Chapter 384 National Conscience

Chapter 384 National Conscience

Chapter 384 National Conscience
After being reborn into this world, An Rushong has not made many real friends. Although Mike is an American, in An Rushong's eyes, the relationship between the two is a genuine friendship, because at least so far, the relationship between the two is very simple and there is no conflict of interest.

It was probably for this reason that An Rushong trusted Mike more. Therefore, in this project that was obviously intended to short Bear Stearns stock, An Rushong was ready to accept Mike's advice, put out real money, and actively invest.

In An Rusong's view, shorting Bear Stearns is a very promising investment, because his memories from his previous life tell him that the information revealed by the whistleblower in the group was accurate. Neither the Federal Reserve nor the White House took the final step in their promise to rescue Bear Stearns. On the contrary, these American economic decision makers took out a huge sum of US$300 billion and handed it to JPMorgan Chase to finance JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of Bear Stearns.

If my memory serves me correctly, when JPMorgan Chase finally acquired Bear Stearns, the latter's stock was almost junk, with the share price dropping to an ultra-low price of a few dollars per share. In the end, when JPMorgan Chase acquired Bear Stearns, it seemed that it only spent about two or three hundred million US dollars.

It was this acquisition that helped JPMorgan Chase, which was also hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, to make a big comeback. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, also received huge dividends for this, becoming one of the Wall Street financial tycoons who benefited the most from the subprime mortgage crisis.

However, although An Rushong was confident in this investment project because of his memories of his previous life, other people in the group might not be as confident as he was. Therefore, when it came to finally determining the scale of investment, the strategy adopted by the group was also relatively conservative.

In addition, there are a total of 12 people in the group, and the total investment amount needs to be redistributed among these 12 people. Therefore, the investment amount that An Rushong can get in the end is only 300 million. Of course, it is 300 million US dollars. In addition, add the 100 million deposit required when joining the group. In the end, An Rushong paid a total of 400 million US dollars to Mike.

Affected by the continued decline in the won exchange rate over the past four months, the South Korean government has adopted a series of policies to strengthen foreign exchange management. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, the entire process of fund transfer is carried out outside South Korea.

Just as An Rushong joined the new group and prepared to take the opportunity to make some money for himself in the intensifying subprime mortgage crisis, the public opinion storm caused by the drug trafficking scandal of the US troops in South Korea showed no sign of abating. On the contrary, as the military police of the US troops in South Korea officially intervened in the investigation and released certain signals, the media, smelling something unusual, further increased the discussion of the scandal.

On March 15, which was the third Saturday in March, JTBC, a cable pay TV station that had just resumed broadcasting, aired an exclusive interview between reporter Lee Wan-soon and NGN President An Rushong on its evening news program.

Since this interview was a special interview on the drug trafficking scandal of the US military stationed in South Korea, and it was also the first time that An Rushong had been interviewed by the news media and responded to the authenticity of the scandal information since the scandal was exposed by NGN, the news program broadcast this time can be said to have attracted attention from all over the world.

JTBC is a private TV station affiliated with JoongAng Ilbo. To be more precise, it is a private TV station controlled by the so-called "Central Holdings Group". It has a long history, but it was closed during the reign of Park Chung-hee, and was not allowed to resume operations until last year.

In terms of equity ownership, JoongAng Ilbo should belong to the Samsung Group. However, over the past decade or so, Chairman Hong Xixuan, who is in charge of JoongAng Ilbo, has gradually gained control of the real control of JoongAng Ilbo with the help of his "brother-supporting" sister.

The so-called "Central Holding Group" was established by Hong Xixuan. Today, this holding group has absolute control over the "JoongAng Ilbo". In other words, although the Samsung Group still holds part of the shares of the "JoongAng Ilbo", it is no longer the largest shareholder.

After taking control of the real decision-making power of the JoongAng Ilbo, Hong Xixuan's ambitions became bigger and bigger. Rebuilding JTBC TV station is an important part of realizing his ambitions. Therefore, he also attaches great importance to the development of JTBC TV station.

This exclusive interview with An Rusong was broadcast on JTBC TV's major news program with the strong support of Hong Xixuan himself. In order to attract more attention, related publicity activities have been launched since the 10th.

It is precisely because of this that when the interview program is actually broadcast on TV, its high ratings are naturally conceivable.

Facts have proved that the deal between Lee Wan-soon and An Rusong was worth the money. As the reporter of this interview, Lee Wan-soon, who was not valued at JTBC TV, became a household name in South Korea overnight. The main reason was that some of the questions she asked in the interview were very sharp and in-depth, and as the interviewee, An Rusong also seemed to be very cooperative. The information he gave directly confirmed the rumors of drug trafficking by US troops stationed in South Korea.

In the interview, An Rusong claimed that the information he obtained about the drug trafficking of the US military came from an unnamed person who had been involved in the drug trafficking activities of the US military for a long time and therefore had a lot of evidence. However, as one of the conditions for handing over the evidence, An Rusong has now sent this person abroad, and in order to protect the witness, he refused to reveal the real name of the whistleblower. Although he could not provide the real name of the whistleblower, An Rusong provided Li Wanshun with a series of relevant evidence in the interview. This evidence not only involved the relevant information of the US soldiers and officers who trafficked in drugs, as well as their methods and processes of drug trafficking, but also a series of photos and even some videos as evidence.

An Rushong even claimed in an exclusive interview that he had more relevant evidence in his hands, and that the US troops stationed in South Korea who were involved in drug trafficking had long built a huge network of interests based on the huge income they earned from drug trafficking. This is also one of the main reasons why the US Forces Korea Command has never taken any action even though the scandal has been exposed for so long.

In response to the previous attack, An Rusong claimed that he had received many threats since NGN exposed the scandal, so he had expected this attack. After all, he touched someone else's cake, no matter how smelly and dirty the cake was, cake is cake, and for those who participated in drug trafficking or made huge profits from drug trafficking, people like him deserve to die the most.

According to him, the attack that night was the first, but it would not be the last. He has now become a thorn in the eyes of those whose interests have been damaged. No matter how the drug trafficking of US troops in South Korea ends, and no matter whether the drug traffickers can be punished in the end, he, the "culprit" who exposed the scandal, will inevitably be attacked from all sides.

Those who are hostile to him will use all means to retaliate against him and destroy him. The attack like that night is just the most direct, crude and least technical way. Therefore, An Rushong declared at the end of the interview that perhaps one day in the future, he will become a villain or criminal in various media or propaganda. He may be killed or thrown into prison on some charge.

But no matter what, he does not regret what he did today. He believes that this is what any Korean with a conscience should choose to do.

"Who would have thought that someone like you would become the 'conscience of the Republic of Korea'?"

In the living room on the second floor of the Renwangshan Villa, Jenny slapped a newspaper into An Rushong's arms, then sat down on a chair by the window, took a cup of coffee that was originally placed opposite her and obviously belonged to An Rushong, brought it to her lips and took a sip.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window covered with rain, An Rushong straightened the newspaper in his arms and turned to the front page to take a look.

This is a copy of the Hankook Ilbo that was just published this morning. This newspaper was founded only 20 years ago, and its stance is absolutely progressive. To be more specific, the newspaper's political stance is on the left side even among progressives, and it advocates absolute social justice.

As a supporter of the current President Lee Min-bo, An Rusong is obviously conservative in his political stance. This is known to everyone in South Korea's political circles. However, even so, on the front-page headline of today's issue of the Hankook Ilbo, An Rusong was still dubbed the "conscience of the Republic of Korea."

There is no doubt that as a progressive newspaper, the title given to An Rusong by the Hankook Ilbo is extremely dazzling, and can even be regarded as flattery.

Of course, if we only look at his performance in exposing the drug trafficking scandal of the US troops stationed in South Korea, An Rusong does deserve this title, and the current public opinion in South Korea obviously supports this. The reality is that the mainstream public opinion in South Korea today, whether it is the people who support the progressives or the people who support the conservatives, the vast majority of people clearly support An Rusong.

In the past two days, more than 400,000 people have launched a petition on the Blue House website, demanding that the South Korean government fully intervene in the investigation of drug trafficking cases involving US troops stationed in South Korea, so as to bring the Americans involved in the case to justice as soon as possible.

In the programs of various TV stations, discussions about the "Status of Forces Agreement" have suddenly increased. Various media seem to be using this discussion to remind the South Korean government that drug trafficking crimes are not within the scope of the extraterritorial jurisdiction enjoyed by US troops stationed in South Korea.

(End of this chapter)