Chapter 29 - The Counter-Offensive
Emma and Daniel sprinted back to the Grand Lawson, barricading themselves inside the executive suite on the twelfth floor. The clock on the wall mocked them, ticking relentlessly toward the 10:00 AM board meeting.
"Vanguard is a publicly traded company," Emma said, rapidly typing on her dual monitors. "If they were leveraging their own assets for a two-billion-dollar acquisition, it would require a massive public disclosure to the SEC. But Vanguard's recent filings show their cash reserves are dangerously low. They are over-leveraged."
"So they secured private equity," Daniel reasoned, pulling up Julian’s confiscated cell phone, which the police had allowed them to mirror before taking it into evidence. "Let's dig through Julian's encrypted emails. He was Victor’s lapdog; he might have been copied on the financing structure."
For agonizing minutes, they scoured thousands of boring, mundane corporate emails. But at 9:15 AM, Daniel found a hidden sub-folder disguised as spam.
"Emma, look at this," Daniel urged, turning his screen toward her. "It’s a series of wire transfer approvals from a holding company called 'Obsidian Trust' based in the Cayman Islands. They have been funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into Vanguard’s shadow accounts over the last month to fund the Grand Lawson buyout."
Emma’s eyes narrowed as she cross-referenced the name on her terminal. "Obsidian Trust... wait. Let me pull up the international sanction lists."
A few seconds later, the screen flashed with a high-priority red warning from the Department of the Treasury.
"Obsidian Trust is a known front for a massive Eastern European organized crime syndicate," Emma breathed in absolute shock. "They are currently under active federal investigation for international money laundering and weapons trafficking. Victor Sterling isn't buying the Grand Lawson with corporate funds. He’s using cartel blood money. He’s using our hotel to launder two billion dollars of illegal capital into the American real estate market."
Daniel stared at the screen, horrified. "If the board of directors signs a binding financial agreement with a sanctioned criminal syndicate, every single board member will be indicted by the federal government for conspiracy to commit money laundering. They will all go to federal prison."
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Emma looked at the clock. It was 9:45 AM.
"Print everything," Emma commanded, grabbing her blazer from the back of her chair. "Richard Vance and the board don't care about Julian cutting the power. They don't care about the staff. But let's see how much they care about spending the rest of their wealthy lives in a federal penitentiary."
