Chapter 881: Settling Scores
Chapter 881: Settling Scores
At the same time, police across Paris arrested more than thirty financial experts who had previously spread rumors that France's gold reserves were insufficient, inciting the public to stage a run on gold.
In reality, these individuals hired by Lord McGovern had been under the watchful eye of the police and the Intelligence Bureau since the moment they began their activities just a few days prior.
The authorities had only delayed the arrests to create a false impression of incompetence for the British, making the French government appear as though it were struggling to respond.
Now that the matter had settled, the police immediately moved in to close the net.
In truth, these French pundits had been incredibly careless.
They had failed to consider that the government would never allow such a critical threat to the nation's financial lifeblood to proceed without implementing news censorship unless they were completely confident in their position.
Of course, the British had also paid them far too much, blinding them to any rational judgment.
On the other side of the city, the Paris Seine Silk Trade Company—a front company established by the British in France—was surrounded by over a hundred police officers.
"What do you think you're doing?
"The police have no right to arbitrarily harass and threaten a legitimate business!
"If you do not leave immediately, I promise that what is happening here will be known throughout all of Paris by tomorrow morning!"
A police captain stepped forward and offered a thin smile.
"Please, calm yourself. We are only here to maintain order. The gentlemen who have real business to conduct are these men here."
He stepped aside, and Grey saw a group of men wearing the uniforms of the Tax Bureau entering the room. He recognized the man leading them: Chaumette, the Chief Tax Investigator of Paris.
Grey froze for a moment but quickly regained his composure. "As I said, our company is a legitimate business. You are free to audit our taxes as you wish."
His company primarily handled clandestine affairs for the British government; it had almost no actual business dealings, and therefore, very little tax to pay.
However, Chaumette did not begin flipping through the company ledgers as he would in a normal audit. Instead, he pulled several sheets of paper from his pocket, unfolded them, and held them before Grey's eyes.
"Did you sign this agreement?"
When Grey saw the words on the paper, his pupils suddenly constricted.
It was the text of the agreement he had signed just a few days ago to borrow 4 million Francs from Lemoine in the company's name.
"This... why is this in your hands?!"
"Well, it seems you did indeed sign it," Chaumette noted, nodding as he tucked the agreement away. "Mr. Lemoine stated that you borrowed 4 million Francs from his bank at the time, citing company operational needs as the reason."
He glanced at the assistant by his side and pointed toward the floor. "Kohler, how much tax did this company pay last year?"
"27 Francs and 7 Sous, sir."
Chaumette stared coldly at Grey. "Your company had a massive transaction of 4 million Francs pass through its accounts, which proves your scale of operation is enormous. Yet, you only paid 27 Francs in taxes.
"I have no choice but to suspect this company of severe tax evasion.
"I am now launching a full investigation. Until this matter is resolved, all company funds and equipment will be frozen. You and the rest of the staff must remain under the Tax Bureau's constant surveillance."
Grey broke into a cold sweat, his voice cracking as he spoke. "No, that money was just... I was borrowing it on behalf of a friend."
"I hear that particular excuse almost every day."
Chaumette snorted with disdain and turned to his subordinates. "Seal this place immediately! Do not let a single scrap of paper go missing!
"Oh, and you can let the journalists outside in now. I'm sure they'll be very interested in a tax evasion case of this magnitude."
"Yes, sir!"
On that day, the Paris Tax Bureau was out in full force, launching tax evasion investigations into five different front companies established by the British.
The evidence was already prepared—the people who had provided the loans to these companies and those who had exchanged Pounds Sterling were all agents arranged by the French government. They had simply handed the signed agreements directly to the Tax Bureau.
A swarm of police also descended upon the home of Bruni, Lord McGovern's French advisor, arresting him on charges of espionage and malicious disruption of the market.
Previously, Bruni had used his position as a senior bank executive to steal data from the Bank of France and leak it to McGovern. That alone was enough to earn him a sentence of over eighty years in prison.
The person who had informed on him was none other than Manager Grey, who had been taken in by the Tax Bureau shortly before.
Along with Bruni, Grey and others gave up the names of dozens of British financial spies who had participated in the shorting of the Franc.
While some of these spies were quick to react—about a dozen managed to flee overnight—it was still the greatest achievement for the French Intelligence Bureau in dismantling an enemy spy network in the past two years.
Meanwhile, in the square outside the headquarters of the Bank of France.
Sean Ross, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Dresden Daily News, jumped down from his carriage, only to be met with the sight of Paris citizens dispersing like an ebbing tide. He stood there, momentarily dazed.
In his imagination, this place should have been filled with the sounds of cursing and perhaps even the chaos of a violent riot against the bank.
Yet, aside from the litter covering the ground, everything seemed perfectly normal.
He hurriedly turned to the journalist accompanying him. "Simon, go find someone and find out what happened."
Several nearby journalists heard them speaking German and turned to respond in the same tongue.
"You don't know? Since noon, Italians have been continuously transporting gold coins here to exchange for Francs. The total has already exceeded 30 million."
He pointed toward the side entrance of the Bank of France. "Look, there are still more gold coins being brought in."
Another journalist, whose features suggested he was from the Low Countries, added, "It's impossible for France's gold reserves to collapse now. It looks like we've come all this way for nothing."
Someone immediately chimed in, "My draft is useless now, too..."
Just as these foreign journalists were losing interest, they saw the staff of the Bank of France carry out a large wooden sign and prop it up in front of the main entrance.
Ross had excellent eyesight and immediately squinted to read the words on the board. "Since the beginning of this month, the Bank of France has exchanged a total of 960,000 ounces of gold without a single instance of refusal. The bank's vaults currently hold ample gold reserves and remain open for exchange business at any time."
A look of shock spread across the faces of the foreign journalists.
960,000 ounces of gold was roughly equivalent to 90 million Francs.
And that was just the exchanges made at the Bank of France. When including other banks, France had exchanged over a hundred million Francs' worth of gold during this crisis!
For such a massive movement of gold to occur without the French treasury facing any issues was staggering.
Furthermore, the bank still maintained sufficient reserves.
This was more than enough to prove the sheer scale of France's economic and financial power.
One had to realize that a run on gold of this magnitude would have been a struggle even for the Bank of England to withstand.
In reality, out of these exchange operations totaling over a hundred million Francs, only about 60 million had actually been converted into physical gold.
Of that, over 40 million had been exchanged by Lord McGovern, while the remainder had been taken by French citizens and speculative capital.
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