Chapter 521: Z Storm

Lu Zhilian was looking at the documents in his hands.

The more he read this document, the more alarmed he became.

Although he did not know who had sent it, it was clear that someone was also displeased with the practices of the Z Fund.

Just as Lu Zhilian was considering whether to expose the matter, his direct supervisor, Xu Hongsheng, came over: "Zhilian, the Commissioner has called an emergency meeting. Let's talk as we walk."

Lu Zhilian did not dare to delay and immediately followed Xu Hongsheng.

Upon arriving in the office, Lu Zhilian saw the current ICAC Commissioner, Madam Fan.

After the two exchanged greetings, they sat down.

Sitting to the side making a phone call was Wei Yaoting from the Policy Group.

After the other party hung up the phone, Wei Yaoting said apologetically: "Sorry, I had something to attend to from that call just now!"

"It doesn't matter," the ICAC Commissioner said with a smile.

After Wei Yaoting sat down, he said directly: "Back to the point, Director Lu, I have read your report. Are you planning to investigate the Z Fund?"

"Yes!" Lu Zhilian did not waste words and nodded directly: "We have investigated the Z Fund's operations in the United States; the transparency is quite low. We know they use interest rates higher than reasonable levels to attract new investments, then use that to pay interest to old clients. Simply put, it is a Ponzi scheme! Relying on investment profits might be a fabrication; if it is real, the Z Fund could collapse at any time!"

Combining this with the mysterious information, Lu Zhilian stated his thoughts directly.

However, it was clear that the government did not seem to care whether the Z Fund was a Ponzi scheme.

Wei Yaoting said: "Do you know what it means if you investigate the Z Fund?"

Lu Zhilian said quite straightforwardly: "It means investigating corruption and malpractice that harms the public interest!"

"If we look at it from the perspective of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, I fully respect your judgment. Madam Fan, what is your opinion?" Wei Yaoting pushed the matter directly to the ICAC Commissioner.

Madam Fan had no choice but to cough and say: "The Z Fund case is no longer just a matter of anti-corruption; it is an event of social concern! I believe everyone already knows that establishing the Care Fund for poverty alleviation is actually a project to improve people's livelihoods! If we investigate the Z Fund for bribery and corruption, it means we will disrupt the Care Fund's investment! Deputy Commissioner Yu, what do you think?"

Both were old foxes; Madam Fan clearly did not want to take this bait, and after spouting a bunch of nonsense, she steered the topic directly to Yu Hongsheng.

Yu Hongsheng's personality was already extremely similar to Lu Zhilian's, and he said to Wei Yaoting on the spot: "Mr. Wei, does the Boss not want us to investigate?"

Wei Yaoting immediately denied it, shook his head, and said: "No! The Boss respects your opinions very much!"

Hearing Wei Yaoting's words, Yu Hongsheng said to Lu Zhilian beside him: "What do you think?"

"Wherever there is corruption, there is the Independent Commission Against Corruption! If we have to consider other factors when investigating a case, wouldn't our Independent Commission Against Corruption become a political tool?"

Lu Zhilian said very bluntly.

He had been in the Independent Commission Against Corruption for over a decade, having joined since the time the England Gweilo established it. He had seen too much of how the England Gweilo used the Independent Commission Against Corruption to manipulate politics, so he was extremely disgusted by this aspect.

However, after this sentence was spoken, the expressions of ICAC Commissioner Madam Fan and Wei Yaoting were not very good.

Lu Zhilian smiled and said: "Sorry, I don't know much about other aspects; I was just stating my own thoughts."

"Director Lu is right, if there is a case, it must be investigated." Wei Yaoting nodded, but he quickly changed the subject: "However, the Z Fund is going public in six days. In these six days, if you really find evidence of their corruption and malpractice, that would be best—you could stop them from going public!"

"What if you can't find it? If you find their problems after six days, the Z Fund's stock will definitely plummet by then. The money the Care Fund invested will be as good as thrown into the ocean. The media will be biting at it every day, citizens will be throwing leaflets every day—who is going to clean up this mess?"

Although he did not say it explicitly, everything Wei Yaoting said implied that it was best not to touch it.

But he happened to run into two stubborn mules. Lu Zhilian smiled and said: "Throwing leaflets would be too exaggerated, right? Understood, there are only six days! If we can't find anything, we close the case, and no one has to take the blame."

Saying this, Lu Zhilian stood up and said to the two: "If there is nothing else, I will go out to work. Six days is very precious, excuse me!"

With that, Lu Zhilian picked up the documents and left the office directly.

"Deputy Commissioner..." The Commissioner turned to look at Xu Hongsheng.

Yu Hongsheng spoke directly: "Z Storm, our operation code name this time is Z Storm! I still have a meeting to attend, excuse me, you two!"

The ICAC Commissioner and Wei Yaoting were speechless, but they had no good way to deal with such stubborn mules.

After all, the Independent Commission Against Corruption unit had strong autonomy; even the ICAC Commissioner could not stop subordinates from investigating a case without a reasonable cause.

They could only hope that the two would finish everything within these six days to avoid trouble for everyone.

On Silva's side, there had been preliminary progress.

"Boss, we found the person behind Hu Zhiyong." Silva walked into Chen Jiajun's office with the documents.

Chen Jiajun looked up and asked curiously: "Oh? What's his background?"

"This guy's name is Cody Stevenson, he's an American! He specializes in the red wine business and has several wineries in Hong Kong, but Hu Zhiyong usually calls him Mr. Zorro." Silva smiled as he opened the documents and placed them in front of Chen Jiajun.

"Red wine business? Can this kind of person handle a business as big as the Z Fund?" Chen Jiajun frowned and said: "You have to know that the Z Fund has currently secured several times the subscription, plus the government's Care Fund; once it goes public, it might be able to push the market value to a hundred billion."

Silva spread his hands and said: "I was suspicious of that too, but that is the fact."

Chen Jiajun stroked his chin, looked at the photo of this guy Zorro, and said indifferently: "Zorro is very likely just a code name. I'll go ask someone to see if there are any clues. You take some men and keep an eye on that Zorro, and have someone wiretap his phone."

Silva shook his head and said: "That guy is very careful. Even Hu Zhiyong's study has anti-wiretapping devices installed, and he usually uses a satellite phone for calls, so it's very difficult to wiretap!"

"Tsk, he's quite careful!" Chen Jiajun pondered for a moment and said: "Then follow him and see who he is in contact with."

"Got it, Boss!" Silva nodded.

After Silva left, Chen Jiajun dialed another one of his Majai.

A Majai named Shang En who was lurking within the Ether Society.

After this guy was controlled by Chen Jiajun, he had been working within the Ether Society without arousing any suspicion.

It was only because of the Wei Hong incident that the operation failed, leading to his demotion.

However, as one of the high-level members of the Ether Society, his intelligence network was quite luxurious.

As long as this Mr. Zorro was one of their people, he would definitely be able to find out.

Soon, Shang En returned the call, but the result was somewhat different from what Chen Jiajun had thought: "Boss, this Mr. Zorro... or rather, Cody Stevenson, is not a member of the Ether Society."

Hearing Shang En's words, Chen Jiajun was truly a bit surprised.

In his impression, besides the Ether Society, he could not think of any other organization capable of causing so much trouble in Hong Kong.

But hearing Shang En's denial overturned all of Chen Jiajun's previous conjectures.

"However..." Shang En changed the subject at this moment and said: "I feel like I've seen this guy somewhere!"

Chen Jiajun's eyes lit up instantly: "Hm? You've seen them? Tell me about it, what kind of organization are they?"

"It seems they are a partner of the Ether Society, members of an international money laundering group called D. O. A." Shang En immediately had his subordinates bring over the files and then said: "These people are responsible for helping the Ether Society handle some rather thorny funds, and they have deep cooperation with international organizations like the Equator."

"Tsk tsk, fishing for a minnow and catching a great white shark!"

Hearing Shang En say this, Chen Jiajun felt that all these events were perfectly logical.

Otherwise, if just any Tom, Dick, or Harry could pop up and evade his Information Organization, he might as well have Silva disband the Information Organization altogether.

Therefore, Chen Jiajun immediately gave the news reported by Shang En to Silva. Silva's confidence grew greatly, and he immediately seized the time.

If one were to investigate a single person, it certainly wouldn't be that easy. But if one knows what organization the other party belongs to, this kind of matter progresses rapidly.

After all, the Information Organization under Chen Jiajun was derived from MI6; it couldn't possibly be that incompetent.

……

While Chen Jiajun was investigating the identity of that Mr. Zorro, Lu Zhilian, under the pressure of the six days given by the Commissioner, began to act aggressively as well.

This guy first went to the hospital and took Luo Deyong's stroke-paralyzed wife out of the hospital.

Subsequently, he forced Luo Deyong to call the Hu Zhiyong behind him, and Lu Zhilian took people to secretly eavesdrop.

Unfortunately, Hu Zhiyong was extremely cunning.

He didn't answer Luo Deyong's words at all and hung up the phone directly.

Lu Zhilian and the others were helpless and could only send Luo Deyong's wife back.

Then they went directly to find Luo Deyong.

"Mr. Luo, you were forced to cooperate with the Z Fund. As an auditor, you know best whether the Z Fund is a Ponzi scheme." Lu Zhilian said indifferently: "I don't want you to spend your few years of retirement in prison, Mr. Luo. Why not cooperate with our Independent Commission Against Corruption and turn state's evidence? We guarantee you'll be fine!"

Luo Deyong was currently very conflicted; he hated the bastards at the Z Fund for causing the death of his old friend of many years.

But he also had to consider his stroke-paralyzed wife.

After a moment of silence, Luo Deyong still said to Lu Zhilian: "Director Lu, I really have nothing to say! I feel very tired now, I hope you can let me wash my face and then continue, is that okay?"

"Mr. Luo, you can go!"

Luo Deyong wouldn't cooperate, and Lu Zhilian didn't have a very good solution either.

In extraordinary times, one can only use extraordinary measures. Although this was against regulations, Lu Zhilian had no better choice right now.

After Luo Deyong came out of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, he knew things were not looking good.

If he got caught in the tug-of-war between Hu Zhiyong and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, he, the person involved, would very likely be in trouble at any time.

So that same night, Luo Deyong took out all his savings and chartered a plane, intending to send his wife away, and then prepared to slip away himself.

But that same night, Hu Zhiyong's people came to his door: "Mr. Luo, Mr. Hu invites you!"

Luo Deyong was helpless and could only follow the other party's people to see Hu Zhiyong.

There had been people from the Independent Commission Against Corruption tailing Luo Deyong, and soon they arrived at a luxury mansion in Sai Kung.

After entering the mansion, Hu Zhiyong took Luo Deyong into his study: "Sorry Mr. Luo, to disturb you so late, but my client wants to have a word with you!"

"But don't worry, my room has an anti-eavesdropping device; if there is eavesdropping equipment, the red light will flash. It won't be like last time, where you were being eavesdropped on and didn't even know, right? Haha!" Hu Zhiyong invited Luo Deyong into the study: "Please sit!"

Subsequently, he directly turned on the screen on the wall, and on the screen was a person with their back to the camera.

This guy was the Big Boss behind Hu Zhiyong, Mr. Zorro.

"Hello Mr. Luo, you transferred all your assets in Hong Kong to the United States, and at the same time, you booked a medical charter flight to send your wife away. Why are you leaving?" Mr. Zorro asked directly as he opened the conversation.

"Why am I leaving?" Luo Deyong sneered and said: "Everyone knows what is going on with your Z Fund."

This sentence directly silenced Mr. Zorro. After a moment, he said: "Our team is not just me; there are people from Italy, Russia, and South America. If something goes wrong, it will be very difficult for both you and me to answer for it. So the most important thing now is for the Z Fund to be successfully listed, understand?"

Mr. Zorro's words were already the most direct threat. Once something went wrong with the Z Fund, it would be useless for Luo Deyong to hide anywhere.

Since the other party could know what he had done in such a short time, it meant that someone had been monitoring him all along.

Luo Deyong had no choice but to say resignedly: "I understand."

"I like doing business with experienced people; a simple word or two is enough to understand the stakes involved." Mr. Zorro said indifferently: "Since you understand, let's stop here for today!"

"Mr. Chen, it's rare to see you appear at this kind of cocktail party!"

The head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority was very pleasantly surprised to see that Chen Jiajun had actually been invited and came.

Who didn't know that Mr. Chen Jiajun of the Titan Group never liked attending these kinds of cocktail parties.

If he did attend, he would usually only attend the internal cocktail parties of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Appearing here suddenly today indeed attracted the attention of many people.

Chen Jiajun smiled and said: "I didn't attend before because I didn't like seeing those Gweilo from England. Now that we are all our own people, if I still don't attend, people will think I'm acting like a big shot!"

"Hahaha, Mr. Chen doesn't need to act like one, you are a big shot yourself!" the head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said with a smile.

After chatting with the old man for a few words, Chen Jiajun said in a low voice: "Director, Mr. Wei Yaoting, can we talk for a moment in this quiet place?"

Hearing Chen Jiajun's invitation, although the two didn't know what Chen Jiajun wanted to do, they still nodded and agreed.

The three of them walked into a lounge and sat down, and Chen Jiajun said directly: "I asked the two of you to come over because there is something I want to tell you."

"Please, go ahead."

"This matter concerns the Care Fund." Chen Jiajun looked at the two and said.

Hearing Chen Jiajun's words, the head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said somewhat strangely: "Mr. Chen, didn't you say..."

Chen Jiajun waved his hand and said: "I am indeed not interested in the Care Fund. The scale of our Hongxing Charity is too small; even if the money from the Care Fund were invested, it might not necessarily play much of a role."

"Then what is this about?" Wei Yaoting said with a strange look on his face.

Chen Jiajun smiled and said: "I heard that there seems to be something called the Z Fund preparing to list in Hong Kong, right?"

"That is indeed the case." The head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority nodded.

"Regarding this Z Fund, I know some different things and want to share them with the two of you." Chen Jiajun had his subordinates bring over two sets of documents and handed them to the head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Wei Yaoting respectively.

Chen Jiajun continued: "Although it is inappropriate for me to say this, as Ahong Konger, it is a huge good thing that the government has finally come up with such a fund to seek welfare for the citizens. I don't want to see the government suffer unnecessary losses because of a certain company."

Wei Yaoting frowned as he finished reading the document and said to Chen Jiajun: "Mr. Chen, where did this document... come from?"

Chen Jiajun smiled and said: "This is a warning letter issued by the regulatory agency in the United States. As long as someone is paying attention to the stock market over in the United States, they will issue such a notification letter. The content above is not something I made up; the two of you can entrust someone to verify it in the United States at any time!"

Hearing Chen Jiajun say this, the expressions of the two men immediately turned ugly.

They certainly wouldn't believe that Chen Jiajun would go out of his way to create something like this just to covet the 15 billion from the Care Fund.

After all, while others might not know, they were well aware of how much Chen Jiajun had earned during this financial storm.

Chen Jiajun simply didn't care for a mere 15 billion from the Care Fund.

Therefore, this matter was very likely true.

The Z Fund had been directly warned over in the United States, and they had even issued a warning notice to the shareholders.

There was no need to even mention the severity of this.

But the problem now was that the Hong Kong government had already signed an agreement with the Z Fund.

If it really went to court, it was estimated that the Hong Kong government would not look very good. (End of chapter)