Chapter 608: Unhappy Retribution
After confirming that all the top executives of the Lightning Company had "lost contact", the mayor of London forced open the door to the distillation workshop.
The lights are bright here, but there is no one around. Only the retorts and other equipment with a metallic luster are left lying there.
"Let them move!" Herbert turned to the technician and shouted.
The technicians looked at each other, but said that they did not know how to operate this thing.
At noon, two scholars from the Royal Academy of Sciences came to Lightning Company.
After they repeatedly confirmed and tried the operation, the older man among them said to Herbert: "Unfortunately, Mr. Mayor, this thing seems to be just an empty tin can."
"It can't even burn for a long time," another scholar pointed to the heating furnace. "It can only hold less than 50 pounds of coal in it, and it absolutely cannot distill the gas that supplies the entire London..."
< br>Unwilling to give up, Herbert asked scholars to look through the entire Lightning Company, and finally determined that only the equipment in the basement could produce a small amount of gas - which was used to maintain dozens of street lights around the city hall. "Face Project".
Besides, even half a liter of gas cannot be produced.
Herbert was stunned for several minutes before he finally realized that he had encountered a huge scam.
No, the whole of London, and even the whole of Britain, was deceived!
That night, the matter was reported directly to Little Pete.
The young Prime Minister stared at the Home Secretary, the Duke of Portland, and frowned: "In other words, this lightning company also issued hundreds of thousands of pounds of bonds through banks?"
The latter nodded: "Commercial Credit Bank, run by the Goldmead family. I have sent someone to verify the total bond amount, which is estimated to be at least 700,000 pounds."
Little Pete suddenly felt dizzy.
700,000 pounds, this figure will definitely cause an uproar in London. You know, the allocation for the entire gas street lighting project is only 300,000 pounds.
He hurriedly said: "What is the relationship between the Commercial Credit Bank and Lightning Company? Immediately freeze all their accounts!"
"Yes, Mr. Prime Minister, I have already done so." The Duke of Teran said, "However, there are only more than 20,000 pounds in the bank account, and other assets are still being counted. As for their relationship, it seems that they are accomplices now."
The British bought Lightning Company bonds The funds have already been transferred away, and the more than 20,000 pounds are the bank's own deposits.
Little Pete slammed the table hard and subconsciously asked: "Is it too late to block the news?"
"I'm afraid it's not easy. After all, there are too many people involved, and the street lights in London have not been on. Get up."
Little Pete raised his head and exhaled, and ordered: "Go to the bank and Lightning Company immediately and find as many assets as possible to reduce the impact of the incident.
< br>"Also, let Mordaunt resign as a member of parliament immediately. As for Herbert...he is the person directly responsible, and he can only be used to calm the anger of the people. ”
Up to this point, he had just regarded this matter as an ordinary fraud case, at most the amount was very large, so he was still thinking about how to reduce the impact and deal with the aftermath.
In fact, compared to hundreds of thousands of corporate bonds, the subcontracting companies involved in the London gas street lighting project are the most powerful bombs.
After the Duke of Portland left, Little Peter asked his entourage to summon people from Lloyd's of London, the strongest private intelligence agency in the UK, and commissioned them to investigate the gas street light case.
Bad news always spreads the fastest.
It was barely noon the next day when almost everyone in London knew that the gas streetlights were a hoax.
On the bell tower of the church, Sir Elvis stared into the distance with empty eyes. He spent all his wealth to buy Lightning Company bonds. Yesterday he was bragging to others about his investment talent, and he would definitely prosper in the future, but today it turned into a joke.
He recalled that he had been courteous to that Baron Watson before, and even sent his sister to his bed, but it only made it easier for that guy to defraud him of his money...
"You are simply the stupidest idiot in the world!"
He pointed at himself and shouted: "Idiots should not live!"
After saying that, he jumped off the clock tower.
The reality seems cruel, but it is also fair. If Joseph had not discovered the order scam in time and managed to recover some of his losses, I don’t know how many bankrupt factory owners in France would have "jumped" like Elvis.
In the following days, the situation in London continued to take a turn for the worse.
First, dozens of people from subcontracting companies involved in the gas street lighting project asked the London City Hall for project funds, and the latter naturally refused without hesitation.
These subcontracting companies all signed agreements with Lightning Company. How can the London City Government recognize this account? And the London City Government simply doesn’t have that much money.
That afternoon, two subcontracting companies declared bankruptcy.
After all, it was a project involving hundreds of thousands of pounds. Some of the work that had been completed before, such as the cost of manufacturing street lights and laying pipes, were all advanced by these companies. The amounts were higher and higher, but they did not receive a penny in return. arrive.
The huge losses forced them to choose bankruptcy.
A wave of bankruptcies quickly emerged. In less than a month, nearly 20 subcontracting companies went bankrupt.
Then the shock wave of bankruptcy began to spread downward.
Suppliers who sold raw materials and equipment to bankrupt companies also began to go bankrupt because they could not recover a large amount of payment.
As a result, workers employed by these companies have lost their jobs in large numbers. These people soon arrived in front of London's City Hall and joined the subcontracting company's protest team.
All the windows of the city hall were smashed and the outer walls were covered with filth. Officials were too frightened to come to work.
Finally, Mayor Herbert saw protesting workers lighting a fire outside the city hall, could no longer hold back, and mobilized the police to disperse the crowd.
Clashes inevitably broke out between the two sides. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and imprisoned, and dozens of police officers were injured.
And more serious problems have just begun to emerge.
The reason was that the London City Hall wanted to repair a problematic sewer pipe in a certain area, but found that there was no contractor who could do the job.
After having someone investigate, Herbert found out that almost all the companies involved in the pipe laying business in London had gone bankrupt - the gas street lighting project was too attractive at the time, and all companies with some strength were trying their best to participate. The legs ended up dead inside.
In fact, not only the pipe laying industry, but also companies related to pipe casting, valve manufacturing, gas lamp manufacturing, distillation equipment processing and other industries have been wiped out.
It can be said that the foundation of the British gas street lighting industry has completely collapsed...
(End of this chapter)