Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 98

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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98. 88888.

“Are you referring to the Barings Bank in Britain that I’m aware of?”

Landon Shore blinked as he asked, and I nodded in response.

“That’s right.”

Barings Bank, first established in 1762, was an extraordinarily prestigious British institution that had endured for over 230 years.
It was renowned for brokering the transaction through which the United States purchased Louisiana from Napoleon, and due to its deep ties with the British Royal Family, it was also known as the Queen’s Bank.
Though it had once faced bankruptcy risks and its influence had waned considerably, it continued to maintain a solid position in London’s financial circles by adapting to changes in the financial landscape and attempting to reinvent itself as an investment bank.
Andrew tilted his head with a puzzled expression.

“If my memory serves me correctly, Barings Bank is a private company, so it shouldn’t be listed on the London Stock Exchange.”
“That’s correct.”

I leisurely took a sip of espresso before continuing.

“That’s why I’m planning to short-sell the bank bonds issued by Barings.”
“Bank bonds, you said?”

Landon Shore and Andrew stared at me with wide, astonished eyes.
Bank bonds were securities issued by banks to raise necessary capital, much like ordinary corporate bonds.
Naturally, since they were issued by banks, they carried lower default risk than other general bonds and were assigned higher credit ratings.
The prospect of short-selling such bonds was genuinely shocking.

“Yes. By year-end, I want to maximize available leverage and short-sell Barings Bank bonds as aggressively as possible.”
“….”

Upon hearing this, Landon Shore and Andrew immediately sensed that I was concealing something significant.
Landon Shore straightened his posture and spoke with a notably serious tone.

“Is there some kind of problem with Barings Bank?”

Andrew also regarded me with curious eyes.
Then I leaned back against my chair and opened my mouth to speak.

“You’ve all heard the name Joseph Wesley, I’m sure.”
“Of course.”
“Anyone working on Wall Street couldn’t possibly be ignorant of that bastard Joseph Wesley.”

Andrew’s furrowed brow betrayed his discomfort, as though the very name left a bitter taste in his mouth.
And with good reason—Joseph Wesley, armed with a master’s degree from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School, had joined Kidder Peabody, a Wall Street investment bank, and within mere years had become a star trader generating hundreds of millions in profits.
He’d been lauded as a genius, basking in the adulation of all who witnessed his dazzling returns—but only briefly.
The moment his entire portfolio was exposed as fraudulent, engineered through exploits in Kidder Peabody’s faulty computer trading systems, he plummeted from grace into infamy as a swindler.
The catastrophic losses inflicted upon Kidder Peabody left the institution reeling, ultimately forcing its sale and the retirement of a nameplate that had endured for one hundred and thirty years.
Andrew’s sour expression suddenly shifted as a thought struck him like lightning, his eyes widening.

“You don’t mean to say Barings Bank has someone like Joseph Wesley in its ranks?”
“…!”

Landon Shore’s face registered equal shock as he turned to look at him.
Then Seok-won placed the document envelope he’d set beside him on the table before the two men.

“Read what’s inside.”
“….”

Landon Shore studied him briefly, then extended an arm to retrieve the envelope.
He withdrew the documents and scanned them rapidly, then looked up again with a puzzled expression.

“These are futures trading records from Barings Bank’s Singapore branch, aren’t they?”

Seok-won nodded in confirmation.

“You’re aware that Barings Bank operates as an official broker for the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX), conducting futures trading there.”

Commonly known as SIMEX, the Singapore International Monetary Exchange was a financial futures and options exchange that had opened in 1984.
By implementing a mutual clearing system with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) that allowed trades from each exchange to be settled on the other, twenty-four-hour trading across time zones had become possible.

“Looking at the trading records, you’ll see losses exceeding one hundred million dollars this year alone in futures and options trading.”
“….”
“Yet when you examine Barings Bank’s published performance report, they boast of substantial profits from Singapore—not losses, but gains.”
“…!”
“If SIMEX’s trading records show losses while Barings Bank claims profits, then one of them is lying.”

Seok-won spoke in a low voice, his gaze alternating between Landon Shore and Andrew, both of whom swallowed hard.

“Or perhaps they’re both being deceived by someone.”

Andrew suddenly leaned forward, his expression urgent as he spoke.

“Are you saying Brad Cooper is manipulating trading records?”
“Brad Cooper? Who’s that?”

Landon Shore tilted his head at the unfamiliar name, asking for clarification.

“A star trader who generated twenty million pounds in profits last year alone—accounting for twenty percent of Barings Bank’s annual performance by himself.”
“Twenty million pounds? That’s impressive.”

Andrew watched Landon Shore whistle softly in admiration, his own expression growing stern.

“And he’s the managing director at SIMEX.”
“…!”

Landon Shore’s eyebrows shot up as he quickly turned to look at Seok-won in front of him.

“You seem to know Brad Cooper quite well.”

When Seok-won asked calmly, Andrew adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses before responding.

“A trader generating tens of millions in profits annually—such remarkable performance cannot go unnoticed, no matter how remote Singapore might be.”

Andrew continued, meeting his gaze directly.

“Of course, he’s incomparable to you, sir. Your results are overwhelmingly superior, so we set that aside. But by Wall Street standards, his returns are exceptional enough that many keep a close eye on him.”
“It seems you’re among those watching him.”

Seok-won lifted his teacup and sipped his espresso as he spoke.

“I was considering mentioning his exceptional talent to you and recruiting him for our Investment Fund. But I nearly made a grave mistake by overlooking such a critical fact.”

Andrew nodded heavily, then exhaled a complicated breath.
Though he hadn’t known the circumstances, Seok-won found himself thinking it was plausible.
It was natural to want to recruit someone capable of generating tens of millions in annual profits and work alongside them.

‘Of course, that’s assuming those profits are genuinely earned through legitimate skill.’

Seok-won let out an inward sneer as he spoke.

“I wasn’t aware of that. But even if I had made such a scout offer, Brad Cooper would have refused it anyway.”
“…?”
“If he were to change positions, all the lies he’s kept hidden would be exposed.”
“Ah, I see.”

Landon Shore tilted his head in confusion before letting out an exclamation.

“But no matter how hard he struggles to conceal things, he won’t be able to hide it forever.”
“You believe the situation will unravel soon.”

Andrew asked with a serious gaze.
Landon Shore, sitting beside him, also licked his dry lips as he looked at me.

“If my investigation is correct, we’ve reached the critical point now.”
“….”
“Even if Barings Bank’s audit system is lax, they couldn’t possibly overlook losses exceeding two hundred million dollars.”

The fact that Brad Cooper’s hidden losses exceeded two hundred million dollars left Landon Shore and Andrew unable to conceal their shock.

“Two hundred million dollars? That man truly has nerves of steel.”

Landon Shore exhaled sharply and clicked his tongue.

“With that magnitude of loss, even Barings Bank would suffer a severe blow. Now I understand why the boss ordered us to short the bank’s bonds.”

Andrew, shaking his head, finally wore an expression of understanding.

“The situation will likely explode by early next year at the latest, so let’s finish our work before then.”
“Understood.”

The two men responded with gleaming eyes, like hunters gazing upon prey that made their mouths water.

* * *

November 29, 1994, Barings Bank Singapore branch.
As trading ended at six in the evening, Brad Cooper left the Trading Floor and returned directly to his office, where he sat at his desk wrestling with a calculator and transaction slips.
He needed to reconcile the trading records and balances from the past two days—yesterday and today—with absolute precision.
By the time darkness had completely consumed the world beyond the windows, it was well past midnight before he could finally finish organizing everything.
With everyone else having left for the day, Brad sat alone in the quiet office with the lights on, staring at the numbers displayed on the calculator before his face twisted into a grimace and he spat out a curse.

“Damn it!”

Today alone had resulted in a loss of fifty thousand dollars.
But the real problem was the seven hundred fifty futures contracts he’d opened last week.
Anticipating a downturn in the Japanese stock market, he’d purchased futures—but the market had moved in the opposite direction.
As Brad punched the numbers into his calculator to determine just how much he’d lost over the past four days as the Japanese Nikkei index climbed, his eyes widened in shock.

[9,800,000 USD]

The projected loss had reached a staggering nine point eight million dollars.
He’d wiped out all the profits he’d barely managed to accumulate over the past few months in a single blow.
The real problem was that this wasn’t the end—if the market opened again tomorrow and the Nikkei climbed further, his losses would only deepen.

“This is absolutely maddening!”

Still seated in his chair, Brad leaned back as though collapsing, his exhausted face contorted as he rubbed it with dry hands.
Initially, he’d created an error account labeled 88888 simply to cover up losses and shield a subordinate from blame for his mistake.

“Back then, I thought I could clear it out quickly enough….”

Indeed, not long afterward, a successful bet had generated substantial profits, allowing him to cleanly settle the losses hidden in the 88888 account.
But that was short-lived.
After suffering massive losses from trading errors and failed bets, Brad made the mistake of repeating his earlier deception—rather than honestly reporting to headquarters, he concealed the losses in the 88888 account, convinced he could quickly recover just as before.
Yet contrary to Brad’s hopes, the losses continued to mount, and the damage hidden in the 88888 account snowballed like an avalanche, eventually exceeding two hundred million dollars.
The mere thought of what would happen if it were revealed that the star trader boasting the highest profit margins at Barings Bank, the one who controlled the Singapore exchange, was actually a fraudster who’d suffered catastrophic losses, made him dizzy.
Sitting in his chair with a hollow expression, Brad suddenly straightened his upper body with a jerk.

“I didn’t come this far just to collapse now.”

Brad’s bloodshot eyes narrowed as he clenched his lower lip between his teeth.

“If I can just pull off one massive bet, I can wipe away all the losses I’ve accumulated so far.”

He continued to repeat the words to himself like a mantra, steeling his wavering resolve.

“I just need to keep it hidden until then.”

With anxious eyes, Brad rationalized his actions as he manipulated the computer on his desk, accessing the administrator account to open account 88888.
He then funneled all the losses he’d accumulated today into account 88888.
The moment he did, the trading account’s loss—which had displayed a negative fifty thousand dollars just moments before—shifted to zero on the screen.

“Yes. This will work.”

He knew full well that the harder he tried to escape, the deeper he sank into the mire, yet Brad refused to acknowledge this truth and deliberately turned away from it.
To replenish the depleted margin account drained by continued losses, he drafted a request for additional funds from the British headquarters.
With a plausible justification attached, Brad completed the wire transfer request and watched from his darkened office as the documents transmitted via facsimile to the British headquarters, muttering to himself.

“Just one more time. Then I can set everything right.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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