The Madoff Reckoning (1)
Time flew by in the blink of an eye. For those who'd lost their money, it must have felt like hell, but for me, this time of pleasure was like ice melting away in bliss. New headlines exploded every day, and each one gave me a massive dopamine hit.
For example, today.
—Rustle.
As usual, I was sipping coffee with the morning paper when big news hit from Korea—somewhere I hadn't paid much attention to lately. The sudden rollout of the real-name financial system. Of course, I knew it was coming, so I wasn't in a panic. Everyone thought it wouldn't happen, but since it was the president's campaign promise, convincing Grandpa had been a breeze.
"Hmm, looks like Grandpa handled that side of things well from the papers."
"Yes, most of the domestic slush funds went straight to Alpha Fund, so they were easy to move..."
Seo Joo-eun, who'd finished her maternity leave and returned to her secretarial duties, chimed in.
"Yeah, Joo-eun. You feeling okay?"
Her face, no longer stiff but often soft these days, broke into a gentle smile.
"Thanks to your concern."
...Still feels weird getting used to this. Come to think of it, she's technically family now. I won't call her sis-in-law or anything, but it still feels off.
'Whatever, Daeha's a mess like always.'
She couldn't go on overseas assignments because of the baby, but she seemed happy enough in her own way. Fair enough—considering how hard Si-hyun's been grinding, living comfortably in Korea sounds pretty nice. Unless you're like me, stuffed full of ambition, there's no need to spend your whole life in this concrete jungle. Not that I have a choice with my endless desires.
"I just came from Daeha Securities... Thanks to you looking out for me, I settled in fine. But with the real-name system hitting right when I got back... Um, it wasn't on purpose, right?"
"Probably was."
I'd pulled some strings to boost her performance. Perfect timing with the real-name system rollout—it was a cakewalk. Stocks tanked hard as expected, and I had Joo-eun rake in solid profits on the Korean market too. Ten million dollars—about 100 billion won. I could've gone bigger with more risk. Nothing much on my plate right now anyway, plenty of time...
'Still, better buy some shares.'
Chairman Yoo Seong-pil seems to like me a lot, but I don't want to cause him any trouble. With me operating under Daeha Securities in Korea, the press is watching closely.
And more than anything, that 'petty' cash wasn't the point right now.
Fifty billion dollars was right in front of me.
—Bang! Bang!
Wall Street was a madhouse today. After the courts ruled the Madoff Fund a scam and seized Madoff Investment Securities for a full search.
"My money! Give me back my money!!"
"Madoff!!! How could you do this?!"
Hordes of victims, eyes bloodshot with rage, swarmed the street. Most had personal ties to Madoff. Under U.S. law, even unwitting investors had to forfeit all gains beyond principal as unjust profits. And these folks had been in for decades.
They faced losing massive sums. Especially the early investors—friends and cronies, just like in most private funds. The ones feeling the deepest betrayal, losing the most. One wrong bet, and their fortunes were gone.
"...What now?"
A raspy voice asked. It was a director from the Shoa Foundation, someone I'd gotten friendly with at events. Turned out he was president of some big university—Brandeis, I think? Fun fact: Michael Sandel went there. Naturally, he'd dumped his personal fortune and the school's endowment into Madoff. Lucky he got in late.
I shrugged.
"Save the people first. It's tragic losing everything on one bad investment, right? Squeeze some cash from JP Morgan and Arthur Andersen, and we'll get at least $30 billion. Stop the suicides before anything..."
Most Madoff investors were wealthy individuals, but I could sic my army of lawyers on the institutions. Arthur Andersen helped big time. They bailed quick once they smelled trouble, but their accounting fraud was exposed—they'd pay at least $10 billion in fines.
"Ha, right. Yeah... there's that. As long as you're alive, you can figure something out."
In this hellish chaos, most victims despaired, but I was one of the rare exceptions.
'Way better than my past life.'
It was worse back then. Exposed a full 15 years early this time. Never done this much good in either life. Sure, pity the ones losing everything beyond principal... but at least they'd live. And technically, not 'everything'—thanks to me, plenty would be preserved.
And...
"...Diversifying saved me, whew."
He muttered, looking frailer by the week.
"Tell me about it. Over half mine's in Alpha Fund—dodged a bullet."
Pure bullshit, but it shifted our poor president's focus just fine.
"You've got more money than I thought? Heard you put $30 million in that bastard—only half?"
"Well, it wasn't that much originally. You know how it is."
Even all-in types were diversifying now. Duh—Madoff's steady 10% annual returns? Alpha Fund delivers 30% minimum. Last year, we hit a legendary 60% on a $10 billion AUM, thanks to that pound short. Plus inflows doubling the fund yearly— even risk-averse folks can't ignore us.
'Ha, am I too nice?'
Unlike Madoff, we disclose flows transparently. Know where we invest? Big deal. Dumping billions into future moonshots? Mere mortals can't follow. We sprinkled some in weird stocks too, just in case.
"Ha, the law firms must be loving this. Wonder how many billions they'll skim..."
Oof, hits close. Our litigation and trust management firm? Quinn Emanuel. Five billion in fees incoming. The same crew from the LA riots days. Quinn loved it—cut me some slack on early investors' clawbacks.
Collusion? Nah, just protecting good-faith investors. Legal basis too. Judge took pity; after squeezing Arthur and JP, no more clawbacks. Impossible normally, but early bust helped. Liquidate Madoff's assets, real estate—he sucked at stocks but nailed property. Past life recovered 70%? This'll be better.
All thanks to me. Nailing optics and profits, I smiled.
"Say, President, where you reinvesting the recovery?"
Right on cue.
"Obviously... uh, Alpha Fund. What else?"
Exactly. Money doesn't vanish—it flows. In capitalism, it's a living current, not a still life. It pools, then surges somewhere. Like rain to rivers to sea.
I design the paths, dig the pit called Alpha Fund at the bottom. Block the side roads, and it all comes to me.