Does bean rice not suit your taste?
Choi Woo-shik's rough behavior spread throughout South Korea through the media.
Whenever two or more people gathered together, they were busy criticizing Choi Woo-shik's actions.
That's because his actions were so out of common sense.
I returned to Seoul after a long vacation.
After taking care of the piling up work at the Myeongdong office, I greeted Yoon Hyun-joo and Eva.
"Did you have a nice holiday, Mr. Kim? I hope this year will be a good one for everyone."
"Thank you, sir."
We exchanged brief New Year's wishes and sat down.
Before anything else could come up, I got straight to the point.
"Eva. Are you ready to convene the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders?"
"Yes, boss. I'm going to submit a request for an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to the board of directors tomorrow. And then I'll hold a press conference myself."
As expected, it's a job well done. I was satisfied and added to her what I had to do.
"The media will continue to publish negative articles about Chairman Choi Woo-shik. If Eva comes to the forefront, public opinion will be inflamed even more. I thought well. Please continue to do so in the future."
Eva answered with a big smile on her face.
"I'm good at dealing with reporters, boss. I just hope no reporters ask strange questions this time."
Eva's expression hardened and her eyebrows furrowed as she remembered the reporter who had previously asked about the source of Mirae Investment's funds.
"China was behind that reporter. No, it was their trick. This time, no reporter will ask that question."
After finding out who was behind the reporter who asked the difficult question, he gave instructions to punish him accordingly.
Now that they've set an example, they won't do anything fancy this time. Just in case, they were planning to keep reporters under strict control.
I asked Yoon Hyun-joo, who was listening to our conversation.
"Director Yoon Hyun-joo. How is the atmosphere within the group? Is it chaotic since Chairman Choi Woo-shik was arrested?"
"I guess so. It was an arrest that no one expected. But how on earth did they find the slush fund? I didn't even know about it."
The evidence related to the slush funds that Yoon Hyun-joo is said to have submitted to the prosecution was the material I gave to Yoon Hyun-joo.
All Yoon Hyun-joo did was take it to the prosecutor's office.
"We didn't call ourselves experts for nothing. You seemed to be trying hard, but to us, it looked like a complete sloppiness. Isn't that right, Eva?"
"Yes, boss. What the Korean conglomerates do seems childish to us. If they had embezzled corporate money in the US like that, they would have been locked up for the rest of their lives."
I myself have created hundreds of paper companies and laundered money through multiple exchanges.
And he avoided being tracked by shutting down several of the core members of the spiderweb-like paper company, thereby cutting the links.
Not only I, but even Han Kyung-young, who directly led the work, would not have been able to know the identity of the paper company without the relationship chart.
On the other hand, the method Choi Woo-shik chose was very simple.
The method was to establish a company in a tax haven and generate fake sales.
It was a worst-case scenario, as anyone working in finance would know with just a little bit of attention.
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Thanks to this, we were able to figure out the flow of funds and confirm his slush fund account.
And he gathered all the evidence and handed it over to Yoon Hyun-joo, who took it to the prosecution and filed a complaint against Choi Woo-shik.
"You may be able to avoid that much from the Korean prosecutors, but you can't avoid the eyes of Representative Eva."
Yoon Hyun-joo nodded and looked at Eva with renewed eyes.
"That's also why the fees for laundering Director Yoon Hyun-joo's assets under another person's name are so expensive. It's because a lot of manpower and money goes into the very complicated system."
"Yes. I will only trust President Kim."
"You will likely have to wait at least six months to a year to get it running without any problems."
"It's okay. I don't need the money urgently. I can wait."
I handed over the documents that Director Ma had brought to Yoon Hyun-joo.
"You like things to be certain, right? This is a contract. When you take over the management rights, you will hand over all the production plants to us as promised······."
Before I could finish speaking, Yoon Hyun-joo took out a fountain pen from her bag.
Then he immediately stamped his name. Looking at the elegantly written signature, I felt a little bewildered.
"······You don't even read it?"
"Because I trust you, sir. If you were going to swindle me, you would have done so from the beginning. I've heard a lot of stories, but I didn't know it would go this far."
After finishing signing, she smiled as she put the fountain pen back in her bag.
I put the documents back in the envelope and handed them over to Director Ma.
"I appreciate it, but don't trust people too much."
"I don't believe it anymore. I signed it because I trusted you, Mr. Kim."
I nodded slightly at her answer.
It would be strange if I didn't start to distrust people, since I was recently stabbed in the back of the head by someone I trusted for a long time.
Besides, even though you say you trust me, I don't know how long that will last.
"Are you managing the board of directors and executives well?"
"Yes. I called a board meeting this afternoon. After the meeting, I plan to call each person in individually for an interview."
"You can replace the directors once the general shareholders' meeting is held, so manage it well for now. Decide on who you will lead and who you will abandon, and treat them differently."
Yoon Hyun-joo laughed coldly at my words. It was amazing how a person's good impression could change in an instant.
"Yes. That's what I learned from my father. You don't have to worry about that."
It was a bit ridiculous to worry about her, since she had learned how to play politics from watching her father, who had been at the top for decades in the icy world of politics.
"and······."
I told her more about what she needed to do starting today, and she nodded repeatedly as she listened to my explanation.
* * *
Eva arrived at the main gate of KS Group's headquarters.
There were already reporters waiting there who had been contacted in advance.
"Representative Eva! Why do you want to call an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders?"
Reporters rushed to Eva as she got out of the car.
Eva opened her mouth with a big smile on her face.
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"I will first submit the request for a temporary shareholders' meeting and then come out and give you some time. Could you please step aside?"
"Oh, I understand."
Most of the reporters gathered here were people who had unknowingly received a lot of pocket money from Eva.
Rather than rushing in blindly, they readily chose to step aside at Eva's request.
Eva left the reporters behind and entered the headquarters.
After about 30 minutes, Eva came out the front door again.
The reporters who had been waiting on the floor rushed to her again with cameras and microphones.
Eva's bodyguards surrounded her and prevented reporters from getting too close.
"Calm down, everyone. Don't rush in like that. Could you please gather the microphones?"
Eva spoke to reporters in an elegant manner, standing right in front of the main gate.
The most senior of the reporters gathered the microphones from each broadcasting station, tied them together, and handed them over to Eva.
"Thank you. Are you reporter Jeong from Korea Daily?"
"Oh, yes. That's right. You remember."
"sure."
A smile appeared on the face of reporter Jeong, who was handing over the microphone to Eva's captivating smile.
"I don't have enough time to answer everyone's questions. Could you please collect about ten questions and ask them on behalf of the reporters?"
"Oh, I understand. Then please wait a moment."
The situation was exactly like a master feeding an animal, but no one questioned it at all.
Reporter Jeong went back to where the reporters were gathered and started to sort out the situation.
"Representative Eva has agreed to collect about ten questions and answer them. Now we have to decide what questions we are going to ask······."
Because several broadcasting stations and media outlets were present, it took quite some time just to collect and decide on the questions.
But Eva didn't urge them and just waited with her elegant smile still on her face.
Reporter Jeong, who had returned, asked a question with a smile.
"Have you kept me waiting for a long time? Sorry."
"No. Then shall we begin the interview now?"
Reporter Jeong nodded, took up the questionnaire, and opened his mouth.
"First of all, I am curious as to why you requested a special shareholders' meeting."
"It is to bring down Chairman Choi Woo-shik, the head of KS Group."
The answer came out immediately. Eva didn't beat around the bush.
Not only reporter Jeong, who asked the direct question, but also other reporters' mouths were wide open.
"That······. What do you mean, 'pull it down······?"
"Is this even a question?"
"Oh, no."
"Haha, I'm just kidding. I was just teasing you because you were so surprised. I'm literally saying I'm going to replace the leader."
"······Is that possible?"
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Eva, who was trying to tease again, crossed her arms after seeing the reporters' reactions.
Then he opened his mouth with an arrogant attitude.
"KS's largest shareholder is not Choi Woo-shik, but our Mirae Investment. It was announced today. Our Mirae Investment acquired all of the shares held by Sovereign. We are simply exercising our rights as the largest shareholder."
"······."
Never in the history of the Republic of Korea has an investment company taken over the management rights of a large corporation.
"Should I take this to mean that Mirae Investment will directly manage the business?"
"No. We own but do not manage. If the right person comes along, we will hand over management rights. People who have a negative view of our company say this. We could sell the company to a large foreign investment company."
Eva interrupted and stared into the camera.
"But I promise you this one thing. The people we will entrust with management are citizens of the Republic of Korea, and KS Group is a Korean company. This is the truth, without a single lie."
The questionnaire that already collected the opinions of the reporters was meaningless.
The reporters all raised their hands and started asking Eva questions.
* * *
I laughed in vain as I looked at Eva's face decorating the portal main page.
"He's a celebrity, a celebrity."
"I think I spoke more strongly than the boss expected."
"Eva must have thought of everything. She's more of an expert than I am in this matter, so I trusted her and left it to her."
When I delegate work to someone, I don't consider the process important.
I was solely focused on the results I was getting, and I didn't care what the process was like as long as it brought about the results I wanted.
And Eva never once let me down.
I asked, closing my laptop.
"How much is left?"
"I'll be there soon."
"The head of the legal team was supposed to meet me in front, right?"
"Yes, boss."
"What on earth did you want to say when you asked to meet me?"
I thought back to last night for a moment.
After sending Yoon Hyun-joo and Eva back, I was finishing up the remaining work.
At that time, the head of the legal team of KS Group came to the Myeongdong office without an appointment.
Although he came without an appointment, I was happy to meet him.
After looking at me silently for a while, he told me that Choi Woo-shik wanted to meet me.
I accepted the offer and was now on my way to the detention center to meet him.
"Welcome, President Kim Mu-hyeok."
I met the head of the legal team in the detention center parking lot.
"Have you applied for a meeting in advance?"
"Yes. You can go right in."
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I nodded and entered the detention center.
As we entered the lawyer's office, Choi Woo-shik, who had become quite gaunt over the past few days, was waiting for us.
As soon as I entered, he jumped up from his seat.
"Mr. Kim!"
Unlike before, he welcomed me warmly.
"Mr. Chairman. Your face has become quite bad in just a few days. Are you not liking the bean rice? You will have to eat it for quite some time. Even if it doesn't suit you, get used to it."
The smile disappeared from Choi Woo-shik's face at my sarcasm.
< Do you not like bean rice? > End