Chapter 6 - Boardroom Slaughter
At eight-thirty the next morning, the glass-and-steel skyscraper housing Sterling Construction was buzzing with frantic whispers. Employees clustered around water coolers, security guards stood with crossed arms at the turnstiles, and the executive floor on the forty-second level was locked down under armed watch.
The elevator doors opened, and Daniel stepped out.
He had spent the night in a twenty-dollar motel room, washing his face in a stained sink and borrowing an ill-fitting dress shirt from a discount department store down the road. His eyes were circled by dark purple bruises of exhaustion, but his teeth were clenched with stubborn desperation.
"I still have shareholder rights," he muttered to himself as he stroone toward the boardroom. "They can't remove a founder without a two-thirds majority vote of common stock."
He pushed open the heavy double glass doors of the executive boardroom.
Every seat at the long quartz table was occupied. The entire board of directors was present—men and women who had nodded politely at his presentations for years while secretly rolling their eyes at his incompetence.
At the far end of the room, sitting in the high-backed leather chair reserved for the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, sat Claire.
She wore a charcoal gray bespoke suit, her dark hair pulled back into an elegant chignon, a folder of unredacted financial audits open before her. Flanking her were two federal prosecutors from the Southern District Financial Crimes Division and Marcus Reed.
"Daniel," Claire said calmly, looking up from her papers. "You're late for your own deposition."
"What is this?" Daniel demanded, slamming his palm against the glass conference table. "This is an illegal coup! I built this company from the ground up! You have no standing here, Claire!"
Marcus Reed chuckled, a dry, dismissive sound that cut through Daniel's bravado.
"Daniel, sit down and shut up," Marcus said bluntly. "You didn't build this company. Your father built it, and you nearly drove it into bankruptcy four years ago. The only reason our subcontractors got paid was because Aegis Capital injected thirty million dollars into our preferred convertible stock pool."
Marcus pointed to Claire. "Ms. Montgomery is the managing director and principal owner of Aegis Capital. As of eight o’clock yesterday morning, upon the formal declaration of default triggered by your illegal offshore transfers, Aegis exercised its debt-to-equity conversion clauses. She owns seventy-four percent of Sterling Construction's voting equity. You own nothing. Your shares were forfeited to satisfy indemnity claims under paragraph 14-B of your founder's covenant."
Daniel's knees buckled. He reached out, steadying himself against an empty chair. "Paragraph 14-B..."
"The moral turpitude and fraud forfeiture clause," Claire stated, her voice slicing through the tense silence like a diamond blade. "You signed it yourself when you took the bailout money. You were so busy daydreaming about the yachts you could charter that you didn't even have your own legal team review the covenants."
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One of the men in a dark suit stood up, reaching into his breast pocket and pulling out a gold shield badge and an official arrest warrant.
"Daniel Sterling," the federal agent said, stepping toward him with a pair of steel handcuffs. "You are under arrest for wire fraud, bank fraud, and interstate transportation of stolen funds. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
