Chapter 15 - What the $187,500 really funded
The forensic accountants broke the money into categories.
$82,000:
Payment against Arturo’s personal line of credit.
He said the credit line had financed preliminary Oak Terrace expenses.
Records showed about $29,000 plausibly connected to project expenses.
The rest mixed personal spending.
$31,400:
Arizona condominium carrying costs and renovations.
Arturo claimed the condo was used for investor entertainment.
It had been twice.
Mostly personal.
$18,000:
Lucía’s tuition account.
$12,600:
Family vacation club fees and deposits.
$9,800:
Country-club charges partly associated with business events.
$7,400:
Legal fees connected to an Arturo-owned side investment.
Remainder:
Consulting expenses with documentation ranging from legitimate to weak.
This was not a $50 million embezzlement.
It was founder entitlement expressed through sloppy corporate boundaries.
Still serious.
Arturo had used company money for personal and family purposes, then papered part of it with a consent bearing a copied version of my signature.
Why?
He said:
“Everyone benefited.”
That was his worldview.
Family money.
Company money.
His money.
My money.
Different columns in an accountant’s spreadsheet.
One family in his mind.
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The law and minority owners did not share that philosophy.
Neither did I anymore.
