Chapter 3 - The Offshore Mirage
I walked out of the hospital with the leather binder tucked securely under my arm.
I didn't drive home. Instead, I drove straight to the downtown legal offices of Vance, Sterling & Mercer, heading straight to the top floor to meet Arthur Vance—my father’s lifelong attorney and the founding trustee of Crestview Developments’ corporate bylaws.
Arthur reviewed the banking transcripts through his reading glasses, his jaw setting into an iron line with every page.
“Laura,” Arthur said, laying the ledger flat on his mahogany desk. “Mark believed he had unilateral corporate authority because he had you step down as Co-President last November.”
“I only stepped down from the public title to focus on Dad’s medical care before he passed,” I replied. “Did he alter the foundational voting rights?”
Arthur pulled a master safe box key from his desk drawer and walked to the wall vault. He withdrew the original, sealed corporate constitution of Crestview Developments, signed by my late father, Manuel, twenty-five years ago.
“Article 4, Section B,” Arthur read aloud, a cold, triumphant smile touching his lips. “No capital transfer exceeding $100,000, and no transfer of real estate equity, may be executed without the physical, notarized co-signature of the Founder's Lineal Heir—Laura Vance-Sterling.”
“Mark used an electronic facsimile stamp of my signature,” I stated.
“Which constitutes Class 1 Felony Forgery, Corporate Embezzlement, and Bank Fraud exceeding five million dollars,” Arthur confirmed. “Furthermore, because the funds were moved through federal wire conduits across state lines into Belize, this falls squarely under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice’s Financial Crimes Task Force.”
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Arthur picked up his private phone and dialed the State Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division.
“We have an emergency ex-parte asset freeze petition to file before the commercial banking window closes at 4:00 PM,” Arthur said into the receiver. “And prepare an emergency injunction to remove Mark Sterling from all fiduciary authority.”
