Chapter 40
MARTA
The sickness that took root in Marta’s gut when she listened to Detective Ramirez’s voice mail was a hard, writhing thing that burrowed deep and took up residency over the following days.
Marta should have put it together faster, should have realized what was at stake, but somehow she hadn’t twigged to the fact that her own investment could be affected.
She’d been too focused on what it all meant in terms of Celeste.
But then, the raid. The arrest. Marta had been watching the morning news as she made breakfast, and she dropped her bowl of oatmeal on the floor when she heard Imogen’s name.
She wiped up the gloopy mess as she listened to the reporter detailing the charges against Imogen, then wrote down the phone number flashing on the TV screen—a hotline for potentially affected clients of the ITFF.
Marta remembered the day she’d approached Imogen about investing with her, bracing for her to say no.
Imogen’s whole brand was that she was very selective about her investors, all of whom had to commit a significant sum in order to be taken on as clients.
Marta pleaded for the privilege of investing with the ITFF.
Imogen surprised her by giving her a maybe, telling her that there might be a spot opening up and, if one did, she’d make an exception to her standard minimum for the initial investment.
Marta was ecstatic when, almost four months later, Imogen called her with the good news.
That was years ago. Since then, Derrick (who managed all their finances) had received quarterly statements from Imogen, showing that their investments with the ITFF were consistently outperforming the market.
Every time Derrick updated Marta on their progress, she felt like punching the air with excitement—they were beating the system.
But apparently, it was all a lie.
Marta was shocked when, later that evening, Imogen called to reassure her that the situation was under control—there had been some problem with early withdrawals or something like that, but the whole thing was fixable if the investigators would only let her do her work and stop focusing on red tape bullshit.
Imogen swore up and down that it was totally overblown, and for a couple of days Marta lived in hope.
But then Imogen stopped taking her calls, and Filthy Funds released their second episode (what a surreal experience, listening to Claudia and Leo talk about Imogen!), which peeled back the skin to expose the rotted core of her best friend’s identity.
The Filthy Funds episode that deconstructed Imogen’s career was shattering.
Marta could still remember the envy she’d felt when Imogen first messaged her about the part-time gig she’d landed at the RWL Foundation, a registered charity with a focus on adult literacy.
Marta, who was working a café job at the time, was jealous that Imogen had found something so meaningful fresh out of school.
But Imogen only stayed with the foundation for about six months—she told Marta that she needed full-time work and better pay.
One of Imogen’s former co-workers at the RWL Foundation contacted the hosts of Filthy Funds to anonymously report that Imogen, in fact, did not leave her role voluntarily.
Although she wasn’t exactly fired, she was forced to submit her resignation when the executive board discovered that she’d been accessing private contact information and making calls to solicit off-book donations .
. . which she then diverted to a personal account.
The former co-worker explained that the RWL Foundation’s board was embarrassed that they didn’t have proper oversight in place, and was worried that it could harm future donations if the truth came out.
Marta’s blood boiled as she listened to Claudia and Leo describe how Imogen leveraged her misconduct to get a leg up, the RWL Foundation acting as a reference for her next job, at Convexical Finance.
Marta’s memory of Imogen’s time at Convexical was fuzzy; she knew that Imogen had worked there for several years in a client services position, but she didn’t know much about her responsibilities.
She definitely didn’t know that Imogen had been engaging in customer credit card fraud, or that, when she got caught, management had again quietly asked her to leave.
This pattern of corporate inaction infuriated Marta.
What would have happened if Imogen had actually had to face some real consequences, like criminal charges?
She wouldn’t have been able to build her brand with those skeletons in her closet.
Or maybe she still would have pulled it off.
After all, she was apparently comfortable representing herself as a Chartered Investment Manager (even though she wasn’t) and fraudulently using someone else’s professional ID number.
The revelations on Filthy Funds about Imogen’s job history were illuminating, but what really gave Marta a chill was hearing people call in to the pod—she recognized some of the voices—with stories of their own past interactions with Imogen, which they were now re-examining in a very different light.
There was a mom from Ari’s school who called in to say that Imogen never paid her portion of a present for their children’s teacher, a pricey spa gift card.
When pressed, Imogen apparently showed the woman what must have been a faked receipt for an e-transfer.
Hearing about this interaction made Marta reflect on how readily Imogen dodged bills, even for small things like coffee.
The most upsetting story was from one of Imogen’s neighbours, who called in to highlight a website that Imogen had set up several years earlier in order to raise money for her cousin’s family.
Marta remembered the incident well. Imogen’s cousin Jeremy lived in Philadelphia with his wife and kids, and their house burned down when some oil-soaked rags in the garage combusted.
Imogen called Marta in tears the next day, telling her about what a close call it had been, and how the kids had lost all their toys and sports equipment.
Marta donated to the fundraiser, which raised approximately $40,000 toward replacing the family’s valuables that their insurance didn’t cover.
Months later, Imogen emailed everyone who had donated to thank them, and attached a picture of the family’s new house.
After the news about the ITFF broke, Imogen’s neighbour went back and pulled up the message in order to run a reverse-image search.
Apparently, the owners of the house in the photograph had lived there for decades and had never heard of Imogen Garron.
Marta now wondered if Imogen even had a cousin named Jeremy.
She couldn’t trust a single thing her friend had ever told her; everything was tainted.
Between Imogen and Derrick, Marta was left with nothing but polluted memories, an oil slick of lies.