Aiah stood in his private home office flowcharting the entire Financial Control packet. He was looking to understand the entire run so he could eliminate others from profiting; only he would be able to call the changes in currency. Only he would know in advance. He would become the world richest man!
He was reading what could only be described as a huge amount of data about the detailed investment recommendations that were being made prior to the run starting. The first action was to trade the Yen versus other world currency on the FOREX (FX) market. There was a note that the long term goal was to kill the FX market, diving people to OPETRO use.
He read the side story about the FX market - The primary reason the FX market exists is to facilitate the exchange of one currency into another for multinational corporations that need to trade currencies continually (for example, for payroll, payment for costs of goods and services from foreign vendors, in addition to merger and acquisition activity). Sounds familiar, Aiah thought, comparing it to OPETRO. However, these day-to-day corporate needs comprise only about 20% of the market volume. Fully 80% of trades in the currency market are speculative in nature, put on by large financial institutions, multibillion dollar hedge funds and even individuals who want to express their opinions on the economic and geopolitical events of the day.
No one will ever prosecute you for insider trading should your bet pay off. There is no such thing as insider trading in FX; in fact, European economic data, such as German employment figures, are often leaked days before they are officially released.
The FX trades 24 hours a day, from 5pm EST Sunday to 4pm EST Friday, and it rarely has any off hour gaps in price. Its sheer size and scope (from Asia to Europe to North America) makes the currency market the most accessible market in the world. His concentration was broken by a phone call.
“Aiah,” he said as he answered the call from his financial expert, “what did you find out?”
“As I am sure you are aware, OPETRO was actually established, unknown to most of the world, as a way for OPEC countries to move money back and forth without the hassle of money exchanges. A centralized on-line bank was established to record-keep the transactions. People that supplied services to the OPEC countries soon became involved and had accounts set up. The OPEC countries paid the supplier via the on-line bank and could withdraw their funds by transferring the money from the on-line bank back to their accounts at their own bank. The use of the OPETRO continues to grow as the circle widens. The on-line bank currently has no physical home and money is wired in and out, but no current physical currency exists. The OPETRO on-line bank is privately held by the OPEC countries and rumor has it they would like to get rid of the responsibility as long as the system would remain. While the system holds billions in assets daily, the overall cost would not be that expensive. The stability of the investment, however, depends on people using it. If everyone pulls all their funds there would be nothing left. The company is a series of computer programs and storage.”
OPEC, thought Aiah, my home turf. “Thanks, I will let you know if I need anything else.”
A few phone calls got Aiah hooked up with the owners and an agreement was reached. While he could not get full control, Aiah would take over management of the system, and 60% of the ownership in return for a $50 million note that OPEC would carry. OPEC would also continue to be the holders of the collateral and the responsibility that carried. Aiah was now an international electronic bank owner.
The second part of the run discussed stocks that would be affected by the Asian currency fluctuations and had recommended short and long purchases, along with option puts and calls listed to maximize the rise and fall of the stocks.
The next item explained how the media would be told to react. This would initially create a small bubble in Asian currency prices, and then collapse the currency. MMG news articles would hit hard in respect to the need for a stabilizing currency in the area, trying to create an Asian currency union.
I must create ways for me to be able to get all the money without anyone knowing how much I gained. I need to be audit proof. As he considered his need for hidden corporations and other ways of hiding his gains, his phone rang again. The other MMG leaders were on the phone, they were getting to be such a bother!
Aiah was tired of these leadership phone calls. They complain so much! If they only knew it was me, not these two pests who were no longer a real threat, that it was I that held their life in my hands.
“Have we learned anything new?” ask Lourdes.
“Nothing at this time, said Eagleton,” whoever is doing this seems to be well connected.”
“I am so tired of this! Which one of you is doing this?” Aiah had determined to go on the offensive. “No one knows what is going on here but us. That means someone in this room is doing it, or passed on information to someone else. I want all of you to look at your organizations for anyone that may try something like this. We cannot allow these two to think they have no choice but to expose us all!”
The group discussed and a couple of names came up. “We will eliminate them all, just to be sure. We need to find out who is doing this!”
While there was great concern, there was no action taken except for Eagleton to continue to search for the person responsible, and have a couple MMG eliminated just in case. All agreed this would continue to play out and they would need to adjust and adapt as needed.