1960: My uncle is the FBI Director

Chapter 129 If you sympathize with them so much, why don't you lower the commission?
Sunday morning.

Theodore and Bernie met Agent Lombardi at headquarters.

Agent Lombardi heard that they were having trouble and came to offer assistance.

The two expressed their gratitude to Agent Lombardi.

Agent Lombardi did not intend to interfere with their investigation, but instead offered to help oversee the security at Union Station.

He has extensive experience in this area.

Theodore glanced at him but did not refuse.

Before Agent Lombardi left, Bernie briefed him on the progress of the investigation and released a profile of the fraudster.

Agent Lombardi was surprised by how quickly they were making progress.

However, he did not ask Bernie about the source of the information, but only confirmed its reliability.

Bernie told him that the information was absolutely reliable.

He also did not explain the source of the information.

In the morning, the main branch delivered a list.

The main branch of Riggs National Bank cooperated actively with the investigation, and the list was personally delivered by the branch manager.

The list is not long, with only five people.

One new account opening failed, three loan application materials were filled out incorrectly, and one mortgage asset appraisal failed.

The main branch also provided the materials they submitted when conducting the business, which included their personal information.

All five of them were government employees, but none of them worked for the General Services Administration.

Moreover, the bank registration information for these five individuals shows that the only connection between their work and communication technology is that they frequently use telephones.

This is quite different from the profile given by Theodore.

Bernie questioned, "There were so many people at the main branch on Wednesday, how could only five people have been refused service?"

“I saw two of them that noon. One account was frozen, and the other loan application was rejected.”

“I was only there for about ten minutes.”

The branch manager explained: "We can only provide a list of customers with records of failed transactions. Many customers are rejected at the consultation stage."

He paused, looked Bernie up and down, then glanced at his assistant, and pointed at the assistant, saying:
"For example, he wants to apply for a loan of 1000 million."

“If he were dressed like this, our staff wouldn’t take him to the VIP room; they would simply refuse him.”

Bernie asked him, "Could you provide a list of these clients?"

The branch manager shook his head: "I'm sorry, I'm afraid that won't work."

"Unless they are acquaintances, these customers won't even leave their names."

Bernie turned to look at Theodore.

Yesterday they had a good plan: first get the list of main branches, then get the list of the General Affairs Bureau. By comparing the two lists, the one that overlaps is most likely the suspect.

If several come up, filter them one by one according to the profiles Theodore provides.

But reality is not as one wishes.

An unexpected incident occurred at the very first step.

The branch manager genuinely wanted to help and said he would have the employees who worked on Wednesday try their best to recall and provide a list.

Theodore gave part of the profile of the fraudster to the head of the branch, reminding him to pay close attention to loan customers, especially those who became agitated and repeatedly pestered him after being rejected.

After seeing off the main branch manager, Bernie called the General Affairs Administration to request communications technicians, only to receive another piece of bad news.

Two years ago, the General Services Administration laid off all its communications technicians and outsourced this part of the business to AT&T.

The current communications technology department is essentially a customer service department.

When government departments need to install or repair communication equipment, they report their needs to the Communications Technology Section of the General Affairs Bureau, which will then directly assign the order to AT&T.

AT&T will send technicians to the General Services Administration to collect work orders and provide on-site service.

This not only saves a significant amount of budget but also eliminates a lot of trouble.

The General Services Administration only needs to pay a fixed amount to AT&T each year, and doesn't have to worry about anything else.

Bernie then called AT&T, hoping they would provide a list of technical personnel.

AT&T was not as easy to deal with as the General Services Administration and Riggs National Bank.

They said they were happy to cooperate with the investigation, but hoped to see the relevant decree signed by the judge.

After ending the call, Bernie looked at Theodore:

"Does your magical notebook contain the contact information of the chairman of the board of AT&T?"

Theodore thought for a moment and shook his head.

To make sure there were no mistakes, he even took out the notebook and flipped through it, and indeed there was no AT&T representative there.

AT&T executives were not present at the meeting that evening.

Bernie went upstairs to the legal counsel's office to follow the proper procedures.

It wasn't until the afternoon that they finally obtained the ruling that AT&T wanted.

AT&T reluctantly gave him a list of seven people.

Bernie suspected the other person was playing him and questioned them:

"How can seven people handle all the work in DC? Do you think that's possible? Are all the engineers in your company superhuman?"

AT&T denied that its employees were superheroes, but failed to respond to Bernie's questions.

Bernie didn't pursue the matter further with the AT&T staff. Instead, he privately contacted the technician who had previously advised them to magnetize the coins and sought confirmation from him.

The technician calmly admitted, "That's right, there are only seven people in our department."

This left Bernie incredulous: "How can seven people handle all the work in DC?"

The Communications Technology Section of the General Affairs Bureau, which is responsible for communications technology issues for government departments, has more than seven people.

AT&T's responsibilities extend far beyond government communications technology.

Technician: "Of course not!"

He paused for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "A lot of our work is outsourced."

"The company doesn't care whether the problem is solved by a person or a ghost, as long as the problem is solved."

The technicians told Bernie that, apart from important government departments such as the FBI and CIA, which were handled personally by the seven of them, all other minor departments and a large number of civilian communication issues were outsourced.

AT&T simply dispatched stacks of work orders to them every day, without ever inquiring about how they completed them.

Bernie asked the technicians about the other six people and obtained information on the seven technicians from AT&T.

None of these seven individuals fit the profile of a fraudster.

He then asked AT&T for a list of outsourcing companies, but was refused again. He then turned to a technician for help and obtained the list of outsourcing companies from him.

Theodore and Bernie chose the nearest restaurant, but as soon as they entered, they sensed something was wrong.

There were neither technicians nor maintenance equipment in the office of this outsourcing company.

The small office was divided into small cubicles, where a dozen or so employees were crammed together.

The phone rang incessantly as employees answered calls and made notes on registration forms.

It's more like an intermediary company than a technology company.

The two met the company's owner.

After showing the leather ID holder, the boss raised both hands to indicate his stance and that he didn't want to cause trouble.

He told the two that after the company received jobs from AT&T, it would contact the technicians registered with the company to assign jobs and take a commission from the process.

The company does not directly provide technical services; it is more like a job search platform.

The company owner readily handed them the list of skilled workers. Theodore glanced at the thick list and asked the owner, "How many people are registered with your company?"

The company owner, very familiar with the business, blurted out, "174 people!"

He explained, "Our company is considered a large company in the industry."

"Before technicians register, we will assess their capabilities and assign them jobs based on the assessment results."

"We have never had any problems and have a good reputation in the industry."

Bernie asked him, "How much do you know about them?"

"Who are the most skilled? Especially those who are very confident in their skills?"

The company boss circled a large number of names on the list.

If Bernie hadn't stopped him, he could have circled everyone.

After Bernie's repeated warnings, the company boss drew out more than a dozen people.

According to their company's evaluation criteria, these dozen or so people are top-tier.

Bernie continued, "Do any of them live near Union Station?"

"Have."

The number of people decreased from more than ten to six.

Bernie and Theodore exchanged a glance, then asked, "Is anyone in dire need of money right now?"

The company boss shrugged: "Everyone needs money."

Under Bernie's glare, the company boss pointed to one of the names and said, "He's been scrambling to get orders lately."

He then pointed to another person's name: "The two of them even got into a fight last week over a business deal."

The company boss then pointed to a third name, "And Marino."

Bernie picked up the list, looked at it, and asked, "Marino Jenkins? He's stealing business too?"

The company boss shook his head: "We don't need to rob Marino."

“He is very famous in their circle, and many people consult him when they encounter difficult problems.”

"If he wants a particular order, the other party will usually give it up voluntarily."

"Marino never took anyone else's orders. He also often mentored others."

"He's just a nice guy."

Bernie and Theodore exchanged a glance.

They're looking for nice guys.

Bernie calmly wrote down Marino Jenkins' name, then asked, "Anyone else? Who else?"

“Henry Mitchell.” The company owner pointed to the fourth name: “His wife is bedridden and needs a large sum of money for medical treatment.”

He knew these people's situations very well, and as he said, they were all short of money.

Many people work until late at night, and then come out to take on more work in the early hours of the next morning.

They are not afraid of being tired, but they are afraid of being idle and having no work to do.

The company boss introduced each person one by one, and even spoke highly of them at the end.

He told the two that these people were all good-natured, honest, and quiet, and never caused trouble.

He seemed to sympathize with them.

Theodore looked at the company boss, who had a sincere expression, and asked him, "You sympathize with them?"

The company boss sighed and nodded: "They have it tough too."

"I have always taken care of those I could."

"It is because of this reputation that my company has been able to grow from a dozen people to its current size so quickly."

"Their circle is small, so any news spreads very quickly."

Theodore asked, puzzled, "If you're so sympathetic to them, why don't you lower the commission?"

The company boss's face froze.

Bernie quickly stepped forward to interrupt, pointing to several people circled on the list and asking:

"Could you provide their order records from Wednesdays to Fridays over the past few weeks?"

The company boss nodded and called in an employee to cooperate with the work.

The order records arrived quickly. Theodore compared them with the scammers' activity times and identified two suspicious targets.

Marino Jenkins, who was highly praised by the company's boss, was among them.

He had a lull in flight on Wednesday afternoon, and another lull in flight that evening when the flight attendant received a call from a scammer.

Another person listed as a suspect is Henry Mitchell.

His situation is similar to that of Marino Jenkins.

As Bernie left the company, he couldn't hold back any longer and burst into laughter, leaning against the car door.

Theodore glanced at his wrist and reminded him, "If you keep laughing, it'll get dark soon."

Bernie got into the car and waved his hands repeatedly: "It's okay, it's okay, companies like that have staff available 24 hours a day."

After lingering downstairs for a while, the two finally set off for the second company.

This company has only been open for a month, with only three employees and a dozen or so registered skilled workers.

By filtering through the profiling results one by one, all of these twenty-odd people were quickly eliminated.

The two went from house to house, not finishing the last one until 8 p.m.

The number of suspects matching the profile has reached 14.

In addition to the fourteen people selected, they also obtained a list of almost all the telecommunications technology workers in DC.

After the General Affairs Bureau abolished the Communications Technology Section, a large number of communications technology workers entered the market.

They went from being government employees to being unemployed overnight, struggling to make ends meet by doing odd jobs.

Back at the Department of Justice building, the two met Agent Lombardi in the parking lot, who had also just returned from Union Station.

The two sides had a brief exchange.

Surveillance of coin locker number 103 yielded no results.

Let alone suspicious individuals who meet the profiling requirements, apart from two large-scale transactions involving contraband using large lockers, nobody even went near that area.

Bernie also briefed Theodore on the progress of the investigation and showed Agent Lombardi the list of suspects.

Agent Lombardi glanced at the notebook, handed it back to Bernie, hesitated for a moment, and then asked:
"Do you intend to continue the investigation?"

Fearing misunderstanding, he quickly added, "What I mean is that we have stopped the two victims who would have fallen for the scam, and the money has been recovered."

"No one was harmed in this case."

"Even if he is caught, he will probably only be charged with a minor offense and will be released after serving a few months at most."

Theodore nodded seriously: "If we don't catch him, someone will get hurt very soon."

"Only by catching him can we let him know that he has failed."

Agent Lombardi didn't understand, but didn't investigate further.

He nodded and said goodbye to the two of them: "Okay, see you tomorrow."

Theodore and Bernie delivered the collected list to the office, but were stopped by the building security guards as they came out.

The security guard handed them an envelope, saying it was left for them by the manager of the main branch of Riggs National Bank.

The envelope contained a list.

(End of this chapter)