Chapter 37
Jonathan spoke enthusiastically. He had prepared to explain his thoughts while negotiating with Bluestone’s management for Blue Rock. The documents full of facts and numbers slid down from the desk like falling leaves. Jonathan kept rummaging through files even though he was the one who prepared them.
“Here it is. This is the point that we can negotiate with ANC. They are neglecting twenty billion dollars of client deposits. If we add up the Blue Rock’s thirty billion, then it’s fifty billion dollars in total.”
The tens of billions of dollars Jonathan was talking about were not ANC or Blue Rock’s money. Those were client funds deposits that their customers had invested, hoping for a profitable return. One notable thing was that some of the funds that ANC successfully raised were from the U.S. government’s pension fund. I looked at the evidence for a while. Of course, even though it was tens of billions of dollars, we both knew that the amount was tiny compared to the entire U.S. pension fund. Despite that, the fact that their pension fund was included meant something, and I felt like I received an unexpected box. This could be a bronze box, but it could also unexpectedly turn into a challenger box.
Jonathan glanced at the files in my hand and grinned.
“I knew you would recognize it,” Jonathan said.
I asked, “Anything else?”
Jonathan took the folded paper out of his pocket as soon as I asked. I just needed to confirm the specifics out of the hundreds of different types of pension funds that were managed by the U.S. government.
“What is this?” I unconsciously tensed my voice.
Jonathan’s eyes widened in surprise as if this had been a test for me, and he seemed to be amazed by how much I knew about it.
“Why is ANC?so careless with the funds? Do they not know what it is?” I asked.
“...They would have treated them differently if they knew,” Jonathan answered.
I shook my head. “The client funds management team should be fired.”
The pension fund in question was for retired teachers in Connecticut, and it was at least a diamond box! Connecticut’s Education Association was one of the most influential organizations in U.S. politics as presidents usually reformed education policies right after their inauguration and citizens paid close attention to their schools. They exerted a significant impact on politics as an icon of educational reform.
“We must bring it in since the fund will trumpet our name.”
I could tell that my voice was filled with greed.
“If we manage it well, Jonathan,” I said while Jonathan smiled slightly. “The U.S. government’s pension fund will be poured into our New York firm,” I continued.
“That’s it! Killing two birds with one stone.”
Jonathan stated the proverb that accurately matched the situation. As he said, this was an opportunity to increase the size of our company to attack the Bluestone Group and be hopefully noticed by the U.S. government. Our stone would be money, the profitable returns for our clients.
I asked, “What’s the estimated acquisition cost?”
“Between 1.2 billion to 1.8 billion dollars,” Jonathan replied.
That meant that we could buy fifty billion dollars worth of client fund deposits with 1.8 billion dollars. Blue Rock and ANC would sell if the price was right since they would be confident that they’d be able to raise that much investment again. The problem was getting approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission…
I worked on the details of the plan, then Jonathan suddenly asked a question.
“You’ve never lived in the U.S., right?”
“No,” I answered.
Jonathan mumbled half to himself, “But how do you know everything? I’m not saying because of your age. You are just…”
“Just like an expert?” I said.
“Y...yes. More professional than those in Bluestone,” he responded.
I replied nonchalantly, “My father works in the financial industry.”
“In New York? Washington D.C.? I would know his name if he managed to raise a son like you,” his eyes glowed as if he had become one step closer to solving the peculiar mystery of this thirteen year old genius.
“No, he’s in Seoul. He’s not as famous as you think, but he’s a great father to me. Well, I’ll leave the rest of the procedures to you, Jonathan,” I said, changing the topic deftly.
He raised an eyebrow. “All by myself?”
“I’m in Seoul, and you keep forgetting that I’m underaged,” I said, shrugging.
“Who would think that you are a minor?” He was talking to himself.
“Anyway, let’s wrap this up and move on to the next,” I said.
“Next?” He asked.
I gave him a look. “Why are you surprised? Are you not going to move the offshore funds stuck in the account?”
***
I showed my parents the Bible School poster that was taped on the telephone pole. Since the church event would span my entire spring break, I had enough time to go to America. Of course, my parents were surprised but gave me permission right away. They must have considered it as an opportunity for me to make friends.
The next day, I got on a flight to New York instead of a church bus. My passport was already ready, and I had booked the first class seat with cash from Jeon-il’s funds.
There were only three passengers in first-class seats: an Indian man and a pair of Caucasians of indeterminate nationality. Apparently, they were familiar with each other since they exchanged greetings and information on each other’s performance. According to their conversation, they couldn’t achieve much from the Buy Korea project since Jeon-il blocked their way. I took out my laptop as their talk became boring.
The manuscript I had been writing for two weeks was almost finished, and the senior stewardess tried not to disturb me.
One time, the plane shook severely which even made the bulky Indian man scream. I realized it was due to turbulence when the pilot made an overhead announcement to explain. Then, I noticed that I wasn’t thinking of flying monsters.
I had spent half a year in infancy and the other half in my teenage years, which was only one year in total. It surprised me how quickly I had gotten used to this world, and my senses were becoming dull. I wasn’t referring to the Sense stat listed on the status window, but the survival instincts that were engraved in my soul…
***
The market was operated anonymously. Our identities should have remained secret in Bangkok and Hong Kong, but they were exposed because we lacked manpower for the amount of money we had. There was no firm in the world that could manage billions of dollars by themselves.
No matter how careful we were, we had habits when placing an order, and some firms were specialized in investigating these habits in the back alleys of the financial world. Therefore, Jonathan Investments had been discovered as the company that took most of the profits from the Asian financial crisis.
Jonathan and I couldn’t carry on by ourselves as our financial empire needed Knights. In fact, Jonathan’s ability as a trader was C class. He was a good substitute and manager of Jonathan Investments but was below my standards as a trader. Another reason was that the amount we had was massive.
Some managers could make amazing profits with millions of dollars, but only a few of them were able to maintain a profit rate of higher than ten percent with hundreds of millions of dollars to manage.
Then, who could manage these without losing billions of dollars? Gillian and Kim Cheong-Soo had S class skills in that respect, and if they followed my investment proposal, the results would be amazing.
However, I didn’t know what Kim Cheong-Soo was doing at the moment, so I decided to look for Gillian first. In my past life, I had met him as a student when he gave lectures in a master’s degree economics course at the University of London. He had accepted the position of a professor even though he already had a worldwide reputation by running a huge hedge fund. I was not sure why he chose that route, but it might have been that he wanted to look for a genius like him among the younger generation.
Whatever the real reason was, those months were my golden years and helped me to change my career path from London to Wall Street. I was certain that he would have made a big mark in financial history if he hadn’t died that early. freewebnovel.c om
I arrived at Wall Street and headed to 245 Park Avenue, where the Morgan Group’s property management team was located. There was no time to reminisce about my past life. Well, to clarify, I was in a hurry to find Gillian in the lobby of the building.
“Have you made an appointment?” The receptionist asked politely.
Of course, I hadn’t. This was not a place where a young Asian boy could enter confidently, and Gillian didn’t even belong to a team that dealt with clients. He would be managing the Freeman Group corporate account.
I smiled and asked, “Could you please tell him that I’m from England?”
Even though the receptionist expressed signs of displeasure, she did as I asked her. However, the answer immediately came back as negative. I asked her to deliver a memo to Gillian and began to wait for him at the cafe across the street.
The sight outside the window reminded me of the old days. My old memories of returning to Korea like a refugee and becoming a reserve force on the Day of Advent became clearer. As I was reminiscing about the past, I realized that it was about supper time as the sky darkened.
Gillian came into the cafe. Although he was very young with a different hairstyle, I recognized him at first sight. However, his face was as gloomy as a rain cloud. I waved, and his face darkened even more.
He looked around and reaffirmed that I was the only one looking for him, then he sat down in front of me and asked in a voice full of doubt, which was natural.
“I heard that you’re from England.” fr(e)ewebnovel
“There must have been a miscommunication. I’m not from England, but I’m here to take you to England. My name is Ethan,” I said the words that I had prepared.
Gillian looked at me blankly and shook my hands, and I could feel that he wanted to return to his home country, England, very badly.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺