What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 479 fig leaf

Confession is lenient, resistance is strict.

Daimler's intention to surrender to the United States is not a particularly novel move.

Samsung has done this before. It surrendered to the U.S. Department of Justice, resulting in a $5.85 million fine imposed on five companies, including LG, Chi Mei, and AU Optronics, for manipulating LCD panel prices, while Samsung itself escaped punishment.

Hitachi did this before. It surrendered itself to China's National Development and Reform Commission, which resulted in seven Japanese companies being fined RMB 8.32 million for manipulating the prices of automotive wiring harnesses, starters, and other parts, while Hitachi itself was exempted from punishment.

Rhône in the pharmaceutical industry, Nippon Yusen in the shipping industry, and Micron in the memory industry have all done this and escaped punishment, but the companies that conspired with them have to pay a heavy price.

Daimler wants to follow a path that its predecessors have already trod.

However, it chose an extremely surprising time.

European automakers are facing systemic scrutiny. Governments have just introduced support policies, competitors are trying to mitigate the market impact, and the financial market has just shown signs of stabilization. Under such circumstances, choosing to surrender would undoubtedly put the trenches that have just been rested under attack again.

The emissions fraud scandal isn't over yet, and now market monopolistic practices have surfaced...

This news from Washington even enraged Martin, who was already disgraced.

As a former CEO of Volkswagen who is under investigation, he should have remained silent, but after seeing Daimler's actions, he was both shocked and angry. The industry situation had just begun to ease, and this new case has undoubtedly pushed everyone back into the spotlight.

Martin was able to run alongside Ghosn for the title of the most unfortunate person in this round of emissions cheating because he had paid a heavy price for it. So he was heartbroken to see the hard-won situation suddenly deteriorate. Of course, another reason was that he might face a new round of investigations.

He directly criticized them on Twitter: "Manfred and Dieter, those two idiots, messed everything up!!"

Manfred is the chairman of Daimler, and Dieter is the CEO.

Martin's voice emerged amidst criticism from German public opinion, but Daimler Group remained silent on other criticisms, except for refuting the criticism from the former Volkswagen CEO.

Dieter retorted directly on Twitter: "Can anyone be dumber than you shorting your own company?"

He couldn't tolerate Martin, who was already disgraced, coming out to criticize him at this critical juncture. It was utterly ridiculous that Martin had been caught shorting Volkswagen!

The three German automakers maintain a tacit understanding in many areas, and the monopolistic behavior exposed this time only proves this point again. However, there is also competition among the three giants, and Dieter and Martin have disagreements on many issues.

Martin continued to take to Twitter, accusing Daimler of a betrayal and criticizing their actions as disruptive to the current situation.

Ignoring all the other concerns, Dieter simply took to Twitter to call on the authorities to launch a further investigation into Martin, suspecting that someone like Martin, who could short his own company, also had funds to short Daimler!
Martin never returned to the party after that.

He sadly discovered that one wrong step led to another, and no matter what he said, everyone would only focus on one thing, which he found difficult to refute.

However, Martin could not match Dieter's accusations. Public opinion in Germany and other European countries remained turbulent. The automotive industry incident had been a major focus of media reports since last month, with television, the internet, and newspapers bombarding the media, along with protests and demonstrations by environmentalists. The level of attention was simply too high.

Last time, we could accuse short sellers of sabotage, but this time the car companies themselves handed over the evidence. What else is there to say?
Daimler does indeed have one.

The company has not officially responded to this matter, but Senior Vice President Collins expressed his grievances on his Twitter account, explaining the group's considerations for such a move: "We believe that the mountain peak may have a lot of information about us, so this is a choice made out of necessity."

They even blamed the mountain peak! They all blamed the mountain peak!
The pressure from that ghost was immense!
If Guo Shanfeng really does launch another attack with information about a monopolistic market, Daimler Group will suffer huge losses. As for whether he actually has such information... who can say that the king of short sellers isn't holding the information and preparing to launch World War III?
Over Peak's previous emissions fraud was clearly a planned pursuit of maximum profits, and some suspect that its sources were high-ranking executives within Renault, Volkswagen, or Bosch, with a simple motive.

If Martin could short Volkswagen, it wouldn't be surprising if other senior executives colluded with Guo Shanfeng to engage in insider trading.

Therefore, if you don't betray your teammates now, it will be too late when you launch an attack after crossing the mountain. It's better to minimize losses now than to die together. As for whose losses to minimize, whoever steps forward to betray first gets to do it.

Collins's statement on Twitter seems to make Daimler's choice seem somewhat reasonable.

Even more strangely, despite criticism from European media and skepticism from American media, Daimler's stock price actually rebounded, and those who actually held company stock clearly felt they had sold well.

This performance in the financial markets has given Daimler more confidence in dealing with public opinion. Apart from the betrayal that is easily criticized in a moral sense, the act of monopolizing the market itself does not occupy a moral high ground, including the same tone when facing an emergency investigation from BaFin in Germany.

At a time when both the United States and Europe have launched antitrust investigations, Guo Shanfeng, who usually exits short positions quickly, has unusually provided a bilingual response.

German media received the comment: "Das haben wir wirklich nicht."

American media received the response, "We really don't have that."

Bai Xiaosheng, who is surfing the internet, believes that this response further confirms the Chinese background of the mastermind behind Guo Shanfeng—which is really not the case.

You can say I shorted Volkswagen, you can say I'm suspected of market manipulation, but your information about Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen monopolizing the market... is truly untrue.

Guoshanfeng officially denied the rumors online, while Daimler's top management remained silent.

Why bring it up now of all times? It seems they've forgotten that the king of short sellers is no pushover.

As for whether Guoshanfeng is lying, its credibility is currently at least higher than Daimler's.

Some of Mercedes-Benz's senior executives in China, who had been observing the group's situation, were seeing the chaotic situation. On the one hand, they were being asked by EU regulators to cooperate with the investigation, and on the other hand, they couldn't help but feel restless. They thought the headquarters was too foolish and there would be a series of legal troubles to come. Perhaps they could go out and find new opportunities.

Volkswagen's stock remains suspended, Daimler's stock has shown some signs of recovery, but BMW's stock price has plummeted in this round of sales, tarnishing its previously clean reputation.

Short selling shouldn't provoke anger; vultures are inherently profit-driven, and regulatory investigations shouldn't incite outrage—it's simply part of the job.

The most unacceptable thing is being betrayed by a teammate.

On June 21, BMW, which had remained silent and cooperated with the investigation, voluntarily surrendered to the European Commission by submitting a "Request for Leniency" through an encrypted whistleblower system, describing the systematic collusion among automakers to manipulate the end-of-life vehicle recycling market.

Through the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, they collectively refused to pay for the dismantling of scrapped vehicles, shared contract terms with dismantlers, and jointly suppressed recycling prices, resulting in long-term losses for 8% of authorized processing centers in the EU.

The EU has a leniency mechanism in place, under which the first whistleblower is granted 100% immunity, according to the 2006 Leniency Notification.

Clearly, Daimler isn't the only one who would betray their teammates.

The New York Times truthfully reported yet another scandal from the auto industry, and it's hard not to feel a deep sense of unease.

"From Mitsubishi to BMW, automotive giants are mired in scandals, from diesel emissions fraud to the shady dealings of scrap car recycling. The industry's fig leaf has been torn off layer by layer. This crisis, triggered by the mountain peak, has stirred up a giant vortex that will surely go down in history, dragging those players who profit from monopolies and lies into the abyss without mercy."

"2014 became a year of great battle in the automotive industry, and also created the financial legend of the king of short sellers."

"Don't let go of the car companies that monopolize and exploit others, and don't let go of the short sellers who stir up trouble."

(End of this chapter)