Page 45 of After the Fire
“Ugh, you know I hate that word.” A shiver ran through my body at the mere memory of Manuel calling me that. “What’s wrong? Why are you so happy?”
“I feel great,” she said. “I’m moving around; I can breathe. It’s great.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, doubting this was the only thing that was happening. “Is it like the calm before the storm?”
“I have no fucking clue, but I love it.”
“What did the doctor say?” She had been on official bed rest for two weeks now, waiting for her baby to arrive. It was the longest I’d ever seen Catalina sit still. Even on their honeymoon, she and my brother didn’t allow themselves to take a minute to stop. They went on a luxurious trip to the Caribbean and didn’t sleep in a single day. There wasn’t one single photo of them lounging on the beach, enjoying themselves. “Are you still on bed rest?”
“Yes, until the baby comes.” She rolled her eyes. “I need you to entertain me.”
I was lying on my bed, still high on giggles and butterflies from whatever had happened the night before. I turned to my side and rested my head on my arm, holding my phone with my free hand.
“Cata,” I warned. “What’s wrong?”
She grabbed a notebook from somewhere in front of her and took a deep breath. Her eyes were a little sad, like she was getting ready to deliver the worst of news.
“Nothing that you tell me right now is going to make this worse,” I said, hoping to encourage her. “It’s already as bad as it can get. And I read everything you sent me, so I havesomepieces of the puzzle, I think.”
“Okay.” She took another deep breath and started talking, using her fingers as a visual aid. “First”—she brought up her index finger—“we have the embezzlement, but you know that already. Second”—two fingers—“there’s the cover-up. There was definitely more than one person involved in all of this. And I think that this was the reason behind everything. Most likely this is why he had to lay low.So anyway, in everything I’ve been able to find, there isn’t a lot of proof behind the embezzlement.”
She then went on to explain that the embezzlement was in the form of services provided, so Roberto and the firm were billing at a higher rate than normal, and at a much higher rate than what other firms had presented during the discovery phase. “There was an alleged kickback to one of the people involved in the project—I’m assuming for guaranteeing that the firm was actually hired. It’s not clear if other consultants applied, but you know, it’s literally chasing a paper trail, and I haven’t found much.”
“Okay.” I scrunched my nose. My eyes were sore from all the reading I’d done to try and follow the paper trail. “But why is the kickback alleged? I read what you sent me, but it doesn’t really make a ton of sense. I also couldn’t find which other firms had initially presented their proposals for the project.”
“Yeah, so here is where it gets a little bit more complicated. The bank was a private entity, so the laws that protect those assets are a little different. But the services your grandfather’s firm was providing—essentially consulting on legal matters—were for a project that was publicly funded. I don’t understand the details yet and exactly how the laws apply, but the kickback he paid? It was to a public official who was part of the committee that decided on who to hire out.”
“Fuck.”
“Yes, exactly.” She was rambling, getting excited at her discovery. “So then it’s not clear to me how or who found out about this kickback and the fact that Roberto and the firm were pocketing these extra funds, but the case was taken in front of a judge who was looking into it pretty intensely. And then, suddenly, everything stopped.”
“How can you tell?” I knew that historically, the records kept in the eighties were a mess. It was almost impossible to find any information, especially because the judiciary system had been overloaded with cases during those years. The courts began digitizing their records starting in the early nineties, and that information was easily accessible.
“Well, there are no digital records obviously because of the times, but my clerk has been looking into this pretty much every single free hour he’s had, and the paper trail stops very abruptly in the fall of 1988. I mean, to the point where there are bank records for like six or seven years prior to that and then nothing else. So I think that either the judge or one of his clerks or adjuncts was paid off. I’m leaning towards the judge, because like I said, suddenly everything stopped. I don’t know of a judge that has such influential clerks to convince them to stop investigating just because of a hunch, especially when they were pretty advanced in discovery.”
“So we’re talking about two different things?”
“Yes, and I also looked into the public official that was given the kickback for that project, and he was also going to be prosecuted for corruption, but that also stopped.”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, no shit. It’s super complicated and honestly, I want to say it was almost like a mastermind planned this. But I can’t figure out where it went wrong, like, who is the snitch.”
I didn’t understand. Because Santiago’s grandfather, Carlos, had mentioned that he had gotten in over his head with some creditors, and this didn’t sound even remotely close to that.
“So on top of the embezzlement, there’s the corruption charge? Maybe conspiracy?”
She was standing up now and walking around, her belly round and popping in front of the screen. “No, no conspiracy. Although I would have charged the public official for that, but not your grandfather, no.”
“What is the sentencing generally for that?”I wasn’t well versed in sentencing because my career was mostly around private contracts and deals. Catalina knew the criminal code by heart, but things had changed a lot since the eighties.
“Well, embezzlement is really hard to prove, especially if it’s for services provided. And I think Roberto knew this very, very well, because he overcharged by a few million dollars, or its equivalent. But—and this is a big but—his firm was always a top firm, so he was able to overcharge in some instances, because they were—still are—experts. So again, impossible to prove. And the bank statements that I see here show a regular salary, normal, and then a few additional deposits, every three months or so, of identical, large amounts that can be easily disguised as bonuses. Easy.”
“So, like, a slap on the wrist, and then you’re on your merry way?”
“Yeah, essentially. Especially since we are talking about exchange of money, and if the money can be paid back, done. Case closed.”
“But there’s corruption and intent.”
