A lazy weekday afternoon.
Office workers are in the middle of the day, but Park Min-gyo left the company early and headed to a nearby hotel.
When he arrives at the hotel, three workers rush out.
One is valet parking, the other carries luggage, and the other guides.
While the staff are busy, Park Min-gyo leisurely enters the hotel VIP facility and receives a massage.
“Sir, how can I do it?”
“As usual.”
As the massage begins, your body becomes tired and saggy. As a result, even my heart feels at ease.
“hmm… … nice.”
Park Min-gyo has been living with a headache every day since her tens of billions of accounts were stolen.
In addition, there were symptoms of insomnia, sudden heart beating fast, and muscle pain for no reason.
At least once I got a massage, my condition improved a little, so I went to get a massage once every two days.
“Miss Seo.”
Park Min-gyo reaches for the masseuse’s butt out of nowhere.
The masseuse twists to avoid it, but Park Min-gyo’s hand follows her inside the buttocks like a snake.
“I, Executive Director, you can’t do this.”
“To be angry.”
“It’s not that I’m belittling… … .”
The masseuse looked at Min-gyo Park while pulling her back.
Normally, he would have made a fuss about not listening to me at times like this, but today, strangely, he smiled and stopped joking around.
“that… … Are you feeling good?”
“okay. It’s good. very good. hehehehe.”
The reason Park Min-gyo is in such a good mood that he grins.
That’s because they found a way to easily bring in the enormous amount of embezzlement money that was left overseas.
1. Withdraw the money from KN Chemical’s account and manipulate it as it should be on the ledger.
2. Move the embezzled money to a shell company account in a tax haven.
3. Buy virtual currency with a paper company account.
4. After washing the purchased virtual currency several times, withdraw it to the account of the corporation name created in Hong Kong.
5. Proceed with fake trade deals with Hong Kong corporations. After completing the official tax return, clean money returns to Korea.
In fact, it was a near-perfect embezzlement-money laundering route.
If the work is done here and the Hong Kong corporation is blown up, the evidence will completely disappear, and even if an investigation comes in, the person who is finally caught will be sorted out in the corporation line.
“Whoop whoop. It’s perfect.”
The key here was the cryptocurrency used in steps 3 and 4.
Since there is no relevant law for virtual currency, there were no restrictions on crossing borders, and thanks to this, the money in the tax haven account could be transferred perfectly.
Tok. Tok. Tok.
Park Min-gyo manipulates her cell phone while lying on a massage bed.
With just one mobile phone app, you can easily access the virtual currency exchange, buy and sell with the flick of your finger again, and transfer money to a domestic account in one shot.
What kind of innovative currency is this?
In the meantime, without knowing this good thing, I had to change overseas accounts several times, purchase cumbersome artworks, go abroad and even go through high school.
I still shudder when I think of what happened then.
“Do you have stocks?”
The masseuse throws words. The cryptocurrency exchange app Park Min-gyo was looking at was similar to the stock app, so he asked such a question.
Park Min-gyo is in a state of excitement, so he kindly explains.
“This is not an old stock like stock, it’s virtual currency.”
“What is virtual currency?”
“It’s money in the cyber world where there is no real thing. That’s why he’s such an amazing guy who can come and go as he pleases, without borders or legal restrictions.”
The masseuse only nodded because it was a pointless question.
However, Min-gyo Park was itchy because he wanted to brag from earlier, so he spits out unsolicited words.
“Look, look. If you touch here once, you can bring money from the other side of the world to here?”
“Isn’t it the same with banks?”
“It is different from banks. How tricky are they? And the people of the country are turning on the light in their eyes to rip off taxes whenever they cross the border.”
When the word that there is no tax came out, the massage therapist also showed interest.
“oh. If so, would you be able to bring in the overseas investment money that the managing director talked about the other day without paying taxes?”
“I wish I was like that, but there is no proper company in Korea yet, so I can only send small amounts of money.”
“How much are you talking about in pennies?”
“well. A billion or so?”
“Eh? Is 1 billion a pittance?”
While the masseuse hesitates in surprise, Park Min-gyo quickly reaches out to her.
“Miss Seo, I am a global entrepreneur. If you want to make money abroad, you have to make at least 100 billion to hear that you are doing business.”
“Whether it’s 10 billion won or 100 billion won, it’s a story too far from me.”
“If Miss Seo comes to my house and gives me a massage, then wouldn’t it feel like 100 billion is closer?”
Before she could answer, Park Min-gyo’s hands were massaging every corner of her body.
There was no resistance. Now it’s to the point where you don’t know who’s getting the massage.
“that… … But, Mr…. … If it’s cyber money, won’t it be hacked or something?”
“This is an absolutely safe currency using blockchain technology. So it can be used instead of money.”
“I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s great.”
“Yeah, that’s a great thing. Because if you have this, you can sleep anywhere like a rice cake. Heh heh heh.”
* * *
The KN Chemical I know is a very conservative company.
There was an atmosphere of extreme reluctance to deviate from the existing procedures, and an atmosphere of not even trying to make a point of responsibility even if someone suggested a new alternative.
However, when there was a change, there were many times when the executive level directly carried out the work.
Even with that, six weeks of meetings, weeks of progress reports, and even a feasibility study seemed ridiculous for half a year.
Even when Park Min-gyo said that he would establish a Hong Kong corporation, he thought that KN Chemical’s unique slow work would be done.
But not this time.
The very next day after he announced that he would establish a Hong Kong corporation.
From overseas business trip dates to plane tickets and hotel reservations, everything went smoothly.
“Chief Shin, once you have confirmed the schedule, prepare well. okay?”
“All right.”
“Don’t just say you know. You really need to take care of your mind. If you mess with it, it will end both you and me.”
Baek Seung-tae was also preparing his days ahead of his business trip to Hong Kong.
His plan is to create another corporation similar to Park Min-gyo’s Hong Kong corporation and change the deposit destination.
I don’t know if the name of the corporation is similar, but if there is document manipulation at the same time, they say there is no way to know in Korea… … .
That was Baek Seung-tae’s idea, and if he was caught doing something wrong, it was like walking a tightrope, risking his life because there was no reversal.
‘I can’t entrust my life to someone like Baek Seung-tae.’
Before he could do anything, I had to make my own arrangements.
I wait for work hours and leave the office without looking back. Originally, I would have gone to Pangyo immediately after work, but today I drove to the highway.
A small coffee shop attached to a highway rest area.
This is today’s meeting place.
The reason I chose this place was because I was conscious of any possible tailing. Lately, I have the feeling that someone is following me, so I am careful about my actions.
After waiting for about 10 minutes at the cafe, two women come to this table.
“You came quickly. I thought we would arrive first.”
The woman who came up first and said hello was Lee So-young. Maybe it’s because it’s not a company, so I came here dressed up a lot today.
After greeting her, I turn my gaze to the woman following behind me.
“Nice to meet you, this is Shin Woo-hyuk.”
“I am Nella Singh. I heard a lot from Soyoung. I wanted to meet you.”
Nella, who bows gracefully in greeting, is an international student from India.
Although not as fluent in Korean as Lee So-young, she was capable of conversation.
“Sit down. Let’s talk over coffee first.”
“I don’t drink coffee. Right from the dragon. That makes things quick.”
I heard that Indians have a laid-back personality, but it seems that each person has a different personality.
Anyway, I didn’t want to waste time, so I put out what I want right away.
“When I asked Soyoung to recommend a security expert, Nella came up without hesitation.”
Nella shakes her head. It meant that I was so confident in my skills.
“When I looked at the history, I was quite surprised. Won the International Hacking Contest Plan B, Runner-up in the Hacking Contest Alphacon, and 1st Place in the Hacker Site Fredit Hacking Speedrun Contest. It’s all about hacking… … .”
“Of course. Understanding hacking is essential to good security.”
From noble mtl dot com
“no. not that it was wrong It meant I found the right person.”
Not only Nella, but also Lee So-young, who was forgetting candy next to her, tilted her head.
“I called Nella because I needed a hacker, not a security expert.”
Hearing that, Nella gets up from her seat as if nothing more was worth talking about.
“You have to listen to Korean until the end.”
“I hate crime.”
“Nella’s power is needed not to commit a crime, but to prevent it.”
When Nella just wants to go, Lee So-yeong calms her down and manages to get her to sit down.
“hmm… … In order not to misunderstand Nella, I should first explain my situation.”
“No matter what, I don’t commit a crime.”
“Okay, so listen first and judge.”
I explained to her about the ongoing embezzlement case at KN Chemical.
Of course, I didn’t tell you everything, I just told you that someone stole the money from the company and is trying to put the blame on me.
“It doesn’t come to me at that time. I have to report it.”
“If I report it now, only I will be arrested. In the meantime, the real culprit will take the stolen money and run away.”
“then… … .”
“We need to find the money the culprit stole. To do that, we need experts like Nella.”
Nella looks at Lee So-young, who is sitting next to her. She nods, and Nella lets out a shallow sigh.
“No matter how good a hacker is, they can’t get the money they put in an overseas bank.”
“What if it’s not a bank, but a virtual currency?”
“Cryptocurrency… … .”
If she was a hacker, she couldn’t be ignorant of cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin was already actively being used as a currency by hackers and cybercriminals.
“The culprit is attempting to launder assets hidden overseas as virtual currency. If left as it is, the money will never be found.”
“It is difficult for me alone to attack a cryptocurrency exchange. At least three or four teams have to move at the same time.”
After the Mt. Gox hack in 2014, cryptocurrency exchanges were extremely concerned about security.
So, it would not be a lie to say that hackers should be in teams.
However, I had no intention of attacking cryptocurrency exchanges from the beginning.
“How about attacking only the culprit, not the virtual currency exchange?”
“Only the culprit?”
“For example, stealing the criminal’s computer or cell phone information, that’s what hackers do when stealing game money.”
Nella, who has always been expressionless, smiles bashfully for the first time.
“That is too easy.”