Financial records filled the screen: transfers, offshore entries, layered accounts, shell vendor payments, unexplained reimbursements, tuition invoices that did not belong to company staff, lease payments for properties never listed in board disclosures, luxury expenditures routed through research divisions that did not exist.
Hanley stepped closer to the screen, all performance stripped away now. The numbers were too specific. The paths too coherent. This was not accusation; it was anatomy.
Eleanor spoke as the figures scrolled. “Over eighteen months, funds were redirected from licensing revenue into private expense channels. Some paid for Ms. Cole’s apartment. Some paid for travel. Some were placed into holding accounts to make company performance look weaker during preliminary valuation talks. He was preparing to claim the business had less liquid value than it did while moving assets into places he controlled.”
Vanessa’s voice shook. “I didn’t know where the money came from.”
Eleanor turned to her. “You asked him, on February sixteenth, whether the transfer from Helix Advisory would clear before your interior designer invoice was due. There is an email.”
The screen changed again.