clear intention of taking Neriet down.

They had orchestrated this despite there being no real benefit to them.

The reason was simple.

They wanted revenge.

“Those petty bastards. Running a company based on emotions!”

The problem was, that blade of revenge was far too sharp.

“What’s really serious is that we took a short position worth 300 billion won, but we used 2x leverage on it.”

“What, what!? No, leverage? Which crazy bastard doubled leverage on 300 billion? I never received a report like that!”

“Th-the detail was in the report, but… at the time, the broker hadn’t yet approved the leverage.”

But perhaps because Neriet was large enough in scale, the broker had judged that 2x leverage was acceptable and approved it.

That was the starting point of the disaster.

“Originally, we were supposed to make a huge profit this time. Everything was going according to plan. But suddenly, it turned out like this…”

“Who the hell is the person in charge of this? Why haven’t I seen a single hair of him?”

“…After the incident broke out, all project managers involved have gone dark.”

“Such irresponsible bastards!”

Once you deal in the scale of hundreds of billions, prime brokers rarely allow leverage.

However, if the asset manager on the other side is managing a large amount of capital with a solid background, they might make an exception.

Because all of that aligned, the current losses were growing exponentially.

“As of now, the losses already amount to several hundred billion won. The bigger issue is that we don’t have enough company funds to cover the margin calls from the broker. We need to make up the shortfall…”

All eyes of the executives turned to Robert.

It was a silent pressure for him to put up his own money to overcome this crisis.

That’s how asset management firms operate.

Currently, Neriet is managing over 30 trillion won in assets, but the company’s actual own assets don’t even account for 1% of that.

Because all the profits made here are taken as performance bonuses and stuffed into their own pockets.

Why would they use their own money when they can invest with clients’ funds?

“Have you all lost your minds? You want me to cough up cash? And not just a few billion, you’re talking hundreds of billions? No, possibly even trillions! This happened because those other bastards screwed up!”

“But if this continues, we’re facing forced liquidation. What’s even worse is that if forced liquidation happens, our credit rating will plummet, and there’s a high chance that all the clients who’ve entrusted us with their money will start withdrawing it.”

“There are already rumors spreading that our position has been exposed and that we’re on the verge of forced liquidation. One by one, clients are starting to pull out their money. We have to resolve this quickly.”

It was already a widely known fact that Robert’s personal wealth amounted to several trillion won.

But even he was on the verge of losing his mind now.

In his attempt to hide assets and evade taxes, he had tied up his money in Mossack Fonseca, and because of that, he couldn’t even save his own company from crisis.

On top of that, someone was clearly spreading exaggerated rumors on purpose.

Clients were rushing in to withdraw funds from the fund.

“Do whatever it takes to stop it. I can’t do anything about this right now.”

“But there’s no way to stop it…”

“Don’t we have investment capital scattered in other places? Use that to block this and handle it for now.”

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

“I know that. But do you want the company to go under due to forced liquidation? This is a company I’ve protected for 40 years! I’ll figure out the rest myself.”

He had made money over the years by ruining countless companies.

At times, he had even completely destroyed his opponents.

But was this what they called karma?

For some reason, Robert felt as if he was now paying all at once for all the debts he had put off until now.

***

[Robert Stinger, CEO of overseas major fund company Neriet Management, has been arrested on charges of embezzlement, asset concealment, and tax evasion. The background of the arrest is related to the Neriet Fund that had entered Korea and, after heavily shorting Hanjong Shipping, was caught in a short squeeze…]

Neriet, caught in the short squeeze, seemed to be holding out until the end, but eventually liquidated all positions and raised the white flag.

At the time, everyone thought Neriet had resolved the issue using its own assets before the company was forcibly liquidated.

But it was later revealed that they had patched the hole using money from clients’ funds placed in other funds, and that sparked a massive financial scandal. Follow current novels on novel·fire·net

“Look at that face, he looks like he’s going insane from injustice. No, I have to record this. I’m going to replay this every time I get depressed.”

“You seem to be enjoying this a lot.”

“Of course I am. Revenge is sweet. My father should’ve been alive to see this.”

Chairman Kang Sung-ho raised his glass happily as he watched Robert being dragged away in custody.

“But usually financial scandals like this take a long time to investigate and tend to get brushed over, right? This one moved fast.”

“There’s no other way. That bastard just blew 300 billion won of client money. Where do you think that money came from? There are quite a few politicians among the investors. They’re furious about the losses and are beating him down hard. And then, all the people who’d been screwed over by Neriet over the years are jumping in now that they see their chance.”

Behind all this was the silent hand of Kangseong Group.

Not only in Korea but even overseas, word had been spread in advance that Neriet was about to be forcibly liquidated and lose all its money.

As a result, clients who had entrusted their money to Neriet began withdrawing their funds once they heard the news, and in the process, it was discovered that Neriet had been using client money to cover losses.

“Thanks to Department Head Jung, a ten-year grudge was resolved in an instant. Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything. Kangseong and Daekwang took care of everything.”

“That’s not what matters. What matters is who united us. Look now. Not just our two groups, but even overseas companies that were once hurt by Neriet are all stepping forward. It’s Department Head Jung who caused this global unity.”

It hadn’t been his intention going in.

But the company Neriet, which managed over 30 trillion won, had crumbled in a single blow.

Hanjong Shipping, a single domino, had taken down a massive corporation.

“When you look at it this way, the financial world is terrifying. A company that seemed perfectly fine on the outside collapsed in an instant once the clients turned their backs and pulled their money. Honestly, I didn’t expect things to escalate this much.”

I, too, had never imagined it would spiral this far.

“Speaking of which, Department Head Jung, what do you plan to do with the shares you’re holding? I heard your stake is over 40%.”

“Yes. And the stock price has doubled.”

“Wow. You turned 1 trillion won into 2 trillion? I don’t think I’ve seen a Korean stock double in such a short time in a long while.”

In the domestic market, it’s rare for a stock to double in a short period like in the U.S.

It had been a truly mad rally.

But I hadn’t sold the shares yet.

“Because you think it’ll go higher?”

“No.”

The truth was, I had reached for the sell button several times, but the signal never came.

No. To be precise, it felt as though the sell button was glowing in such a deep red that it screamed not to be pressed.

That was part of the reason I didn’t press it.

“Smart move. Department Head Jung, you know it too, right? If you sell that stake now, you’ll be no different from those Neriet bastards.”

The insane rise in the stock price came from multiple favorable factors, but one of them was the fact that it had spread that Kwangwoon Securities was aggressively pouring in money.

Sure, securities firms invest to make money.

But the problem was that Kwangwoon had ended up being portrayed as stepping in to rescue the retail investors trapped in Hanjong Shipping.

“Don’t get me wrong. That wasn’t an article I planted. It was the Neriet bastards, on their way out, they couldn’t stand dying alone, so they dumped that mess on us.”

“I know.”

It was none other than Neriet who had painted us in that light.

They had turned Kwangwoon, the one that had handed them a massive loss, into some kind of hero image as they exited, refusing to die alone.

They were incredible to the end.

Throwing a tantrum even as they collapsed.

“Thanks to that, Kwangwoon can’t sell its stake right now either.”

“If we sell now, we’ll be criticized from all directions. Neriet basically painted us as heroes before they went under.”

Maybe because they had always been good at media manipulation.

They had made us look like true messiahs, then died.

“Still, if there was a way to sell, you would’ve found it and sold already. Securities firms are good at that kind of thing.”

“Yes. There are ways. I just didn’t take them.”

But every time I reached for the sell button, my instincts stopped me.

As if that button had turned an ominous red, warning me not to press it.

“Well done. If Kwangwoon had tried to dump all its shares, we’d have taken a serious hit.”

“What?”

“I just got the report earlier. The Financial Supervisory Service had been eyeing Kwangwoon, waiting for a chance to dig into us. Since Kwangwoon has been raking in cash lately, other competing financial groups are getting nervous. Especially KS.”

KS is currently the number one financial group in Korea.

“They probably started applying some pressure. Saying Kwangwoon Securities looks suspicious. Honestly, our returns have been unreal. So if Kwangwoon had sold its shares in Hanjong Shipping now, they’d have used it to drive public opinion and go after us properly. With accusations of market manipulation or other charges bundled in.”

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

“Exactly. If we did, we’d be massively criticized by the public right now. Just look at the public sentiment. Kwangwoon Securities is being hailed as a righteous savior that rescued countless retail investors.”

The irony was that it was Neriet who had built that image for us on their way out.

They probably hoped that we’d end up paralyzed, unable to sell our shares either.

“So what now? The stock price may have surged through pumping, but the collapse of Hanjong Shipping is inevitable.”

A securities firm only buys and sells.

It never manages companies.

But this time, it seemed that principle wouldn’t hold.

“I can put them on life support.”

“How?”

“I’ll turn that good news about signing a deal with the Jintetsu Group into a reality.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

But there was no reason for Chairman Kang Sung-ho to offer such kindness for nothing.

If one side gives something, the other side must naturally give something in return.

“It’s not for public reasons. It’s personal. You got revenge for me, the revenge I couldn’t take myself. Besides… my late father had a lot of unresolved business with Neriet. You have no idea how much those bastards made him suffer in his final years.”

Perhaps feeling a lump in his throat, Chairman Kang Sung-ho quickly downed his drink.

“My father’s probably laughing with satisfaction in the afterlife right now. This is my way of paying him back.”

As far as paybacks go, it was a strong one.

If a real contract with Jintetsu Group were signed, Hanjong Shipping would get the life support it desperately needed.

But even so, the problem lay ahead.

Thanks to Neriet, our company had become a national hero.

But in reality, we were now in a position where we couldn’t even sell our shares.

That said, we couldn’t run the company ourselves, we had no experience in shipping.

“Oh, and this.”

“What is this?”

“A list of institutions and investors currently holding shares in Hanjong Shipping. And also the executives who are still in position. It includes detailed personal information too. Since things have come this far, don’t you think we should at least try to save it and not lose money?”

“You really didn’t have to go this far…”

“This is the company that’s about to sign a contract with our Jintetsu. What are we supposed to do if it suddenly goes bankrupt? I’m doing this for myself, so just take it.”

I skimmed through the list Chairman Kang handed me.

As expected, coming from Kangseong, the information was incredibly detailed.

One thing was clear, people from the Hanjong Group side had already sold off most of their shares, with barely any remaining.

They didn’t expect things to unfold like this and were the first to bail.

Yet shamelessly, they were still holding on to their executive positions.

“Whether you want to cooperate with those guys or chew them up, discuss it well with CEO Hwang. The company’s already a mess… it won’t be easy. But kicking out all the existing people isn’t always the answer either. They know the system, and replacing them could end up being even harder.”

I knew that too.

But how could I possibly sort through that with just this information?

If I had my way, I’d just sweep them all away-.

“……?”

It was at that very moment.

‘This is-’

Just as I finished going through most of the list, something like multicolored paint started spreading from my thumb, coloring each name on the list.

Most of the executives were stained in red, to the point that I couldn’t even make out their faces.

But only one person was marked in blue.

‘What makes this person different?’

Most of the other executives were either relatives of the Hanjong Group family or outsiders brought in from elsewhere.

But the one person marked in blue, Kim Doo-young, was an executive who had truly worked his way up from the bottom over a long period.

‘He didn’t even sell his shares, and he held onto them until the end.’

All the other executives had dumped their shares, but this man, even if only holding a small amount, had not sold a single one.

You could feel his desire to somehow protect the company he had devoted himself to for so long.

“You probably can’t make a decision based on that alone. So think it through carefully.”

“Yes, I will. Thank you, Chairman.”

“No need for thanks. If you’re really grateful, I’ll arrange something for you soon, so when that happens-”

I didn’t even hear the rest.

My mind was completely filled with the list my intuition had shown me.

Who to remove, who to keep, and so on.

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

Now all that remained was the time for purging.