1977: The beginning of the blind date with the daughter of the king

Chapter 517: Money Laundering Channels

To be honest, Li Changhe is not very interested in the Kuwait game. It’s not that he doesn’t want to make money, but that the money is very troublesome.

First of all, Kuwait is right next to the Iran-Iraq battlefield. Although the probability of an accident is low, the risk of war is high.

Secondly, the financial channels there are a big problem. The Middle East is actually a relatively closed region, both financially and socially, and it is not as open as Europe and the United States.

Most of the countries there are theocratic, where secular laws and religious laws often run parallel, and the entire social mechanism is different from the outside world.

In the Middle East, it is very easy for someone to die. They are buried in the desert and there is no way to find them or solve the case. They just disappear out of thin air.

Finally, Li Changhe felt that there was a huge bubble here, especially the model of deferred checks. To put it bluntly, it was creating money out of thin air and blowing up this "stock market" to create a false prosperity.

That money isn't real and may not even exist.

"Vic, listen to me. I'm not a financial loser who knows nothing. I know some basic principles very well."

“That fake stock market has a lot of problems, but there is also real money in it.”

“Why it is so popular is because now there are Kuwaiti citizens taking over for them.”

"It is because the official stock market has few tickets and the increase does not meet the expectations of the people, so they set up another stock market to further expand this market."

"I can tell you something. This stock market has been in existence for more than a year. The government has known about it for a long time, but it has not been banned. Instead, it has tacitly accepted it."

“Even their finance minister is now speculating in stocks.”

Tarak said to Li Changhe with a smile.

After listening to this, Li Changhe was thoughtful: "Your Highness, do you mean that they are tacitly siphoning off funds from the Kuwaiti government?"

"Correct!"

Tarak smiled and said, "Vic, I don't know if you know much about the Middle East. Many countries in the Middle East are now under royal regimes. We are, Kuwait is, and the UAE is also."

"For us, the bulk of the oil revenue will naturally go into the pockets of the royal family first, and then a portion will be distributed to the people below."

"This is completely different from the mechanisms in Europe and the United States."

"Kuwait gained independence in 1961, and it has been less than years since then, and their king has always been from the Sabah family."

"A few years ago, the Sabah family announced that they would nationalize oil, which actually meant that they would bring all of Kuwait's oil resources under the control of the family. However, this would make the royal family suspected of monopolizing the market."

"That's also why they support the stock market. In fact, starting in 77, as oil prices rose, the government or the royal family began to support the stock market. They wanted to distribute part of the money to the people, and the stock market was a distribution channel."

"Since 79, the price of oil has more than doubled, which means that the royal family's income has increased several times. Now, every day the oil sold is green U.S. dollars."

"The people below are jealous!"

"The Sabah family must balance the mentality of the people below, otherwise, his royal power will be unstable."

"So, in the end, the royal family must have paid for the stock market crash!"

"But the royal family won't pay for everyone. It will definitely only pay for its own citizens. So in theory, as long as we find a local Kuwaiti as an agent, then this matter will be foolproof."

"And I have actually already found this candidate!"

"In that case, wouldn't it be better for Your Highness to bring people directly from the United States?"

Li Changhe asked with some confusion, why did Tarak seem to have a need for him?

Tarak shook his head. “That’s why I came to you, Vic.”

"You know, there aren't many people in the Middle East who are proficient in Western economics and the stock market. Even if there are, most of them serve the government. After all, for us, we don't need to learn how to make money, we just need to learn how to spend money."

"Therefore, I need to recruit these professional talents from outside, but Kuwait is not stupid. They are not lenient in their review of foreign populations. Not everyone can go there."

"In this area, Europeans and Americans are the ones to be guarded against. Simply put, they are both respected and feared over there, so if they go there, they will be particularly conspicuous."

"Asians, on the other hand, are relatively better, and among them, people from Hong Kong Island are the most suitable."

"Because Hong Kong Island is still a British colony, and Kuwait was also a British colony in the past. Even its independence was established with the support of Britain, otherwise it would have been annexed by Iraq long ago."

"So, a British territorial passport and an Asian face, these two characteristics can allow them to gain freedom in Kuwait comparable to that of people in Egypt and Pakistan. This is why I need you."

"Vick, it's not convenient for me to come forward in this matter. You know, we have a good relationship with the Sabah family. We are not only allies, but also relatives."

"And I am not suitable to arrange for Europeans and Americans to go back, so I can only rely on you."

The Saudi royal family and the Sabah royal family are related by marriage, so on the surface, the two families are still related by marriage.

Of course, Tarak cannot do such a thing as cheating his relatives out of money openly, and Saudi Arabia cannot afford to lose this person.

"Your Highness, this investment shouldn't be the royal family's money, right?"

Li Changhe said with a smile at this time.

Tarak nodded: "Yes, it's my own money. Oh, and by the way, there will also be money from my brothers."

"Vick, to be honest, we are very rich, but the royal family's money must also be distributed according to the rules. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is much larger than Kuwait. We have invested much more money in the country than Kuwait."

"That's why we are rich, but we can't say we are extremely rich."

"The most important thing is that we have a lot of money in the country, and it is inconvenient to use it abroad."

"So this time, it was actually a private investment between me and a few brothers. We made some money in Kuwait and put it in Europe and the United States. This way, my brothers and nephews would not need to transfer money from the family fund when they came out."

"You know, even among many of us brothers, we are not united. There are many eyes watching us."

Tarak spoke sincerely to Li Changhe at this time.

Li Changhe smiled and nodded: "I know."

The Saudi royal family has one characteristic, that is, there are many people. The old king alone has nearly a hundred children, and these nearly a hundred princes have given birth to other princes. The number of people in the entire Saudi royal family is actually very large.

When there are a lot of people, there will naturally be many groups within, and they will fight for power and profit with each other.

Li Changhe has investigated Tarak's faction and found out that they belong to the seven brothers of Suderi!
Sudri was one of the old king's most beloved wives. She gave birth to seven sons for the old king. These seven sons were naturally one and the same, and their internal title was the Seven Brothers of Sudri.

Li Changhe didn't know much about the history of the Saudi royal family, but he saw a familiar name among the seven Sudairi brothers, Salman!

In his previous life, Li Changhe had read the Legend of the Black Phoenix written by online self-media blogger Lu Yanzu, which tells the story of the future Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Prince Salman, a ruthless man who changed the Saudi rule of brother-to-brother inheritance to inheritance by offspring.

So he very much suspected that this Salman was the father of the Black Phoenix Salman, one of the future Saudi kings. After all, in the royal family, it is unlikely that brothers would have the same name.

In terms of age, they seem to be a good match. Of course, Li Changhe is not investing in Salman, after all, that will take another 20 or 30 years.

He just felt that if Salman was really the future king, it would prove that their faction was a very promising group within Saudi Arabia.

After all, to be able to sit on the throne in the future, it is impossible to rely solely on the status of a prince. He must have a group of capable subordinates and the support of other brothers.

This is also one of the reasons why Li Changhe is on good terms with Tarak. With the help of Tarak, he can establish contact with a potential faction within the Saudi royal family, which will allow him to last longer in the future.

So now, it’s not just Tarak, but a bunch of their own people who are eyeing Kuwait, hoping to make some private money from it.

"Vick, this favor won't be in vain. If you do a good job this time, we can help you set up a foreign trade company in the Middle East."

Tarak spoke to Li Changhe seriously at this moment.

"Foreign trade?"

Li Changhe looked at Tarak curiously.

Tarak smiled and said, "You know, there is a shortage of supplies in the Middle East. For example, in Kuwait, they even have to buy water from outside. It's almost the same in Saudi Arabia."

"Food, water, clothing, building materials, etc. It can be said that most of the products we need are difficult to be self-sufficient, so we need to purchase them from outside."

"These purchases cannot enter the domestic market directly. They must go through our domestic agency companies to enter the domestic market."

"But the agency needs external procurement. We can give you the procurement rights of one of our agencies. I know you have a lot of businesses in the East, Vic, right?"

Saudi Arabia and many countries in the Middle East adopt the agency system, and domestic businesses are only allowed to be operated by companies registered by local citizens to provide commercial products to local citizens.

Therefore, there are no joint-stock companies in Saudi Arabia, and everything is monopolized by local people. All foreign products are first sold to agency companies in Saudi Arabia, and then the agency companies sell them domestically.

Now, what Tarak gave was actually the purchasing rights of an agency company. That is to say, Li Changhe could set up a foreign trade company and then sell all the products to Tarak’s agency company.

The other party will eat it up and then it will flow into the domestic consumer market.

This is actually equivalent to making Li Changhe one of the suppliers of the entire Saudi Arabian country and providing them with a large number of industrial products.

And Tarak also said that the target is not just Saudi Arabia, but the Middle East.

In other words, apart from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and other countries can also contribute.

It is not known now, but Li Changhe is very clear about the future. The price level in the Middle East has always been one of the highest in the world.

It is said that the price of goods in Dubai will be more than twice that of Beijing in the future.

After all, this group of local tycoons are not short of money.

In addition to products, there is also human input. The world of the rich will not do ordinary jobs, so in the future many service industries in the Middle East will be worked by people from other countries.

This is actually one of the industries with high profits. As long as you have the qualifications and labor export, it will also be a lucrative industry.

"Well, since Your Highness has already mentioned this, I can only help you with this."

"But there is one thing I want to make clear in advance."

At this time, Li Changhe gave Tarak another shot of prevention.

"you say!"

Tarak asked curiously.

Li Changhe said seriously: "It's a question of profit. If it's according to what you said, our profit this time may not be that much."

"The reason is that you said they would use post-dated checks for transactions, and post-dated checks are most likely to be bad checks, and not many can be redeemed, so its stock market boom is more of a bubble than real US dollar funds."

“We can’t invest too much money in this market like we did in the oil market, because the market is too big to handle it.”

Li Changhe analyzed it seriously to Tarak at this moment.

Every market has a capital limit, the only difference is whether it is big or small.

Just like Hong Kong stocks, if Li Changhe now puts billions of dollars into Hong Kong stocks, he will be one of the biggest market makers in Hong Kong stocks at that time. He can no longer make money through Hong Kong stocks using conventional stock speculation methods, but instead has to maintain the development of Hong Kong stocks.

Similarly, in Li Changhe's view, the same is true for Kuwait's fake stock market. To put it bluntly, its main source of funds is still the wealthy and middle class in the surrounding Middle Eastern countries.

These people have money, but not too much. Compared with the big conglomerates in Europe and the United States, there is definitely a big gap.

Therefore, the stock market must have an upper limit. If they really take out 10 or 80 billion US dollars in one go, Li Changhe is worried that it will not be them who make money, but others who will take their money away.

"I know. We didn't intend to do anything too big. After all, it would be too cruel. If the Sabah family found out, it would be difficult for us to deal with it."

"The final amount we negotiated is 200 million US dollars. What do you think?"

Tarak said thoughtfully.

“Are there any requirements for the rate of return?”

Li Changhe asked curiously at this time.

"Actually, there is no requirement, but I recommended you to a few brothers. The promise I made at the time was that the return would not be less than double, which means that the minimum return must be 400 million US dollars. This is a basic line."

"On this basis, the more money they get back, the happier they are."

"Don't worry, Vic. We won't treat our friends unfairly."

Tarak said to Li Changhe seriously.

Li Changhe nodded: "In that case, I will pay 100 million US dollars, and we will invest 300 million US dollars to participate in this stock market. In the next two days, I will select a suitable team to set off."

"But there is one more thing. I need the bank's channels."

“I don’t know which banks can be used in the Middle East.”

Li Changhe really doesn't know much about the banking industry there.

At this moment, Tarak looked at Li Changhe with a smile: "Vick, don't you know?"

"HSBC has a branch in Kuwait, which is one of the reasons why we think your Hong Kong Island team is the most suitable."

"There are only a few foreign banks in Kuwait, and HSBC is one of them. The money there can flow directly back to Hong Kong Island, and then be transferred to Europe and the United States through Hong Kong Island."

At this moment, Li Changhe looked at Tarak in surprise. Wow, you even found the channel for "money laundering".

(End of this chapter)