Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Jin Taehyun, head of Strategic Planning at Youngmi Pharmaceuticals, headed to Yeouido instead of the company.
Today was the day the operation would begin in earnest. He went to an officetel in Yeouido where the boutique in charge of the operation was located.
Boutique.
A small investment group formed by former employees of financial companies in Yeouido. To put it nicely, they were investors, but more than half of them were guys who manipulated stock prices.
Jin Taehyun planned to use them to raise slush funds by manipulating the stock price of Youngmi Pharmaceuticals.
Originally it was a simple job he could have done alone. Calling it an operation was almost embarrassing. It was like eating rice cake while lying down.
Before the upcoming favorable announcement was released, they would purchase a large quantity of stock. Then when the favorable information was disclosed, they would realize profits and switch their position to short selling. After that they would disclose negative information, and when the stock price dropped they would close the position.
That was it.
Unlike the people who run stock manipulation schemes, this was not based on fake information or lies. Everything was based on facts.
There was no need to go through complicated processes like placing false orders or making prearranged trades.
All they had to do was buy the stock a little faster than everyone else.
An ideal operation that would devour both the rise and the fall.
Preparation for the operation had begun a month earlier.
A technology contract with a global pharmaceutical company had been scheduled. Since then they had been aggressively buying shares.
The disclosure had been made yesterday, so today it would definitely hit the upper limit. Tomorrow the upper limit again. The day after tomorrow too.
The originally expected profit was fifty billion won.
But now it had been raised to seventy billion won. That was because of the sudden appearance of over ten billion won worth of short selling.
A one trillion won contract with a global pharmaceutical company. A top tier piece of good news that would push the stock up at least three consecutive limit ups. The stock price would skyrocket and the short sellers would be forced to cover their positions by buying back shares. When that happened, additional buying pressure equal to the short selling volume would pile on top of the existing demand and the stock would overshoot.
Overshooting.
It was exhilarating.
If everything went according to plan, he would pocket seventy billion won, two hundred billion more than expected. Just thinking about holding such an enormous sum made Jin Taehyun feel like his mouth would split with a grin.
Seeing the possibility of overshooting because of short selling, he felt certain that he was truly a lucky man.
But then a thought crossed his mind.
Who was short selling?
He did not care.
He only offered a brief prayer.
Rest in peace.
Jin Taehyun opened the door to the officetel that served as the boutique’s office and walked in. The owner, Na Younghoon, greeted him.
“Is everything going well?”
“Yes. No problems at all. Isn’t this an easy operation?”
“Hey. Operation?”
“Ah, sorry. I’ll be careful. The current situation is exactly as expected. The stock hit the upper limit right after trading began. Buying pressure is huge, and the waiting buy orders are enormous too. It might even hit the upper limit for three or four days.”
“Good.”
Right then.
One of the employees shouted.
“T this is bad!”
“What do you mean bad?”
“Short selling volume is surging!”
Jin Taehyun’s face twisted.
If more short selling appeared, the rise of the stock price would be limited. People who saw the short selling would suspect that there was negative news.
Of course there was negative news.
But it would be a problem if it was revealed now.
For the first time, Jin Taehyun felt a worry that something might go wrong.
Na Younghoon asked the employee in a tense voice.
“How much volume? No, what’s the estimated amount?”
“It looks like it’s already over ten billion won. The problem is it keeps increasing. It might soon exceed twenty billion.”
“Which bastards are doing it?”
Na Younghoon’s expression twisted completely.
Short selling should not be gathering like this.
The limit up might break.
If that happened, the operation would collapse.
Na Younghoon bit his lip until it bled. His face had become terrifying.
Just then Jin Taehyun’s phone rang loudly.
It was the employee in charge of company stock.
“What?”
“The exchange contacted us. They said short selling has surged and asked whether the company has any negative news. They said that for shareholder protection we should disclose that there is none if that’s the case, but if there is something we should disclose it as quickly as possible.”
“So?”
“I reported it to the chairman and he said we should disclose it.”
“No!”
“If we don’t disclose it, it could become a big problem as false disclosure.”
“Damn it!”
Jin Taehyun hung up roughly.
He urgently told boutique owner Na Younghoon.
“Close everything. Negative news will be disclosed soon.”
“What? Why is that coming out already? Soon… how soon?”
“I don’t know. It could be one minute or one hour.”
Na Younghoon’s face turned red and blue before burning like charcoal.
“Fuck! Are you kidding me!”
Jin Taehyun was already agitated.
He could not tolerate the rude behavior of someone he considered a subordinate.
“What? Fuck? Are you kidding me? You wormlike bastard, what the hell did you just say?”
He swung his palm toward Na Younghoon’s cheek, but Na Younghoon’s fist was faster.
Thud.
Na Younghoon’s fist slammed straight into Jin Taehyun’s greasy face.
Jin Taehyun collapsed to the floor. Na Younghoon stomped him repeatedly with loud thuds.
“You son of a bitch! Do you think your money is the only money in here! We have a hundred billion won in this! You bastard. If that money is lost we all die!”
Thud thud thud.
Na Younghoon’s eyes were flipped with madness and fear.
Using Jin Taehyun’s information, Na Younghoon had secretly invested money to take a share of the profits.
That money belonged to his cousin Na Uiri.
If they lost it, he would die.
Right now the only thing to do was reduce the losses.
“Hey. Sell everything.”
“O okay. But if we pull out everything now we’ll get caught by the exchange market surveillance department and the Financial Supervisory Service capital markets investigation bureau.”
“You idiot! That’s not important right now. The stock is about to crash. If the bomb explodes we won’t even be able to sell. Do you want to die when the bomb goes off? We need to run now.”
“U understood.”
At Na Younghoon’s order the employees stopped thinking.
They ignored the consequences and simply clicked sell.
They focused only on selling every share they held.
Kang Cheolmin, head of Review and Analysis Team 1 at the Financial Intelligence Unit under the Financial Services Commission, was currently dispatched to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.
After receiving intelligence that Na Uiri’s secret funds had begun moving, he was working with prosecutors to track the money.
According to the tip, one hundred billion won had moved from funds managed by Na Uiri’s cousin Na Younghoon. Kang Cheolmin’s goal was to recover it and return it to the victims.
He was drinking instant coffee with the prosecutor in charge, Kang Cheolho, feeling frustrated.
Just then a phone rang.
Prosecutor Kang Cheolho’s eyes flashed when he answered it.
After hanging up he said to Kang Cheolmin.
“Money is flowing into Na Younghoon’s borrowed name accounts. We traced it and it looks like Na Younghoon’s guys are massively selling Youngmi Pharmaceuticals stock. They didn’t even launder the money while cleaning up their accounts. They sent it straight to the borrowed accounts. Looks like they’re running an operation on Youngmi Pharmaceuticals right now.”
Kang Cheolmin jumped to his feet.
“We can freeze the borrowed accounts once the money finishes coming in. Where are those bastards?”
“We’re tracking them now, but they’re probably in Yeouido.”
“Let’s go.”
“Wait.”
Prosecutor Kang Cheolho quickly applied for search and seizure warrants and arrest warrants. Cooperation from the police was secured in less than five minutes.
“All done. Let’s go, Director Kang.”
“Moving out, Prosecutor Kang.”
The two men pushed open the doors of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office and stepped outside. The morning sunlight shone intensely on them.
“Hyung, just how much money did that bastard Na Uiri hide away?”
“Who knows. But no matter how much it is, we’ll recover every last ten won coin. Those bastards who stole the blood and sweat money my parents saved. I’ll never forgive them.”
“Never. You bastards messed with the wrong people.”
The brothers’ car sped out of the prosecutor’s office.
They were announcing the termination of the technology contract right now.
Those trash bastards.
It was ridiculous.
Youngmi Pharmaceuticals.
Compared to global pharmaceutical companies with annual sales of tens of trillions, it was small, but within the pharmaceutical industry Youngmi Pharmaceuticals ranked fifth in sales.
Its operating profit margin averaged fifteen percent, ranking first.
Seeing such a large pharmaceutical company committing thug like behavior was disgusting.
They bought shares in advance and then released favorable disclosures. When the disclosure pushed the stock price up, they immediately sold their shares.
After that they released negative disclosures.
They separated announcements that could have been made together by a day to secure time to hit first and escape.
If they even short sold before the negative disclosure, then they were truly the worst scum imaginable.
He thought surely they were not that depraved, but he had a bad feeling his guess might be wrong.
At least it was crashing now.
The prop traders on our team who short sold along with me would be relieved.
But did they add more short positions when it hit the upper limit earlier?
Surely they did not go that far.
I looked up toward Manager Kim Yuseong’s seat.
It was empty.
His expression had looked bad all morning.
Did he go outside because the stock hitting the upper limit bothered him?
Usually analysts did not care whether people lost money because of their reports. Investing was ultimately personal responsibility.
But seeing him worry about it made him seem like a good person at heart, just like Yuri noona had said.
Now that the price was falling he would probably return smiling.
I turned back and checked the Youngmi Pharmaceuticals stock again.
Just five minutes ago it had been at the upper limit with a thirty percent rise. Now it was only up three percent.
It had fallen more than twenty percent in a very short time.
The price that had exceeded nine hundred thousand won had dropped to seven hundred seventy thousand.
Youngmi Pharmaceuticals current price 773000 won.
A few minutes later it returned all gains and finally went negative.
Good.
A short cheer came from the prop team.
Youngmi Pharmaceuticals current price 723000 won.
I checked my short selling price.
Youngmi Pharmaceuticals
Short selling price 725000 won
Short selling quantity 26000 shares
Until now I had been in the red, but now I had a profit of two thousand won per share.
Really tiny.
But I was not worried.
This was only the beginning.
Just as I expected, selling pressure flooded in and the decline accelerated.
Pick up speed.
“Team leader.”
When I turned my head, Manager Kim Yuseong was standing beside me.
But his expression looked even darker.
Why?
The stock was crashing.
“What is it?”
“Did you enter Youngmi Pharmaceuticals?”
“Yes.”
“With short selling?”
“Of course.”
Kim Yuseong lightly bit his lip.
“I’m sorry.”
For what?
Ah.
He did not know what was happening yet.
Should I tell him?
I decided to wait a little.
I nodded.
“You don’t need to apologize. I entered because your report was good. The technology contract issue, the lack of transparency, the problems with the new drug development in progress. Looking at those points, short selling was the right call.”
“Still… I’m sorry. I didn’t expect it to hit the upper limit. I gave you unnecessary data…”
“Manager Kim Yuseong. Do you think the report you wrote is unnecessary?”
“No.”
“Then do you not believe it?”
Kim Yuseong did not answer.
“If you’re not convinced, that’s a problem. I don’t think you should give others a report you yourself are not confident in.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why does it seem like you trust the report less than I do? It would be good if you had more confidence in yourself. Isn’t there a saying that blessings come to those who believe?”
“Ah… yes.”
“And if it hits the upper limit again tomorrow, I’ll short it again.”
Kim Yuseong’s eyes trembled.
“N no. You must not enter again. It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s not dangerous at all. It’s an opportunity to make money. According to your report, companies like Youngmi Pharmaceuticals without solid fundamentals will inevitably decline. That’s what you wrote.”
“Still…”
“Not confident?”
“No.”
“Let’s wait and see. They say it’s not over until it’s over.”
Kim Yuseong bowed his head and turned to leave.
At that moment—
“Waaaaaa!”
Our team’s prop traders suddenly erupted in thunderous cheers.
Startled, both Kim Yuseong and I looked toward them.
They were all standing up, pumping their fists.
They shouted toward me.
“It hit the lower limit!”
Kim Yuseong tilted his head in confusion.
I smiled at him.
“Youngmi Pharmaceuticals just hit the lower limit.”
“What? What do you mean? Ten minutes ago it was at the upper limit.”
I turned the monitor toward him.
As he looked at the screen, his eyes began to fill with tears.
“H how… how could this happen?”
The prop traders gathered behind him and showered him with praise.
“This is thanks to Manager Kim Yuseong’s report!”
“That report was amazing.”
“You’re a master of critical analysis.”
“It’s the best paper I’ve ever seen.”
Hearing the praise from the TF team, Kim Yuseong lowered his head deeply.
“I’m sorry. My stomach suddenly hurts.”
He went to the restroom.
Inside an empty stall he covered his mouth.
Even so, sobbing sounds escaped. He shoved his fist into his mouth to suppress them.
He cried in the restroom for a long time.
When Kim Yuseong returned to his seat, he collapsed into his chair.
Leaning completely against the backrest, he stared at the ceiling.
His feelings were strange.
The team leader had short sold after reading his report.
The stock had surged.
Yet the team leader said he believed in his report.
He believed in it more strongly than Kim Yuseong himself.
The confident voice and eyes of the team leader.
Kim Yuseong thought about whether anyone had ever believed in him like that.
There was none.
When someone believed in him, he did not want to disappoint that person.
At first he had wanted to join this team because of the bonus.
But not anymore.
Kim Yuseong decided he would do his best for the man who believed in him.
His eyes sparkled.
The next day Youngmi Pharmaceuticals hit the lower limit again.
News had broken that members of the owner family had been arrested at the scene of a stock manipulation operation.
I was looking at the chart with satisfaction when someone spoke.
“Deoksu, no, Team Leader Kim.”
“Yes?”
I laughed softly.
Ever since I became team leader, he avoided calling my name and tried to use honorifics.
I told him it was fine to speak comfortably, but he refused.
He said a team leader needed authority.
“Have you seen this?”
“Not yet.”
It was due diligence material on Beomhan Resources prepared by the corporate investigation team.
“You should check it quickly. There’s something incredible.”
“What is it?”
I flipped through the report.
Among the asset list there was something shocking.
Beomhan Resources owned five percent of Goguryeo Zinc stock.
Jackpot.
Why is this here?