Chapter 19 - Victor is removed
The board removed Victor from all leadership roles before criminal charges were decided.
Corporate governance does not require waiting for a criminal conviction to decide someone should not control environmental-risk reporting.
He sued.
Of course.
Settlement discussions took months.
He retained economic rights in certain family entities while relinquishing management authority.
People online imagined I stripped him of everything overnight.
No.
Ownership has contracts.
Law has process.
Victor remained wealthy.
That bothered some people.
I stopped measuring justice by whether someone became poor.
The criminal investigation focused on:
Document concealment.
False or misleading statements during later environmental review.
Potential obstruction.
Regulatory reporting failures.
Reckless endangerment theories.
Genevieve’s death raised possible homicide questions.
Prosecutors were careful.
Causation was complicated.
Victor had not created the original contamination.
He had not introduced the chemical into the home during Genevieve’s life.
The strongest conduct was concealment after learning continued occupancy was not advisable.
Ultimately, he accepted a plea involving serious environmental and obstruction-related offenses and a reckless-endangerment count.
No murder plea.
No life sentence.
A custodial term measured in years.
Substantial fines.
Civil liability.
Cooperation regarding historical disposal practices.
I attended sentencing.
Did not speak to him.
Victor looked at me once.
I looked back.
That was all.
I had spent months imagining what I would say.
Genevieve’s video removed the need.
May you like
Let truth be boring enough to survive you.
So I let the court speak.
