In the room, Mr. Fox's face sank, he didn't look much changed from the moment before, but only he knew that his scalp was tingling for a moment.
People always joke about the Federal Tax Service, saying that they can't even afford to wear pants if they offend the FTB, and very few people joke about the FBI.
It's not that the FBI doesn't have any good jokes to use or that they don't make mistakes, quite the opposite is that the Bureau has many law enforcement disputes and even accidents every year, and yet there is little to put them in the clear.
Because we all know that the IRS may make you suffer, but the Bureau of Investigation will just get you killed, so there's not a lot of people hugging and screaming every day.
The other man identified himself, and Mr. Fox's legs had gone a little astray.
He stared at the man for what seemed like a moment, his son, his men all recovering from their shock, even as Mr. Fox's stare down with the FBI agent made them feel like they'd found their backbone, their courage, and they also stared angrily.
Only Mr. Fox himself knew that he needed to take a breather, or else his legs would want to fall to his knees when he moved.
After a moment, he took a deep breath, nodded his head and said, "Good," and turned to sit down, "I'd like to see how you can keep me on my feet."
The performance was beautiful and even Mr. Fox's son thought it was a shining moment in Mr. Fox's life, but only he knew for sure that his heart was beating a hundred and eighty miles a minute on this matter.
The FBI agent kept a smile on his face, it was a confident smile, he raised his eyebrows and skimmed his lips with a regretful expression, "You're definitely not going to like hearing this ...", he said and paused, "The FBI has been watching you for some time now ..."
In the other room, the agent from the IRS came over and inclined his head to look at the FBI agent next to him, who nodded at him with a leathery smile.
There's actually a problem with that statement, and the problem comes from the primary and secondary.
There are conflicts of one kind or another between mere human beings, let alone two top-notch organizations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Taxation Service (FTS) are clearly two different fields, but there is some overlap in their powers and functions.
The FBI's Financial Crimes Investigation Division, for example, is responsible for crimes related to finance, and it just so happens that crimes in this area are often linked to tax evasion as well.
Criminals choose to hide some of their accounts in order to keep them hidden, and once they are hidden, it means that tax evasion is taking place, so there are still some conflicts between the two groups essentially, but they don't show up too obviously, and they aren't completely internalized.
With one sentence, this agent from the FBI's Financial Crimes Investigations Section Operations Unit took all the credit on the Bureau's side for the tapes that would end up in court and even in front of the media.
The "we've been watching you for a while" scenario was enough to prove to everyone that the forward-thinking FBI had already discovered Fox's and others' money-laundering crimes, only the evidence wasn't there yet, but the stupid IRS alerted them, causing the loss of the case.
Luckily, the FBI ended up powering through and making everything right again, not only garnering a flash for the entire Bureau, but stomping on the IRS in the process.
If it were on a normal day, the tax bureau side would definitely have to send someone in to even the score, just that now they were up to their asses in shit, and the main thing was to solve the immediate problem first, and if they wanted to get back, they would have plenty of time to do so later on.
Mr. Fox was silent, as if he hadn't heard him, his mind whirling rapidly, pondering how his insignificant finance company could have been targeted by the FBI, and whether they had nothing better to do with their time.
The agent, however, would not stop to wait for Mr. Fox just because he was silent, instead speeding up his speech.
When the amount of information in a short period of time exceeds the peak value that a person can handle, the person will have some confusion when thinking, and it is easy to say the wrong thing and say something that should not be said.
"Since last month, we've noticed that your business has become more active and that you're laundering money faster ..."
Saying it was last month, in fact it was only ten days ago, just about the time Lynch had completed his first transaction with him, and the massive influx of loose change that was making his daily declarations of income more and more was sure to raise a few eyebrows, except that Mr. Fox hadn't realized that the FBI side of the family had eyebrows on him as well.
He remained silent, the agent did continue, "According to our investigation ...", he pulled a few photos from his writing pad and placed them on the table, there were photos of Mr. Fox and Lynch together, and photos of his men when they went to pick up the money, "According to our investigation ...", he pulled a few photos from his writing pad and placed them on the table, there were photos of Mr. Fox and Lynch together, and photos of his men when they went to pick up the money. "You and Lynch agreed to a series of terms of cooperation after you met, and you built a more advanced money laundering process on top of the original ..."
"Lynch scavenged all sorts of change from untraceable sources and devised a new system of fees for you so that you would be able to more quickly make the illegitimate income of your finance company legitimate and deposit it in the bank."
"Mr. Fox, it's no exaggeration to say that you're not going to get less than twenty years in prison, whether it's a district court or a state court, or even the Supreme Court, for running a finance company to get illegally high interest rates while laundering money privately!"
The agent lightly said words that made Mr. Fox's son and his subordinates suck in a breath of cold air, with Mr. Fox's current age, if he goes in, not to mention twenty years, it would be hard enough to survive for ten years, they are planning to make Mr. Fox die in prison.
Mr. Fox's eyes twitched, "Where's the evidence?" , his voice was small at first but soon became louder, "After all the things you've said, there has to be proof after all, right, you said I charge high interest rates, who's going to testify to that, let him stand in front of me!"
"You said I laundered money, these are the proceeds of my legitimate business!"
"If you don't have proof, I'm going to sue you for libel!" , he said as he pulled out his business card holder from his pocket and took out one of them and handed it to his son, "Go to the door and call for a lawyer."
The agent immediately pointed to the table, "Here it is, you can play it here."
Mr. Fox sneered, "I doubt you'll be recording ...", he followed up by looking at his son and shaking the back of his hand, "Go outside and fight, as fast as you can!"
Mr. Fox wasn't sure if his son read him, and he gave a wink that meant his son shouldn't come back from the phone call, lest he get caught in the crossfire.
He had hidden a lot of cash and valuables everywhere over the years, so that in case the situation was not right, his son could rely on them to smuggle him abroad, and although he himself was trapped in it, at least he had saved his children.
Isn't it true that people live their lives for the sake of the next generation, in addition to themselves?
It's just that sometimes things don't work out as well as one would like, and Mr. Fox's son came back after the call, causing Mr. Fox to sigh heavily and glare at his son for being such a dumbass!
The agent almost laughed as he watched Mr. Fox's son go and return; there was no way he could demand that an officer with no clear evidence of involvement had to stay, but the other man had offered to stay, and he couldn't refuse, could he?
He lifted his wrist and glanced at his watch, "I hope your lawyer gets here fast or you might have to spend the night at the Bureau of Investigation ...", he shrugged, "It's not nice in there, it's mostly drafty, the walls are like cages, and it stinks too, the toilet is in the same room as the bedroom!"
It was so obvious a threat that anyone would feel victorious, and at the same time, the FBI side began to arrange the relevant people, ready to arrest Lynch at any time.
As soon as the evidence is brought to light later, Mr. Fox will inevitably have to plead guilty, and as soon as he pleads guilty, whether Lynch's business is not prohibited by law or not, he is an accomplice, and the public opinion that has been clamoring lately will be turned back.
The agent crossed his legs proudly, and asked the staff outside the door to bring in a cup of coffee, he wanted to maintain his demeanor, after all, they are engaged in financial crime investigation, they always have to be a little more reserved than those first line of crime investigation agents, a little more decent, and a little more gentlemanly.