After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 50
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 050
Orange County, California, LA.
Even among LA’s expensive neighborhoods, this was where the wealthiest people gathered to live.
It was a neighborhood where not only celebrities but also IT industry tycoons and investment industry moguls lived, where houses costing millions of dollars were the norm.
Tom Heedle arrived at a house driving his beloved Ferrari LaFerrari.
“Oh! President, what a magnificent car!”
“Haha, I got it three months ago, so I’m starting to get tired of it.”
Tom Heedle shook hands with Santiago, the real estate broker who came out to greet him, and showed off.
“Three months is quite a long time to drive one. If you sign a contract for this house, I’ll gift you a Bugatti Chiron.”
“Oh, really?”
“Of course! This level of service is natural for a customer purchasing a mansion worth 12 million dollars!”
12 million dollars.
Even in Orange County, which had many luxury mansions, this was a high-priced mansion.
“As I explained beforehand, this house was purchased as a party venue by Leonard, who was a Hollywood superstar…”
“The basement has soundproof facilities, so you can enjoy pleasant times with women…”
“As you know, houses of this caliber don’t come on the market easily. And LA’s hot girls go crazy for houses where celebrities used to live.”
Comments that made it unclear whether he was a broker or a party organizer came one after another.
And these comments were enough to sway Tom Heedle’s heart.
“Okay! I’ll sign the contract!”
“You’ve made a good decision! Then let’s just do one million dollars for the down payment.”
“Got it. I’ll deposit it into escrow by today.”
“Haha! Thank you. Then I’ll prepare the Bugatti.”
After shaking hands with the broker, Tom Heedle got back into his car.
“Hehe, now I’m becoming a resident of Orange County, which I’ve always dreamed of.”
Tom Heedle had dreamed of a luxurious life since childhood.
But after graduating from engineering school, he had distanced himself from a luxurious life due to several failed startups.
‘I almost became homeless.’
Then an opportunity came.
Nathan, who had been close to him since high school, came to him suggesting they start a business together.
The guy was eccentric, but he was a genius.
Investors who heard his ideas gave them massive amounts of money, and they immersed themselves in research.
But gradually, he began running ahead alone.
He couldn’t keep up with his genius ideas, and the company kept growing.
Eventually, they divided the fields.
He ran the company while Nathan continued the research.
If the research succeeded like this, the two of them would surely become billionaires soon.
‘That guy is finished now too. The market is no longer putting money into DC. Now we can’t afford to pay for his research.’
New technology requires massive research funds.
Until now, they had somehow managed by receiving investments, but now it was impossible.
“Tsk! If only Arkon hadn’t exploded, I could have taken more.”
It was regrettable, but this was enough.
Tens of millions of dollars were sleeping in his account.
Now he could live comfortably with this money.
Ring!
Just when he was dreaming of a sweet future.
His smartphone rang.
[Nathan]
It was Nathan.
“Ahem!! Hello.”
-Big trouble!! The creditors are demanding shares!!
“What? What are you talking about?”
-Come back to the company right now! This is really big trouble!
Tom Heedle’s face crumpled at Nathan’s urgent cry.
* * *
After purchasing the bonds from Whiterock, we confirmed the detailed conditions.
“Since these are initially issued bonds, there are quite a few poison pill clauses.”
“That’s right. To this extent, we could say Whiterock deceived Nathan.”
“Wow… This is the first time I’ve seen bonds like this. Being able to receive 40 percent equity at the stock price at the time of issuance…”
“Plus, the 5 percent interest rate is truly the epitome of maliciousness.”
Convertible bonds don’t have high interest rates because they can secure equity.
In the case of blue-chip companies or companies with promising futures, zero-coupon bonds were also common.
But these bonds even had high interest rates.
These were conditions that showed how much Whiterock had manipulated Nathan.
“With this, we should be able to access Nereid’s internal information too.”
Choi Byeon was right.
With bonds under these conditions, we could request access to Nereid’s books.
“Let’s process this right away.”
“Understood.”
Now that we had secured the bonds, it was time to cut out the rotten parts.
* * *
Nereid Headquarters.
Nathan and Tom Heedle greeted Kang Hyeon’s group.
Tom Heedle, who greeted Kang Hyeon’s group, showed a hostile stance unlike before.
“You’ve secured the bonds?”
“Yes. We purchased the bonds that Whiterock held. We’ve already sent an official document, and accordingly, we request access to the books.”
“Ahem! Access to books that Whiterock didn’t want. How inconvenient.”
“I don’t think it should be inconvenient. We’re just exercising the rights we have.”
“Ha! Rights, you say. This company is a place we’ve nurtured from beginning to end. But wouldn’t it be inconvenient if a company that purchased bonds less than a month ago asks to see the books?”
“That’s unreasonable. We purchased them legitimately with money and have rights.”
Even faced with the other party’s unreasonableness, Kang Hyeon calmly spoke of rights.
And Tom Heedle’s attitude was turning Kang Hyeon’s suspicion into certainty.
‘There must be a reason he doesn’t want to show them.’
There was no way to block legitimate rights.
However, Tom Heedle made a choice to delay until the very end.
“We will only disclose book information within the scope that the bond authority allows.”
At Tom Heedle’s words, Choi Byeon presented a document as if he had expected this.
“The bond conditions include 40 percent equity. Since this can be seen as substantially related to management rights, we officially request full access to the books, not conditional access.”
Choi Byeon had anticipated that Tom Heedle would present unreasonable conditions.
Because most embezzlement cases follow similar developments.
So he prepared thoroughly.
Kang Hyeon, who was watching from the side, had asked if such preparation was really necessary.
‘Choi Lawyer was right.’
His thinking was correct.
Tom Heedle was strangely refusing access to the books.
Like someone cornered at the edge of a cliff.
Even Nathan beside him seemed flustered by his attitude.
He too felt that something was strange.
Seeing this attitude, Kang Hyeon also became certain.
‘There’s a reason we shouldn’t see the books.’
Without Choi Byeon’s preparation, there was a high possibility we wouldn’t have been able to check the books today.
But Choi Byeon had made thorough preparations and dismantled Tom Heedle’s unreasonable demands.
Thud!
Finally, the ledger was placed before them.
“We will now begin reviewing the ledger.”
“Please go ahead.”
Choi Byeon began examining the ledger.
* * *
The evidence was in the ledger.
“If you look here, there’s a discrepancy between the amount supposedly paid for research expenses and the money actually spent.”
Choi Byeon said, pointing to the ledger.
“Full-scale embezzlement began 15 months ago, starting with hundreds of thousands of dollars, but from 3 months ago, embezzlement of over ten million dollars occurred.”
That wasn’t all.
“Looking at even the small amounts taken, it appears he essentially used company money as his personal funds.”
Tom Heedle hadn’t been running a company; he had simply been using company money as if it were his own.
“What’s the total amount?”
“Approximately 45 million dollars.”
“With this amount, it’s essentially the same as not providing research funds at all, isn’t it?”
He had used his friend’s research funds to fill his own pockets.
That was the exact description.
“This should be sufficient.”
They had found the embezzler.
Now it was a matter for the law to handle.
“Let’s turn this over to the SEC and FBI.”
“Understood.”
* * *
Tom Heedle was arrested.
“He was arrested while trying to board a flight to Dubai. In the process, they confiscated 300 bitcoins.”
300 bitcoins, worth approximately 30 million dollars.
It was an attempt to go abroad and accumulate wealth through coin laundering.
But everything ended when he was arrested at the airport.
“Did he admit to the crimes?”
“According to SEC officials, he admitted everything as soon as the investigation began. The legal proceedings probably won’t take long.”
The evidence was too perfect for Tom Heedle to make excuses.
While they didn’t expect to recover all the embezzled funds, there was a high possibility of recovering some of it.
“What about Nathan? How is his condition?”
“He won’t come out of the research lab. It’s not that he doesn’t know about the embezzlement, but he’s acting as if it doesn’t matter and is just absorbed in his research.”
At Ha-ryul’s report, Kang Hyeon fell into thought.
‘Is he really unaffected?’
What would it have been like if it were him?
Imagining Kwangho embezzling company assets, he immediately understood Nathan’s feelings.
“Let’s go to Nereid.”
He immediately departed for Nereid.
Arriving at Nereid Headquarters by helicopter.
The company was filled with silence.
Although they said they would hide the embezzlement, rumors spread too quickly.
Naturally, the company atmosphere was down and the resignation relay accelerated.
Kang Hyeon’s group passed through the office and moved to the building where the research lab was located.
In the research lab where most lights were off, only one person was keeping his post.
‘Nathan.’
It was Nathan, absorbed in something at his desk.
Kang Hyeon gestured to Choi Byeon and Ha-ryul who had followed behind to wait, and approached Nathan.
Even as Kang Hyeon approached, Nathan remained absorbed in his research without noticing.
Sizzle!
Sparks flew as if he were welding something, but Kang Hyeon silently watched.
How much time passed like that?
Nathan, who raised his head, discovered Kang Hyeon.
“When did you arrive?”
“Not long ago.”
“You should have said something when you came.”
Nathan spoke transparently and slumped into his chair.
“What brings you here today? Is there something else you need to see?”
A strangely hostile reaction.
He asked such Nathan.
“Do you resent me for sending your friend to prison?”
“Friend? Is that bastard who stabbed me in the back really a friend?”
“Aren’t you being hostile toward me because you still think of him that way?”
“The reason I’m hostile is because you’re the person who will take away everything I’ve accomplished. It’s not because of that bastard.”
“Really?”
At Kang Hyeon’s question, Nathan said nothing.
“I also have a friend.”
“You must have many. With that much money.”
“No. Not those kinds of people. I have someone I can truly call a friend. Someone who won’t change no matter what position I’m in.”
“…Do you really think so? I believed that too. But in the end, he stabbed me in the back.”
“He really was like that. Even when I suddenly became a billionaire, he pretended not to know. Until I told him directly.”
Nathan chuckled.
“So what? You came here to brag that you have money and such a friend too?”
“No. I tried to imagine if that friend had betrayed me. And if someone I didn’t know at all had told me about that betrayal…”
Nathan’s gaze fixed on Kang Hyeon.
“I think my resentment toward that person would be greater than my resentment toward my friend.”
The thoughts he had been having came directly from Kang Hyeon’s mouth.
“I think it’s possible to be hostile toward such a person.”
Having said what he wanted to say, Kang Hyeon stood up from his seat.
“Starting next week, we’ll begin the acquisition process for Nereid. I’ll become the major shareholder and invest all funds to normalize the company.”
Kang Hyeon brought up the story he had planned.
“We’ll place a professional manager as CEO, and Nathan, you will be dismissed from the CEO position.”
“So that’s how it’s going to be?”
“Yes. So I have one proposal for you.”
Swish.
Kang Hyeon placed the document envelope he had been holding onto the table.
“What is this?”
“It’s a contract to recruit you as Chief Research Director. Your work will be the same as before. However, research results will belong to Nereid. We’ll provide research funding as needed. We also promise the industry’s best salary treatment.”
It was like a document saying he would be dismissed as CEO, but could continue related research.
“The choice is yours.”
Having finished his proposal, Kang Hyeon turned around.
Nathan, who had been staring blankly at the documents, raised his head and asked Kang Hyeon who was about to leave the research lab.
“That friend…!”
Step.
Kang Hyeon’s steps stopped.
“Did he really not change?”
At Nathan’s question, Kang Hyeon turned around and smiled.
“Yes, they’re still by my side, serving as reliable allies.”
Seeing Nathan’s eyes grow complicated, Kang Hyeon started walking again.
Left alone in the research lab, Nathan sat in a daze for a long while before seeming to make up his mind and pulling out some documents.
Swish!
Nathan’s eyes showed no more hesitation as he signed his name in the signature field.
* * *
His schedule in the United States was coming to an end.
With the acquisition of Nereid, which possessed immersion cooling technology, the company had grown even larger.
‘I wonder how this will play out?’
Nereid’s technological capabilities were clear.
What they lacked was capital.
Providing that was his job.
With its deficiencies filled, Nereid had a high possibility of becoming the trigger that could change the industry.
‘Now when I return to South Korea…’
Buzz-!
Just as he was thinking about returning to South Korea after a long time, his smartphone rang.
Checking the number, it was Cha Tae-hun Vice President who was in India.
“Yes, Vice President.”
-President! I think you need to come to India urgently!
“To India?”
-Yes, I surveyed the area you mentioned and discovered a mineral vein.
“A mineral vein?”
-Yes. And I called in an expert to confirm… they say it’s highly likely to be a nickel mine.
Kang Hyeon’s face hardened upon hearing the news.
-And this news has also reached the ears of the Indian Government.
“I’ll be there soon.”
The hill that had shown a reddish hue.
This was the call that finally revealed its true identity.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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