Chapter 136: The Private Fundraising Fraud Case Explodes!

Tang Ye hurriedly called Discipline Inspection Commission Secretary Zhuo Ming of the county.

His first reaction was, had Guo Liang been secretly taken away by the Discipline Inspection Commission?

If Guo Liang had been taken away by the County Discipline Inspection Commission, the problem would be serious.

"Secretary Zhuo, I am truly sorry to call you so late."

Zhuo Ming knew Tang Ye was a favorite in front of Du Chengfeng, so he forced himself to sound alert, "Little Tang, it's so late, is there something the matter?"

"I'm calling to ask you something. Has the Discipline Inspection Commission had any special operations recently that require the cooperation of our Town Government?"

Zhuo Ming immediately understood what Tang Ye meant, "The Discipline Inspection Commission has recently been focusing on auditing the school system. The situation in your Pinghu is indeed a bit serious; the accounts are unclear and there are quite a few complaints."

Seeing Zhuo Ming focus on the schools, Tang Ye felt relieved instead.

"Secretary, if the Principal has engaged in any disciplinary or regulatory violations, we will certainly handle it and will never be lenient."

Zhuo Ming had assumed Tang Ye came to plead for mercy, so upon hearing this reply, the words he had prepared had no place to be used.

"Fine, once there is a conclusion, I will inform you."

Tang Ye hung up on Zhuo Ming and then called Wan Ming.

He was worried that Guo Liang might have been arrested by the police for involvement in prostitution or gambling.

As it turned out, after Wan Ming made some inquiries, he told Tang Ye that they had focused on checking a few venues tonight.

But, there was no Guo Liang!

Tang Ye felt uneasy, but had no choice but to call Xu Qiao back to soothe her emotions.

"Your brother-in-law is a grown man, he shouldn't be in any trouble. He's probably just out socializing and drank too much, so he can't be reached for the moment."

"Yeah, it's just very unusual; my brother-in-law has never been like this!"

The next morning.

Tang Ye had just entered his office.

Hong Yu hurriedly knocked open the door to Tang Ye's office.

After entering, she said anxiously, "You have to help my sister. I went to work at Hongzhen today, only to find the place empty and all the equipment moved away. Then I called Chu Kun, but no one answered. I told Song Jin about this, and he told me that I might have encountered a fraudster."

Tang Ye's expression changed slightly.

Connecting this to Guo Liang's disappearance last night, he realized that something major might be about to happen.

Hongzhen Developer had been operating in Pinghu for several months, always claiming to the public that they were going to build a high-quality residential complex, and had been raising funds from local commoners without authorization by promising high returns.

If a shrewd woman like Hong Yu could be tempted by the huge profits, let alone those commoners who had never seen the world.

"Don't worry!" Tang Ye knew Hong Yu had most likely been scammed, and could only try his best to soothe her emotions, "Things might not be as serious as you think."

Hong Yu could no longer control her emotions and began to cry bitterly while covering her face, "I invested all my savings, and even mortgaged my house; it adds up to two million. If Song Jin finds out the house is gone too, he will definitely divorce me. What should I do? Sobbing!"

This spendthrift woman!

No wonder Hong Ruilin couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this granddaughter.

Back then, she had specifically sought him out to persuade him to give the green light so that Hongzhen could obtain the land, and even convinced him to invest, using high profits as bait.

Tang Ye had warned her to be rational and not let her head be turned.

And yet, it still blew up.

"How many people were scammed?" Tang Ye tried hard to get Hong Yu to calm down, hoping to get some useful information from her.

"I don't know either, many people were scammed. The total funds could be as much as one hundred million."

Hong Yu stated a terrifying number.

Tang Ye gasped, and said angrily, "This matter is too big. This is illegal fundraising, which is not protected by law. You must find the culprit to have any chance of recovering the losses. Do you have any leads?"

Hong Yu shook her head with a bitter smile, "The company executives, the finance department—I've tried, but I can't reach any of them."

At this moment, the landline rang.

The voice of Guo Zhengting came from the other end of the line.

"The County Government is surrounded by the commoners of Pinghu. They say a developer has absconded with the money. What exactly is going on?"

"County Magistrate Guo, that developer was raising funds privately. He wanted to get land approved for construction, but we felt his qualifications were problematic, so we rejected it."

Before Tang Ye could finish, Guo Zhengting scolded him angrily:

"The developer has been active in Pinghu for so long, and you didn't have any vigilance at all—don't you have any responsibility? Come to the County Government immediately. Whoever made this mess is responsible for cleaning it up!"

Guo Zhengting felt very satisfied; he had finally found a handle.

Tang Ye, haven't you been jumping around quite happily?

Now that a private fundraising fraud case has broken out in Pinghu, don't even think about washing your hands of it!

"Sister Yu, I have to go to the County Government to handle this matter. I'll contact you later."

"Yeah, only you can help me now! Sobbing!"

Looking at the vacant-eyed Hong Yu.

Tang Ye felt both speechless and pitiful.

……

Tang Ye arrived at the entrance of the County Government.

The petitioners instantly surrounded Tang Ye.

"Town Mayor Tang, you must stand up for us! I invested one hundred thousand yuan; that was my coffin money!"

"You must help us solve this! The developer was eating, drinking, and having fun with people from the Town Government every day. The developer said the Government approved their project, that's why we believed those scammers."

"That's right, the Government and the developer were in cahoots; you must have gotten plenty of benefits behind our backs. Give us our money back, you must return our hard-earned money."

In the crowd, a woman over seventy years old was loudly denouncing them one second, and the next, due to excessive agitation, her eyes rolled back, her body went limp, and she collapsed to the ground like a deflated balloon.

Tang Ye hurriedly rushed over and began pinching the old woman's philtrum point.

Then, he fished a Quick-Acting Heart Pill out of his pocket and fed her several of them.

After a while, the old lady took a long breath and slowly regained consciousness.

"Town Mayor Tang, that was my life savings, and just like that, it's gone. Sigh, my son and daughter-in-law have kicked me out of the house. How am I supposed to live from now on?"

Tang Ye let out a sigh of relief.

As long as she was fine, that was all that mattered; if a life had been lost, the situation would have been much worse.

"Everyone, disperse!"

Tang Ye stood up and looked around.

In an instant, he unleashed his full presence, and the scene fell silent.

"Fellow villagers, I know you are very anxious. I am even more anxious than you are. But, besides making yourselves more worked up, can anxiety solve the problem?"

"Town Mayor Tang, we know you are a good cadre. You previously helped Xuqiao Village resolve the land transfer issue and helped the villagers recover their compensation. You have great influence; you must help us!"

Tang Ye made a gesture to stop them, "Please everyone, stay calm. The urgent priority is to find a way to recover the losses, not to bicker here. The Government will absolutely not stand by and do nothing. With everyone gathered here, we need to maintain order; how can we have time to sort through the situation?"

"Town Mayor Tang, we are also at our wits' end!"

"Please give me three days..."

"We must trust Town Mayor Tang. Everyone, don't make things difficult for him; let's disperse quickly!"

Under Tang Ye's persuasion, the people finally dispersed.

Afterwards, Tang Ye headed straight for the conference room.

The atmosphere inside the conference room was oppressive.

Guo Zhengting's gaze was like a knife, sweeping coldly across Tang Ye's face.

"Comrade Tang Ye, how could you make such reckless promises? If you cannot come up with a solution after three days, what will you do?"

The others also nodded in succession.

"This belongs to a private economic dispute and has no connection to the Government; we cannot intervene lightly!"

"Why didn't they be more careful when they were pooling their funds back then?"

Tang Ye felt as if he were being roasted over a fire.

As a Government official, he spoke constantly of serving the masses wholeheartedly, yet when problems arose, they started shirking responsibility?

This was clearly not Tang Ye's style!

"Secretary Du, County Magistrate Guo, fellow leaders! I could sit by and ignore this.

But, if no one from the Government steps up to mobilize resources to pursue the losses, those commoners who have suffered massive losses will truly be driven to desperation, with no hope left at all. We cannot just watch as so many families are ruined and destroyed because of one mistaken investment!"