Chapter 607: Retribution

Chapter 608 Retribution

After confirming that all the senior executives of Lightning Company were "out of contact", the Mayor of London ordered people to force open the door of the distillation workshop.

The lights were bright here, but there was no one in sight, leaving only the retort and other equipment with a metallic luster lying there.

"Make them move!" Herbert turned and shouted at the technicians.

The technicians looked at each other, but said that they didn't know how to operate this thing.

At noon, two scholars from the Royal Academy of Sciences came to Lightning Company.

After repeated confirmation and attempts to operate, the older one said to Herbert: "Unfortunately, Mr. Mayor, this thing seems to be just an empty iron 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, and it is absolutely impossible to distill gas to supply the whole of London..."

Herbert, who was unwilling to give up, asked the scholars to turn over the entire Lightning Company again, and finally confirmed that only the equipment in the basement could produce a small amount of gas-it was a "face project" used to maintain dozens of street lights around the city hall.

Besides, they couldn't even produce half a liter of gas.

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 were deceived!

That night, the matter was reported directly to Little Pitt.

The young Prime Minister stared at the Home Secretary, the Duke of Portland, frowning: "In other words, this Lightning Company also issued hundreds of thousands of pounds of bonds through the bank?"

The latter nodded: "The Commercial Credit Bank, founded by the Godmid family. I have sent people to verify the total amount of the bonds, and it is estimated to be at least 700,000 pounds."

Little Pitt felt dizzy.

700,000 pounds, this figure will definitely cause an uproar in London. You know, the funding for the entire gas street lamp project is only 300,000 pounds.

He hurriedly asked, "What is the relationship between the Commercial Credit Bank and the Lightning Company? Freeze all their accounts immediately!"

"Yes, Mr. Prime Minister, I have done so." The Duke of Portland said, "But 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 funds used by the British to buy Lightning Company bonds have long been transferred, and the more than 20,000 pounds are all the bank's own deposits.

Little Peter slammed the table hard and asked subconsciously, "Is it too late to block the news?"

"This is probably not easy. After all, there are too many people involved, and the street lights in London have not been lit."

Little Peter raised his head and exhaled, and ordered, "You immediately count the bank and Lightning Company, and try to find as many assets as possible to reduce the impact of the incident.

"In addition, let Mordaunt resign as a member of parliament immediately. As for Herbert... He is the direct person in charge, and he can only be used to calm the anger of the people. ”

Until this point, he had only considered this as an ordinary fraud case, at most the amount involved was very large, so he was still considering how to reduce the impact and deal with the aftermath.

In fact, compared to the hundreds of thousands of corporate bonds, the subcontracting companies involved in the London gas streetlight project were the most powerful bomb.

After the Duke of Portland left, Little Pitt asked his entourage to summon the people of Lloyd's of London, the strongest private intelligence agency in the UK, and commissioned them to investigate the gas streetlight case.

Bad news always spreads the fastest.

It was only the second At noon, almost all Londoners knew that the gas streetlights were just a scam.

On the church bell tower, Sir Elvis stared into the distance with empty eyes.

He spent all his wealth on the Lightning Company bonds. Yesterday, he was still bragging to others about his investment talent and that he would definitely be successful in the future. As a result, he became a joke today.

He remembered that he had been courteous to Baron Watson before, and even sent his sister to his bed, but it only made it easier for that guy to cheat him of his money...

"You are simply the stupidest idiot in the world!"

He pointed at himself and shouted: "Idiots should not be alive! "

After saying that, he jumped off the clock tower.

Reality seems cruel, but it is also fair. If Joseph had not discovered the order scam in time and managed to recover some of the losses, there would be countless bankrupt factory owners in France who would "jump off" like Elvis.

In the following days, the situation in London continued to deteriorate rapidly.

First, dozens of subcontracting companies involved in the gas street lamp project asked the London City Hall for the project payment, and the latter naturally refused without hesitation.

These subcontracting companies all signed agreements with Lightning Company. How could the London City Government recognize this account? And the London City Government did not So 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 paid by these companies. The amount was higher than the other, but they didn't get a penny back.

The huge losses made them choose bankruptcy.

Soon there was a wave of bankruptcies. In less than a month, nearly 20 subcontracting companies went bankrupt one after another.

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 money.

Then a large number of workers employed by these companies lost their jobs. These people soon came to the London City Hall and joined the protest team of the subcontracting companies.

The windows of the City Hall were all smashed, and the outer walls were covered with filth. The officials were so scared that they dared not come to work at all.

Finally, Mayor Herbert saw that the protesting workers had set fire outside the City Hall, and he could no longer restrain himself and mobilized the police to disperse the crowd.

The two sides inevitably clashed, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and imprisoned, and dozens of police officers were injured.

And more serious problems have just begun to emerge.

The cause was that the London City Hall wanted to repair the sewer pipes in a certain area, but found that there was no contractor who could do it.

After Herbert asked someone to investigate, he found out that almost all the companies involved in the pipeline laying business in London had gone bankrupt - the gas street lamp project was so attractive at the time that all companies with a little strength tried their best to get involved, but they all died in it.

In fact, it is not just the pipeline laying industry. Companies related to pipeline casting, valve manufacturing, gas lamp manufacturing, distillation equipment processing and other industries have also been wiped out.

It can be said that the foundation of the British gas street lamp industry has completely collapsed...