Chapter 7 - The Payment Hidden Behind the Acquisition
The forty-eight-million-dollar payment was described as a termination fee.
Hartwell claimed Great Lakes held an exclusive five-year strategic-services contract. Bellamy would have to buy out that contract when it acquired the company.
Nobody on Sebastian’s deal team had seen the original agreement.
Julian had summarized it.
The document finally arrived from Hartwell’s outside counsel.
It had been signed eleven months earlier.
The same week Clara’s fake Bellamy profile was created.
Great Lakes would receive forty-eight million dollars if Hartwell changed control.
That meant Eleanor’s private family entity could receive millions because Sebastian’s company bought Hartwell.
The conflict should have disqualified Julian from negotiating the transaction.
Instead, Clara’s forged compliance review stated the arrangement had been independently examined and presented no material conflict.
Sebastian read the memorandum again.
His wife’s name had been turned into the permission slip for his mother and brother to profit from his acquisition.
Rebecca found another problem.
Bellamy’s lender had asked about related parties two months earlier.
Julian responded that an “external compliance consultant” had reviewed the Great Lakes relationship.
He attached Clara’s forged memorandum.
The lie had moved beyond family records.
It had reached the bank.
Sebastian stood near the conference-room window.
“Do we have to notify them?”
“Yes.”
“Today?”
Rebecca did not soften it.
“Yes.”
The disclosure would almost certainly delay the acquisition again.
Possibly kill it.
Bellamy had already spent more than twelve million dollars on due diligence, integration planning, and financing.
Julian finally agreed to speak.
He arrived with his attorney.
Sebastian had not seen his brother since the dinner.
“What page did you take?”
Julian looked exhausted.
“A note that should never have been in the physical folder.”
“Who told you to take it?”
No answer.
“Mom?”
Julian stared at the table.
Sebastian pushed the security image toward him.
“We watched you.”
“My lawyer advised me not to discuss that.”
Clara, sitting beside her own attorney, spoke for the first time.
“Did you create the account in my name?”
Julian looked at her.
“No.”
“Did you use it?”
His attorney touched his sleeve.
Julian answered anyway.
“Yes.”
Sebastian felt something collapse.
“Why?”
Julian’s voice dropped.
“Because if Hartwell failed, everything else started failing behind it.”
“What does that mean?”
Julian did not answer.
His fear seemed larger than a forty-eight-million-dollar payment.
That changed the investigation again.
Sebastian had assumed his mother and brother were stealing because they wanted more control.
May you like
Julian looked like a man trying to keep something from collapsing.
And whatever it was had existed before Hartwell.
Related Stories
