America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Now the victim's family members are suing for rights, claiming up to 370 million dollars from Pike Company!

The court's verdict has also been issued, categorizing this accident as due to inadequate safety measures, requiring a minimum compensation of 7.6 million US dollars for each deceased employee's household, plus a 3 million dollar fine and deposit to continue operations.

With twelve households, that's 91.2 million dollars, plus the loss of the plant and customer resource turnover, the company almost declared direct bankruptcy!

How much of this lawyers' firms' profited and took is not the subject here, but definitely, not so much reached those families, maybe just a couple million dollars, but Pike Resource Recycling Company indeed bled, having sold several recycling plants.

They now owe the bank 20 million in debt. They could have their assets seized at any time.

Pike Resource Recycling Company's annual turnover just barely reaches over 100 million dollars; its actual profits are only tens of millions, shareholder dividend profits are only a few hundred thousand to a million each year, and now many shareholders are clamoring to bail out. And Reko, this diligent old employee, was promoted at this juncture, getting trapped as they were pushed into an awkward position.

George, who had spent half his lifetime in the recycling industry, felt like he had been thrown back to primitive times, about to be cruelly harvested by the harsh market.

Due to the suddenness of the incident, they could only hastily seek public relations help to suppress the situation, prevent media from reporting the incident, stopping public opinion from fermenting and the situation from going out of control, costing them a hefty sum in PR fees.

Then they found a shareholder from an entertainment company, bought the future of a barely known eighteenth-tier female star after communicating, released her scandals and big news, effectively diverting the storm by lowering its impact, hastily covering their past.

No wonder there were hardly any relevant news reports. Opening YouTube and media mostly showed news about a female star cheating post-marriage, or dating a certain athlete, using over a dozen condoms in a single night, or causing a groin strain etc., various exaggerated news push notifications.

Truly influential news almost never gets reported; only those who have really understood or are insiders know.

"How could a well-managed factory catch fire?" old George and others also lamented.

Pike sighed, "We suspect this might have been a man-made accident, because we had business conflicts with Blue Renewable Metals Company recently, and they chose to engage in malicious competition! Of course, this is just our speculation, as there is no solid evidence, no suspicious persons were observed either, the fire destroyed all survivors and facilities in the plant, and clearly the site's cameras and chips didn't survive either, leaving very few clues, just some partially burnt white phosphorus powder, but it can't serve as direct and valid evidence."

Reko also said, "Right now our company is in an economic downturn, needing someone to invest or buy it out to keep operating. If no one is willing to help, we can only sell off the site and declare bankruptcy."

Pike looked utterly exhausted, already numb.

Coincidentally it wasn't.

Allen Zhang pondered, "In other words, if your company can prove it was malicious competition, find relevant clues, would you then not need to bear the main responsibility and compensate the families?"

"If we could find clues that it was Blue Recycling Company behind this, the court would definitely review the case again, and Blue Company would pay a painful price. Malicious competition is illegal everywhere! But the fact is, we can't find any effective related clues, even though we've hired private detectives and secretly looked through many street and Dark Web channels, none have worked."

Pike sighed, "Now that shareholders have already divested, leaving behind a mess, we can only take it one step at a time. I am here this time not only to sell a seaside villa, two apartments, and my luxury car, various collectibles, but also to try and bring in investment. If I really can't hold on, I might have to auction off my company at a low price."

Allen Zhang also lamented how unpredictable life is.

"Mr. Jin, you might have connections in the intelligence network, maybe you can help us find some clues?" Reko was purely clutching at straws, seeking help from the General Sect Leader.

After all, no matter how you put it, the General Sect Leader's recycling station also signed a recycling contract with Pike Company, so he's somewhat one of us.

If Pike Company goes under, won't your recycling station need to find a new partner again? The contract terms from Blue Company might not really be better than Pike's.

"You think too highly of me, even private detectives and hackers couldn't find any clues. I only run a bar and do scrap recycling, where would I have such capacity?" Allen Zhang promptly declined.

Pike Resource Recycling Company going under might not be a bad opportunity for the General Sect Leader.

When the time comes, I'll just buy your company at a low price, and then pull people out to sue for the company's losses, wouldn't that maximize my profits?

Earning ethically is possible, but earning more by taking advantage of a crisis without any ethics is obviously much more profitable.

Honestly, just from your jars paying me 6 cents, making at least 2 cents profit for me, there's no way I'd help you!