Christie Meets the FBI

They worked for a week the CPA firm systematically checking every department of the company in turn looking for possible weaknesses in administration, but each department head ran a tight ship, and the usual checks and balances were in place. Considering in their initial tests of the IT system the problem lay elsewhere they left Christie to continue her examination of the system thinking it would hold them up trying to explain what they were doing in each department if Christie was with them. Time is money so they wanted to finish this job quickly and get back to their headquarters to attend to a backlog of jobs to be completed elsewhere.

Then Christie discovered a very sophisticated program built into the original operating system that seemed to be syphoning money. She followed the trail through multiple accounts until she reached a destination funnelling money into an external bank account. This would require the CPA firm with all its influence to find who controlled that bank account. She quickly relayed her findings to Tom Higgins and he and the CPA team hastened to the terminal she was operating from.

She led them through the sophisticated trail of entries through accounts in the system until they reached this destination. The CPA in charge contacted the company president who rushed to the terminal to have it explained to him. A search began to locate the owner of this account at the identified bank, but the bank stonewalled not willing to disclose personal information without a court directive. Lawyers worked on that during the next few days, and the necessary court directive was issued to the bank who turned over that detail of ownership to CPA auditors.

The name of that account was Texico Investments, and a search began to identify those who were the signatories while Christie helped calculate the extent of the transfer into that account which when calculated amounted to $300,000 at the minimum. But who had created this system and when did the haemorrhaging of money begin? Every alteration to the system could be traced to the one making that change with a counter signature to that one making the alteration. Alan Walker one of the IT whiz kids had made the changes to the system and his work had been approved by none other than Derek Dennis. Both Alan and Derek were called in to face these accusations and denied any wrongdoing saying someone must have hacked in with forged electronic credentials. The case was handed over to police corporate crime department and the two were interrogated but refused to accept responsibility.

It would become a court case now and high-powered criminal lawyers were called in to defend the two to the surprise of all. The police began a probe as to who would be behind the financing of this high-powered law firm retained as it was obvious the two accused wouldn’t have means to hire such professionals with a high success in defence of those charged with criminal activities. Meticulous notes were made of the scheme used to commit this fraud by the police crime squad who took note of the fact money stolen had not gone into the bank accounts of either one accused. However, there were smaller amounts paid into their personal bank accounts from an unknown source each month and that money originated from another company which on investigation was controlled by one Randolph Dennis.

Corporate crime conducted a raid on that company and found similar amounts were being funnelled into that company from many other companies not related to Futuretec. This was to become a much wider net cast by the corporate crime police department.

The Sandusky industry president requested permission from corporate crime to reverse the alterations made to the system and this was granted with the proviso the current system before that correction be backed up to an approved cloud source only accessed by corporate crime so this could be examined by court as evidence if needed. The CPA firm went back to their headquarters to write their report and Tom and Christie remained to put the system back to its original configuration removing the rogue changes. The Sandusky industry president requested Futuretec for services of Christie Lesser as caretaker of IT while they searched for a suitable replacement. She agreed to that on condition they allow her to attend the Industry Conference promised which was only weeks away in the future. The Futuretec president phoned Christy and asked her to miss that conference on the promise she’d certainly be considered top of the list to attend the next one scheduled after her assignment was complete, so she agreed.

Derek and Alan were arrested and charged released on a $30,000 bond to face court later while their defence lawyers prepared their defence to the case. Randolph Dennis denied any responsibility for what his subsidiary company had been doing and hired the same lawyers to represent him against any potential charges. It took a month for the Sandusky company to find a suitable replacement for Derek and Christie was released to return home to a family who were enormously proud of their daughter and sibling. Another celebration was planned for her return.

On her return to work at Futuretec she was summoned to the president’s office where she was personally congratulated and her status elevated to an executive level with high salary and benefits. Then the president disclosed a secondary reason for her summons. Corporate crimes were anxious to have the one who’d discovered the siphoning program in Sandusky seconded to them while they investigated other companies who’d been fleeced by the Randolph Dennis subsidiary. Would she be willing to take a take a leave of absence to serve the government in this way with the promise on her return she’d occupy the executive position the president had mentioned and the high-level salary and benefits to go with it. This could be a long absence as there were several companies involved in the investigation they wanted to draw into this consolidated case. Christie asked if she could take counsel with her father that evening and then give her answer next day and the president agreed.

Next day she headed to the president’s office and agreed to the request. She was given an address and a contact person to see and the president phoned corporate crime to let them know Christie would be in to see them next day.

When Christie arrived at the president’s office to confirm she’d accept the assignment she was surprised to find the president sitting with a grey-haired man who studied her carefully.

“Christie this gentleman has come to take you to their headquarters.”

He didn’t introduce the man by name but indicated she should go with him. They took the elevator to the basement where executive parking was, and the man opened the back door of a black car with tinted windows. There was a driver at the wheel, and the man joined him in the front passenger seat. They negotiated traffic silently and the driver pulled into an entrance to a boutique shop selling high priced merchandise. Those operating the counter obviously knew who this man was. The man who’d collected her got out and opened the back door indicating she should follow him. The driver then departed entering the traffic. They went behind the counter into the office and warehouse and stopped at a desk where her host indicated she should sit while he took a seat behind the desk took out a key and opened a safe. He extracted some documents and asked her to read them carefully but first took her picture and entered it into his laptop database. Christie was feeling very apprehensive by this time and carefully read the documents. The man spoke.

“Do you feel comfortable signing these documents? If so, do that now.”

Christie reread the documents slowly and then looked up.

“I thought this was corporate crime?”

“The government has elevated this a little higher Christie.”

He smiled for the first time as he realized she was totally confused and frightened.

“You are about to work for the FBI on a temporary basis Christie but it’s OK. You’ll be working on computers not wearing a spy uniform. This work is totally confidential and if any of your work is leaked it will impact convictions we are aiming for. As this corporate crime crosses international boundaries the FBI has become involved and perhaps higher. Please sign the papers.”

Christie was overwhelmed to be engaging in such high-profile work for the government but felt complimented that a person as young as she would be given such a privilege. She signed and dated and documents. The man examined the documents carefully and then reached into the safe again. He took out a card and lanyard then took the card to a machine nearby and inserted it. Then he went to his computer and activated her photo sending it to the machine. He waited briefly then withdrew the card and inserted the lanyard before taking it to where she was sitting. He placed it around her neck, and she looked down seeing her photo on the card with a barcode. Then he locked everything and went to the shelves behind and pressed a button. The wall opened to reveal a door and the man pointed to the card reader on the door.

“Place your barcode against the reader and enter. The door will close behind you, but I will follow with the same procedure so don’t be frightened. We have not taken you to the front entrance of the FBI building so will enter through an underground passage under the street above.”

Christie followed the nameless man through the well-lit passage, and they used their cards to enter the FBI building basement where many people were poring over computers. They proceeded through to an inner floor of executive suites and entered an office with a middle-aged man sitting behind a desk studying his desktop computer. He waved Christie’s minder out and indicated she should sit.

To be continued.

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