Bab 338: Chapter 338: Bachelor Party
"Fortune" magazine, a biweekly publication under Time Inc., released its latest issue on the day Steve Ross called Simon to express that he was unaware of the information beforehand. He also congratulated Simon and confirmed his attendance at the wedding on March 3rd.
With $4.5 billion in cash, counting his other assets, Simon had become the first individual in federal history to amass a fortune exceeding $10 billion—a truly celebratory milestone.
During the release of "Pretty Woman," since it competed with Warner Brothers' "Under Siege," starring Steven Seagal, also under the Time Warner umbrella, Time magazine had given "Pretty Woman" a poor review.
Although Time Warner was not monolithic internally, Simon did not believe Steve Ross was unaware of this.
However, Simon had little interest in dwelling on these issues.
Following the exposure by "Fortune" magazine of his registration of overseas assets with the IRS, Simon faced not congratulations, but skepticism.
$4.5 billion—the figure released by "Fortune" and hotly debated in the media—was not the exact scale of Simon's overseas assets, but merely a taxable amount that had been registered.
Moreover, this money was not all in cash; a large part was in short-term convertible financial products to obtain a safe capital return slightly above bank interest rates.
Including assets like Nokia, Gucci, and overseas real estate, Simon's assets outside the United States easily exceeded $5 billion.
However, most media and the public were not focused on these details.
The critical point of public scrutiny was how Simon amassed such a massive cash sum of $4.5 billion.
Daenerys Entertainment's growth was well-documented, but the operations of Lannister Capital were opaque to most people.
Thus, many found it hard to believe that a hedge fund could generate $4.5 billion for Simon in just one year—a profit scale comparable to North America's most profitable corporate giants like IBM, Ford, and General Electric.
Such corporate behemoths typically have revenues reaching hundreds of billions of dollars.
Therefore, the media and public speculated that behind the enormous sum of $4.5 billion, there might be undisclosed secrets.
Faced with increasing scrutiny, Simon was compelled to respond.
Still serving as his public relations manager, Petyr Baelish clarified at a press conference on February 28 that Simon's financial acumen had been demonstrated during the 1987 S&P 500 operations. The past year's $4.5 billion in earnings were entirely from the legitimate operations of Lannister Capital and related commissions, without any insider dealings.
This reminder brought to mind Simon's feat during the 1987 stock market crash, where he became North America's youngest billionaire through futures trading.
Now, through another financial maneuver, Simon Westeros had transitioned from a billionaire to a deca-billionaire, which seemed plausible.
However, $4.5 billion was a staggering amount for an individual.
Last year, besides Simon Westeros, only John Kruger on the Forbes 400 list surpassed this figure.
Even on the global billionaires list, fewer than twenty individuals had a fortune above $4.5 billion.
Moreover, this asset was all in cash, not in illiquid real estate or stock assets.
By this measure, Simon Westeros might be the billionaire with the most cash worldwide.
Simon's trading tactics during the 1987 crash had been fully exposed in the media, and such a level of market-timing mastery was impossible to replicate.
What about this time?
With this thought, many media outlets started urging federal regulatory bodies to investigate Lannister Capital's operations more thoroughly.
However, these efforts were doomed to fail.
Lannister Capital had only recently confirmed its headquarters in Manhattan; before that, the hedge fund registered in the Cayman Islands was not under federal jurisdiction.
Proposals to use Lannister Capital's last year's operations in the U.S. stock and bond markets as an excuse were also unlikely to hold.
Unless there was suspicion of misconduct, no regulatory body would initiate an investigation or force a company to disclose its business information without cause.
Was there any misconduct in Lannister Capital's operations?
Given the scrutiny from many North American financial institutions last year, any violations would have already been exposed. Even out of envy, many wished to see Lannister Capital fail.
Nothing happened.
Catching Lannister Capital on any wrongdoing would certainly be feasible if evidence were available.
If there was no substantial evidence and an investigation was launched merely because of Lannister Capital's substantial profits, the result would be embarrassment.
Simon Westeros would not be defenseless.
Since troubles couldn't be stirred up through Lannister Capital, some shifted their focus to taxation.
$4.5 billion in cash, with a declared capital gains tax rate of 28% on Simon Westeros's additional equity income, implied more than $1.2 billion in taxes.
Over $1 billion in taxes had never been owed by a living individual in federal history.
Moreover, Westeros clearly had no immediate intention to repatriate this money.
This could not stand!
So, a few days after "Fortune" magazine's revelation, a senator from Tennessee publicly stated that unless Simon immediately paid the overdue taxes, Lannister Capital should be banned from operating in the United States.
To advance this issue, the senator solemnly submitted a proposal to Congress.
The practices of individuals and businesses like Simon Westeros, who kept capital overseas for tax avoidance yet continued operations within the U.S., were not unique. If relevant legislation could be enacted, it could instantly bring a significant additional revenue to the federal treasury.
However, the U.S. global taxation strategy had always been controversial.
To encourage the repatriation of overseas funds, the federal government periodically used tax exemptions to guide this capital back domestically.
Now, to forcefully pass stricter legislation to tax overseas assets and businesses would affect more than just Simon.
If pushed too hard, everyone had measures to retaliate.
The U.S. approach to overseas taxation was to collect taxes higher than what taxpayers had already paid but lower than the domestic tax share.
If the federal government went too far, taxpayers could simply pay full taxes to foreign governments, potentially gaining favor and more policy support from those nations.
In comparison, paying domestically would not even earn a small token of appreciation.
This simple logic was easy to grasp.
As long as the federal government's upper echelons weren't completely desperate, the Tennessee senator's proposal was unlikely to pass.
Although Simon knew this public controversy would not pose a significant risk to him, the pressure he faced had not diminished.
Apart from digging into Lannister Capital's secrets and pressing for huge taxes, some media targeted Wall Street, suggesting that financial speculation should be restricted.
The federal junk bond market crisis that erupted at the end of last year was still ongoing, and again, some tried to pin this crisis on Simon, suggesting that short-selling by hedge funds like Lannister Capital had led to the collapse of the junk bond market, causing massive losses for countless investors.
In summary, for a 22-year-old to amass over $10 billion in just a few years was itself an unforgivable original sin.
If not handled properly, the public, easily swayed by the media, might develop a resistant attitude towards all companies within the Westeros system, especially Daenerys Entertainment.
Even Simon's future expansion efforts could face significant obstacles.
Thus, the entire Westeros system's PR team was in overdrive during this period, and James Reynolds even specifically hired a professional media relations firm to manage public perception.
Melbourne.
With the situation tumultuous in North America, Simon arrived a week before the wedding.
Considering the recent media climate, the upcoming wedding would completely exclude media attention. To ensure the massive influx of paparazzi from around the world could not infiltrate the various wedding venues, the Johnston family hired over 300 security personnel.
The wedding site at Yarra Valley Park was completely closed off half a month in advance, with everyone involved in the wedding preparations signing strict confidentiality agreements, forbidden from revealing any details of the wedding either before or after the event.
Johnston family mansion.
The date was now March 1st, Thursday.
Simon had been getting no more than five hours of sleep each night. Just last night, he was up until after 1 AM checking on wedding preparations and woke up again before six.
Janet was also quite excited during this period, waking up early as well.
For convenience, the couple had been staying at the mansion.
It was six o'clock in the morning in Melbourne, which was one o'clock in the afternoon on the previous day in Los Angeles.
After spending over an hour discussing recent events with North America and being reminded by a servant, Simon hung up the phone, and it was nearly eight o'clock.
He joined the family seated around the dining table.
Besides Raymond Johnston and his wife, there was the always cool Veronica Johnston, David Johnston who had just returned from England with his girlfriend Leslie Whitaker, and the couple Patrick Johnston and Sarah Keston.
After greeting everyone, Simon sat down next to Janet. Raymond Johnston asked, "How are things on the North American side?"
Simon picked up his utensils and replied, "Still quite lively."
Raymond nodded and said, "The achievements you've realized in recent years exceed the understanding of most ordinary people, so their reactions are not surprising. After the wedding, you and Janet should take some time to rest, reduce appearances in the media, and things will cool down quickly. In fact, I suggest you not make any major moves for the next few years, to give the public time to adjust."
Before Simon could respond, Janet interjected, "We can't just do nothing, right?"
Raymond glared at his daughter, "It's not about doing nothing, but about being low-key and integrating and digesting the assets you already have."
With too many people in the dining room, Simon couldn't discuss Daenerys Entertainment's planned acquisition of M
CA this year, so he simply nodded in agreement.
After Raymond's statement, Janet's mother, Tracey Johnston, looked at the couple and said, "You two should try to have a child soon."
At this, Janet's cheeks immediately turned rosy, whether genuinely or pretended.
The report from the British genetics research institute had been handed to Simon last week, showing no issues. In fact, Simon had never been too worried, as the situation had never been as severe as portrayed in his memories. Therefore, they had both decided to have a child soon, fulfilling Janet's wish and also strengthening Simon's ties to this world.
After breakfast, Anthony Johnston and Norman Johnston's families also arrived.
With the wedding two days away, there was still much to do.
After assigning the schedule, Simon and Janet headed to Yarra Valley Park, where she wanted to personally supervise the construction of the flower maze beginning today. Simon had to rush to Melbourne Airport to pick up guests arriving today.
Inside the closed park, Janet discussed plans with the head of the preparations team. As they began their work, she turned to Simon, "There's one more thing. Kate, Jenny, and the others will be here this afternoon. We've booked tomorrow for a bachelorette party in Bali. What about you?"
A pre-wedding bachelor party was also a Western tradition.
Simon hadn't thought about this and laughed, "How about I join you?"
Janet immediately rolled her eyes, "If you come along, how is it still a bachelorette party?"
Simon pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her waist, "You go have fun. I'm not used to such customs. But no going too crazy."
As it turned out, even if Simon wanted a bachelor party, he seemed to lack peers to enjoy it with.
Janet's eyes flickered with an idea, but looking up at Simon, she dismissed her initial thought. She felt her youngest uncle could organize something for Simon, but considering last time's incident at the Parker family's boxing ring, she preferred not to risk any complications at her long-awaited wedding.
Watching the workers start to construct the flower wall and smelling the roses in the air, Janet leaned her head against Simon's chest and murmured, "We're really getting married, huh?"
Simon smiled and nodded, "Yes."
"I just wanted to confirm again."
"Do you want me to pinch you to prove you're not dreaming?"
"Mmm."
Simon's hand slipped down, gently squeezing her hip.
Janet made a soft noise, tightening her embrace.
Feeling the woman in his arms grow softer, Simon simply sat down with her on the grass.
The workers around them discreetly moved away.
A soft humming filled the air, gentle and raspy.
*...
*When I was a little girl, I asked my mother,
*What will the future hold?
*Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?
*And she said,
*Let nature take its course,
*Life is unpredictable, just let it be.
*...
Although there was no piano, the melody was just like that warm Christmas Eve.
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