Chapter 17 - The Fraud Report
The independent forensic report arrived.
Improper related-party payments:
$8.7 million.
Unsupported construction charges:
$1.3 million.
Unapproved management-company fees:
$4.1 million.
Potential total exposure:
More than $14 million.
Not every dollar was necessarily fraud.
Some reflected legitimate services poorly documented.
But enough was indefensible.
David's attorney changed strategy.
Settlement.
Thomas felt no triumph.
Evelyn outlined options.
Foreclose on secured collateral.
Force bankruptcy.
Seek receivership.
Sue personally.
Or negotiate transfer.
Thomas looked at the seven restaurant names.
Westminster.
Irvine.
Newport Beach.
Pasadena.
San Diego.
Santa Monica.
Costa Mesa.
“All of them depend on our financing?”
“Yes.”
“And trademark?”
“Yes.”
“If we enforce everything?”
“David likely loses control.”
Thomas remembered Chapter 1.
This isn't your restaurant anymore.
Maybe David had been right.
Maybe it wasn't either man's restaurant alone anymore.
Four hundred employees had built it too.
Thomas gave Evelyn instructions.
“No closure.”
“No mass layoffs.”
“No supplier defaults if we can avoid them.”
“And David?”
Thomas paused.
May you like
“Accountability.”
Not destruction.
