Chapter 82 Frank Who Changed His Career to Sell Diamonds

"That's good." Li Changheng thought for a while, "Buying and selling farms and pastures to change the name several times, is the 60,000 US dollars in your hand enough?"

"Enough", Barney said with a smile, "Since I want to buy a farm and ranch, I plan to go to the homes of a few comrades who died in battle with the best relationship, and spend 3,000 US dollars to buy a small farm, and give it to the comrades' families to take care of it." .

It takes a few years to let them invest in manpower and management, and transfer most of the shares to them little by little, which can also be regarded as a source of income for the families of comrades-in-arms.”

"That's a good idea," Li Changheng smiled, and it took several years to reduce the shares, and then the names were listed under other shareholders, making it even more difficult to check.

After hugging Barney, Li Changheng left Barney's house to look for Frank Abagnale.

Frank, who has been back to New York for four days, has been anxiously and worriedly waiting for the news of Li Changheng these days.

Thirteen days ago, after receiving the 1,000 Pan Am captain's salary check from Li Changheng, Frank was like a wild horse that had run loose.

Based on the idea of ​​making a fortune and not going to Europe in the future, Frank wandered frantically in Spain, France, Italy and other countries.

Then he went to West Germany, and even took advantage of his identity as the captain to easily enter West Berlin, which was surrounded by polar bears and East Germany.

Unexpectedly, after entering Berlin, which was jointly managed by the four countries, Frank soon felt that he had come to heaven.

In the 1960s and 1970s, although the per capita living standard of East Germany did not exceed that of West Germany, the per capita life satisfaction index exceeded it by 100%.

As a window to show to the outside world, polar bears and East Germany have allowed 500,000 middle- and lower-income West Germans and West Berliners to voluntarily join the Red Empire, enjoying a job for everyone and an annual economic growth rate of 5%. dividend.

It was not until the second oil crisis more than ten years later that the polar bear economy was hit hard that this situation was reversed, and a large number of East Germans fled to West Germany.

In the future, the family of a female prime minister ran from West Germany to East Germany during this time.

And because of the Vietnam War, the red polar bear has a tendency to catch up with the United States these years.

Although this wish has never been realized, this does not prevent polar bears from trying their best to promote themselves as better than the West.

Since you say that you are better than others, you cannot exclude others from coming in to take a look.

But many people in the West think that the more mysterious it is, the more they want to see it, and there are many people like this.

So even after entering, the places to go are very limited.

But things that are not available in the West, such as black caviar, nesting dolls, vodka, and precision watches and cameras unique to East Germany, all of a sudden became popular.

Of course, the top caviar and the watches and cameras involved in secrecy, Polar Bear and East Germany must keep it for themselves.

But this is facing the problem of insufficient money in the hands of tourists, and the crew members bring private goods on the plane, as long as it does not exceed one box, it is the tacit rule in this era.

Otherwise, who would take the risk of entering East Germany, or even Moscow?

When Frank was on the plane, he was reminded by the captain and co-pilot that they brought caviar to East Germany and cigars to Cuba.

Therefore, there are many bank counters in Berlin's airports and big hotels, and Pan Am and other airlines have also heard the interest to join in the establishment of outlets.

In just one day, he easily exchanged the 300 checks in his hand in East Berlin. Frank, who was about to run away after earning a fortune, went to the airport in East Berlin without any hesitation, so as to avoid any accidents with the more than 290,000 US dollars on his body.

But I didn’t expect that when I was waiting for the plane at the airport, I saw in an English magazine published by Polar Bear, which was specially used for publicity, after Sierra Leone in West Africa became independent from the Commonwealth in 1964.

A large amount of oil, diamonds, rubber, and various metal ores that have been extracted are blocked by the entire West and are backlogged in their hands.

Frank's first reaction was that this was in East Germany, otherwise New York or other western cities would definitely not have seen such reports.

But when he was about to board the plane, a thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

With excitement, Frank didn't board the plane to London to New York, but thought about how much money he could earn by exchanging all the US$290,000 in his hand for diamonds and bringing them back to New York?

He is very adventurous in his own right, and then boarded a plane to Johannesburg, South Africa.

After arriving in South Africa, he bought a small propeller plane with US$1,000 and entered Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

What he didn't expect was that the buying and selling process was extremely simple.

In the largest diamond store in Freetown, as long as you have money, not only rough diamonds can be picked at will, but even pink diamonds and red diamonds are available, and there are soldiers who will protect you back to the hotel or the airport.

But Frank ignored one of the most important issues.

If a diamond sells for $100, then the real price of the diamond should be only $40 or even lower, so where does the remaining value come from?

Authoritative certificate.

After Frank returned to New York, he inquired that 20 colored rough diamonds with an average price of 14,500 US dollars could indeed double the profit, and this was not the final profit of the diamond dealer.

But the diamond in your hand does not have a legal certificate, which means that legitimate merchants will not buy the rough stone in your hand.

Because all diamond merchants know in their hearts that diamonds are by no means rare as Debes said.

The reason why it is more expensive than other gemstones is completely an artificial illusion.

An advertisement of "Diamonds are forever, one piece will last forever", making diamonds replace other gems as a symbol of love, and everyone who gets married must buy one.

And the most important thing is that the divorce rate in this era is not high, basically no one will sell their wedding rings.

Few people sell it, which means that as long as the market is well maintained, it will never become obsolete.

Whether you like it or not, as long as your future wife needs it, every man is faced with the situation that he must buy one in his life.

As for the institutions that issue the appraisal certificates, there are shadows of Debes and other diamond mining companies behind them.

In addition, New York is not a place for polishing rough diamonds, and there are very few merchants who directly receive rough diamonds.

Of course, this is not to say that all diamond dealers in New York are businessmen who follow the rules.

But Frank didn't dare to bring out rough colored diamonds of at least 5 carats for appraisal, and of course he couldn't find a buyer.

After all, Frank is not stupid, there is a market for stolen goods in New York, but of course there is also a market for uncertified diamonds, and the double profit of 290,000 US dollars, including principal and interest, adds up to 580,000 US dollars.

He still estimated in his heart that if the profits of the diamond merchants were included, it should be worth more than 800,000 to 900,000 US dollars.

But Frank didn't think about it carefully. If the diamond dealer dared to double the price without even seeing the real thing, then what he could earn would not be 200,000 or 300,000, but doubled or even tripled.

After all, colored diamonds and white diamonds are two different things, because flawless colored diamonds are truly rare.

Fortunately, what Frank can confirm is that such a large sum of money is enough for any buyer to cheat.

Therefore, in these four days, not only did he not live a stable life, but he also regretted randomly asking the diamond dealer for the price of a large carat colored diamond rough, forcing him to change his residence every day.

What made him even more worried was that the gray gangs that appeared on the street today were originally placed on the street by the five major families to prevent surprise attacks.

But he misunderstood him as asking about the price of diamonds, and when someone noticed something wrong, he sent people everywhere to look for him.