America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 221 Catching a Big Fish

Melvin and Johnson jogged out, looking at the truck full of imported vodka, and said with a grin, "Boss, this shipment should fetch at least tens of thousands of dollars!"

"Enough talk, get moving the goods."

Zhang Ailun assigned the two of them to carry the loads while he went into the bar to slack off in his office. Mary and Geese were both there today, and they greeted the leader warmly upon his arrival.

Giss, carrying a glass of brandy on the rocks meticulously prepared by the bartender, followed closely behind, bursting into the headmaster's office and fawning, "Boss, we haven't seen you for days! You seem completely unconcerned about our bar's business!"

"Isn't it you guys who've been running it? I've seen the bar's business booming. You weren't here when I came last time, so how can you say I don't care about the bar's business?"

Zhang Ailun sat in the boss's chair, took the brandy handed to him by Gees, took a sip, and turned on his computer to check the project list.

With a steady stream of positive profits, several thousand dollars in net profit are coming in every day. The current head of the organization has nearly $10 in net profit dividends that can be withdrawn.

Giss sat directly on the leader's lap and dribbled the ball into him.

Zhang Ailun immediately saw what she was trying to do and reminded her that it was still working hours.

"Mary is fine on her own outside, and there are so many waiters, I don't need to worry about anything." Geese grinned, wanting to have a friendly match with the leader.

But before she could even act on it, with her clothes halfway off, Mary burst through the door, ruining her plan. Mary gave Geese the middle finger and yelled, "I knew you weren't honest! Trying to cheat on me again while I was gone? Get back to work!"

Giss said irritably, "Can you please stop interrupting my good time every time?"

"No," Mary retorted.

"Okay, maybe you just don't want to see me eating alone. Why don't you go first?" Geese generously offered to queue up and eat the leftovers.

Mary, however, didn't appreciate it at all and urged her not to slack off during work hours.

"Alright, you two get out there and get to work! The drinks that Johnson and Melvin are moving also need to be recorded in the books. Don't let this affect the bar's atmosphere and business!" Zhang Ailun said helplessly.

The Grand Master really can't stand their constant bickering. Why don't you two come at me together?

He spoke up and persuaded both of them to leave, finally giving himself some peace and quiet.

But not long after, the two pushed the door open and came in again.

"Didn't I say I wouldn't slack off during work hours..." The leader looked up and saw two black-stockinged bunny girls, and was instantly stunned.

"Boss, we only have one hour!" Mary and Geese walked over with smiles, seemingly having resolved the dispute.

hiss……

It actually took two hours to finish the battle.

The two bunny girls left satisfied, leaving the Grand Master alone, feeling empty.

During this time, I received another message from Dominic.

Dominic: The street problem is solved. That group of homeless people were from San Francisco, but they weren't all white or black; there were many Asians too. I made them pay $150 in compensation and got them some work on the streets of Sixth Street to pay off their debts!

Zhang Ailun: I understand.

Dominic: The Irishman from the sewers, I've finally paid off my several thousand dollars in debt today. I've put all the money in the account, and you can withdraw it anytime you want.

Zhang Ailun: OK.

After chatting for a few more minutes, Dominic went to work.

Reina also sent a message, along with a few pictures.

Zhang Ailun glanced at the photos; the background was a department lobby in the city center, with some stamped documents. Another photo appeared to be a scene taken from the fourteenth floor of an office building on Sunset Boulevard.

Reina: The licensing issue is resolved! I found someone online to rent an office space at 1469, 14th Floor, Sunset Boulevard. The rent is $2000 per week, $6000 per month. However, we still need to find someone to create an official website for our foundation so that people have a channel for charitable donations. This is our foundation's charitable bank account; the password is ******. You can still use the bank card you had at the Green Letter Shelter.

Zhang Ailun: I'll find someone to help create the foundation's official website later. Our current funding is still too small, only one million US dollars in fundraising, so there's no need to be too formal. I'll visit the office when I have time. As for donation channels open to the public, it doesn't really matter. Maybe Seager and his team would be willing to donate money to the foundation and launder it?

Reina: Okay. I won't bother you anymore. I have plans to go shopping with my colleagues this afternoon.

Zhang Ailun: Okay.

Having easily settled these matters, Zhang Ailun logged into the foundation's encrypted account again. Feeling that the account's encryption was a bit too simplistic, he immediately sent another message to Blitz.

Zhang Ailun: The foundation's registration qualifications and office location have been finalized, and there is a million US dollars in donations in the account. I need you to help me set up the official website page, and the account also needs to be encrypted.

Blitz: OK.

Not long after, Blitz sent a link to the Grand Master.

Blitz: The website is all set up. You can log in directly from the backend. If there's anything you're not satisfied with, let me know and I'll adjust and change it.

Zhang Ailun: No need to change it, this is fine.

Clicking the link led to a very formal official page: the Hamburger Charitable Foundation.

The page design is quite simple, not much different from other foundations. The backend management system shows whether anyone has made charitable donations, current charitable investment activities, or company employees.

The head of the foundation immediately sent Dave a message, inviting him to serve as the foundation's legal counsel. Dave agreed without hesitation, since the salary paid by the foundation was tax-deductible.

As a result, the foundation has grown stronger.

Time quickly passed and it was afternoon.

Old Jack, who had been out of contact, sent a message to the Grand Master.

Old Jack: A big business deal has come knocking on our door.

Zhang Ailun: You mean Wells Fargo's balance sheet service?

Old Jack: How did you know?

Zhang Ailun: Anyone with eyes can see that Wells Fargo's debt problem is about to explode. They will definitely find someone to deal with this problem. Didn't the news a few days ago show a homeless man killing a bank executive?

Old Jack: Well, I didn't expect you to be following this too. They contacted me privately, along with two other teams, and I offered them $500 million! After all, this problem is much more serious than the Little Rock casino incident.

Zhang Ailun: What did they say?

Old Jack: They'll have to think about it. But as far as I know, the other two teams offered $350 million and $400 million respectively. I think we're probably out of luck, even though we just closed a deal recently.

Zhang Ailun: That's not necessarily true. I know a female leader of a motorcycle gang in the suburbs whose family owns shares in Wells Fargo. If we can get her to act as our guarantor and go through internal channels, we should be able to take on this commission.

Old Jack: You know rich people like that? If a shareholder can find acquaintances to cooperate, the other bank executives will definitely agree, even if it means spending more money, at least the security will be guaranteed.

Zhang Ailun: I'll give it a try, but the other party might not be willing to give me face.

Anyway, the leader was also heavily in debt, so he was used to having many debts and owed the other party a lot of favors.

After exiting the call with Old Jack, Zhang Ailun found Sadie's ID and called her.

Sadie answered the phone quickly, "Hello? Juankin? What brings you to contact me? Want to buy me a drink? I said yes!"

"I'm here to repay a favor; I can help you resolve a troublesome matter," Zhang Ailun said with a smile.

"What big deal? What could possibly be wrong? My biggest worry is not having a chance to take advantage of you!" Sadie smiled, teasingly speaking in a relaxed tone.

"What if it's trouble on your father's side? He invested in Wells Fargo and owns shares in the bank, right? Even if it's not a large percentage, it's still a shareholder worth tens of millions of dollars!"

Zhang Ailun said, "This is quite interesting. You probably heard about the Wells Fargo collapse a few days ago, right? Other investors rushed to avoid risk, selling their bank shares and running away. The bank's stock price plummeted. Other shareholders and bank executives frantically bought up shares to stabilize the bank's finances, turning from small shareholders into large shareholders, and now they're trapped. If they also run away, the bank will go bankrupt instantly, and billionaires will become penniless! There's even the risk of being charged with financial fraud and spending their lives in jail!"

"Where did you get this information from?" Sadie realized the seriousness of the situation.

"I can help you sort this out. Right now, the bank executives are like ants on a hot plate, frantically trying to find someone to balance the books and detonate the empty bank vault. That way, they can land safely and avoid the CSRC's investigation. Those who took the bribes will have an excuse, and the bank staff will have something to shirk responsibility. The only ones who will suffer losses are the shareholders and middle-class depositors."

Zhang Ailun said, "Isn't this their usual practice? It's a way to give the citizens an explanation."

Sadie asked in confusion, "Where did you get this information from? I don't even know what they're doing, and my father has never told me."

"If even you know, then their hiring someone to settle the accounts isn't exactly a secret," Zhang Ailun said. "I know people in the Bowhead Whale organization. You can inform your father, and for five million US dollars, I can help take care of this. If he hires other people to help settle the accounts, he'll have to worry about them turning on him afterwards, but we don't have to worry about that, because, as I said, this is repaying a debt of gratitude to you."

"I think what you really want is that five million US dollars reward, right?" Sadie wasn't stupid, and she quickly realized that the leader wanted to use her connections to get the mission.

She said irritably, "You really have ulterior motives! All you care about is money, is this how I treat you?"

"If I don't care about money, do I need you?" Zhang Ailun was a little speechless, and urged, "Okay, honey, this is a win-win situation. Go tell your dad and tell him to think it over carefully. That's all for now, I'll wait for your good news."

Hang up.

After looking at the disconnected call, Sadie thought for a moment and then made a call to her adoptive father.

He calls me "darling," he has me in his heart!

They informed the other party of the matter and questioned them about how much money they had embezzled.

"Why didn't you tell me about this relationship sooner?"

After hearing his daughter's news, the tycoon was shocked. He hadn't expected that the other party knew about their attempt to settle the debt. This was unacceptable.

But he quickly realized that the other party wanted to use her daughter's connection to speak directly with him.

"I don't know who he knows, all I know is that he's in the arms business," Sadie said.

"What he's doing probably isn't exactly legitimate arms dealing. Many people know the inside story of what the military region is up to, but no one's willing to expose it."

The tycoon said, "If it's just a legitimate business, you won't make much money; that's true in any industry. But I haven't made much money from the bank either."

"Is the Wells Fargo situation really that bad?" Sadie asked in surprise. "Didn't you only invest in this bank less than six months ago? You have shares, haven't made any money, and have instead gotten yourself into a lot of trouble?"

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that things are really that bad! I only found out belatedly, but what those major shareholders did behind the scenes was simply incomprehensible! They made a lot of money from this and have already made their exit, leaving us few to shoulder the mess! We weren't among the ones eating the meat, but we didn't escape being beaten up!"

"We don't have the ability to resolve this matter right now, and we can't afford to offend those major shareholders who have already profited. Otherwise, we'd be dragged out and buried alive, then thrown into the sea to feed the sharks the next day!"

Even the wealthy have their own unspoken grievances. They originally intended to profit from others, but ended up becoming the ones being profited from instead.

If the major shareholders don't take the lead in running away, it's not that easy for a financial crisis to erupt.

However, the other party had already opened up its IPO to the public six months ago to raise funds, sell shares at high prices, and attract these investors, just so that someone would take the fall when the company collapsed.

The major shareholders who profited from the losses have basically all run away, leaving the minority shareholders in a dilemma and stuck in a quagmire. They are just scapegoats!

Now, if they want a smooth landing, they'll have to spend money to find someone else to take the blame.

Otherwise, just wait to die.

Once things are over and the major shareholders see that the risks have passed and the overall environment has improved, they may bring back large amounts of capital again. This would allow the banks to attract funds again and thrive!

The worst outcome would be the bank going bankrupt, with minority shareholders and executives taking the blame and going to jail for a few years before being released on bail. If they like to talk nonsense, they might end up being shot 24 times and dying by suicide.

No matter what, it won't affect the major shareholders who have absconded.

The tycoon pondered for a moment and said, "Alright, the Bowhead Whale organization is indeed within our consideration, but their prices are too high, tens or even millions of dollars higher than other teams. However, since your friend has this channel and the security is guaranteed, then we might as well consider choosing them. Could you invite him to your home?"

Sadie: "Okay."

After hanging up the phone, he sent another message to the leader: My father would like to invite you and your family to his home.

Zhang Ailun received the message and smiled knowingly: Sure, what time exactly?

Sadie: If you have time now, you can come pick me up, and we'll go to Palm Valley together.

Zhang Ailun: OK.

Zhang Ailun arranged a time with Sadie and then found Old Jack, telling him to meet at Sanji's Bar.

Zhang Ailun: A Wells Fargo shareholder wanted to invite us to his home.

Old Jack: You got it done so quickly? Are all the people you know so influential?

Zhang Ailun: It was just a coincidence. Although I don't know the executives or shareholders of Wells Fargo, I do know the shareholder's daughter. She was quite interested in me and asked me out several times, but I declined. After all, I've always been a principled person; I can't be swayed by wealth and status.

Old Jack: I think you're just trying to hook a big fish. If I were you, I would have already figured out how to get her! Her entire family's assets are worth at least a hundred million dollars!

Zhang Ailun: A real man should start his own business with his own hands. Where are you now? Come back soon.

Old Jack: Okay, I'm at a tire shop in the suburbs. A few black guys punctured my tires and are trying to blackmail me. I'll be back after I take care of this!

Zhang Ailun: ...Go easy on me.

(End of this chapter)