0137 - You didn't think of that, did you? Actually, I didn't think of that either.

Once a listed company is accused of falsifying its financial reports, even if it was a "gold medal stock" in the stock market at one moment, it only takes a second for it to become a "junk stock" after such an incident! "Junk Stocks.

  Junk stocks, worthless stocks, the market's understanding of a listed company's business situation, mainly from the company's financial reports issued every cycle.

  Inside will have the detailed operation situation, as well as finally have an accurate conclusion, how much money they made during this period, how much money they lost, how many assets, how effective the operation is, etc. etc. ....

  People outside the company, or even inside the company, may not always be able to have a comprehensive understanding of a company, plus the fact that this is an honest society and people are willing to believe that these listed companies will not commit the egregious act of altering data, so very few people will question whether the data in a listed company's financial report is correct.

  They actually lack the avenues for questioning, and even if they think that it is not quite normal, they do not have the means and opportunities to solve the mystery in their minds.

  But it had to be said that for a listed company, financial falsification was equal to standing on the edge of the erupting exit of an active volcano, and even if you didn't die from the fall, you would be scalded to death.

  After Neo's words came out there were a lot of voices coming from the phone receiver, he could sense that all these people were currently in a bad state, but it didn't matter to him because he and his wife's father were no longer the biggest shareholders of the company.

  It was true that the two of them wouldn't be able to get away with it if something really went wrong, but the other shareholders wouldn't be any better, they would have to face bankruptcy as well, which was why Niall was convinced that even if he spoke up, these people wouldn't bother to rat on him.

  "Niall, Alban, you guys are committing a crime!"

  "I'm going to turn you in!"

  The roar of the first largest shareholder of the Ristoan Group's board of directors filled with emotional outbursts soon came out of the phone, and it could be heard that in addition to his voice being hoarse, there was also some trembling in his voice.

  Niall acted very calmly, his voice still answering in a tone that carried a joke, "You could have hung up the phone right now and made a call to report me for falsifying the financial reports."

  "I'm sure the Federation's Financial Crimes Investigation Bureau, the IRS and the media would be very interested in your report!"

  The Federal Bureau of Financial Crimes Investigation was under the Federation, a branch but independently functioning agency that investigated and fought against all financial crimes.

  Neo's words caused the first major shareholder to unexpectedly fall silent for about four or five seconds, and immediately the other members within the board of directors persuaded him, in case this one had a bad brain and couldn't think of doing that for a second, everyone would be killed by him.

  After a short period of persuasion, the major shareholder has only one request, "You must explain your purpose for doing this, if you can't convince me, I will immediately report your illegal behavior ...."

  It looked like the words were said with great ferocity, but in reality they were just a step with a threat, and Niall certainly knew how to go along with it.

  "Of course sir, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you all about, because it concerns some of our next moves."

  "Actually, since three years ago, Ristoan's earnings have been shrinking rapidly, and it posted its first loss around two years ago ..."

  To put it in a simpler way, it was the president at the time, Niall, who noticed some problems with Ristoan, the flow of money became slow, the backlog of goods in stock was growing, coupled with the fact that people's money in their hands was becoming less and their spending power was starting to decline, it was inevitable that a group of companies with hundreds of brands would be faced with the same problems as those small businesses.

  Neo and Alban, along with his own cronies, decided that this was not some kind of mere phenomenon, and at their request, the finance department revised the financial reports for the first time, turning losses into sustained profits, with points of growth.

  Neo, who had made such a decision, soon got the results he wanted, as the Ristoan Group's shares continued to move higher in the stock market, and the increase in the share price made the loss insignificant.

  In his own words, in the annual summary report, the surge in the overall market capitalization of the group's companies, driven by the increase in the stock price, more than made up for the losses in operations.

  This is a poison to quench the thirst of the entity's operating losses, the use of stock prices continue to rise to cover up the fact of poor management, it looks like the company's stock price increase is a good thing, but it is all based on false data.

  To this day, two years of financial fraud is enough to bring down the Ristoan Group in a matter of moments, and Niall didn't even hold back, telling all the shareholders, in relatively cold and cruel words, that he and his father-in-law, Alban, had already cashed out almost half of the shares in their hands.

  In other words, the shares they now hold have long been insufficient for them to take control of their current position.

  In the face of the anger and curses of the shareholders, Neo as well as Orben did not care, and even had a little bit of smugness.

  Of course, there were actually still a lot of criminal acts in here, which was also the reason why Niall and Orben were still holding the chairman of the board of directors as well as the president of the group right now, they wanted to clear their names of the charges on them, then the best way to do it was to let their unlawful operations go unchallenged.

  "From the current situation I have, Ristoan has actually reached a very dangerous situation, and that's why I'm forcing Landen forcefully ..."

  Landen was the name of the mayor of Sabine.

  Neo was sitting on a chair in his study, holding a high-grade Solid Color in one hand and a phone in the other, his eyes were a bit lost, as if the smoke rising from the Solid Color's cigarette was mesmerizing his eyes, making him unable to see what was in front of him, or as if his eyesight had penetrated reality and plunged into a void.

  "Only by eating a few of the most important core resources in HENG HUI's hands will Ristoan be able to quickly transform and thus gain a glimmer of life."

  "Originally, we were already halfway through our secret negotiations with HENG HUI, but the investigation that the Federation Taxation Bureau suddenly implemented on it put an end to our plans, without forcing Landen, we wouldn't have gotten the chance to save us from the quagmire, but from what we can see now, we've still failed!"

  The shareholders of HENG HUI were already planning to siphon off funds to go back to their home countries for post-war reconstruction, and those businesses and channels that had been so valuable in the past were now the vehicles for them to cash in on.

  If it wasn't for the sudden intervention of the Federation's tax bureau, it was possible that Ristoan had already eaten the piece of meat they wanted.

  Unfortunately, everything was spoiled.

  The phone was very calm, only some heavy breathing, no one knew that Ristoan's current situation had actually gotten so bad to this extent, knowing that in the outside world, just the name of the group company was able to become a source of pride for many people.

  In Honshu, everyone was proud of being an employee of the Ristoan Group!

  It was such a company that was actually on the verge of bankruptcy in Neo's words, which was really hard to imagine.

  It couldn't really be considered a surprise, when Ristoan's sales started to slow down, they were doomed to a cold winter.

  With tens of thousands of workers, millions of dollars had to be sent out just in monthly wages, but they were becoming too slow to pay back and make a profit.

  While firing some employees to save money, they used financial fraud to inflate the stock price and then cashed out to get the necessary funds.

  A lot of the money that Alban and Niall had cashed out had actually gone into running the company, but of course they had borrowed money from the company in the name of a third party, and they hadn't been that disinterested.

  The silence of the people satisfied Neo, now that everyone was basically in a unified camp, he followed up by talking about some of his ideas, "I've been in contact with the people on the Conservative Party side, and they're much better talkers than Landen, and have agreed with some of my views and ideas on the current structural changes in the industry, and are willing to try and work with us."

  "They've given very favorable policies and more importantly it's an opportunity, a chance to shake off the burden."

  "We will be shaking off the workers and employees who are ambushing us and sucking our blood, and taking the wealth right out of the way so that all of the things that we have been doing before will not be a problem."

  "More importantly when I ask you to do nothing, as soon as the market opens on Monday, rumors are bound to spread that Landen and I are in serious disagreement and that Ristoan is loathed by the governor."

  "At that time, our stock price will fall rapidly, I ask you to sell some of your shares to depress the stock price as well, and when the officials intervene, I will announce to the outside world that I am launching a plan to privatize the company."

  "Then ... we can get out of here gracefully, and I'll make sure that each of you doesn't suffer a huge shrinkage in your value."

  This was the method that Neo and Alban had discussed for a long time before they came up with it, their initial idea was to get those things that they had previously negotiated with HENG HUI, quickly integrate HENG HUI's channels and advantageous industries, and merge them to reactivate these projects in their own hands.

  But now the situation didn't allow it, so the sword would go off the beaten path and directly leave here with the core of the company, while still keeping some of the trouble local.

  When people talk about Ristoan, they won't be able to say that it was some people who tossed the company and had to leave, they can even take advantage of the fact that it was Landen as well as the governor's dislike for them, making their departure full of certain political colors.

  As for the financial fraud, those who know won't say anything, and those who want to bring them down won't know about it.

  It was a perfect plan, and even if someone did bring up these issues in the future, it would end up being nothing more than a fine or something like that, just a little bit of money, and there was even the possibility that he would still be safe and sound, making it a very typical example of financial maneuvering!

  As long as the group companies and shareholders don't hold him accountable, he doesn't even need to be punished - after privatization he only needs to be accountable to the shareholders, and as long as the shareholders say they won't hold him accountable, he won't be prosecuted.

  Of course, that was all for later; all they had to do now was get through it!

  He thought the governor's staff was right when they said that only "unity" would get them through this, and that's exactly what he's doing now, uniting the board members and working with them to accomplish this quick turnaround!