Chapter 161: This is retribution!

Elliott Management, New York Headquarters.
The expressions on everyone's faces in the trading department were strikingly identical.
Stunned. Numb.
Like soulless statues, they stared intently at the towering bullish candlestick on the screen.
Normally, when faced with a short squeeze, traders should be sweating profusely, panicked, frantically searching for any sliver of hope to salvage the situation.
But this scene clearly went far beyond a "crisis."
This was a natural disaster!
A doomsday scenario capable of rendering even the most seasoned financial market elites utterly incapable of thinking, a complete "formatting" of mind and body.
"...What the hell is going on?!"
Robert Stinger, Elliott's founder and CEO, felt as if two steel needles had been plunged into his temples, throbbing violently.
He'd barely finished with the "Paradise Papers" scandal, which had frozen his vast assets hidden there, and now his company had dug this huge hole in his coffers!
"I've read the report eight hundred times! This money was practically in our grasp, why?! Why did it turn out like this?!"
He roared at the executives, his voice distorted with rage.
Elliott's operating model was that each project manager worked independently, submitting reports and developing strategies, then he, the CEO, would approve and get started.
Robert himself handled too much money daily to manage every single project in detail.
But he still felt incredibly uneasy and absurd.
Because even a fleeting glance had left an incredibly clear impression of the Xia Hua Shipping project!
This was absolutely a perfect hunt that could have made Elliott a fortune.
But in the end, the hunter became the hunted.
“According to our investigation… it seems that Jiangjin Group, Xialian Group, and a local private equity firm called ‘Fanghuan Investment’ have conspired to set us up.”
An executive reported tremblingly.
“You mean, our positions have been exposed?” Robert’s voice turned cold.
“Yes, our position-building action itself was perfect.
But the problem is, Xiahua Shipping’s shareholders and executives panicked and sold off all their shares.
This attracted significant market attention, and our short positions… were thus uncovered.”
While position exposure is extremely disadvantageous, it doesn’t necessarily mean certain death.
The problem is, this time, it’s two top-tier conglomerates with immense financial power!
And they’re clearly disregarding costs and returns; they’re determined to destroy Elliott.
What’s the point of such a self-destructive act?
The reason is simple, almost naive.
Revenge!
It was all to vent his anger!
"These narrow-minded idiots! They're running the company based on emotions!" Robert roared in fury.
However, this blade of revenge was sharper than he had imagined.
"The truly deadly thing is..." the executive's voice trembled even more violently,
“Our short position this time has a principal of 50 billion, but the project manager… he added three times the leverage.”
“W-what?! Leverage?!”
Robert’s eyes instantly turned bloodshot. He grabbed the executive by the collar.
“What kind of fool would dare to use a 50 billion position with three times leverage?! I’ve never approved such a report!”
“Well… it was mentioned in the report. But at the time, our broker didn’t approve the leverage application…”
But who could have imagined that the broker would reassess it in the end?
They felt that given Elliott’s size and reputation, granting three times leverage shouldn’t be too risky, so they approved it with a stroke of the pen.
That belated approval document became the fuse that ignited everything.
“According to the plan, we were supposed to make an unprecedented fortune this time.
Everything was going according to plan. But who could have imagined that the situation would suddenly…”
“Who the hell was in charge of this project? Where is he? We haven’t seen a soul in sight!!”
“After things got out of control, all those project managers turned off their phones and stopped replying to messages…they’ve disappeared.”
“Those irresponsible bastards!”
Robert was so angry he felt dizzy.
Normally, brokers don’t approve leverage for funds exceeding tens of billions.
But because Elliott had a big enough reputation, a large enough scale, and a strong enough background, they made an exception this time!
Who would have thought that this “exception” would perfectly collide with the other party’s “revenge,” causing their losses to balloon exponentially!
“Our current book losses have reached tens of billions.
The most serious problem is that the margin we need to pay to brokers is completely insufficient with the company's own funds.
We must replenish the margin immediately, otherwise…”
All the executives' eyes turned to Robert.
The meaning in their eyes was self-evident: Boss, use your money, use your personal assets to save the company!
“Are you all crazy?! You want me to hand over my own money?” Robert’s eyes widened.
“Hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions in cash?! This is clearly the mess those idiots made!”
“But boss, if we don’t replenish the funds, we’ll be forced to liquidate!
What’s worse, once we’re liquidated, the company’s credit rating will plummet!
Those clients who entrusted their money to us will likely start redeeming their funds on a massive scale immediately!”
“There are already rumors circulating! They say we’re being squeezed out of the market, on the verge of liquidation, and some clients have already started redeeming their funds! We have to resolve this as soon as possible!”
Robert’s wealth of hundreds of billions is an open secret in the industry.
But now he’s suffering in silence.
To avoid taxes and conceal his assets, he has locked up the vast majority of his wealth in that offshore account of “Mosek Fonseca.”
Now he’s being investigated by various countries, and even if he wanted to save the company, he simply couldn’t withdraw the money!
What's worse, no one knows which bastard was behind it all, spreading rumors maliciously, causing redemption requests from customers to come like snowflakes, resulting in a deadly run on the bank!
"Hold on, by all means! I can't spare any more time right now!" Robert, his eyes bloodshot, gave the order.
"But how can we hold on?"
"The company has other projects, doesn't it?! Withdraw those funds first, plug this hole!"
"Ah? But...but that's the clients' money! Misappropriating without their consent, that's...that's embezzlement!"
"Of course I know! But do you want to watch the company be liquidated and go bankrupt?!
This is an empire I've built with thirty years of hard work!
I'll figure out the rest!"
For so many years, Robert and his Elliott had amassed astronomical wealth, stepping over the corpses of countless companies.
For profit, they had personally pushed once-glorious enterprises into the abyss.
Is this...retribution?
For some reason, Robert suddenly had a strong feeling.
The retribution he had incurred over the past few decades, the retribution he thought he could escape...
Today!
At this moment!
It came at him like a tidal wave, a reckoning!