Chapter Five: Buying Upstream with Orders

Su placed an old equipment lease on the table. Dongrui’s third vacuum furnace was registered to a shell company owned by Ma’s brother, which charged Dongrui six million a year. Dongrui itself had originally paid for the furnace, disguising the invoice as technical services. [Undisclosed related liability: Three-year rent, ¥18,000,000.] “Choose,” Shen said. “Cancel the lease and return the furnace, and the fund’s vote falls to forty-nine percent. Or admit the undisclosed liability, and fifty-one percent activates now.” Dongrui’s workers stood beyond the glass. They had watched the remediation crews arrive and knew the new orders had rescued their wages.