Chapter 11 - Twenty-Three TransfersThe forensic audit took six weeks.
It identified twenty-three transfers involving Riverstone.
Not twenty-three thefts.
Rachel insisted on the distinction.
Nine corresponded to documented work arguably benefiting Cedar Hollow.
Seven lacked adequate support.
Four were reimbursements with incomplete records.
Three were directly connected to the proposed solar project.
Total disputed amount:
$41,800.
Less dramatic than Clayton imagined.
Still serious.
Then came the solar side payment.
$25,000 received.
Contract promised another $95,000 if Cedar Hollow signed the thirty-year lease.
Denise stood to receive $120,000 personally.
Clayton had never known.
“That is why she pushed so hard.”
“Partly.”
Rachel pointed to the records.
“Money is one motive.”
“What’s the other?”
“Ownership.”
Great Plains proposed creating a new operating entity to receive lease payments.
Denise’s restructuring draft would have converted Wyatt’s thirty-percent voting interest into fifteen percent plus nonvoting financial units.
Clayton asked:
“Could she do that?”
“Not lawfully without approvals she did not have.”
“So the draft is useless.”
“Not useless.”
Rachel tapped the page.
“It shows what she wanted.”
The accountants also discovered Denise had discussed issuing new membership units to herself for “management contribution.”
Again, potentially legitimate if properly valued and approved.
But it would dilute Wyatt.
His thirty percent would shrink.
The seven-year-old had never known any of this.
He only knew Denise got angry when the red folder fell.
May you like
Sometimes children stumbled into adult motives without understanding the words.
That did not make the motives less real.
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