Chapter 15 - THE FOUNDER REIMBURSEMENT
The $3.6 million paid to Richard and Eleanor was partly legitimate.
That annoyed everyone hoping for a clean fraud story.
Independent accountants found approximately $2.1 million in documented historical founder advances.
Old payroll support.
Property taxes.
Equipment purchases.
Emergency legal bills.
The company genuinely owed some money.
The remaining $1.5 million lacked adequate support or had already been reimbursed indirectly years earlier.
Richard insisted records were lost.
Possible.
The board negotiated repayment of $1.1 million without criminal admission.
He kept $2.5 million as validated reimbursement after interest adjustments.
Was paying it during the Florida crisis wise?
No.
Was it theft to repay genuine founder debt?
No.
Governance failure is not always crime.
Katherine had objected to timing.
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That mattered in her favor.
She had enough wrongdoing without turning every decision into villainy.
