To: Michael Sayles, Executive Vice President & General Counsel
Houghton Transportation Company
From: Geoffrey J. Gallagher
You have asked me to opine on the consequences of your status as an executive officer at Houghton and the company’s involvement in a joint venture with Libertad Excursiones, a company headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico. As I understand the facts, Libertad has recently become the target of an investigation by the Mexican government for financial improprieties involving its hotel businesses. As we delved deeper into Libertad’s organizational structure, we learned that the company’s CEO, Bernardo Ortiz, has come under fire for his association with individuals alleged to have ties to criminal activities, including human trafficking, gun trafficking, and illegal drug distribution. This information has been confirmed through our local counsel and contacts in Mexico.
I strongly caution Houghton against engaging in any transactions with Libertad Excursiones or any of its subsidiaries or holding companies. More importantly, your status as a member of the executive management team involved in an organization tied to illegal activities can subject you to personal and criminal liability. The law has evolved over the last few years to eliminate the corporate veil and hold directors and executives criminally liable for bad acts of the company.
The factual research supporting this opinion is attached herewith.
The dizziness that rollicked my head earlier in the day was back again. I’d never seen this document before. Hardy was right. Houghton was laundering dirty money for Libertad. My mind raced as I tried to think clearly, struggling to figure out where the document had come from. Gallagher’s partner told me that they didn’t have any Houghton files. Anna hadn’t included this document in the envelope she gave me. I slowly peeled my eyes away from the paper on the table, the gravity of it all now settling in on me.
Had Anna set me up?
“Ms. Littlejohn?” Bradford asked again. “Have you seen this document before?”
I stared back down at the paper, not bothering to answer her.
“Let me help you out here, Ms. Littlejohn,” Detective Bradford teased. “Geoffrey Gallagher is giving his legal opinion about a joint venture that Houghton is planning with a company called Libertad Excursiones, a company he states has been engaging in money laundering, drugs, and guns.” Detective Bradford let her words hang in the air, while watching me. “Geoffrey Gallagher’s wife gave us this document. Mrs. Gallagher found it in his briefcase at home. She heard about Mr. Sayles’s death on the news and thought this document might have something to do with her husband’s murder. It would appear that he has done some work for your company in some capacity.”
“This is what I’m talking about. You guys should be investigating Jonathan, not me. He’s the CFO. He’s in charge of deals like this.”
Detective Bradford ran her hand across the back of her pixie cut. “Ms. Littlejohn, your boss was killed on a day that you lied and said you didn’t meet with him as you normally do. Your brother uses your ID badge to roam through the building. And a lawyer your boss hired is found dead after he gave a legal opinion about an illegal transaction your company is involved in. That lawyer is killed with a gun that your brother had on him. And your brother is dead as well, killed by someone he knew. That’s three dead bodies all connected to you. Tell me, Ms. Littlejohn, why is it that so many people around you have managed to wind up dead?”
I stared at her, then at Detective Burke. The slow throb in my temple gave way to a full-blown pounder battering the inside of my head. I was sitting in the middle of a police station under suspicion of murder, without an explanation or a lawyer, my personal life and my professional life now converging in a death-spiraling nose dive. Why didn’t I just give Sam the money like I always did? Why did I ever agree to help Anna? Why did I accept the promotion? Now it made sense why Nate and Willow were so anxious to promote me. They were setting me up to take the fall for a couple of murders.
“Did you know someone broke into the Sayles home after Mr. Sayles’s death?”
“Yes . . . Anna told me.”
“Did your brother break into the Sayles’s home and ransack it looking for this document for you?”
“For me? What are you talking about?”
“Perhaps to help you,” Detective Bradford responded.
“To help me?! Help me do what?”
“According to Mr. Everett, you’ve wanted a promotion for some time. You were sleeping with the boss, but you still weren’t promoted. Perhaps you needed some assistance getting into the executive suite and you enlisted your brother for a little help. The two of you devise a scheme to kill Mr. Sayles and Mr. Gallagher. From the looks of this document, it appears that Houghton may be involved in something it ought not be. If the old general counsel and his outside attorney were against the deal, maybe the new general counsel might be more amenable to breaking the law, huh? Anything to get ahead.”