At two-thirty in the afternoon, at the FBI Washington Headquarters, in Vireness's office.

"IRS?"

Hearing the female agent's words, Vireness's expression sharpened, and she quickly asked:

"Who is it? Did they say why they were looking for Luo An?"

The status and situation of the IRS department is indeed special within the Federation, even Vireness starts to unconsciously think in a negative direction upon hearing the word.

"The other party claimed to be from the IRS-CI."

This female agent was a reception service staff member at the building's entrance. She briefly described the other party's appearance and manner of speech, but she did not recognize the person.

Luo An's expression remained unchanged. Based on the female agent's description, he guessed the identity of the visitor and said to Vireness:

"It should be Supervisor Elmer from the IRS-CI."

"OK."

Vireness knew of the friendship between Luo An and Supervisor Elmer and let out a slight sigh of relief.

With a wave of her hand, she indicated for the female agent to leave. After the door closed, Vireness said seriously:

"I will go to Mr. Clement's office later to discuss this explosion case and the related matters about setting up the 'Special Investigation Unit.'"

Vireness was not the slightest bit worried about whether Luo An could become the leader of the "Special Investigation Unit."

Besides Mr. Clement, FBI Director Robert wouldn't mind speaking up for Luo An either.

With the consent of the first and the third in command at FBI, absolutely no one would be foolish enough to object to this.

"OK, thank you, Chief."

Luo An smiled and nodded, exchanged a few cordial words, and then left the office first.

Taking the elevator downstairs, Luo An soon saw the IRS agent mentioned by the female agent in the first-floor lounge, and as he had guessed, it was indeed Supervisor Elmer from the IRS-CI (Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Department).

However, today's Elmer was different from the past; he wasn't smiling; instead, his lips were downturned and his face gloomy, looking very stern.

Moreover, given Elmer's IRS identity, the first reaction of any stranger seeing him like this would certainly be "I'm done for."

Therefore, when it was known that Elmer's visit was to look for Luo An, many agents silently emerged nearby in the lounge. They all wanted to know what exactly had happened, whether the other party had come to seek help from Luo An, or to apprehend him.

Luo An was momentarily taken aback by Supervisor Elmer's expression, but he wasn't panicked at all; he reached out to shake hands with the other party and said with a smile:

"You could have just called me for any matter, no need to make the trip yourself."

Elmer shook Luo An's hand, his face grim, and said directly: Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on NovᴇlFɪre.nᴇt

"Go to your office."

"OK."

Amidst the curious gazes of the agents passing by, Luo An and Supervisor Elmer together walked into the elevator and returned to the Unit 13 Investigation Team.

Inside the team leader's office, Luo An poured Supervisor Elmer a cup of coffee. Elmer still had a tense look on his face and asked in a grave tone:

"Are you the only one in this office?"

Luo An frowned slightly, understanding the implication of Elmer's words, turned around and answered gravely:

"I check this office every day; it's absolutely safe, no eavesdropping or surveillance devices, you can be assured."

Worried about certain issues, the Unit 13 Investigation Team's office area is thoroughly inspected every two days to prevent the presence of eavesdropping, recording, surveillance, or any other devices that do not belong to Unit 13 Investigation Team, including the team leader's office.

"OK."

Assured by Luo An's guarantee, Elmer breathed a sigh of relief, the stern expression on his face disappearing in an instant, replaced by a bitter look. He grabbed Luo An's hand and said in a low voice:

"Luo An! You have to help me!"

"..."

The rapid change in Elmer's expression caught Luo An off guard, and it took him a moment to react. Pulling his hand away, he asked:

"What happened?"

"Do you remember the time we went drinking together?" (Chapter 552)

Elmer sighed dejectedly, his face gloomy:

"Your guess wasn't wrong, that damn bastard Bernard Madoff is indeed up to no good! He's really running a Ponzi scheme!"

Elmer said that after he left the bar that day, he began to investigate Bernard Madoff discreetly.

He was shocked to discover that Bernard Madoff's investment returns were a continuously rising line that had never dropped and was a hundred times more stable than the stock market!

This was clearly abnormal because the stock market fluctuates, and it's not possible to always make money; losses are more common for most people.

"At first, I thought Bernard Madoff, as the chairman of NASDAQ, was taking advantage of his position to trade on insider information or front running."

Elmer sat in his chair, covering his face with his hands, murmuring quietly:

"After some time investigating, I realized this guess was wrong.

The only truth left was: Ponzi scheme."

Luo An took a sip of his coffee and asked quietly:

"Can't you get your money back?"

I remember Elmer saying before that he had also entrusted his funds to Bernard Madoff's investment firm for management.

"No, I've already withdrawn my money."

Elmer shook his head:

"My money wasn't much, it was nothing but pocket change for Bernard Madoff.

I filed a request with the reason that I had a family emergency and needed cash urgently, and in less than three hours, both the principal and the 'profits gained from investment' were all transferred into my account."

"It's actually that fast."

This did indeed surprise Luo An. Seeing Elmer's increasingly somber expression, Luo An put down the coffee cup and asked with a serious tone:

"What do you plan to do?"

"I want to expose this son of a bitch!"

Elmer took a deep breath and said with gravity:

"The fund under Bernard Madoff has already amassed an apparent total of 50 billion.

But according to my covert investigation, the actual amount of that fund is less than one-third of the figure on the books, the rest is all just a bubble!

Not only that, Bernard Madoff has always claimed that his fund only manages money for the wealthy, and ordinary people are simply not qualified to get in.

In reality, since 2000 to now, the vast majority of the members who have joined that fund are middle-class families within the Federation! Their numbers have climbed to nearly 30,000 people!"

Luo An nodded, this was a standard operating procedure; the basic logic of a Ponzi scheme is to take the money from new participants and distribute it as 'interest' to those who joined earliest, and then on and on, continuously expanding.

The problem is that the overall number of new participants is limited, and the wealthy of the Federation even more so.

Once the wealthy have all entered the fund, Bernard Madoff can only lower his sights to the middle-class, taking their money to give to the earliest joining rich members in order to maintain the scam.

"Bernard Madoff has too high of a status."

Luo An refilled Elmer's cup with coffee and said gravely:

"He is a member of the Wall Street Securities and Exchange Commission, and he has even been involved in the formulation and amendments of many of the Commission's rules.

Therefore, trying to take down Bernard Madoff starting from the SEC is simply impossible."

Elmer nodded; he had worked in the IRS for so many years, he understood all too well the working logic within the different departments of the Federation Government, and was aware of the unreliability of the SEC, even suspecting that the SEC and Bernard Madoff may be in cahoots.

"So that's why I've come to you."

Elmer lifted his head, his face grave:

"Luo An, you are the best team leader in the FBI, second to none, I need your help."