Chapter 9 - The Unlocked Vault
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At 10:00 a.m., we gathered inside the secure, soundproof conference room on the executive floor of Grant Meridian Logistics.
Dana Ruiz sat at the head of the long mahogany table, flanked by two senior forensic accountants and our lead corporate risk officer.
Claire sat in the center, a sleek company laptop positioned in front of her.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard for a brief second.
“He used his mother’s birth date combined with his favorite sports team,” Claire said softly. She typed in the characters: Lorraine1968#Eagles.
The screen flickered, and the cloud drive opened smoothly.
Folders appeared in neat, organized rows: Tax Returns, Property Deeds, Vault Records, and Strategic Investments.
“The man is arrogant,” Dana muttered, leaning closer to the screen. “He really believed no one would ever audit his personal accounts.”
Claire clicked on the folder labeled Strategic Investments.
Inside were dozens of PDF files containing wire transfer receipts from a company called Lorraine’s Fine Catering LLC to a primary account registered under Vale Strategic Consulting.
“There it is,” the lead forensic accountant gasped, zooming in on the bank routing numbers. “Vale Strategic Consulting is the exact shell entity we flagged three weeks ago.”
“Look at the dates,” Claire pointed out, scrolling down. “Every time Grant Meridian approved a major procurement contract for regional shipping, Lorraine’s company received a fifteen percent ‘consulting fee’ three days later.”
“It’s a classic kickback scheme,” Dana said, taking notes rapidly. “He was inflating our procurement costs by nearly twenty percent and pocketing the difference with his mother.”
“There’s more,” Claire said, clicking on another subfolder labeled Bids.
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On the screen appeared high-resolution photographs of internal, confidential competitor bid sheets—documents that could only have been stolen directly from Grant Meridian’s secure server.
Nathan hadn't just embezzled money. He had committed corporate espionage.
