Many people were enraged at Hyunwoo’s decision to sell STM.

Even though Hyunwoo was its president and owner of the Super Green patent, STM was a signature Korean company. They felt it was a technology that could feed Korea for another 100 years.

And now he said he would sell it!

Besides, STM had local corporations overseas, so its total capital marketization was over 120 trillion won.

There were no large companies to take over STM. Even if some of them formed a consortium, they could not raise the money for takeover.

In other words, STM would be sold to a foregin company.

That’s why he was called a traitor.

But Hyunwoo didn’t care at all. On the contrary, he proceeded with the sale quickly. He instantly indicated his willingness to sell STM to overseas investors.

Of course, Hyunwoo already decided to sell STM to Morgan, but he made sure that many companies had submitted bids in the takeover fiercely and lobby politicians in order to achieve his goal of driving out corrupt politicians.

When Hyunwoo took the necessary step in Korea, Morgan, in turn, began to move. He told Hamilton to lobby politicians for OneStar.

Hyunwoo gave a list of corrupt politicians to Morgan, which he received from the ruling party’s strongman Wonju Ha.

It took effect immediately. The politicians began to pressure Hyunwoo. Not only Hyunwoo but also his father Duyoung was pressured.

Some politicians recommended OneStar, arguing that it was financially stable as a US equities fund. And some politicians threatened to him that they would have the tax authorities probe into any possible wrongdoing in his investment in Bangladesh.

Whenever he received such pressure, Hyunwoo just kept silent. The longer he kept silent, the more they would try to lobby. And in that process the corrupt politicians would be forced to reveal their dirty lobbying methods.

Hyunwoo waited stubbornly.

Finally, he was contacted by Jungsu Pae. It was about two months after Hyunwoo announced the sale of STM. Hyunwoo expected it would take at least six months for Jungsu, a prosecutor, to take action.

“Done. I’ve collected almost all the evidence. I think I have to wrap up the internal investigation.”

“Got it. It’s time I played another decisive card. This will help you investigate much more easily.”

Jungsu opened his eyes wide at Hyuwoo’s remarks.

“Do you have another thing in the works?”

“Of course. I bet 120 trillion won on this, Jungsu. Do you think I have done this without any detailed planning?” asked Hyunwoo with a satisfied smile.

In fact, Hyunwoo negotiated with several companies about the sale of STM. And finally, he decided on OneStar.

The deal proceeded speedily. He announced that he would sell OneStar all the businesses of STM except for its kerosene business for 390 billion dollars. And as for STM’s overseas corporations, he said he would sell them except for their kerosene business to OneStar, too.

The general public was enraged again.

“What? OneStar? Isn’t it of the same family as DonStar?”

“Hyunwoo must be crazy. How can he sell STM to such a bad foreign equities fund?”

“Doesn’t he know about the Foreign Exchanges takeover scandal? Very disappointed.”

A lot of the press also criticized Hyunwoo’s decision for the same reason.

But Hyunwoo already made the final decision. No matter how much they criticized him, Hyunwoo wouldn’t change his mind.

After all, Hyunwoo sold STM to Morgan. Hyunwoo’s only equities in STM were its kerosene business, which accounted for less than 1% of STM. He received the payment and other business interests from Morgan in return.

Morgan now changed STM to Morgan Energy, and its stock name on NASDAQ was also changed to Morgan Energy.

Hyunwoo took back the company name STM as it was, though it was taken off the NASDAQ market.

Many people were disappointed at Hyunwoo’s sale of STM. Even the employees of Ani & Funny and KOVE DREAM felt the same resentment. Though they blindly followed Hyunwoo’s decision, they felt betrayed.

“I’m really disappointed. How could he sell STM to OneStar?”

“He’s changed too much. He is no more the person that we used to know.”

Domestic businessmen were also puzzled. Given the choice, they felt Hyunwoo should sell it to domestic companies.

In fact, Ohsung Group formed a consortium to bid for the STM takeover. As soon as Hyunwoo made the announcement, Konho Ahn, CEO of Ohsung, met with the presidents of several companies for the consortium and indicated their intent to Hyunwoo.

But Hyunwoo didn’t give a ** about Koren companies. When they found out Hyunwoo sold for much less what they offered, they were strongly betrayed.

In particular, Konho Ahn was pissed off so much. As Ohsung was the sole contractor of Super Green, he felt even angrier.

“How can this bastard reject me like this?”

Overwhelmed by anger, Konho visited his office in person.

“Come on in, sir. What business brought you here?”

Konho felt pretty pissed off, so he didn’t take Hyunwoo’s hand when he held out for a handshake.

“How can you do this to me? I thought I had a good business partnership with you. But you seem to think I’m just your moneybag. I’m extremely disappointed.”

Hyunwoo was still smiling.

“How can I think that way? You and I are a businessman, right? When we make a decision, we have to take into account our business interests first, not our friendship.”

“Well, I still think you have betrayed me.”

“Don’t feel so betrayed, sir. Actually, I’ve got a gift for you,” said Hyunwoo with a hearty laugh.

Konho now began to relent a bit and asked, “Gift for me? What is it?”

“I can’t show it to you now. I’m making it now. You will certainly thank me if you receive it about three years later.”

“What the heck kind of gift is that?”

“I can’t even tell you about it in advance. Please expect it in three years.”

Hyunwoo said confidently.

But Konho didn’t believe it. At this moment, he was just pissed off by Hyunwoo’s sale of STM to OneStar.

Of course, Konho didn’t feel up to arguing with him any more.

After all, he left with an unhappy look.

Looking at him, Hyunwoo giggled.

Soon you will know that my decision not to sell STM to you is actually the best gift I can give you.

***

At the office of National Assemblyman Chulmo Kim in Seoul, five congressmen gathered. Among them were Jungmin Hwang, who had become powerless all of a sudden, and opposition lawmaker Yosong Lee, who was still influential.

Seated in the middle, Chulmo kept tilting his head to one side.

“Very strange. Why didn’t he contact us?”

“You took the words out of my mouth. He didn’t even find out the tip that Hyunwoon was planning to sell STM. We first obtained the tip, didn’t we?”

“Well, as it was a top business secret, Hyunwoo might not have mentioned it even to his close aides. Even though Jungsu was on intimate terms with Hyunwoo, he could not possibly have obtained it.”

“But Jungsu doesn’t have any valuable tips on Hyunwoo so far. I thought he was a smart guy, but it looks like he is not competent.”

The congressmen there all criticized Jungsu’s incompetence. Though he was close enough to Hyunwoo to call him brother, he didn’t find out anything about Hyunwoo’s vulnerabilities.

Chulmo even doubted Jungsu now.

“I wonder if Jungsu has betrayed us.”

“Well, his father’s political life is at stake. He can’t betray us,” said Jungmin.

But Chulmo now began to suspect Jungsu deeply.

“Maybe he and his father have joined hands to betray us. If you look at Youngguk Pae’s recent maneuvering, I smell a rat. He is investigating STM’s sales deal now.”

That’s what other lawmakers already knew.

Youngguk Pae, father of Jungsu, is the chief of Seoul Prosecutors’ Office. It was understandable that the prosecutor’s office was looking into the STM deal because it was totally abnormal for Hyunwoo to have sold STM to OneStar.

So, many Korean companies filed a petition to the prosecutors’ office for investigation. There was a rumor that Konho Ahn, CEO of Ohsung Group who felt betrayed by Hyunwoo’s STM sale, was behind the petition campaign.

In some respects, the prosecution office’s investigation was natural, given the gravity of the deal.

But Chulmo thought of the investigation from a different angle.

“They are investigating the deal too deeply and thoroughly. Looks like they are at it with some special intention. Maybe they’re targeting us.”

“No way. Even the brother of the President is on our side as far as this is concerned. No matter how tough Youngguk Pae is, he can’t dare to investigate us.”

Chulmo felt the same way on that.

Though they received kickbacks from OneStar, they didn’t keep the money to themselves. They obviously gave some of the kickbacks to Duhyoung Chun, the Presidents’ elder brother.

And they assumed OneStar gave bribes to him separately. The bribes must be much larger, given Chun’s special relationship with the President.

Accordingly, Chun most likely directed Youngguk not to look into the case too deeply.

But Chulmo still felt strange.

At that moment, Chulmo got a call from his political aide. When Chulmo answered the phone, he brought a surprising news in a startled voice,

“Sir, it looks like the atmosphere is very strange. Seoul Prosecutors’ Office has summoned Hamilton.”

“Isn’t Hamilton the head of the Korean branch of OneStar, is he? Why did they summon him?”

“They are looking into the charges that OneStar illegally lobbied politicians while taking over STM.”

Chulmo’s jaw dropped at that. Now his worries up to now turned into a reality.

Besides, Hamiltion was the central figure of OneStar. In other words, the prosecutors’ office would summon him at the last stage of the investigation.

The fact that they summoned him already meant their investigation was almost over.

“What the heck are you talking about? Did they send the summons to him a long time ago? Why are you reporting it to me today?”

“No, I hear they sent the summons today. And Hamilton reportedly decided to go to the prosecutor’s office confidently, saying he had nothing to hide.”

“Damn it!”

Chulmo hung up the phone abruptly.

Other lawmakers looked embarrassed because they overheard his conversation.

“What happened?”

“I have no idea. It looks like this case is going to escalate.”

“We can’t sit idle like this. Don’t you think we have to take some preventive action as soon as possible? We had better contact Duhyong Chun, the President’s brother, too.”

Chulmo felt the same way.

If Hamilton was summoned, it meant that the investigation was too close for comfort.

Chulmo had no idea how the case got so escalated like this, but he needed to solve the most urgent problem first.

“Let me meet Mr. Chun first right now.”