Chapter 49
"It's pretty unbelievable, really," Edward said.
"Not only was he front-running trades, profiting off the big moves that followed from institutional investments, he was also bribing pension fund board members and other large institutions to get them to invest. Can you believe that shit? Sure, wine and dine them. But he'd also provide hookers, drugs, luxury vacations, you name it. Then he’d convince these people to invest in what were supposedly low-risk products, which were actually high risk. Everything was great when the market moved up. But when it corrected…” Edward shook his head.
"Massive losses on the downside. Just insane.
He completely misrepresented risk and falsified internal ratings.
Not to mention he's using offshore shell companies to hide losses and move funds.
Dude, lives were destroyed. It's all in the data I collected.”
"And you gave that data to Lance?"
Edward nodded.
"What became of the data?"
"I don't know.”
"Did you find any evidence that Lance was involved?"
He looked at me like I was crazy. "If I thought he was involved, I wouldn't have given him the information. I would have gone straight to the press or the SEC.”
"Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”
Edward shrugged. “I don’t know. It would destroy the company.
I like my job. I need my job. I thought maybe Lance could, I don’t know, do something.
But he seemed more preoccupied with the whole cryo thing.
I guess I can’t blame him. But it’s like he just forgot. How do you forget something like that?”
“Did you mention this to Vanessa?”
“No,” he said in a sheepish voice. “I was trying to feel her out. Wait for the right time. I kept thinking Lance might have told her, but if he did, she never came to me about it.”
“Do you still have copies of all the data?”
Edward nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
“I’ll need a copy.”
I had recorded the conversation, but I wanted him to come down to the station and make a sworn affidavit on video. He said he would, after the interview with Paris. It was about that time when she knocked on the door.
I moved down the foyer, peered through the peephole to see the ambitious blonde, then pulled open the door.
She flooded in with her camera crew, and I scanned the hallway once again. I closed the door and latched it. “Were you followed?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” she said.
Paris introduced Edward to her crew. They exchanged pleasantries. Paris glanced around the room, looking for a place to do the interview. “Let’s do it over there by the desk,” she said, pointing.
The cameraman agreed and began to set up his tripod.
I stepped into the hallway and made a phone call. The securities fraud was a federal matter. It was a helluva motive for murder, but I still didn’t have enough evidence to make a murder charge stick.
Isabella answered after a few rings. "I was just about to call you.”
I filled her in on the situation.
"Well, that seems to track with my intel.”
"What have you got?"
"The hacker that compromised the cryo system used a VPN to access a server in Norway, then a proxy in Budapest. Fortunately for us, the VPN dropped the connection, and the user's IP was leaked. I traced that IP address back to Coconut Key. ISP records indicate that IP belongs to Elias Thorne.”
"What VPN was he using? And remind me to never use it.”
She laughed, then told me the name of it.
I made a mental note. A VPN (virtual private network) is only as good as the connection, and only as safe as the company running it.
A good provider didn't keep logs. The bad ones would just hand those logs over to law enforcement whenever requested.
Good for law enforcement, not so good for the user.
I couldn't use the information she gave me to get a warrant.
But I could tell the IT guys at the department where to look.
With a little guidance, they might come to the same conclusion.
I called Crenshaw and told him to get on it.
It would take a little time for them to figure it out and document the process. Hopefully not too long.
After I got off the phone with him, I called Vanessa. She answered after a few rings, and I caught her up to speed.
"You're saying Elias killed my father," Vanessa said.
"I can't say that for certain. But the evidence is pointing in that direction. I do not want you to take matters into your own hands."
"Trust me, the idea of spending life behind bars is not appealing to me."
"Did your father ever mention anything to you about his partner's fraudulent activities?"
"No.”
"Have you noticed anything suspicious during your tenure at the company?”
"It's been such a whirlwind. I honestly haven't had time to dig deeper into the inner workings. My head is still spinning from all of this.”
"Understandable." I paused, then added. "It just seems strange to me that your father would be aware of such activity, then go into cryogenic suspension without mentioning anything to you.”
Vanessa hesitated for a moment. "What I'm about to tell you can't be repeated.”