Chapter 6 - The company Owen left behind
Mercer Restoration was worth less than Dad claimed and more than I understood.
Revenue previous year:
$8.7 million.
Net operating profit before owner compensation:
About $1.1 million.
Debt:
Equipment financing.
Working capital line.
No enormous hidden fortune.
Independent preliminary valuation range:
$3.8 to $5.2 million depending backlog and owner-dependence.
Ownership before Owen died:
Owen: 78%.
Senior project manager Daniel Ross: 7%.
Operations director Marissa King: 5%.
Glenn: 10% nonvoting profit interest.
At Owen’s death, his 78% interest did not pass directly to me through probate.
It was held in the Mercer Family Business Trust.
Owen had created the trust two years earlier for continuity.
Successor trustee:
First Franklin Trust.
Beneficiaries:
Me during my lifetime for defined distributions.
June and any future children afterward.
Special business manager upon Owen’s death:
Margaret temporarily until independent board appointment.
That structure made Dad furious.
He called it:
“Lawyers stealing a family company.”
It wasn’t.
He still owned his ten percent.
But he could not control Owen’s seventy-eight.
Then audit.
Independent forensic CPA:
Louis Bennett.
No relation to any previous story; but maybe summary says avoid reuse? There was Bennett earlier. Let's choose Louis Fenwick.
Fenwick reviewed:
Vendor payments.
Subcontractor invoices.
Purchase orders.
Credit cards.
Related entities.
Dad’s Hayes Project Services had billed Mercer Restoration:
$642,300 over twenty-two months.
That sounded catastrophic.
Then legitimate work surfaced.
Hayes had actually provided:
Temporary labor coordination.
Equipment rentals.
Permit expediting.
Site inspections.
Emergency subcontractor sourcing.
Supported legitimate value:
At least $238,000.
Potentially another $91,000 depending documentation.
Disputed:
Roughly $313,000.
Not six hundred thousand stolen.
Then personal-looking charges.
A company-paid lease on a Range Rover used by Dad.
Authorized as compensation?
Maybe.
Owen approved vehicle allowance.
But Paige drove it most.
Still not automatically fraud.
Travel:
Naples.
Scottsdale.
Nashville.
Some tied to vendor conferences.
Some clearly personal extensions.
Credit:
Complex.
Then three invoices.
Hayes Project Services billed Mercer:
Emergency masonry labor — $78,000
Actual subcontractor:
$41,600.
Markup:
$36,400.
Was markup allowed?
Dad’s contract permitted 12%.
That markup was far above.
Then:
Historic window procurement — $112,000
Actual vendor:
$72,500.
Again.
Then:
Site remediation coordination — $96,000
Supporting vendor records:
Only $29,000.
That was serious.
Dad’s defense:
The difference covered management, risk, and emergency procurement.
Contract:
Not clearly.
Then Owen’s emails.
To Dad:
We need source backup for Hayes invoices over $25k. Stop sending lump-sum bills.
Dad:
You hired me to solve problems, not send receipts like a teenager.
Owen:
Then solve this by sending receipts.
Two months later:
Another large invoice.
Then Owen restricted Dad’s payment approval.
Then commissioned audit.
Dad knew the window was closing.
Still not proof he intended to take my house.
The next document moved us closer.
An email from Dad to Paige, five days before Owen died:
If Owen keeps Marge involved, Natalie will sign whatever she puts in front of her after the funeral. We need control before that.
Marge.
Margaret.
Paige replied:
What control?
Dad:
House files. Company authority. Family settlement.
There.
May you like
Still ambiguous.
But no longer innocent.
