Chapter 217: Repaying a Favor (2)
"The choice is yours, Mr. Pierce."
At my words, Pierce responded with a stiff expression.
"A choice? Isn’t this more like a threat?"
"How unfortunate that you would so badly misinterpret a ‘favor.’"
Well, it was a reaction I had expected.
When something is too persuasive, people often mistake it for manipulation.
"Once again, let me be clear—this is not a threat. Haven’t I given you the right to choose? Whatever your decision may be, I intend to fully respect it."
"....."
"If you’re not comfortable with it, we can just forget this whole favor ever happened..."
“No, wait. It’s not like that. Can I at least hear the details before making up my mind?” “Of course.”
I didn’t expect Pierce to answer immediately anyway.
He wasn’t the kind of person to leap at a proposal without knowing anything about it.
So I calmly laid out the story I had prepared.
The story of the crisis that would soon hit Goldman.
“In 2012 and 2013, Goldman managed three rounds of bond issuance for the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, raising approximately 6.5 billion dollars.”
“Is that... supposed to be a problem?”
“At the time, Goldman collected a commission of 600 million dollars.”
Pierce was momentarily speechless.
A 600-million-dollar fee on a 6.5-billion-dollar deal.
That’s nearly 10% of the principal amount.
Considering that the industry average in similar cases is around 1 to 2%, this was clearly an abnormal figure.
A moment later, Pierce spoke in a nervous voice.
“For highly specialized transactions, sometimes the commission rate is higher than average. If the risk is great, there’s a corresponding premium, naturally...”
But it was my next line that broke him.
“That sovereign wealth fund—it’s a scam.”
Cough! Cough!
As soon as the word "scam" left my mouth, Pierce bent forward, erupting into a coughing fit. It had clearly shocked him.
Well, I couldn’t blame him.
Look at the frauds I’d exposed so far.
Theranos and Valeant.
Both had rocked entire nations.
Now that a big fish like me was declaring another scam, who could possibly remain calm?
“A scam… are you sure?”
Pierce asked in a parched voice, barely regaining his composure.
I nodded and replied.
“Yes, I’m sure. That sovereign wealth fund was advertised as being created for Malaysian development, but in reality, it was just a front for the Prime Minister’s political funds and luxury shopping. Even now, most of the fund’s capital is flowing into a scammer’s personal accounts and disappearing.”
In short, it was embezzlement and corruption funded by taxpayers.
“But the longer the tail, the more likely it is to get stepped on. The fund’s debt has ballooned to 11 billion dollars, and with delays in audit reports, even the Malaysian press has started raising eyebrows.”
Within a few months, this suspicion will grow into massive protests in Malaysia.
And by next year, it will explode into an international issue.
“When that happens, the U.S. Department of Justice will launch an investigation. American investors who bought the bonds will have taken losses. And the blade will turn toward Goldman.”
Why? Because Goldman received a fee ten times the industry norm for issuing bonds for this fraudulent fund.
“It’ll be hard to escape suspicion that Goldman turned a blind eye in exchange for kickbacks.”
The truth is, Goldman didn’t know it was a scam.
They just ignored all the red flags because they were blinded by the massive fee.
As a result, in my past life, Goldman was fined 5 billion dollars for this incident.
And its credibility was shattered.
“If things continue like this, the damage will be catastrophic. There’s only one way to stop it. Goldman needs to act first—not respond after the fact, but proactively cooperate with regulators to take down the scammer from the beginning.”
That was my plan.
In this life, I intended to personally take that scammer down.
Yet, Pierce’s face remained grim.
“So, what you’re saying is... you want Goldman to come forward and admit its wrongdoing?”
“That’s right. Otherwise, the firm won’t be seen as a victim, but as a co-conspirator.”
“This is... the favor you meant to repay?”
Disappointment tinged Pierce’s voice.
“Do you think this isn’t enough to repay the ‘debt’ I owe?”
“To be honest, yes. You’ll probably gain more fame from another exposé, but from Goldman’s perspective, it’s still a net loss.”
Even if things went exactly as I had outlined, the benefit to Goldman would be marginal.
At best, it would reduce a major crisis into a minor one.
But in that moment, I realized why Pierce was really dissatisfied.
Goldman was one thing—but he personally didn’t stand to gain anything from this.
And since he was the one who held the IOU, it felt like a waste to use it here.
There was a bit of a misunderstanding, though.
“Regardless of what Goldman gets, don’t you think this is a golden opportunity for you, Mr. Pierce?”
“For me?”
“Someone at Goldman is going to have to take the fall for this crisis.”
Pierce said nothing, but I could tell he understood.
This was a political weapon he could use to pin the blame on his internal rival and push them out of the way.
Even so, he still didn’t look satisfied.
“You still think it’s not enough, huh.”
“Well, in the story you told earlier, didn’t the swallow’s favor completely change the protagonist’s life?”
And compared to that, my offer was rather underwhelming.
I got the message.
But honestly, I had to stifle a laugh.
“Greedy, aren’t you?”
The first favor I owed Pierce was letting me take that Theranos business trip.
All I did was leave the office for a few days—and that was it.
Given that, what I was offering now was already a generous return.
And yet he wanted more?
Pierce folded his arms and fell into thought for a moment, then spoke.
“May I have some time to think about it? You said you’re not ‘forcing’ me, after all…”
It was clear he was angling for a bigger reward.
I nodded calmly.
“Of course. Take your time to think. And if you decide you’re not interested, feel free to decline. However...”
I paused briefly, then continued.
“If that’s the case, I hope you’ll understand that I have no choice but to do what I must.”
“What you must?”
I looked him straight in the eyes and declared each word clearly.
“I’ll be shorting Goldman.”
Cough! Cough!
Pierce broke into another coughing fit.
This one lasted even longer than the last.
And again, I couldn’t blame him.
My last short target was Valeant.
At the time, I had rallied individual investors across the country to launch a revolution and took down one of Wall Street’s giants.
And now I was planning to short Goldman?
Pierce must have been terrified.
“You’re... not serious, are you...?”
“Isn’t shorting the only way to profit from this information? That’s what any hedge fund would do.”
“I have a fiduciary duty to my investors. I’m obligated to generate profits for them.”
“.....”
“But in the East, there's something even more important than fiduciary duty—and that’s the principle of repaying favors. That’s why I wanted to repay mine. But if the recipient refuses…”
“.....”
“Then I have no choice but to fulfill my original obligation.”
“.....”
“This decision isn’t mine. I’m just following Mr. Pierce’s choice.”
So now, Pierce had only two options.
Would he be Heungbu—or Nolbu?
If he accepted the favor like Heungbu...
He would be seen publicly as the hero who saved Goldman from crisis, and further secure a powerful position in internal corporate politics.
But if he got greedy and chose to go the Nolbu route?
Goldman would reel from the short-selling attack by the orca, and end up paying an astronomical fine.
As an executive, Pierce would be overwhelmed trying to manage the aftermath.
“Which option will you choose?”
#
Pierce made the wise decision.
He chose to accept my favor.
In other words, he decided to join forces with me to catch the scammer.
Over the next few days, we focused on devising a detailed strategy.
I pulled out my smartphone and handed it to Pierce.
On the screen was a photo from a recent movie premiere party.
“This is the scammer, John Lau.”
A smiling Asian man stood among glamorous Hollywood stars.
That man was John Lau, a Chinese Malaysian.
He was the ringleader of the sovereign fund fraud.
“He’s actually something of a celebrity in Hollywood. His over-the-top lifestyle constantly makes headlines. Even in Hollywood, his extravagance stands out.”
John Lau threw around millions of dollars a day.
One day he’d blow it all gambling in Las Vegas, and another day he’d shower everyone in a nightclub with champagne.
Sometimes he’d randomly gift expensive jewelry to passing women—his spending had absolutely no plan or restraint.
Pierce frowned in confusion.
“I don’t get it. If he’s a scammer embezzling fund money, shouldn’t he be more careful?”
That would be the instinct of a normal person.
But scammers are different.
They have nerves of steel that ordinary people don’t.
“This kind of extravagance is actually John Lau’s strategy. He uses his flashy lifestyle to build connections with celebrities in Hollywood.”
In some ways, it was a smart strategy.
Business tycoons and old-money elites are cautious.
To approach them, you need credibility.
But as a foreigner suddenly appearing from Asia, he didn’t have that kind of credibility. So he chose a different path.
“In Hollywood, it doesn’t matter where you come from—you can buy your network with money.”
When I swiped to the next photo, Pierce’s eyes went wide.
In the next shot, standing beside John Lau was the world-famous actor, Dacaprio.
“John Lau’s strongest connection, bought with money. He funded the production of Wolves of Wall Street and got close to him that way.”
John Lau poured a staggering 100 million dollars into Dacaprio’s movie.
And he threw in a special gift on top of that.
Creative freedom to make the movie however he wanted, without interference from big, conservative studios.
In essence, he bought the friendship of a global superstar with 100 million dollars.
“He’s been using his wealth as a weapon to build his network in Hollywood. And every time the Malaysian Prime Minister visits the U.S., he invites these celebrities to parties to flaunt his influence.”
His image of mingling with Hollywood stars had a powerful halo effect beyond imagination.
Especially in the U.S., the fact that an Asian man pulled this off made him look like someone who had broken through the bamboo ceiling in the Prime Minister’s eyes.
John Lau used this image to gain the Prime Minister’s trust and, under his protection, ran the scam fund and embezzled freely.
“Lau is even known in Hollywood as Asian royalty. Of course, that’s a complete lie.”
“And no one’s uncovered that lie… until now?”
“When someone’s spending millions of dollars a day right in front of you, anyone would find it hard to doubt them.”
A few million dollars is tens of billions of won.
If someone spends that kind of money daily, how many people would bother digging into the affairs of a foreigner?
Sure, Wall Street or old-money elites might do that kind of due diligence...
But John Lau was targeting Hollywood.
And those folks weren’t about to do anything that inconvenient.
“But even a sloppy lie like that will get exposed eventually…”
“Exactly. As I said, his tail has gotten too long. He’s on the verge of getting caught.”
A bomb set to explode as soon as summer hits.