American Tax Officer

Luke, who had left earlier, returned and reported, "Chief Tax Officer Bellamy, according to our surveillance, David has gone to the headquarters of the GCO Corporation."

"The GCO Corporation?"

Upon hearing this, both Bellamy and Trollope seemed quite surprised.

They had previously speculated that David must have been tracking some criminal gang, and that's why he ended up in the Long Beach District, Los Angeles.

But the GCO Corporation is a legal publicly-traded company, not some criminal gang, right?

"Wait a minute..."

Trollope seemed to have remembered something and suddenly said, "Chief Tax Officer, this GCO Corporation operates private prison businesses, and according to the information we've gathered, there seem to be some illegal activities amongst their management personnel, and there also seem to be some issues with their accounting. Could it be that David is here to investigate this?"

"Oh? Is that so? Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

Bellamy was somewhat astonished, clearly having not looked into GCO Corporation in detail.

"Chief, what you may not know is that GCO Corporation is not just any company. It is one of the largest three private prison companies in the country, and they also have cooperative relationships with the Department of Justice, state judiciary, prosecutorial departments, the FBI, the CIA, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the DEA, and various other departments.

It's not that easy to deal with, which is why I didn't elaborate earlier," Trollope explained.

Upon hearing this, the reproachful look on Bellamy's face immediately disappeared.

If GCO had the backing of so many departments, then it indeed wouldn't be easy to tackle.

But then again,

given GCO Corporation's seemingly intricate connections, what made David think he could take them on?

Wasn't that a bit too bold?

Thinking this, Bellamy grew somewhat angry again and said in a cold voice, "If that's the case, I want to see how he intends to bite off more than he can chew. Keep a close watch on his every move!"

"Yes."

...

At the center of Long Beach District, in front of the GCO Corporation headquarters building.

David and his team had already arrived and quickly stepped inside. They found a front desk receptionist, flashed their tax badges and said, "We are from the State Tax Bureau and have important matters to discuss with your executives."

Upon hearing that the visitors were from the State Tax Bureau, the receptionist did not dare to neglect and immediately picked up the phone to notify.

One minute later, after hanging up the phone, the receptionist said to David and his companions, "Gentlemen from the State Tax Bureau, please follow me."

The receptionist led David and the others onto the elevator and all the way up to the tenth floor.

A man who had already been waiting there immediately approached them and introduced himself, "Gentlemen from the State Tax Bureau, my name is Hugo, the tax supervisor of this company. How can I assist you?"

"I said I wanted to see your company's executives, not a tax supervisor."

David knew that the vast amount of funds was not something a minor tax supervisor could handle, and he didn't want to waste too much time with him.

Hugo frowned, for being in Los Angeles, he didn't recognize David like people from Nevada would and thus failed to recognize him.

At this moment, he felt that the agents from the State Tax Bureau were a bit too arrogant.

Firstly, demanding to see the executives, they were acting a bit too presumptuous, weren't they?

After all, their company was no small fry.

Though he was upset internally, Hugo did not act confrontationally. Instead, he patiently replied, "As the Tax Bureau, you're here for a tax audit, right? And as the company's tax supervisor, just discuss it directly with me."

David didn't want to waste any more words with him and simply waved his hand to Nisen, who opened the briefcase, took out the ledger from Rio City GCO Prison, and handed it over.

Hugo accepted the ledger and began to peruse it, but as the content revealed itself, his expression turned from surprised to shocked to downright ugly.

As a tax supervisor, it was clear at a glance what the contents were and whether they were authentic.

Without exaggeration, if this ledger were made public, it would not only embroil GCO Corporation in a scandal but also mire them in a massive tax evasion crisis.

Now he finally understood why the State Tax Bureau officials had come to him, and why they insisted on seeing their executives right from the start.

"May I ask where you got this ledger from?"

"I don't need to explain it to you!"

Hugo's face darkened a shade further before he finally asked, "This is the ledger for the Rio City GCO Prison from Nevada, so you are from the Nevada State Tax Bureau?"

"That's correct."

"May I know your name?"

"David."

"All right, please wait here."

Hugo immediately turned and left, walking down the corridor to a door marked 'CEO Office.' After knocking, he entered, his face grave as he said to a silver-haired lady inside, "Miss Caroline, we have a problem..."

The woman referred to as Miss Caroline with the silver hair raised her head upon hearing this and asked, "What problem?"

"Please take a look at this."

Hugo handed over the ledger, which Caroline promptly opened to examine.

Soon enough, just like Hugo had upon reviewing the ledger, her expression became very grim, and she said with a stern face, "Where did this ledger come from?"

"It was brought here by someone from the Nevada State Tax Bureau named David."

"David?"

Although the name seemed somewhat familiar to Caroline, she didn't dwell on it and immediately instructed, "Call Pearson, Matteo, Grelay... get them here immediately!"