Chapter 10 - The Federal Indictment
The gears of justice were moving faster than my mother could ever have anticipated. Because she had used my company’s international servers to route the stolen money to the Caymans, the FBI had eagerly taken over the jurisdiction from the local authorities.
While Sarah recovered and Lily grew stronger in the NICU, the media caught wind of the scandal. My PR team managed it brilliantly. I wasn’t painted as the villain; I was the ruthless, brilliant CEO who had uncovered massive internal embezzlement and cooperated fully with federal authorities. The headline of the Financial Times read: STERLING MATRIARCH INDICTED IN $4M OFFSHORE FRAUD SCANDAL.
My lawyer, Marcus, visited me in the hospital cafeteria with a thick manila envelope. “The grand jury handed down the indictments an hour ago,” Marcus smiled, taking a sip of his coffee. “Multiple counts of wire fraud, tax evasion, and corporate embezzlement. The judge denied them bail because of their offshore ties and extreme flight risk.”
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“Where are they?” I asked, feeling a surreal sense of finality. “In federal holding,” Marcus replied. “Your mother threw an absolute fit during the arrest. Tried to claim she had diplomatic immunity because of a charity board she sits on. It didn't go over well with the arresting agents.”
I looked out the hospital window at the sprawling city. The empire my father had built was finally clean of the rot that had infested it.
