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Avery squeezed his alpha’s hand, appreciating the support. Hedidhave it. Every ‘i’ was dotted, every ‘t’ crossed. They arrived on the top floor and were met at the elevator by Vaughn, Rohan, and another of the lawyers on Rohan’s team who had experience with criminal cases.
“The boardroom is ready for us.”
“The board’s not here, are they?” Avery asked, suddenly more nervous.
“No… but my father will be,” Wilder mentioned. “Heisthe Chief Executive.”
Avery hadn’t seen either Warden or Wynter Jaymes since that first meeting. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to another faceoff… though Warden had been silent during his diatribe. Perhaps they could avoid another one.
They marched into the boardroom, and Avery laid his satchel on the immense oval table before nodding to Warden and the Provincial Special Attorney they’d requested the meeting with.
“Avery, this is Ezekiel Miller, the PSA we mentioned. Mr. Miller, this is my mate, Avery Stephens.”
“Call me Zeke,” the man said, rising to shake Avery’s hand. “Not Avery Jaymes?”
“Not yet,” Avery murmured, shaking the man’s hand.
“Well, I know you led the charge in the new omega movement, so I wasn’t sure if keeping your last name was something new.”
Avery shrugged. “Who knows?”
Wilder frowned. “Let’s get down to business, shouldn’t we?”
“Yes,” Avery replied, pulling out the various charging documents from his satchel. “If you look here, you’ll see a systematic theft which took place over the last decade and a half, the guilty party using fake invoices to move money from J&A to several bank accounts outside the province. Most of these companies were, at one time, valid vendors or clients—but most either went out of business, folded, or were incorporated into larger entities and worked under a new banner. As the vendor codes were already in the system, the guilty party was able to continue submitting fraudulent invoices and stealing funds from the company. As you move through the packets, I’ve been able to note every single account, every occurrence, as well as the keystrokes and the log-in used.”
Zeke Miller scanned the pages, one by one, as silence filled the boardroom. Once he reached the middle, he lifted his head. “You were able to track the original payments and then them being moved to outside the province?”
“I approached the banks in question and spoke to their fraud departments to alert them to the issue we’ve found with certain accounts. They were all able to share that the money was no longer in those accounts, but sent outside the province. I wasn’t able to track it from there.”
“Were the banks able to provide a name associated with the accounts?”
Avery nodded. “If you check page twelve, there’s a list of numerous fake personas that were used. We tracked three down to one person, an employee here in the building. The log-in and keystrokes werealsoassigned to him.”
“So it looks like you’ve got him dead to rights,” Zeke said. He closed the packet and eyed everyone at the table. “I think this is more than enough for me to make an arrest while we investigate further and confirm the data you’ve collected here.” Mr. Miller rose. “Let me make a call and get a few guards here to put him in cuffs.” The man paused. “Heishere today?”
“I saw him on the elevator on the way up,” Avery replied, excitement and alarm swimming in his veins equally. Confronting a thief might be dangerous… yet, he wanted to see the man held accountable for his crimes. Especially after learning Hardwick had likely been the one who’d turned them in.
“Good,” Zeke said. “Just a moment, please.”
While Zeke stepped out to make his calls, Avery turned to Wilder, Vaughn, and Rohan, grinning.
“So how much has this person stolen from us?” Warden asked.
“Nearly a millionrenos,”Avery answered.
Warden scoffed. “And had you not found it, it might’ve been a million more.” He shook his head. “Is there any way we can recover that money?”
“The province might have the power. If the other provinces will cooperate and freeze those accounts. If there’s anything left in them, after the investigation and trial, it would be returned to the company. Whatever deficit is left, we could force him to pay in restitution via civil action, though it might take forever to get… if we got much at all,” Avery replied.
“So, my son’s new mate has proven himself valuable,” Warden said, clearly pleased.
Wilder had long warned that his father valued people by what they could add to the company’s bottom line, so Avery would have to ensure the comment didn’t go to his head. Even so, being acknowledged for doing a good job didn’t hurt the ego, either.
“He was valuable before this,” Wilder murmured, eyeing his father.
“I didn’t say he wasn’t,” Warden said. He frowned, rubbing his chest. “I want a copy of this document you gave the PSA so I can read it myself.”
Avery withdrew a copy from his satchel and slid it across the table. “I figured an extra couple of copies might be necessary.”
