I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family

Time passed incredibly fast.

For those who lost money, it must have been a hellish stretch, but for me, this period of chaos felt like a refreshing chill of ice.

Every day brought new headlines, and each time I returned from my morning jog with a cup of jasmine tea in hand.

Like today, for example.

[President’s emergency order enforces financial martial law on August 13... War against Black Money]

[Where did all the chaebol money go? Government under fire for shielding major conglomerates... Deputy Prime Minister confirms financial martial law as a solid response]

–Rustle.

As usual, I sipped coffee while skimming the papers. A major headline in the Korean press for the first time in a while—usually I didn’t pay them much attention.

I had known the financial martial law would be enforced suddenly. Of course, because I was aware of it, it didn’t feel all that sudden to me.

I had expected some resistance, but since it was the President’s decree, it was easy to persuade Grandpa too.

“Hm, looks like Grandpa handled that side well, judging by the news.”

“Yeah, most of the domestic reserves were shifted into the Alpha Fund, so they moved easily...”

After finishing her leave, Seo Joo-eun—now reinstated as my secretary—spoke up.

“Hey, Joo-eun. Are you feeling okay?”

Instead of her usual emotionless expression, Seo Joo-eun now often wore a visibly softer look and smiled gently.

“Thanks to your concern, I’m doing well.”

...I’m still not used to this.

Come to think of it, she’s now one of my people. She probably won’t call me “Your Highness,” but... still, it feels strange.

‘Well, that’s how Daehwa’s tail ends up curling.’

She hadn’t been able to go on her overseas assignment because of the baby, but she seemed happy in her own way. Honestly, seeing how hard Si-hyun was working lately, maybe just living quietly in Korea isn’t so bad either.

Not everyone needs to survive the concrete jungle like me, with my twisted ambitions. Unless your desires are as oversized as mine, there’s no need.

“I came over from Daehwa Securities for now... Thanks to Miss Ha-yeon’s concern and Ms. Seo’s guidance, I adapted well. But right when I came back, something big happened... Could it be... you, Miss Ha-yeon?”

“Probably.”

I had deliberately taken care to place her. The timing of her return just happened to coincide with the enforcement of financial martial law, so things went smoothly.

As soon as the financial martial law was implemented, stocks exploded... I had Seo Joo-eun manage the Korean markets and gained quite a bit of return there too.

Ten million dollars—that’s about 10 billion won in Korean currency?

If I had been willing to take on more risk, I could’ve earned even more. Still, at this point, I wasn’t directly managing anything risky, so I had time on my hands...

‘Still, I should probably disappear again for a while.’

Chairman Yoo Seong-pil seemed to like me quite a bit, but that didn’t mean I could bring shame to Grandpa. After all, I was operating under the Daehwa Securities banner in Korea, and the media was closely watching every move.

And more than anything, right now, that kind of “personal affection” money wasn’t the important part.

[U.S. federal prosecutors indict Madoff on fraud charges... Facing up to 150 years in prison]

[The # Nоvеlight # worst Ponzi scheme in history! Collapse of Madoff Securities!]

[Estimated losses exceed $5 billion! Even Spielberg was hit? A disaster that shook Wall Street...]

Because that $5 billion was right in front of me.

***

–Bang! Bang!

Wall Street was in absolute chaos today. It was because the court had officially ruled the Madoff Fund a “fraud,” and ordered the complete liquidation of his investment securities.

“My money! Give me my money back!!”

“Madoff!!! How could you do this!”

Countless victims, eyes red with rage, gathered in front of Wall Street. Most of them were people close to Madoff.

According to U.S. law, if someone invested unknowingly and profited, they are required to return the principal and any profits if it’s proven to be illegal. These people had been investing in the Madoff Fund for decades.

In other words, they were now facing a massive clawback of funds.

Especially those who were early investors—many were family offices that had close ties with Madoff.

They were the ones who felt the deepest betrayal and stood to lose the most. They had poured nearly all their wealth into him, and now, because of trusting the wrong person, they were on the brink of losing everything.

“...So, what do we do now?”

Someone asked with a half-desperate voice. He was a board member from a foundation that had become close to me, under the Small Power Foundation. When I looked him up, I found he was actually the president of a prestigious university. Was it Brandeis University? Incidentally, that’s also where Michael Sandel, the famous professor, came from.

And of course, this person had recklessly put not just his personal fortune, but also the entire university’s endowment into the Madoff Fund. At least he joined late, so the damage was limited.

I shrugged as I answered.

“We have to save the people first. It’s inhumane to let someone lose their entire fortune from a single failed investment, right? If JP Morgan or Arthur Andersen can squeeze out some money, we might scrape together $300 million or so? First, stop the people from committing suicide...”

Most of the people currently in the Madoff Fund were wealthy private investors... but I used my lawyer team to tap into institutional money through another route.

Arthur Andersen especially helped. They were trying to save face and escape early, but still—because their accounting fraud was exposed, they’ll have to pay at least $100 million in fines.

“Ha, yeah... that’s true. Right. As long as I survive, I’ll figure something out.”

While the vast majority of victims were drowning in despair, I was one of the rare exceptions.

‘This is way better than my past life.’

Back then, it was far worse than this.

It wasn’t like the scam was exposed after 15 years. There had never been such a proactive intervention in either my past life or the present one.

Yes, the victims complain about getting back only their principal, but... at least they’re alive. And honestly, calling it “just the principal” is a bit much. Thanks to me, a good amount of the money will be recovered.

And...

“...Good thing I diversified my investments. Whew.”

He, who had been visibly depressed in recent weeks, finally spoke again.

“That’s right. I had more than half my assets in the Alpha Fund, so I’m safe.”

It was a lie, of course—but that alone was enough to redirect the university president’s attention from me.

“You had more money than I thought? I heard you put $3,000 into that scam, and that was half?”

“Well, it wasn’t always this bad, you know that.”

If it were the old days, people would’ve put their entire fortunes into the Madoff Fund, but these days, diversification was the norm.

Naturally.

The Madoff Fund promised a steady 10% annual return? Our Alpha Fund delivers at least 30% every year.

Last year alone, despite managing an enormous $10 billion, we posted a legendary 60% return. That was thanks to the chaos in the pound market earlier this year.

With more people adding capital, the fund’s size doubled every year, so even the most conservative investors had no choice but to look our way.

‘Ha, am I too kind?’

Even better, our fund was radically more transparent than the Madoff Fund. We made our cash flow public. We showed where we were investing. What more did they need?

After that, most of the clueless retail investors tried to follow us into strange dollar-denominated stocks. Maybe that’s why I split it up a bit and threw them into those odd positions.

“Ha, those rotten bastards must’ve cleaned up. How many billions did they scrape off...”

...Okay, that one stung a little.

For the record, the one currently managing lawsuits and fiduciary operations of the fund is Quinn Emanuel’s fund, which is set to take a $500 million cut as management fee.

Yes, it’s the same fund I connected with during the LA Riots. That’s right. The one I tipped off back then. Mr. Quinn liked me so much, he even vouched for me in several places.

Their method, by the way, doesn’t fully claw back unjust profits from early investors.

You might call that an unfair ruling, but... well, I just wanted to protect my good-faith investors. I had legal grounds, too.

Even the judge seemed to think it was too cruel, so with the money pulled from Andersen and JP Morgan, it was ruled that there would be no additional clawbacks once the victims were paid out.

Normally, it would’ve been impossible, but thanks to the Ponzi scheme being exposed early, it became possible. Once Madoff’s personal assets were seized and the fund’s real estate and various holdings were sold off, it actually turned into a surprising amount of money.

Seems like Madoff wasn’t good at stock investing, but he was pretty decent with real estate.

Didn’t they say even in my past life they managed to recover about 70%? Anyway, the damage will definitely turn out to be far less than people expect. All thanks to me.

Having secured both justification and profit at the same time, I smiled faintly.

“By any chance, President, where do you plan to invest the recovered funds?”

The answer was exactly what I expected.

“Of course... hmm. Probably in the Alpha Fund. Is there anywhere else?” Of course.

Money doesn’t disappear just because it’s scattered. In a capitalist market, money doesn’t exist as a static object—it exists as a living thing in constant flow.

Once all that money gathers, it has no choice but to flow somewhere.

Just like rain becomes a river, and rivers flow into the sea... All I did was design the path for that money to flow, and dig a pit at the very end of it, naming it the Alpha Fund.

If I blocked off all the side roads, it had no choice but to come to me.