"Good afternoon, Supervisor."
Luo An knocked and entered Vireness's office, smiling:
"The murderers, Lewis Kutt and Vivian Torres have confessed to everything, the interrogation is complete, and now it's on to the subsequent handling of the case."
"Thank you for your hard work, please sit down."
Vireness signaled Luo An to take a seat and said:
"The senator has been charged with several federal criminal charges and has been arrested."
Since he is a senator, his related cases would be troubleso to handle. Considering that Group 13 doesn't have many staff and has already been busy recently, Mr. Clent has assigned this case to soone else.
Vireness told Luo An this to prevent him from overthinking.
"OK."
Luo An smiled and nodded. He was actually relieved to not be pushed into the spotlight so quickly, and happy that the case involving the senator was handed over to others.
Vireness's expression subtly shifted, then she took out a white folder and handed it to Luo An, saying:
"Additionally, this is your earnings from the Columbus Foundation last year."
Luo An took the folder, pausing to recall what the Columbus Foundation Vireness ntioned was.
Initially, in solving the serial murder case (chapter 43), Luo An was highly praised for his outstanding performance and potential, which led to Vireness introducing him to the Columbus Foundation.
The managent of the foundation deducts one-tenth of the salary of its mbers monthly for operations. During Christmas, however, the foundation distributes a sum to its mbers, which is slightly more than the deducted portion of the salary.
Later on, Luo An excelled in performance, his level within the foundation kept rising, and accordingly, his earnings level increased.
However, as Luo An made more money from solving cases, he gradually put the Columbus Foundation aside, not expecting it to earn much, treating it just as a contractual relationship.
Upon opening the folder, Luo An discovered his level within the Columbus Foundation had risen to a group supervisor, equivalent to Vireness.
Moreover, the figure at the bottom of the docunt showed, through the foundation's investnts, Luo An earned 600,000 US Dollars last year!
Luo An's eyes lit up, he truly hadn't anticipated this. Closing the folder, he said with a smile:
"Thank you, Supervisor."
"No need to thank ."
Vireness looked at Luo An appreciatively, and after briefly touching on this topic, they discussed for a mont more before Luo An stood up and left the office.
Returning to Group 13, Winslow, Reesi, Chenier, and Mona, with Michelle guiding them, began handling the subsequent aspects of cases. Seeing this, Luo An nodded in satisfaction and entered his office to begin work requisite of a group leader.
In the following days, the agents of Group 13 started living a nine-to-five life.
Ensuring Lewis Kutt and Vivian Torres were imprisoned, contacting courts, liaising with attorneys, and handling docuntation, their daily tasks were nurous but troubleso.
The senator's trial couldn't be dealt with promptly, while Osmon, the pharmaceutical company owner, was eventually saved by doctors.
But just as he opened his eyes, Osmon saw the charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition, two IRS tax officials approached his bedside, demanding that Osmon pay certain back taxes.
"…"
Osmon's complexion turned incredibly pale, he breathed heavily, and imdiately passed out.
————
Sunday, 8 PM, a bar in the southwest of Washington D.C.
The music was soft, the lighting orange and yellow. The bar wasn't crowded, with people sitting in pairs, each having their own conversations.
Ding—
At the bar counter, Luo An and Supervisor Elr clinked their glasses, both faces smiling, simultaneously saying:
"Cheers!"
They tilted their heads back and finished their drinks in one gulp.
Luo An put down his glass first, picked up a piece of fruit, and smilingly asked:
"So, is the IRS not working overti these days?"
"How could we not!"
Elr put down his glass and exhaled deeply, picking up a piece of fruit like Luo An and laughed as he answered:
"The cases you all uncovered this ti had too much going on, we are almost too busy to handle it!"
The case fundantally involved a Ponzi sche, where not everyone lost money; actually, so of the early participants even made a little profit.
In the federal system, whether buying or selling, there are corresponding taxes for each transaction that must be paid.
The IRS doesn't care about anything else. Whether you make a profit or a loss is your concern, our job is just to collect taxes, and not a penny less should be missed!
As they talked about this, Elr couldn't help but chuckle, picking up the bottle to fill Luo An's glass, he said with a smile:
"I really have to thank you for this ti."
Luo An chuckled, picked up his glass, and clinked it with Elr's. After so idle chatter, Elr's eyes flickered and he asked in a low voice:
"Luo An, I rember you invested in so stocks, right?"
"Correct."
Luo An nodded. The stocks he bought were mostly from well-known companies of the future, such as Apple and Amazon, so he was not worried about losing money in the long run.
However, Elr worked at the IRS and might know so things, so Luo An put down his wine glass and asked with a smile:
"Do you have any recomndations or advice?"
"No, my judgnt on stocks is terrible, I wouldn't want to lead you astray."
Elr shook his head, then leaned in closer to Luo An and whispered:
"But there's another thing I know. Are you familiar with Bernard Madoff?"
"Of course!"
The na was renowned, and a flicker of unease crossed Luo An's eyes as he asked:
"Do you know him?"
"I had the chance to et him before."
Elr nodded earnestly, then whispered:
"He runs an investnt advisory business, specializing in managing finance for the wealthy, hedge funds, and other institutional investors.
If you're interested, I could introduce you."
Luo An: "..."
Bernard Madoff, the orchestrator of the biggest Ponzi sche in history, defrauded over 50 billion US Dollars.
Observing Elr's serious face, and if not for the "Emotion Perception" being active confirming that the other party truly ant well and had no ill intentions, Luo An might have thought Elr was plotting revenge.
After pondering for a few seconds, Luo An asked:
"Did you entrust your money to Madoff's company?"
"Of course!"
"Don't you think the annual returns Madoff provides are too high?"
Upon hearing this question and rembering the case they were handling, Elr slowly put down his wine glass, his eyebrows tightly furrowed:
"Luo An, what do you an?"
Luo An didn't reply, rely kept watching Elr silently, taking a piece of fruit and placing it in his mouth.
"Impossible!"
Elr shook his head repeatedly and said:
"Madoff is the chairman of the NASDAQ board! He helped formulate the rules for the Securities and Exchange Commission! It's impossible..."
He didn't finish his sentence, his eyebrows almost twisting into knots.
Luo An could understand his feelings, because Madoff held such a high position, with all major investnt banks as his clients—he was a legendary figure who could cause Wall Street to tremble with a re stomp.
It was still 2006, before the financial crisis happened in his previous life, many people still placed their trust in Madoff.
A long silence ensued and Elr, the more he thought, the more unsettled he beca, eventually breaking into a sweat.
Trembling, he picked up his wine glass and drained it in one gulp, then pulled out a US Dollar note and pressed it under the cup, showing a sowhat unsightly smile:
"Sorry, Luo An, I need to head back for a bit. Dinner's on tonight."
Luo An swallowed the fruit in his mouth and watched as Elr nearly ran out of the bar.
Elr's safety wasn't a concern for Luo An; being long experienced in his work, the other knew his limits.
Madoff's Ponzi sche had been identified by so early on; these people even published papers and gave speeches condemning Madoff, yet they all remained unhard, so Luo An wasn't worried about his personal safety either for the ti being.
"I wonder what Elr plans to do..."
He got soone to drive him back to the villa, pushed the rampant thoughts from his mind, and announced loudly as he opened the door:
"I'm back!"
"Just in ti."
Caroline rose from the living room sofa, shaking her phone in hand, and said with a smile:
"Father wants to talk to you."
"OK."
He changed into slippers, took over the phone, and asked:
"Where's Mona?"
"She's upstairs making a bomb. She said she wants to go down in flas with ."
"?"
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