Chapter 668
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Just as the UA Department of Justice officially launched a court case against the State Court and sued Future Technology's UA subsidiary, Future Group sent a team of lawyers to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea to actively respond to Blue Seagull's lawsuit .
At the same time, Future Group hired a legal team to officially sue Blue Seagull's headquarters for slander because of the information published on its official site . It caused "detrimental damage" to Future Group's international reputation and Future Group demanded reparations of 1 . 7 million USD as well as immediately deleting the defamatory comments against Future Group .
With the support of the B City Consortium, Blue Seagull definitely wouldn't stop and expressed that it was bizarre for Future Group to sue a non-profit organization . They also emphasized their stance on their official site on remaining firm against the capitalists! They also stated that Future Group had detained "peacefully protesting" members and demanded their immediate release .
The UA Embassy also contacted Celestial Trade, but events took a different turn .
When the UA Ambassador to Xin, Marchi Bocas, came to see Celestial Trade's CEO, Ivan, he was surprised to discover that the Blue Seagulls members hadn't received unjust treatment from Future Group but instead, had been welcomed by Jiang Chen?
They appeared in front of the media and Barney accepted an interview from a reporter .
"The rumors of being treated unfairly by Future Group were untrue . When Jiang Chen learned of Katie and my intentions, he personally met us and highly praised our efforts in protecting marine life…"
Barney's mouth twitched and he hesitated .
But since he was already standing on the opposing side of the B City Consortium and as he realized he couldn't afford to breach the contract signed with Jiang Chen, he took a breath and spoke into the mic in front of him .
"With his assistance, I completed filming for our documentary… And the name of the documentary is called 'A Lie' . "
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The crowd began to cause a commotion and the reporters, sensing major news, all bombarded Barney with a load of questions .
Barney didn't respond to any questions .
As per the agreement with Jiang Chen, he maintained an expression that showed he was lied to, and he criticized Blue Seagull for accepting bribes and slandering Future Group under Matrix's directions without any evidence . He claimed he was dragged into this disgusting business without being aware .
The crowd became rattled .
"Mr . Barney, is what you're saying true? Do you have evidence supporting your claim?"
"What are the exact details? Please tell us! All the environmental advocates around the world will stand by your side!"
"Mr . Barney, I want to ask if you've been threatened to say what you just said?"
Barney raised his hand and held out three fingers in the face of the flood of questions from the media .
"I can swear on my dignity that what I said is 100% true! No one threatened me . As you see, I'm safe . As for the evidence, it's all in the documentary and uploaded onto YouTube!"
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In the documentary named A Lie, the first thirty minutes documented the state of the ecosystem under Future Group's Penglai, Mining Platform, Desalination Platform, and the second half revealed the bribes between the Blue Seagull organization and Matrix, aiming directly at the Saudi freshwater project .
The documentary led viewers from suspense to reflection to revealing the truth in front of the public .
With promotion from Future Group, Barney's documentary caused a mass commotion on the web .
Blue Seagull's president, Brent Lancy, had accepted a bribe of $2 million . Since he couldn't stand the pressure of public opinion, he was forced to resign . Matrix immediately came out with a press release . However, in the face of public opinion that already formed a perfect storm, their so-called clarification was insignificant .
It could be foreseen that negative public opinion would cause a critical blow to Blue Seagull's reputation . Once a non-profit organization lost its credibility, it would completely lose its lifeline .
Blue Seagull and Matrix were all just pawns; Jiang Chen knew the real opponent of Future Group was B City Consortium .
After taking care of the two pawns, it was time for the real fight .
While the media was criticizing Matrix, Xie Lei, in Europe, used the quantum computer on Coro Island to successful hack onto the server of First B City Bank .
Their information security measures were praiseworthy, but with the deadly combination of a hacker and the quantum computer, there were no secrets in the digitalized era .
Hundreds of thousands of client information were copied . Under Jiang Chen's directions, Xie Lei anonymously posted the information on social media sites in Iceland .
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This move caused an earthquake in the financial sector .
First B City Bank's market cap took a dive by 8% that day and barely managed to stop the freefall with the efforts of B City Consortium . The release of client information was a massive scandal for any bank . Clients who had their privacy violated immediately jumped to action .
Clients swarmed to the ATMs and desperately tried to cash out . Once a bank run started, even the most powerful banks couldn't stop the storm .
Jiang Chen wanted something more . He wanted to reduce all the saving accounts to a balance of zero . But unfortunately, Xie Lei helplessly told him that it wasn't within a hacker's capabilities .
Only God had the power to do that .
The hack was a direct blow to B City Consortium . Even as the consortium with the longest history, a direct hit to their core assets would hurt .
After the event, analysts estimated that the information leak caused a direct loss of 3 . 7 billion USD to the B City Consortium with an indirect loss totaling 11 . 7 billion USD! A good brand would need one hundred years to develop, but it would only take a few days to completely ruin a brand .
The leak even alerted the FBA . When they traced the attack to a foreign source, CIB entered the investigation as well .
It scared Xie Lei to death .
Although he received a few months' of military training, he would definitely lose to professional agents .
But he wasn't too afraid that CIB would be able to track him down .
With assistance from the quantum computer, he wiped his tracks . All IPs led to an internet café in Morocco at the edge of the Sahara desert . He didn't need to worry about being in the far Ber .
While B City Consortium suspected the leak had something to do with Jiang Chen since he was in the tech business, they couldn't do anything about it without evidence .
Just as B City Consortium was busy trying to put out the fire, Future Technology released an announcement .
To better assist the Department of Justice's collection of evidence for its anti-trust investigation, Future Technology would temporarily suspend its service coverage to the 110 million users in UA . Future Technology continued to reiterate that they would actively cooperate with the Department of Justice's investigation and looked forward to the completion of the investigation so the subsidiary could return to normal service .
WTF!?
On the day of the announcement, the North American subsidiary CEO, Hermit, gave all employees a paid vacation and even took the executives on a paid vacation to Hawaii .
But the UA netizens who saw the notice were completely shocked .
Anti-trust investigation? Suspending service?
WTF!?