In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 809 Perfect
Lin Haoran held up two fingers and said with a smile, "So, we now have two choices."

First, expose his conspiracy directly, ruining his reputation;

Second, turn the tables and let him suffer the consequences of his own actions.

John Reed pondered for a moment, a ruthless glint in his eyes: "I choose the second path. Exposing him directly would be too easy on him. I want him to experience firsthand what it means to reap what you sow!"
I want to make him completely give up on the idea of ​​being the successor to the chairman of the board, and if I can take this opportunity to kick him out of the board, that would be even better.

Moreover, this would serve as a warning to other potentially disloyal individuals on the board.

“Excellent, just what I wanted. Then let’s plan how to make Richard Miller reap what he sows.” A hint of appreciation flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes.

Richard Miller's attempt to bribe those around him to deal with him crossed Lin Haoran's bottom line.

Fortunately, Li Guowei's loyalty was relatively high and he was not easily bribed, even with the temptation of five million US dollars.

If their loyalty were even slightly lower, they probably would have turned against them long ago.

Thinking of this, a cold glint flashed in Lin Haoran's eyes.

Since the other party is resorting to any means necessary, then don't blame him for retaliating without mercy.

Lin Haoran calmly analyzed: "First, we need to let Li Guowei continue to play the role of being bribed, and pass on our carefully designed 'intelligence' to Miller."

Miller's biggest goal now is to bring you down so that he can become the most powerful successor to the chairmanship.

Therefore, he absolutely must not discover Foresight Capital's true investment plans.

He paused briefly, then turned his gaze to John Reed: "By the way, Mr. John, I'd like to know how far along Foresight Capital's investment plans are at?"

This is crucial for us to formulate our subsequent counterattack strategy.

John Reed didn't hide anything from Lin Haoran and said directly, "Besides Foresight Capital, I have a small stock market analysis team. This team is based at the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges and is currently under my complete control. It's my secret weapon."

Currently, this small team has begun screening for me, assuming that US stock prices will plummet within two months due to issues with Reaganomics policies, which stocks will fall the most.

"I will only proceed with the next step of the strategy after the team has selected a sufficient number of stocks."

"In other words, your Foresight Capital office at Citibank headquarters has not yet entered the actual funding operation stage," Lin Haoran said thoughtfully.

"That's true. After all, the investment involved is not a small amount of money, so I naturally have to make full preparations before finally investing the funds."

"Currently, no one in the entire Foresight Capital office knows about my investment plan," John Reed laughed.

“No wonder they wanted to start with Li Guowei. I was wondering why they didn’t target the executives at Foresight Capital; that would have been more direct and effective. I suppose they’ve already tried, but without any success,” Lin Haoran thoughtfully continued John Reed’s words.

He hadn't understood why they had approached Li Guowei instead of trying to bribe John Reed's men.

Now, after John Reed's explanation, he finally had his doubts resolved.

"Now it seems that Miller thought you people at Foresight Capital were tight-lipped, so he could only choose Li Guowei as a breakthrough point, which exposed their intelligence limitations. They only knew that you and I were closely related, but they did not know the specific operations of Foresight Capital."

"However, the fact that Mr. Miller was able to guess that you, Mr. John, would choose to believe my words and intend to invest contrarily shows that he also has quite keen insight. It's just a pity that he used that insight in the wrong place," Lin Haoran continued thoughtfully.

Lin Haoran's analysis caught John Reed's eye: "Miller does have extraordinary insight, otherwise he wouldn't have his current position. In fact, none of those who can serve as executive directors of Citibank are simple."

"However, Lin, you're right. This is indeed a blind spot in their intelligence network. They thought they could grasp our movements through Li Guowei, but they didn't realize that this actually gave us an opportunity to counterattack."

The two of them had the same brilliant idea at that moment, and they smiled at each other.

"In that case, we might as well make good use of this information gap. We can use Li Guowei to pass on a carefully designed 'intelligence' to Miller, saying that because you have unwavering faith in my judgment, you have directly revealed your true plan and have ordered Foresight Capital to start building up a large position to short US stocks."

The sheer size of this sum of money is enough to ruin your reputation if the investment fails. But in reality, your plan to leverage short US stocks hasn't even started yet. Even if you do do it later, it hasn't been implemented at all.

Instead, you might have the company deliberately engage in some deceptive actions that appear genuine, making him mistakenly believe that they have caught him red-handed, and then have him accuse Mr. John at the board meeting.

At that time, we will present evidence at the board meeting to prove that the purpose of this operation was to target Miller, and we will release the recording of Miller bribing Li Guowei on the spot.

I think that bribing senior executives and framing colleagues is an unforgivable crime in any legitimate company, and Citibank should be no exception, right? Lin Haoran paused here.

“That’s right. According to Citibank’s Code of Conduct and Ethics, bribing senior executives and framing colleagues are the most serious violations. Once verified, such behavior will result in immediate dismissal and legal prosecution depending on the circumstances,” John Reed replied.

"Then, Mr. John, you should take this opportunity to kick Miller out of the game. Only after this matter is over can Foresight Capital officially and secretly continue your investment plan."

In my assessment, the US stock market will likely remain in a downtrend for at least another month, and this period will present the perfect opportunity for us to join forces and oust Miller.

Miller is so annoying; he's become a thorn in Lin Haoran's side. So, if Miller could resign from the board of directors of Citibank, Lin Haoran would naturally support him.

“We can proceed in four steps: First, let Li Guowei continue to play the role of being bribed and pass on carefully designed false intelligence to Miller;
The second step was to get the headquarters of Foresight Capital to cooperate in staging a grand show.
The third step was to deliver a fatal blow to Miller at the board meeting;
Fourth step, Mr. John, continue with your investment plan.

The entire board of directors currently does not believe that US stocks will fall, so your true investment plans certainly cannot be disclosed.

When you confirm to the board that your actions are entirely motivated by revenge against Miller, people will naturally stop believing that your reverse investment plan is genuine.

In this way, even if you, Foresight Capital, do secretly invest in the future, no one should notice.

However, Mr. John, your most important task is to find a way to keep your investment plans confidential from your subordinates involved in them, and to prevent any leaks. I believe Mr. John should have the means to keep your key subordinates in this position!

Lin Haoran rattled off his plan in one breath.

After hearing Lin Haoran's complete plan, John Reed smiled excitedly: "Lin, that's what I was thinking too. This plan is absolutely flawless!"
This would not only allow Miller to suffer the consequences of his actions, but also provide perfect cover for our real investment plans.

He stood up and paced around the room, carefully considering every detail: "Regarding the first step, I think we can have Mr. Li Guowei tell Miller that because I have unwavering faith in your judgment, I have already used $100 million to start short selling, and I plan to add another $100 million in the next two weeks."

"This number is cleverly set; it's enough to attract Miller's attention without seeming too exaggerated. However, we need to prepare some seemingly authentic transaction documents as supporting evidence," Lin Haoran said approvingly.

He recalled that John Reed had previously told him that Foresight Capital currently had nearly $200 million in cash at its disposal.

This can be considered as directly disclosing Foresight Capital's investment plan to Miller in its entirety.

Unfortunately, this was a preliminary disclosure, and Foresight Capital hasn't even started taking action yet.

It's interesting to use fakes to deceive people, and real things to deceive people with fakes. It's really interesting.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran couldn't help but smile.

“Leave this to me. I’ll have my team prepare a complete set of fake transaction records, including transaction confirmations, proof of fund flows, etc. These documents will use standard formats, but we’ll leave loopholes in key information, such as using deactivated account numbers,” John Reed said confidently.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded and added, "In the second step of the 'performance' segment, I suggest that the headquarters of Foresight Capital conduct a few small, real transactions to gain more trust."

At the same time, you can arrange some internal meetings to create the illusion that you are actively advancing a short-selling strategy. Since you have complete control of Foresight Capital, you should know your subordinates very well and know who might betray you. Invite them to the meetings, and the news will naturally reach Miller quickly.

“Great idea!” John Reed immediately understood. “I will also have the secretariat produce several confidential investment analysis reports, deliberately giving Miller’s informants access to these documents.”

However, John Reed frowned at the end and continued, "What I'm worried about now is that if Miller takes too long to file a complaint against me at the board meeting, say two or three months, then things could turn out badly for us."

"As you said, by then, the US stock market will already be in a continuous decline," John Reed said with a grave expression.

Lin Haoran said that the US stock market would start to fall within two months at the latest, and John Reed believed Lin Haoran's judgment.

But if Miller really does delay the special board meeting to sue John Reid until then, their situation will become quite passive, and their plans will be completely disrupted.

Therefore, the sooner Miller files his lawsuit, the better!
Lin Haoran pondered for a moment, nodded, and smiled, "This is indeed a problem that needs to be considered, but we can completely control this timing."

"Oh? Lin, please tell me more!" John Reed looked at Lin Haoran expectantly.

"As for the crucial timing of the counterattack, I suggest we don't wait for Miller to initiate this regular board meeting, as that would be too passive. Instead, we should proactively accelerate the timing. You can spread the word that due to increased market volatility, you plan to increase investment ahead of schedule. If he wants to stop your full-scale investment and reduce the 'losses' of Forward Capital, he will inevitably have to step in to stop you, since successfully preventing and reducing 'losses' is also a great achievement."

"As for how we manipulate things, how we get the other side to have some 'evidence' and make them completely believe that your plan has begun, isn't that up to us?" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

John Reed smiled knowingly: "In that case, Miller will be eager to make his move and will take the initiative to request a special board meeting, which will further prove that he is plotting to frame me."

The two then carefully considered the subsequent details.

Lin Haoran specifically reminded, "During the execution of the plan, we must ensure that the operation of your independent team is completely unaffected. Even if they start investing, they must continue to secretly build positions through offshore accounts, completely isolated from the 'performance' of Foresight Capital headquarters."

"Mr. Lin can rest assured. I founded this team myself, and they usually only report to me. Although they belong to Foresight Capital, their loyalty is not a problem at all. Moreover, Miller doesn't know much about this team, except for Walter Riston."

Moreover, this team operates in a completely different manner from Citibank's regular business. They use an independent trading system and account system, and although they are a subsidiary of Citibank, they do not rely on the Citibank system.

"None of these transaction records will appear in Citibank's regular reports, so even if Miller wanted to check, he wouldn't know where to begin," John Reed explained.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised.

John Reed's control over Foresight Capital is far too strong.

Seemingly noticing Lin Haoran's surprise, John Reed explained with a smile, "Foresight Capital's initial capital was only a mere ten million US dollars, but in nearly eight years, its assets have increased fiftyfold."

Even during the economic depression brought about by the oil crisis in 73, Foresight Capital never suffered a loss, and I, as the founder and chairman, am naturally the biggest contributor to this success.

That's why Citibank granted me absolute autonomy two years ago, allowing me to operate Forward Capital in an independent manner. This secret team was established at that time, and its existence was known only to me and a very small number of core members.

The only authority of Citigroup headquarters is to send a finance team to conduct an annual audit of Foresight Capital in the middle of each year. John Reed's tone was tinged with pride.

Lin Haoran nodded upon hearing this.

It must be said that this future successor of Citibank is truly capable.

Unfortunately, the other party was the successor to the future leader of Citibank; otherwise, he would have really wanted to poach him to Hengsheng Group.

No wonder, when no one believed that the US stock market would fall under the next Reagan economic policies, John Reid was willing to believe his judgment and secretly make arrangements.

Lin Haoran's opinion of John Reed rose to another level.

He is not only an outstanding banker, but also an investor with independent thinking and strategic vision.

However, since they can't poach him, cultivating a good relationship with him and becoming his closest ally, thus helping him gain a foothold in Citibank, can also bring huge benefits to Hengsheng Group, and even to his companies such as Land Group and Wanqing Group.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran smiled and said, "Mr. John, I admire your foresight and wisdom. I believe that under your leadership, Citibank will surely usher in an even more brilliant tomorrow."

John Reed understood Lin Haoran's implied meaning and solemnly replied, "Mr. Lin, through this cooperation, I have deeply realized the value of fighting alongside you."

Please believe that no matter what happens in the future, you will always be my most trusted partner.

Of course, this is all predicated on the US stock market actually declining in the next few months. It doesn't need to be a sharp drop; just a prolonged downward trend would be enough for me to be right. But if I lose, then our alliance will probably be of little use to Mr. Lin.

This promise put Lin Haoran at ease.

He knew that this incident had forged a deep trust between the two that went beyond ordinary business cooperation.

Lin Haoran laughed and said, "Mr. John, what you're doing isn't gambling, it's foresight. No wonder you named this subsidiary of Citibank 'Foresight Capital.' In my opinion, you yourself, like the company's name, have a forward-looking vision."

I believe that in the coming months, history will prove your decision today to be correct. Rest assured, I guarantee that this time you will not be disappointed!

John Reed was pleased by these words: "Mr. Lin, you flatter me. But to be honest, in all my years on Wall Street, I have rarely met someone who can judge market trends as accurately as you."

I still remember when gold prices were soaring, you leveraged gold futures at Citibank and made a fortune. Our board of directors even held a special meeting to discuss your investment strategy at the time.

John Reed recalled, "At the time, Miller insisted that the price of gold had peaked and suggested that we limit your trading volume. Fortunately, Chairman Riston overruled the objections and supported my suggestion, which led to the subsequent cooperation."

"Oh? There was actually such an inside story here?" Lin Haoran said with some surprise.

Lin Haoran still vividly remembers his experience investing in gold futures.

This happened back in June 1979.

At the time, he only had $50 million in cash available, but the leverage ratio was as high as 10 times, meaning the principal was magnified to as much as $500 million.

That's why he ultimately made a net profit of $11.4 billion.

With a cost of $50 million, the company was able to leverage a total of over $1 billion in funds, thanks in no small part to the 10x leverage provided by Citibank.

This return of $11.4 billion made a significant contribution to his subsequent strategic plans.

However, at that time, he was indeed just a newcomer to the business world, so it was normal for Miller not to believe him.

10. Being leveraged could, if not handled carefully, lead to significant losses for Citibank.

“That’s true,” John Reed nodded. “Miller strongly opposed it at the board meeting, arguing that giving such high leverage to a young investor from Hong Kong was too risky.”

He even said it was downright jeopardizing Citibank's reputation.

Lin Haoran seemed thoughtful: "So, I still owe Mr. John a huge favor. Then why were you willing to support me back then?"

“Two reasons.” John Reed held up two fingers. “First, the market analysis report you provided was logically sound and the data was detailed, which showed me your professionalism.”

Secondly, the confidence and vision you displayed during the interview convinced me that you are not the type of person who would blindly take risks.

Lin Haoran was deeply moved, never expecting that John Reed would trust him so much under those circumstances.

“Speaking of which,” John Reed continued, “that success in gold futures not only brought you substantial profits, but also elevated my position on the board.”

I agreed with your analysis at the time, so I also had Foresight Capital invest in gold futures. Unfortunately, I was not as accurate as Mr. Lin in my prediction. Before the price of gold reached its peak, I was worried that it would fall, so I sold it in advance.

Nevertheless, I ultimately earned Foresight Capital nearly $100 million, which was one of the highest-yielding single investments since the company's inception, and as a result, I gained the greatest degree of autonomy over Foresight Capital.

However, compared to your profits, it's still far less. Chairman Riston later told me privately that he was very impressed with my ability to judge people.

By the end, John Reed's face was filled with emotion.

“I see.” Lin Haoran suddenly realized. “No wonder Miller resented us so much. The success of that decision not only proved his judgment wrong, but also solidified your position at Citibank.”

“Exactly,” John Reed sneered. “That’s why he’s so eager to bring me down this time, but he’s destined to be disappointed again.”

"So, Lin, it's not that you owe me a big favor, but rather that I owe you a big favor. If you hadn't chosen to cooperate with Citibank by accident, I wouldn't have such a high degree of independent control over Foresight Capital, let alone such an important voice on the board of directors."

John Reed sincerely stated, "You see, our cooperation has always been mutually beneficial."

Lin Haoran smiled knowingly: "In that case, we should do our best to make this cooperation even better. I believe that after this incident, our relationship will be even stronger."

“Completely agree.” John Reed nodded solemnly. “Then, let’s proceed as planned. I will immediately arrange for the team to prepare the necessary ‘evidence,’ while the secret team begins its gradual accumulation of shares.”

“Alright, I will guide Li Guowei on how to deal with Miller. I believe it won’t be long before we see Miller reap what he sows.” Lin Haoran stood up and said with a smile.

The two smiled at each other, their tacit understanding deepening even further.

(End of this chapter)