The Eldorado Fund office in Manhattan, New York.
Beyond the wide panoramic windows, the river shimmered silver, and ferries moved back and forth toward Brooklyn. The open view spread out like a painting. At the head of the table sat Seok-won, while Landon, Andrew, and Dan Baradan sat with tense expressions.
Andrew, wearing his trademark suspenders and adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses, asked cautiously,
"So you're saying we should liquidate all of our Enron holdings and then short the stock? And with no limit? Completely open-ended?"
Unlike Andrew, who looked stiff with worry, Seok-won nodded casually.
"That's right. Dumping our entire stake at once will shake the price a bit, but there's still strong buying interest. It won't fall too drastically. That's why you short it continuously—until the crash—so we maximize our returns."
His tone was calm and confident, as if the success of the short was already guaranteed. The three men exchanged uneasy glances.
Dan Baradan, face tense, spoke carefully.
"But Enron is considered one of Wall Street's top picks. Their revenue target for this year is two hundred billion dollars."
Andrew followed immediately, his tone equally hesitant.
"They've launched Enron Online, expanded into energy derivatives, broadband communication services, and other advanced sectors. They're growing fast across multiple markets. Isn't shorting them incredibly risky?"
Sitting to the right, Landon glanced at Seok-won, choosing his words with care.
"It's true that Enron's stock price has risen sharply over the past few years. But unlike the dot-com companies that collapsed overnight, Enron reports several billion dollars in profit every year. It's hard to call a company like that excessively overvalued."
Hearing that Enron wasn't particularly overpriced, the other two nodded in agreement.
"And as you said, if we sell our entire stake and continue shorting the stock without limits, no matter how careful we are, word will eventually get out that we're taking a short position against Enron."
Since Eldorado Fund held a full ten percent of Enron's shares, even a staggered sale would attract attention. A sudden dump of such a large position couldn't be hidden.
And because Seok-won had already proven his brilliance with exceptional returns—and had single-handedly struck a massive jackpot during the dot-com crash—every move he made was closely watched by Wall Street investors.
If they started shorting Enron heavily, everyone would notice immediately.
"With our position exposed, pushing a massive short could backfire. We could become the ones targeted instead."
Following Andrew's grim warning, Dan added in a tightened voice,
"In the worst case, if the price doesn't fall as expected and a short squeeze develops, we could be forced to absorb catastrophic losses."
A short squeeze occurs when short sellers must buy back shares to close their positions, only to find there aren't enough shares available—driving the stock price sky-high.
"The wolves on Wall Street won't sit quietly if they see us exposed," Landon said anxiously. "They'll rush in from every direction to tear us apart."
Despite the flood of objections, Seok-won remained calm, not even a twitch in his brow.
"Plenty of people resent the fact that we've been racking up win after win. If they see a chance to knock us down, they won't hesitate. And if they think they can engineer a short squeeze and make a killing off it, they'll charge at us with their eyes glowing."
Andrew swallowed hard. He wanted to say, Then why are you giving this order if you already know all that? —but he forced himself to hold the words back.
"No matter how I look at it, the risk is too high," he said.
"He's right. Please reconsider," Dan added.
"I agree as well," Landon said.
All three opposed the short.
Under normal circumstances, they followed Seok-won's instructions without question. But this time was different. Their expressions made it clear—they sincerely wanted to stop him.
Seok-won rested his intertwined fingers on the sofa's armrest and spoke in an even, explaining tone.
"If other players try to trigger a short squeeze and attack us, but the stock is destined to crash anyway, wouldn't that only increase our profit?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"You're not planning to keep shorting the stock all the way until the other side gives up and walks away, are you?"
The three men frowned, clearly not understanding. Seok-won lifted a thick binder he had prepared in advance and set it on the table.
"What's this?" Landon asked.
Seok-won answered calmly.
"Proof that Enron has been manipulating its accounting for years—falsifying its books and inflating its revenue far beyond what it actually earned, deceiving investors."
"...!"
The three men widened their eyes, stunned by something they had never imagined.
"Are you saying Enron has been cooking its books?" Andrew leaned forward urgently.
Seok-won nodded heavily.
"That's right."
"But how…?"
"Good lord. Accounting fraud?"
Their reactions were completely understandable. It was hard to believe that the seventh-largest company in the United States had committed outright financial deception.
If anything, instantly believing such a claim would have been the stranger reaction.
Still reeling from shock and confusion, the three watched as Seok-won gestured toward the binder on the table.
"You'll understand as soon as you look through that binder," Seok-won said. "While expanding their business at a reckless pace, Enron raised funds by issuing stock to its subsidiaries. Those subsidiaries would then issue bonds with Enron's guarantees and funnel the borrowed cash back into Enron. That's how they secured the capital they needed."
"Hm."
"In the process, their revenue and net profit were naturally inflated far beyond reality. Investors never knew any of this. They were deceived by Enron's executives and have been buying the stock at absurd prices."
Dan still looked doubtful as he asked,
"But Enron's auditor is Arthur Andersen—one of the biggest and most reputable accounting firms in the industry. Are you saying they never discovered any of these illegal practices?"
The other two also looked at Seok-won with skeptical eyes.
Seok-won gave a crooked half-smile, his expression turning cold.
"If the accounting firm was directly involved in the fraud—or at least turned a blind eye—then of course they wouldn't 'discover' anything."
"!"
The shock hit all three of them again.
They stayed silent, struggling to find words, until Landon finally swallowed hard and asked, almost to confirm it a second time,
"You're saying the auditing firm colluded in the fraud? That's… really true?"
Leaning back against the sofa, Seok-won met his eyes.
"If they didn't, then how could a firm of Arthur Andersen's size fail to detect years of repeated, large-scale accounting manipulation? It doesn't make sense otherwise."
"Ugh… you're right."
Landon couldn't bring himself to argue.
Arthur Andersen was not a small firm; it was one of the Big Five in the United States. The odds that they genuinely had no idea Enron was cooking its books were extremely low.
"Come to think of it," Landon added, "wasn't it just last year that Waste Management tried to slip twelve hundred million dollars' worth of fake assets into their financial statements? Arthur Andersen, acting as their auditor, looked the other way. They were caught by regulators and fined."
"Yes," Andrew said. "That did happen."
When Dan spoke with a spark in his eyes, Andrew also remembered and nodded.
"These guys… looks like they've been repeat offenders all along."
Across the table, Landon let out a short, exasperated laugh.
"But I still don't get it. They must know that if they get caught, the firm could be shut down. Why would a major accounting firm like Arthur Andersen risk everything by getting involved?"
Dan tilted his head, confused. Seok-won answered in a cool, flat tone.
"What else could it be? Money."
"You're saying they were afraid the audit contract would be canceled if they didn't cooperate, so they looked the other way?" Landon asked, incredulous.
"An audit for a company as big as Enron brings in several million dollars a year by itself. But the real money is in consulting."
Andrew suddenly slapped his knee, as if something clicked.
"That's right—Arthur Andersen didn't just handle auditing. They were also in the business of corporate consulting."
Seok-won nodded.
"Most of Arthur Andersen's clients purchase both audit and management consulting services. If they lose a major client like Enron, they don't lose millions—they lose at least ten million dollars in annual revenue. It becomes difficult to stay impartial when that much money is on the line."
"That makes sense," Landon said first. The other two nodded as well.
"Of course," Seok-won added, "regardless of the financial incentive, abandoning their principles and participating in illegal practices is still unquestionably wrong."
"Absolutely," Landon said emphatically.
Seok-won looked around at the three tense faces, then grinned.
"With a bomb like this, even if every investor on Wall Street tries to trigger a short squeeze and attack us… how could the stock survive? It'll collapse."
In an instant, the anxious mood in the room evaporated, replaced by a rising excitement and anticipation.
"Of course. This is more destructive than a nuclear bomb. The moment the accounting fraud comes to light, there'll be panic selling on an unimaginable scale. Anyone caught on the wrong side will be wiped out instantly."
Andrew's voice was bubbling with excitement, and Dan looked at Seok-won with open admiration.
"This is a game we couldn't lose even if we tried."
Landon, his earlier worries completely gone, broke into a bright smile.
"When you said you wanted to launch an unlimited short attack on Enron, I assumed you knew something we didn't. But I never imagined you had a bomb like this in your hands."
Seeing everyone revitalized, Seok-won let out a small, amused smile.
"Enron's stock is trading at ninety-one dollars and thirty-five cents per share right now, correct?"
"That's right," Dan answered immediately.
Landon's eyes sparkled as he rubbed his palms together.
"What price are you targeting with the short?"
Andrew and Dan also leaned forward, curious.
Instead of answering, Seok-won simply raised one finger. Landon ventured a guess.
"Are you saying… down to ten dollars?"
"No."
"Then… surely you don't mean one dollar?"
Landon's eyes widened. Seok-won nodded.
"That's exactly what I mean. Keep shorting it until it crashes all the way to one dollar per share."
The three men were too stunned to speak.
A stock trading at over ninety-one dollars falling to a single dollar in an instant—something like that only happened when a company collapsed outright.
And if the seventh-largest corporation in the United States truly imploded, the shockwave it would send through the stock market and the American economy would be unimaginable.
Their faces stiffened for a moment—but only for a moment.
As they imagined the profit this short position could generate, a surge of exhilaration crept up their spines.
"It hasn't even been that long since we bet on the dot-com collapse, and here we are again… opening another massive play."Andrew spoke with a look of anticipation.
Maybe it was the trader in him, but his fingertips were already tingling, and his heartbeat was picking up speed. Sitting beside him, Dan also couldn't hide his thrill and excitement. Landon let out a playful grumble through a smile.
"Honestly… you keep creating these dopamine-exploding situations. No wonder I can't bring myself to leave your side, boss."
Seok-won smiled faintly, then his expression sharpened as he issued the order.
"All right. Let's begin."
TL/n -
Enron started as a natural-gas pipeline company and grew into what it marketed as a cutting-edge energy-trading powerhouse. On paper it looked innovative, profitable and fast-growing. Investors loved it. At its peak it was worth more than 70 billion dollars.
How the fraud worked
Enron's leadership used accounting tricks to hide losses and inflate profits. The key tactics were:
Mark-to-market accounting
They booked expected future profits as if they were earned that day. If they signed a long contract, they immediately recorded the most optimistic version of the deal as profit. If the contract failed later, they hid the losses instead of reporting them.
Special Purpose Entities (SPEs)
Enron created hundreds of shell companies. These were controlled by Enron executives but kept off Enron's official balance sheet.
They used these SPEs to:
Move debt off the books
Hide failed investments
Artificially boost earnings
Enrich executives privately
Conflicts of interest
CFO Andrew Fastow ran many of the SPEs himself, earning millions personally on deals he approved internally. This was a massive conflict of interest.
Auditor failure
Arthur Andersen, one of the world's largest accounting firms, approved Enron's reports rather than challenging them. They later destroyed documents during investigations, which led to the firm's downfall.
What triggered the collapse
By mid-2001, analysts were questioning Enron's vague financial disclosures. A series of leaks and investigations exposed the off-balance-sheet debt. Confidence evaporated, the stock collapsed, and Enron filed for bankruptcy in December 2001. Thousands of employees lost jobs and retirement savings.