My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 121

“But that doesn’t mean I buy anything too unfamiliar.”

For example, even Koreans dislike onion-flavored drinks. Would a foreigner really buy an onion-flavored drink? But surprisingly, the order records are incredibly high.

“Could you check the records after this person leaves?”

At Park Do-joon’s words, the employee immediately printed out the records. Afterward, they found that onion-flavored drinks had completely disappeared from the records.

“That bastard, he pushed the product.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out. When he was in charge here, he created performance by pushing products. After he got promoted and another employee was assigned here, the new employee didn’t push products and started consuming them normally, which is why the chart changed like this.

“Is it important that he pushed the product?”

“It is important.”

Pushing products means there’s a high possibility of being involved with the black market in some way.

Moreover, the black market discovered this time is in Incheon, a region close to Seoul.

“But what does a headquarters employee have to do with the black market?”

“Many people don’t know about the black market. So, who would introduce it to them?”

“Could it be?”

“Thieves don’t know fences [individuals who knowingly buy stolen goods] from the beginning.”

Someone introduces them to someone who can handle the stolen goods, and they just exchange what they stole through that person.

Surprisingly, many store owners don’t know about the black market. Especially people who used to work in companies and then open convenience stores are unlikely to know about such things.

And if they don’t dispose of the pushed products, they will pile up, and naturally, they will complain.

“Then what will the headquarters employee do?”

“Hmm… that’s true.”

There are many cases where they subtly introduce black market dealers while pushing products.

“That kind of……”

“Crime, in most cases, forms a cartel [an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition]. Especially planned crimes.”

Without a cartel, they get caught easily and fail easily. Naturally, from their perspective, there’s no reason not to form a cartel.

Park Do-joon confirmed that and immediately picked up his phone.

“Team Leader, please check one thing for me.”

-What is it?

“There’s a person here named Joo Pil-man. Please check if he has any ongoing lawsuits. There must be something he’s caught up in. If possible, check his assets too.”

-Okay. Wait a moment.

The team leader told him to wait and then hung up. After some time, he called again.

-I checked, and this bastard is in deep. He’s in the middle of a divorce lawsuit.

“What’s he caught up in?”

-You know the Shinju Engineering case from before, right?

“Ah, he’s caught up in that case?”

-Yeah, he’s really in deep, and at the peak of it too.

Shinju Engineering was a company involved in a stock manipulation case that happened recently. The stock price suddenly soared, and people rushed to buy Shinju Engineering stock, but later it was revealed that a force had intervened and manipulated the stock price.

Naturally, many people who rushed in suffered serious losses.

‘I understand the cause now.’

If he’s going through a divorce lawsuit, he probably did it without his wife’s knowledge, and in that situation, he’s likely to lose custody of his children if he loses the case.

The only solution in that situation is to make up for the money somehow.

-I think I know where he met them. Wow, trusting you is always the right answer.

The team leader said to Park Do-joon with a beaming smile.

“We can’t catch him yet. You know there are accomplices, right?”

-I know. But how do we connect these bastards? In this situation, it doesn’t seem like they’ll even contact each other?

That’s very likely. Blackmailers run away when things get too big. Of course, if we identify and catch the culprit, we can check call records, but to do that, we need to arrest them as the culprit first.

“For now……”

Park Do-joon kept silent and rolled his eyes. Then, his eyes sparkled.

“Let’s give them the money.”

-What?

“Give them the money as they want. Then they can’t help but fight. Hehehe.”

***

‘There definitely wasn’t anything like this before the regression.’

It’s certain that there wasn’t such an incident before the regression. No matter how new Park Do-joon was, he couldn’t have not known about an incident of this magnitude.

‘Judging by the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like they succeeded in arresting them.’

If that’s the case, then there was no other option but to give them Bitcoin.

“So, you’re saying we should give them the money?”

“Yes.”

“But you said it’s impossible to track the Bitcoin once it’s sent?”

“That’s right. But cash can be tracked.”

“I don’t understand?”

Kim Sung-han frowned. He couldn’t help but be dumbfounded that he had to give money because of these crazy bastards when the company was already shaking.

“I told you last time, right? This Bitcoin can’t be used unless it’s converted into cash.”

“You did.”

“And to convert it into cash, you can only do it in designated places.”

“You did.”

“Then what do we need to do to convert this Bitcoin into cash?”

“So, we have to go to a company [a cryptocurrency exchange].”

“But have you guessed where that company might be?”

“I wouldn’t know that.”

“Yes, but it’s definitely a Korean company.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it obvious? They’re Korean.”

If they’re Korean, they should exchange it in Korea. Exchange Bitcoin overseas? It’s not impossible, of course. But to do that, there are many complicated processes, such as creating an account overseas and sending money there, as well as transferring the Bitcoin again.

“And Bitcoin is not legal tender. Its value varies by region.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Of course, the difference isn’t huge. But it’s true that the value varies by region.

“Currently, the price of Bitcoin in Korea is moving around 50 million won [approximately $37,000 USD]. On the other hand, it’s about 47 million won [approximately $34,800 USD] in the US and Europe.”

“It’s more expensive here?”

“Yes, Korea’s speculative tendencies are extreme.”

In fact, there are quite a few people who buy Bitcoin in cheaper regions such as Europe and Russia and broker it in Korea, using that to their advantage.

Since there are no taxes on Bitcoin yet.

“However, there is still demand in each region, and since it’s speculation, it doesn’t all come to Korea.”

What’s certain is that Korea is the most advantageous for exchanging Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin is untraceable. That’s true now. But cash assets can be traced. Eventually, these guys have to share the profits. Because they’re a criminal group.”

Divide it equally with Bitcoin? Well? I don’t think that’s very likely. Of course, it could be.

But criminals tend to want to convert to cash assets as quickly as possible.

“Especially Joo Pil-man, who is suspected of being the main culprit in this case, is desperate for money.”

He’s in the middle of a divorce lawsuit with his wife, and the investigation revealed that he lost a whopping 350 million won [approximately $260,000 USD] in stocks. Naturally, he didn’t have cash, so he even mortgaged his house.

“Joo Pil-man needs to at least release the collateral to prevent the divorce.”

“Hmm……”

In other words, Joo Pil-man will try to cash out as quickly as possible. And that’s what Park Do-joon was aiming for.

“The total amount of money they demanded is 4 billion won [approximately $3 million USD].”

A total of 4 billion won worth of Bitcoin. That’s their requirement.

“Conversely, the amount they are likely to exchange will be 4 billion won in total or about 1 billion won [approximately $740,000 USD] per person.”

And there are almost no domestic companies that can exchange that much money.

“You certainly said that. Bitcoin is a speculative asset, so it’s difficult to convert into cash.”

“Yes, in fact, it’s true that they don’t want to exchange Bitcoin even if you request it.”

Park Do-joon said that and lowered his voice.

“But what if we ask each company for cooperation?”

“Request for cooperation……”

“If a request for settlement of 4 billion won worth of Bitcoin or about 1 billion won comes in, ask them to let us know.”

“Because there aren’t many people who do that much settlement?”

“That’s right.”

Of course, there may be some fluctuations. Either way, if Joo Pil-man is the main culprit, he may take more.

But even so, the total will eventually be around 4 billion won.

“Can’t those bastards sell it to someone else?”

“What difference does that make? They’re already targeted.”

“Huh?”

“As I’ve said many times, Bitcoin is more of a speculative asset than a financial asset. If they cash it out, where will the money go?”

“That’s…… true. Eventually, the bank.”

Would they withdraw billions of won in cash? That’s impossible. Eventually, even if they sell Bitcoin, the money will go into the bank.

“Unless they’re not identified, it’s easy to monitor the account once they are.”

4 billion won. It’s definitely not a small amount of money. But if it can solve the problems that Samhan Group is experiencing, it’s not a small amount of money either.

Because the losses are billions of won a day due to that blackmail.

“It’s much better to catch the criminals and normalize sales.”

“Hmm, I understand. Well, it won’t be difficult to buy Bitcoin.”

“And then you can send an email.”

“An email?”

“Yes, to the place they sent it from. The account is probably being shared.”

If one person manages it, the possibility of them embezzling it can’t be ignored.

“Those bastards don’t trust each other.”

That’s why they deliberately contaminated four places and tied them together as accomplices.

Naturally, if they give an answer with that, they will definitely see each other, and they are likely to meet to divide it.

“In the end, their weakness is that they don’t trust each other.”

Park Do-joon was convinced.

***

The news that the money had been sent by email spread to the four people as Park Do-joon expected.

“We have to find the money right away.”

“Yeah. Do you know how much the loss will be if it stays like this?”

Even now, the price of Bitcoin is not fixed. In severe cases, it hits the bottom, and sometimes it rises enormously.

“50 million won [approximately $37,000 USD] right now is definitely not a small amount of money.”

So they wanted to find it at all costs. Based on the current standard, they demanded 4 billion won, but the value is likely to decrease more and more as time passes.

In particular, Joo Pil-man was even more anxious.

“We have to find this right away.”

“But why did they give it?”

They are all gathered and talking, but it’s not like there is a smart guy among them.

“No, the work is already done? There is nothing we can do?”

Because of the situation that has already been reported in the media, there is nothing they can do. Rather, until recently, they were worried about the investigation coming in.