IWSF – Ch 263

Park Sang-yeop canceled all scheduled appointments and put his head together with Taek-gyu to discuss the situation.

“Cryptocurrency, state-owned oil fields, Petro coin… they’ve thrown in every plausible story.”

Just looking at the materials, Venezuela, which is failing or already failed, looks like some kind of blockchain mecca.

“How exactly was this 150 trillion won figure calculated?”

Oil prices, which had been plummeting endlessly, have now recovered to around $75 per barrel, thanks to OPEC member countries’ production cuts, the Big One, and the strong US economy.

Based on this, the reserves are about 2 billion barrels. 1 barrel is slightly less than 160 liters, so that’s a whopping 300 billion liters!

We also need to consider the extraction costs.

The reason Venezuela, despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, cannot escape the economic crisis is because its profitability is lower compared to other oil-producing countries.

But the most serious problem is…

“Venezuelan oil is heavy crude oil, which is difficult to refine. Why else would they import light crude oil from other countries and mix it to sell?”

Not all crude oil is the same.

Crude oil is broadly divided into light crude oil and heavy crude oil. They are classified according to sulfur content, but simply put, light crude oil is good, and heavy crude oil is bad. Therefore, light crude oil is expensive, and heavy crude oil is cheap.

Venezuelan crude oil is the worst quality among heavy crude oils. Considering the extraction and refining costs, about 1 trillion liters would have to be buried to make it worthwhile, wouldn’t it?

And if there really were such state-owned oil fields, wouldn’t the government mine and sell them themselves? Why would they be crazy enough to sell them to private companies?

“Are there really people who believe this?”

Taek-gyu recalled the suckers he had seen in the seminar room.

“There were a lot.”

In fact, if you look at various fraud cases, there are countless absurd claims.

If you buy medical devices, they will be leased to hospitals and pay you 10% profit per month, if you invest in sow pigs, they will sell piglets and give you 60% per year, they will salvage sunken treasure ships, they will bring in a dictator’s slush funds to Korea, they will dig up gold bars hidden by the Japanese Governor-General of Korea during the Japanese colonial period, and so on.

It’s easy to think, “How stupid do you have to be to fall for such things?” but surprisingly, many of the victims are highly educated. There are even doctors, lawyers, and university professors.

Park Sang-yeop nodded as if he understood. “Well, in the Madoff case, even Hollywood celebrities and institutional investors, including Steven Spielberg, were caught up in it.”

Bernard Madoff, the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, committed fraud of over $50 billion in the United States and is currently serving a 120-year sentence in prison.

Although not comparable to that, Korea has Cho Hee-pal and Joo Soo-do. Although their methods are slightly different, they can all be said to be descendants of Charles Ponzi.

Cryptocurrency MLM itself is not new. At one time, South Korea was swept by a cryptocurrency investment craze, and there were many MLMs that took advantage of it.

However, as coin prices plummeted at the beginning of the year, the craze subsided, and MLM also decreased.

“It seems like they thought existing cryptocurrency MLM wouldn’t work, so they combined it with Venezuelan oil fields to create a new scam model.”

With the addition of Choi Nam-woo, who holds the title of Kang Jin-hoo’s cousin-in-law, a masterpiece was completed.

The Jeil Group corporation is in Korea, but the JG Gold Coin corporation is in Singapore.

Singapore, along with Hong Kong, is a financial center and tax haven of Asia. It’s easy to launder money or funnel it elsewhere.

Looking at this, scammers aren’t usually stupid.

Park Sang-yeop gave a bitter smile. “The problem is that they don’t use this good brainpower for legitimate work.”

***

Taek-gyu also informed Oh Hyun-joo of the situation, and Golden Gate immediately began tracking the flow of funds. Meanwhile, Park Sang-yeop also mobilized all his connections to find out about Jeil Group Chairman Ham Soon-pyo.

Fortunately, a current affairs program had caught wind of it and was tracking him. Park Sang-yeop was able to contact the PD in charge through the president of EDM Entertainment and obtain information.

Park Sang-yeop placed the materials he received from the PD in front of Taek-gyu.

“This guy is ridiculous. His real name isn’t Ham Soon-pyo, it’s Ham Seok-hoon. He has 7 fraud convictions for stock manipulation, planned real estate, MLM, etc., and he was released from prison after serving 3 years. Until last year, he was doing real estate development in the Philippines, and then returned to Korea last year and started this business.”

Taek-gyu asked, “Where is he now?”

“According to the PD in charge, it’s certain that he’s in Korea, but his exact whereabouts haven’t been confirmed yet.”

Unlike Choi Nam-woo, who actively engaged in external activities, Ham Soon-pyo (real name Ham Seok-hoon) rarely showed himself directly.

When the appointed time arrived, Bithumb CEO Ban Joo-won came to the company with data.

“It has been confirmed that Jeil Gold Coin’s source code is copied from Roidaa.”

“What about its value as a cryptocurrency?”

He shook his head. “You can consider it zero. There are countless scam coins created in this way. It’s the same as writing a few numbers on paper and claiming it’s money.”

“Is listing possible?”

CEO Ban Joo-won chuckled. “A legitimate exchange wouldn’t list such garbage.”

Even if it does get listed, it would be briefly listed on a small exchange with almost no trading volume and then quickly delisted.

‘Just as I thought.’

Logically, if it were a proper coin, would they be selling it through MLM?

“What is the initial issuance volume?”

“20 billion coins.”

“……”

What’s with so many?

If they sell all of this at an average of 50 won, that’s a whopping 1 trillion won.

Park Sang-yeop said, sounding dumbfounded, “And they say it will be 10,000 won once listed?”

Then the market cap would be a staggering 200 trillion won!

It could surpass Bant Coin and become the number one cryptocurrency in market cap in an instant. The even more absurd fact is that the amount is greater than the value of the oil in Venezuela.

Is it possible that 150 trillion won is the value of the oil, and 50 trillion won is the value of the cryptocurrency?

The building in Gyodae was a branch, not the headquarters.

There must be several more such places in Seoul alone. And they must be selling coins like crazy there too.

The scary thing about MLM is that it’s not just about losing your own money, but also dragging in everyone around you.

Family, relatives, close friends, and later, they even contact classmates whose names they barely remember. And as those people drag in their acquaintances again, the number of victims and the amount of damage snowballs.

It’s ironic that they are both victims and perpetrators.

‘Min Ha-young must be one of them too.’

In any case, even if it is revealed that this is a scam, only Choi Nam-woo is likely to get caught, and Ham Soon-pyo is likely to escape.

To ensure that the victims can receive even a little compensation, Ham Soon-pyo must be caught.

Taek-gyu summoned Public Relations Team Leader Jung Gi-hong. Hearing the story, he flared up.

“No, how dare they commit fraud by selling the CEO’s name! Should we immediately release a press release stating that we have no relationship with them?”

Taek-gyu shook his head. “Then they’ll run away with the money they’ve made so far.”

Even Cho Hee-pal, known as the worst fraudster since the founding of Korea, fled to China with the money he had scammed and lived well before dying. (Although it’s also questionable whether he really died).

Therefore, it is necessary to cooperate with related agencies and round them up all at once. To do so, we must first clearly reveal that this is a scam.

In developed countries, most information is transparently disclosed, and you can verify the authenticity of information as much as you want.

However, Venezuela is currently in a state of national bankruptcy.

In fact, the economy is also in a state of collapse, so most foreign companies have mostly pulled out, and financial institutions have also withdrawn or closed.

Even so, Golden Gate, being the world’s largest global IB, was operating at least a branch in Caracas. Even if small, oil sales and international remittances were still being made.

“Then what should we do?” Park Sang-yeop said. “We just need to go to Venezuela and check if Jeil Group really bought state-owned oil fields, and how much oil reserves are there.”

If it’s just for verification, it would be sufficient for a local Golden Gate employee to do it.

Taek-gyu added an explanation. “We need clear evidence that it’s a scam. Official documents from related agencies or the government. That’s the only way we can immediately arrest the scammers.”

It is said that Venezuela currently lacks dollars so badly that the entire nation is forcibly dieting, and even the middle class is rummaging through garbage cans for food. The number of people fleeing to neighboring countries, unable to endure it, is over 10% of the population.

Since support or investment is desperately needed to overcome the economic crisis, if an OTK Company employee visits and requests documents, there is a high possibility that they will be processed immediately.

Jung Gi-hong nodded enthusiastically. “That’s a very good idea, Deputy CEO.”

Then he suddenly realized that the Deputy CEO was staring intently at him. “But why are you looking at me like that…?”

Taek-gyu patted him on the shoulder and said, “Have a good trip.”

At those words, Jung Gi-hong was flustered. “Huh? M-me, you mean?”

“Should I send someone else if you don’t want to go?”

“A, no, sir. I will go!”

Jung Gi-hong showed a firm determination that he would go to the remote areas of Africa or the jungles of the South Pacific for the Deputy CEO.

But after answering, he realized that Venezuela was too far away. There probably wouldn’t be a direct flight, so how on earth should he go?

“Good thinking. I’ll let the local Golden Gate employee know, so leave right away.”

“Right now, you mean?”

“I’ll give you a week’s vacation under the Deputy CEO’s authority, so while you’re there, do some sightseeing in South America.”

It was probably too late to say he couldn’t go, right?

“……Understood.”

And so, Jung Gi-hong left for Venezuela just a few hours after coming to work.

***

Min Ha-young had dreamed of becoming a webtoon artist since high school.

When she was learning diligently and drawing at university, she thought that as soon as she graduated, she would be able to debut as a webtoon artist on a famous portal site.

However, among the countless people drawing comics, only a few get the opportunity. She earned her living expenses by taking on various outsourced jobs, tried free serializations, and challenged contests, but the results were not great.

She was disappointed after failing another contest, when she received a call from a senior who had graduated before her, asking to meet.

He wasn’t a particularly close senior, but she went to the meeting place, hoping to hear some necessary information.

Hong Chang-soo asked her if she was interested in doing a side job, and at those words, Min Ha-young followed him to the company and listened to something called a seminar.

She didn’t fully understand it, but the gist was that if you bought something called Jeil Gold Coin, it would soar like Bant Coin.

For her, who was half-believing and half-doubting, the fact that the CEO was Kang Jin-hoo’s relative was the deciding factor.

However, even if she wanted to buy coins, she had no money. Her family situation was not good either. Her parents ran a small snack bar, and they were struggling to repay the debt they had incurred to open the shop.

Min Ha-young unknowingly borrowed 7.5 million won from a savings bank and bought Jeil Gold Coin, as Hong Chang-soo instructed.

Although it was a low-interest rate era, savings bank credit loans were as high as 20%. She somehow managed to cover her living expenses through various part-time jobs, but she couldn’t even think about repaying the principal, let alone the interest.

If she hadn’t bought it at all, it would be one thing, but once she had bought it, the only way to repay her debt was for Jeil Gold Coin to be listed and hit the jackpot.

However, since she couldn’t sell it until it was listed, the only way to make money before then was to recruit new members and have them buy coins.

Min Ha-young brought in friends and fellow artists as instructed by the company. But she couldn’t actually get them to sign up as members, and bad rumors spread quickly, and everyone avoided her calls.

In the end, she had no choice but to look through her high school yearbook and even send an email to Oh Taek-gyu.

Hong Chang-soo asked Min Ha-young in an anxious voice, “Has that friend contacted you yet?”

Min Ha-young shook her head. “No.”

“Why not? He clearly said he would come on Monday and buy 1 billion won worth.”

But days had passed and there was no news. Hong Chang-soo felt like the fish he had caught had slipped away.

Frustrated, he had called and texted the contact number written on the membership application form several times, but there was no reply. (As is common for business people, Taek-gyu used multiple cell phones. But in reality, it was for mobile games, completely unrelated to business).

Min Ha-young recalled Taek-gyu’s appearance that day.

‘Why did he buy coins?’

Taek-gyu didn’t seem to believe in Jeil Gold Coin very much. Nevertheless, he signed up for membership and became her downline. Of course, since he had won the lottery and had 1 billion won, 2.52 million won might be nothing to him…

‘Did he buy it because he felt sorry for me?’

Min Ha-young said as if resigned, “He probably won’t contact us anymore.”

“Huh? What do you mean? Why?”

When Hong Chang-soo pressed her, Min Ha-young avoided answering.

But surprisingly, Taek-gyu came back again.

“I came to buy more coins.”