Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 806 Intertwined Destinies

"I did not use the bank loan to donate to the then-re-election of the National Assembly," Terada said. "Eriko's accusation on the phone was completely fabricated and seriously inconsistent with the facts!"

"I'm afraid you need to explain things more clearly to the Unity Alliance." Takasu sat in his seat, staring at the Minister of General Affairs. "You know, at this critical juncture, anything can have unpredictable effects on the parliamentary election next April. We hope you can explain the whole thing to us in full."

Takasu’s subtext is clear.

As long as there are doubts about Terada, the United Alliance may cut off the Minister of General Affairs. The citizens of the constituency who hold the key votes will not tolerate a cabinet high-ranking official or a parliamentary candidate who is rumored to be corrupt.

"I also hope that the Unity Alliance can give me a chance to explain clearly." Terada replied to the Secretary-General in a slightly tough tone.

After all, Terada has campaigned for many congressmen and helped these young candidates win. He is also one of the major contributors to the Unity Alliance. It is not easy to simply cut him off.

He must lay out the interests involved and explain them clearly.

"Before coming here, I called my brother and got the loan project information from Makino Agriculture and Forestry and Mizuho Bank." Terada took out a file bag, placed it on the table, and then opened it.

The secretary next to him immediately distributed the information to everyone in the meeting room.

However, these documents include relevant loan contracts, mortgage contracts, land value assessment reports and other documents.

Terada took out some of the documents. On them were written the words "guarantee contract". The Minister of General Affairs said, "First of all, I want to say that there is no exchange of interests between Mizuho Bank and Makino Agriculture and Forestry. There is no problem with the entire loan decision."

"Indeed, in this loan project, the value of the mortgaged land is not enough to cover the value of the loan. However, three companies have provided guarantees for Makino Agriculture and Forestry. In addition, the top two shareholders of Makino Agriculture and Forestry have provided guarantees for this 50 billion yen loan. Therefore, a total of five companies have provided credit guarantees for this loan."

"According to the general loan procedure rules of the bank, even if the value of the collateral is not enough, as long as there is a company with sufficient financial resources willing to provide a guarantee for the debt, the bank can still issue a loan. There is no problem with the procedure."

"That is to say - "Takasu looked at the information in front of him and said, "Eriko deliberately only talked about the value of the mortgaged land, but did not mention that there were five guarantors for this loan project."

"That's right," Terada said. "I have also consulted some people in the banking industry. They all agree that there is no problem with the decision to issue the loan for this project, and it has sufficient commercial rationale."

However, many people present did not feel relieved after hearing this, because there was another important issue that had not been resolved.

Takasu then said, "Then the next question is, why has Makino Agriculture and Forestry's fertilizer plant not started operation since the 50 billion yen loan was issued?"

Gao Xu placed photos on the table. These photos showed a huge bare sandy land with scattered building materials piled up in a disorderly manner. If you said this was a factory site, no one would believe it. The foundation, pipelines, and lines were not even under construction.

"These are photos from the Asahi Shimbun," Takasu said. "These reporters are really quick. They immediately took pictures of the construction site of the Makino Agricultural and Forestry Fertilizer Plant. It's been three years since the construction started, why hasn't any construction started in three years?" "I asked my brother about this," Terada said. "Because the final environmental assessment report for this fertilizer plant is stuck. Fertilizer plants will produce cyanide and nitrogen and ammonia wastewater. They will cause relatively serious pollution to the soil and groundwater. It was only discovered afterwards that the soil geology of the site where the factory was located is quite special, and conventional anti-pollution measures may not be effective. Therefore, the final environmental assessment project has been stuck. This is why the factory has not started construction."

"These records on environmental issues can be found at the local city hall," Terada added.

The Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications's account of the incident presented a completely different picture. The illegal lending that Eriko complained about did not happen. The factory was shut down because the environmental assessment report was not approved. Everything was very reasonable and self-consistent.

"What will the 50 billion yen be used for?" Takasu asked further.

The whereabouts of the money is crucial.

Since the factory was not in operation, the loan should remain in the bank's account. As long as the money was still there, Eriko's accusation would naturally not hold true.

"My brother told me that he used the money to buy a financial plan from the bank," Terada said. "At that time, because the factory project was suspended, the senior executives of Mizuho Bank introduced a financial plan to my brother and asked him to invest. The bank said that since the money was idle anyway, it would be better to use it to buy a fixed-income financial plan. These returns can in turn hedge the interest costs of the loan, so my brother bought it."

"Could it be that you bought a financial trust product?" Gao Xu said worriedly, "The recent investigation of the Tokyo Central Bank was due to a trust project."

Hearing this, Terada immediately cautiously flipped through the financial agreement document that his brother had given him.

Then he saw the details of this financial project.

"Trust?" Terada said unconsciously, "Yoshizawa Trust?"

It turns out that the Yoshizawa Trust Project was recommended to his brother by a senior executive of Mizuho Bank!!!

this moment--

It seems as if there is a thread in the dark that makes the destinies of different people intersect.

The Tokyo Central Bank was previously in a regulatory dilemma because of the Yoshizawa Trust case. The big bank was accused of using trust projects to cover up bad debts, which eventually led to the 300 billion yen bad loan case of Nishitani Electric.

However, now, the scandal that Eriko accused Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Terada of misappropriating bank loans as his personal campaign donations ultimately involved Yoshizawa Trust. The whereabouts of the 50 billion yen eventually entered Yoshizawa Trust, and no one knows exactly where it went.

The life trajectories of different people intersect at this moment - Kitahara, who once led the Financial Services Agency to finally track down the Yoshizawa Trust project, may have an unexpected intersection with Terada, the Minister of General Affairs of the country's cabinet.

(End of this chapter)