Chapter 142: The Evidence Is Conclusive
Even after taking HK$10 million out of the HK$100 million in funds to buy land for the company, and another HK$10 million as the company's reserve fund, there would still be HK$80 million left.
In other words, the two of them could each split HK$40 million in dividends.
Forty million! Even for Lin Haoran, that was no small sum.
Moreover, with the explosion in orders this month, the profits in July would obviously only be higher.
For Lin Haoran, leaving this money in the company's account for a long time would indeed be a waste.
The company's major expenses were the purchase of production materials, employee wages, and transportation costs. As for rent and some other expenses, they were merely small sums for the current Aimeigao Company.
As for transportation costs, they had actually already been passed on to the distributors, which was why the profits from exports to the Americas had also increased considerably.
As for production materials, given Aimeigao Company's current production scale, quite a few manufacturers in Hong Kong were willing to supply the goods first and collect the costs later.
So, in reality, Aimeigao Company's operating cost pressure was not as high as one might imagine.
As Aimeigao Company's output increased, it also gained more bargaining power when purchasing materials, which slightly lowered costs while further increasing profits.
After chatting with Lau Luen-hung for a while, he hurried off to take care of other matters.
Although the company now had considerably more middle and senior management, greatly reducing Lau Luen-hung's workload, it actually did not matter much even if he was away from the company for several days.
However, the company had also expanded too quickly, and there were still many things he was not comfortable completely handing over to his subordinates, so he had to keep a close eye on things much of the time.
Lin Haoran first went to the finance department to learn about the recent situation, then walked around each floor of the building. After finishing his tour, he also went to inspect the newly rented industrial building across the street.
Every floor of both buildings was now operating at its busiest, and June through September were definitely the few months with the greatest demand for fans, especially July and August.
By the time he finished the inspection, nearly two hours had passed.
Qingzhou Yingni Company had not called all this time, clearly indicating that they had not finished checking the accounts.
However, Lin Haoran had no intention of staying at Aimeigao Company any longer. There was not much he could help with here. He had come merely to learn about the situation and, incidentally, arrange for Aimeigao Company to distribute dividends.
Thus, he once again took Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, the two brothers, and headed back toward Qingzhou Yingni Company.
Half an hour later, Lin Haoran had returned to the chairman's office at Qingzhou Yingni.
“Boss, the three of us checked these account books twice, and we didn't find any problems. If we absolutely had to identify the most suspicious area, I think there are questions regarding Qingzhou Yingni Company's wage expenses. Comparing the payrolls from the past six months this year, I think there is a considerable discrepancy in Qingzhou Yingni's payroll for last month. It's just that we don't have Qingzhou Yingni Company's personnel roster, so we don't know whether there were many employee changes, and therefore we can't be certain.” Wan'an Group's finance director saw Lin Haoran return and gave him a detailed report on the results of their audit.
Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Wait a moment. I'll have the director of the human resources department bring up the company's employee change records for the past few months.”
After saying that, he called the human resources department office.
The director of the human resources department was currently a Chinese man newly recruited a few months earlier, and his loyalty was also quite high, so it was impossible for him to collude with this finance director.
About ten minutes later, the director of human resources came upstairs with the documents.
“Boss, these are all the company's personnel changes over the past few months. They include when everyone joined and when they left, and even their working hours each month are included.” After handing the documents to Lin Haoran, the director of human resources explained respectfully.
“Good, thank you for your hard work. You can go back first. If anything comes up, I'll call you.” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.
The finance director, Maka, definitely had a problem. If it wasn't falsifying the internal accounts, then it was accepting bribes externally.
There weren't many opportunities for external bribery, so Lin Haoran leaned more toward the possibility that he was fabricating false accounts internally.
After obtaining the personnel roster, the three of them began comparing the records again.
“Boss, there really is a problem. I found that compared with May, every rank-and-file employee at Qingzhou Yingni Company was paid slightly more last month. Some were dozens of dollars higher, and some were even more than a hundred higher.
Moreover, the total number of people paid was also wrong. In June, Qingzhou Yingni Company's Hong Kong plant should have paid wages to 1,236 people, but in reality, wages were paid to 1,298 people.
Of these, 62 people had actually already left the company in May or earlier, so they shouldn't have received any wages in June. Yet our financial wage expenses include payments to these people. Based on our preliminary calculation, the discrepancy is around HK$360,000.” Half an hour later, the three had more or less finished checking these documents.
An expenditure of HK$360,000 was obviously not very conspicuous for Qingzhou Yingni Company. The company's various monthly expenses exceeded HK$10 million.
This finance director had clearly intended to use a small amount of embezzlement to deceive everyone.
“Check the figures carefully one more time!” Lin Haoran said seriously.
This matter could not be concluded casually. It had to be absolutely certain.
More than HK$300,000 was merely a small amount of money to Lin Haoran, but to an ordinary person, it was definitely a considerable sum.
He absolutely would not allow such parasites to exist within his businesses.
If he embezzled more than 300,000 a month, and continued doing so, he could embezzle several million Hong Kong dollars a year.
Over the long term, he would be sucking Lin Haoran's blood.
This matter was indeed no small thing.
Lin Haoran did not know why this finance director had been so bold, but since he had done this, he naturally had to receive the punishment he deserved.
If Lin Haoran had not identified through loyalty that he had a problem, there was a real possibility that no one would ever have discovered it.
After all, Maka was the finance director of Qingzhou Yingni Company. He was in charge of the company's finances and possessed extensive financial knowledge. These were precisely his areas of expertise.
However, to ensure that the calculations were correct, Lin Haoran had them calculate everything once more.
With the previous line of reasoning, they were obviously much faster this time.
With the three of them working together, only another dozen or so minutes passed before they calculated the result again.
“Boss, after our calculations, we've confirmed that there is no error. There is indeed a discrepancy of more than 360,000. Clearly, there is a problem with the June wage expenses. We also calculated May's figures once, and there were no problems.” Wan'an Group's finance director handed the results of his calculations to Lin Haoran.
The benefits and compensation at British-owned enterprises were considered quite good in Hong Kong, and their payday had always been earlier than that of Chinese-owned enterprises.
For example, Qingzhou Yingni Company paid each month's wages on the fifth of the following month.
Meanwhile, many sweatshop processing factories wished they could delay payday until the end of the following month.
Moreover, because the banking system was not yet advanced enough in this era, wages were basically paid in cash.
This indeed left a great deal of room for manipulation.
Lin Haoran nodded. No wonder this finance director had suddenly been thinking about buying a house in Tsim Sha Tsui.
He had obtained more than HK$300,000 in funds all at once, which was indeed enough for him to buy a house in Tsim Sha Tsui.
It was also no wonder Burton had not known about this. If they had not carefully calculated the payrolls against the employee working-hour records, no one would have discovered it.
After all, the company's various monthly expenses, such as raw material costs, market expansion expenses, transportation costs, salaries, domestic helpers, and so on, together made up the company's overall costs. A discrepancy of more than HK$300,000 really did not make much difference.
Under normal circumstances, it was perfectly normal for the company's monthly expenses to be somewhat higher or lower.
“You've worked hard today. Go back and submit your travel expenses. Consider it a subsidy for you.” Lin Haoran said with a smile.
For Lin Haoran, both companies were currently going through the privatization process. Both were his own companies, so he could do whatever he wanted with them.
“Thank you, Boss. Then we'll head back first.” The three of them left Qingzhou Yingni Company and returned to Wan'an Group.
Lin Haoran leaned back in his chair, looking at the data in front of him.
Now that it had been confirmed that the finance director, Mr. Maka, really had a problem, naturally the matter had to be handled accordingly.
Of course, there was no need for him to handle this personally.
He directly called Burton and asked him to come to the office.
Before long, Burton arrived at Lin Haoran's office.
“Boss, did you need me for something?” Burton asked doubtfully as he looked at the account books and documents on the desk.
Lin Haoran repeated what had just happened and explained it all to Burton.
After hearing it, Burton also understood the seriousness of the matter.
With specific data, it was actually quite easy to verify. The wages of dozens of extra employees could be identified simply by comparing the records.
Ghost employee payroll expenses! This was no small matter.
Burton was even more astonished by his boss.
Even he had not known about this matter. How had the boss known that the finance director, Mr. Maka, had a problem?
From all the signs since Lin Haoran arrived today, it was clear that he had come specifically for the finance director, as if he had already known that there was a problem with him.
However, although he was shocked by this, Burton naturally knew that this was not something he should ask about.
“Boss, leave this matter to me. I'll handle it properly for you. I'll tell you the results tomorrow.” Burton said respectfully.
“Good, I'll leave this matter to you. I believe you won't disappoint me. Also, leave the finance director position vacant for the time being. The company's financial affairs will temporarily be handled by the deputy director, and I'll be responsible for finding a new finance director.” Lin Haoran continued.
The position of finance director was far too important.
He already had someone in mind for the new finance director, but he did not know whether he could persuade that person to come over.
After Lin Haoran left, Burton also began taking action.
Embezzling and misappropriating public funds and fabricating false accounts were intolerable anywhere.
For embezzling more than HK$300,000, not only would the money have to be recovered, but he would also have to spend several years in prison.
However, all of this was simply the finance director bringing it upon himself.
That same day, Burton gathered the evidence and then directly called the police.
With the evidence conclusive, Maka was directly taken away by the police.
Next, the company's lost funds would also be recovered from Maka.
That evening, Lin Haoran received a call from Burton, who reported to him over the phone how the matter had been handled, as well as the punishment Maka was most likely to receive next.
Lin Haoran was very satisfied with Burton's efficiency.
However, at this moment, he had an even more important matter, which was finding Maka's successor.
(End of Chapter)
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