At two-thirty in the afternoon, at the FBI Washington Headquarters, in Vireness's office.
"IRS?"
Hearing the female agent's words, Vireness's expression sharpened, and she quickly asked:
"Who is it? Did they say why they were looking for Luo An?"
The status and situation of the IRS departnt is indeed special within the Federation, even Vireness starts to unconsciously think in a negative direction upon hearing the word.
"The other party claid to be from the IRS-CI."
This female agent was a reception service staff mber at the building's entrance. She briefly described the other party's appearance and manner of speech, but she did not recognize the person.
Luo An's expression remained unchanged. Based on the female agent's description, he guessed the identity of the visitor and said to Vireness:
"It should be Supervisor Elr from the IRS-CI."
"OK."
Vireness knew of the friendship between Luo An and Supervisor Elr and let out a slight sigh of relief.
With a wave of her hand, she indicated for the female agent to leave. After the door closed, Vireness said seriously:
"I will go to Mr. Clent's office later to discuss this explosion case and the related matters about setting up the 'Special Investigation Unit.'"
Vireness was not the slightest bit worried about whether Luo An could beco the leader of the "Special Investigation Unit."
Besides Mr. Clent, FBI Director Robert wouldn't mind speaking up for Luo An either.
With the consent of the first and the third in command at FBI, absolutely no one would be foolish enough to object to this.
"OK, thank you, Chief."
Luo An smiled and nodded, exchanged a few cordial words, and then left the office first.
Taking the elevator downstairs, Luo An soon saw the IRS agent ntioned by the female agent in the first-floor lounge, and as he had guessed, it was indeed Supervisor Elr from the IRS-CI (Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Departnt).
However, today's Elr was different from the past; he wasn't smiling; instead, his lips were downturned and his face gloomy, looking very stern.
Moreover, given Elr's IRS identity, the first reaction of any stranger seeing him like this would certainly be "I'm done for."
Therefore, when it was known that Elr's visit was to look for Luo An, many agents silently erged nearby in the lounge. They all wanted to know what exactly had happened, whether the other party had co to seek help from Luo An, or to apprehend him.
Luo An was montarily taken aback by Supervisor Elr's expression, but he wasn't panicked at all; he reached out to shake hands with the other party and said with a smile:
"You could have just called for any matter, no need to make the trip yourself."
Elr shook Luo An's hand, his face grim, and said directly: Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on NovᴇlFɪre.nᴇt
"Go to your office."
"OK."
Amidst the curious gazes of the agents passing by, Luo An and Supervisor Elr together walked into the elevator and returned to the Unit 13 Investigation Team.
Inside the team leader's office, Luo An poured Supervisor Elr a cup of coffee. Elr still had a tense look on his face and asked in a grave tone:
"Are you the only one in this office?"
Luo An frowned slightly, understanding the implication of Elr's words, turned around and answered gravely:
"I check this office every day; it's absolutely safe, no eavesdropping or surveillance devices, you can be assured."
Worried about certain issues, the Unit 13 Investigation Team's office area is thoroughly inspected every two days to prevent the presence of eavesdropping, recording, surveillance, or any other devices that do not belong to Unit 13 Investigation Team, including the team leader's office.
"OK."
Assured by Luo An's guarantee, Elr breathed a sigh of relief, the stern expression on his face disappearing in an instant, replaced by a bitter look. He grabbed Luo An's hand and said in a low voice:
"Luo An! You have to help !"
"..."
The rapid change in Elr's expression caught Luo An off guard, and it took him a mont to react. Pulling his hand away, he asked:
"What happened?"
"Do you rember the ti we went drinking together?" (Chapter 552)
Elr sighed dejectedly, his face gloomy:
"Your guess wasn't wrong, that damn bastard Bernard Madoff is indeed up to no good! He's really running a Ponzi sche!"
Elr said that after he left the bar that day, he began to investigate Bernard Madoff discreetly.
He was shocked to discover that Bernard Madoff's investnt returns were a continuously rising line that had never dropped and was a hundred tis more stable than the stock market!
This was clearly abnormal because the stock market fluctuates, and it's not possible to always make money; losses are more common for most people.
"At first, I thought Bernard Madoff, as the chairman of NASDAQ, was taking advantage of his position to trade on insider information or front running."
Elr sat in his chair, covering his face with his hands, murmuring quietly:
"After so ti investigating, I realized this guess was wrong.
The only truth left was: Ponzi sche."
Luo An took a sip of his coffee and asked quietly:
"Can't you get your money back?"
I rember Elr saying before that he had also entrusted his funds to Bernard Madoff's investnt firm for managent.
"No, I've already withdrawn my money."
Elr shook his head:
"My money wasn't much, it was nothing but pocket change for Bernard Madoff.
I filed a request with the reason that I had a family ergency and needed cash urgently, and in less than three hours, both the principal and the 'profits gained from investnt' were all transferred into my account."
"It's actually that fast."
This did indeed surprise Luo An. Seeing Elr's increasingly somber expression, Luo An put down the coffee cup and asked with a serious tone:
"What do you plan to do?"
"I want to expose this son of a bitch!"
Elr took a deep breath and said with gravity:
"The fund under Bernard Madoff has already amassed an apparent total of 50 billion.
But according to my covert investigation, the actual amount of that fund is less than one-third of the figure on the books, the rest is all just a bubble!
Not only that, Bernard Madoff has always claid that his fund only manages money for the wealthy, and ordinary people are simply not qualified to get in.
In reality, since 2000 to now, the vast majority of the mbers who have joined that fund are middle-class families within the Federation! Their numbers have climbed to nearly 30,000 people!"
Luo An nodded, this was a standard operating procedure; the basic logic of a Ponzi sche is to take the money from new participants and distribute it as 'interest' to those who joined earliest, and then on and on, continuously expanding.
The problem is that the overall number of new participants is limited, and the wealthy of the Federation even more so.
Once the wealthy have all entered the fund, Bernard Madoff can only lower his sights to the middle-class, taking their money to give to the earliest joining rich mbers in order to maintain the scam.
"Bernard Madoff has too high of a status."
Luo An refilled Elr's cup with coffee and said gravely:
"He is a mber of the Wall Street Securities and Exchange Commission, and he has even been involved in the formulation and andnts of many of the Commission's rules.
Therefore, trying to take down Bernard Madoff starting from the SEC is simply impossible."
Elr nodded; he had worked in the IRS for so many years, he understood all too well the working logic within the different departnts of the Federation Governnt, and was aware of the unreliability of the SEC, even suspecting that the SEC and Bernard Madoff may be in cahoots.
"So that's why I've co to you."
Elr lifted his head, his face grave:
"Luo An, you are the best team leader in the FBI, second to none, I need your help."
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