The Tyrant Billionaire

After that, no matter what questions the interrogators asked, he repeated only one thing: he wanted to see his lawyer.

When Hardy initially instructed Duncan to investigate MacArthur, they eventually uncovered ties to the Japanese black market, which implicated MacArthur's cousin.

Hardy then instructed Henry to investigate Judson thoroughly.

Henry deployed elite personnel—wiretapping, surveillance, tracking cargo ships, and investigating the black market.

Eventually, they found a clue: Judson's funds were primarily stored at HSBC in Hong Kong.

When this was reported to Hardy, he laughed.

What a coincidence.

Instead of directly approaching HSBC's top management, Hardy had his people, already embedded within HSBC, conduct a secret investigation. And this investigation revealed even more startling facts.

MacArthur's cousin, Judson, had initially deposited the money at HSBC because Hong Kong had very lax financial oversight at the time. It was known as a free financial port.

Not only had Judson opened an account for himself, he had also opened an account under MacArthur's wife's name. Anyone with common sense could see that this money was meant for MacArthur.

Moreover, the amounts transferred into these accounts were substantial.

This indicated that MacArthur was the primary player behind the black market smuggling operation.

To Hardy, this wasn't surprising at all. As the de facto ruler of Japan, using his power for personal gain was quite normal.

However, the fact that they had blatantly opened accounts using their own names and those of their spouses was shocking. They probably didn't expect anyone to investigate them in Hong Kong. It was simply a case of carelessness.

Even though the IRS was powerful, it didn't yet have the formidable investigative capabilities it would develop later.

Even in the future, many illegal accounts would remain hidden from investigation.

The IRS was powerful, but it wasn't omnipotent.

They were just unlucky.

If it had been anyone else, the investigation might have ended here, since probing these secret accounts required exceptionally high clearance.

But the one conducting the investigation was Hardy.

At that time, Judson had more than $10 million stored at HSBC, while MacArthur's wife still had over $20 million.

Initially, Judson had stored all his money at HSBC. Later, as the amounts grew, perhaps to spread the risk or for other reasons, Judson gradually funneled money through HSBC into banks in Switzerland, Cuba, and Brazil.

During this era, Cuba was still the U.S.'s playground, under American control. Many Americans, including politicians and wealthy elites, vacationed in Cuba during the right seasons.

Cuba's financial regulations were also very lax.

This was why the mafia families saw opportunities in opening casinos there. If Hardy had merely fooled them into going to Cuba, it would have been foolish on their part.

Since the money had been transferred through HSBC, there were traces to follow. It wasn't long before they traced the funds to accounts in these countries.

After investigating all of this, Hardy thought for a moment and then instructed Henry to focus on Judson's accounts in Cuba and Brazil.

As for the HSBC accounts, Hardy decided not to reveal them, as they were the source. The Swiss accounts remained concealed because they were harder to investigate.

He also kept quiet about MacArthur's wife's accounts, so for now, the IRS only knew about Judson.

Even so, the IRS believed they had caught a big fish.

After all, it was $6 million.

MacArthur had targeted Hardy before. Although Hardy had orchestrated MacArthur's downfall by having him offend the seven major financial groups, which eventually forced MacArthur to hand over the 300 military enterprises, Hardy wasn't one to let things go easily. He wanted his revenge.

So, he arranged for Henry to expose Judson.

Of course, this wasn't what shocked Hardy the most. During the investigation into Judson and MacArthur's wife's accounts, Hardy's team later reported another piece of information.

At HSBC, not only was MacArthur's wife's name on an account, but MacArthur's own name appeared as well.

And under his name, there wasn't cash, but gold—eight tons of gold.

At the current price of $35 per ounce, this amounted to $10 million. ( 1 ounce = 0.028 Kg)

Hardy suddenly remembered rumors from the future regarding MacArthur. During his time as Japan's "Emperor," MacArthur had allegedly received massive bribes from the Japanese government, which allowed him to preserve the Emperor's position rather than fully democratizing the country.

It was also rumored that he had privately released a group of war criminals.

It was said that the bribes MacArthur received were primarily in gold, scattered across numerous banks, with a total of about 100 tons.

Of course, this was just a rumor, something people gossiped about, as these claims were never confirmed. But based on the current situation, it seemed these rumors were likely true.

If he really had received 100 tons of gold, it would have amounted to over $100 million.

This old guy sure had an enormous appetite.

At first, Hardy had been astonished by the large amount. But after recalculating, he realized it was only a little over $100 million, which didn't seem so extraordinary anymore.

After all, in his time in Japan, Hardy had earned far more than $100 million.
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After learning about the vast amount of gold that MacArthur had hoarded, Hardy instructed Duncan to investigate exactly how much gold MacArthur had hidden and where it was located.

MacArthur was still in Japan, and Hardy couldn't make a move against him just yet. However, Hardy knew that MacArthur would eventually lose his influence. If history followed its course, MacArthur would be disgraced after a defeat in the Korean War and subsequently removed from his position as Supreme Allied Commander by President Johnson.

There were less than two years remaining until that event.

This gold was ill-gotten, and MacArthur wouldn't dare let it be exposed. Once MacArthur was dismissed and lost his power, dealing with him would become much easier.

It wasn't necessary to kill him.

There were plenty of dark methods that could be used.

Meanwhile, MacArthur's cousin, Judson, had been arrested by the IRS. All of his domestic accounts and fixed assets were frozen. The IRS had immense authority—they could freeze personal assets without a court order.