Chapter 16 - THE AUDIT
The audit took two years.
Two years.
Not a montage.
Accountants occupied entire floors.
Old deeds.
Tax returns.
Insurance files.
Trust distributions.
Management fees.
Hotel renovations.
Loans.
Some Vance charges were legitimate.
That frustrated people who wanted theft everywhere.
Sterling properties benefited from Vance management.
Occupancy increased.
Values grew.
Vance deserved contracted fees.
Other fees exceeded limits.
Some related-party expenses lacked approval.
Four property transfers used defective proxy authorizations.
Total estimated amount owed back to Orchid branches after offsets:
$47.8 million.
Not two hundred million.
Not the whole company.
Forty-seven point eight.
Vance family entities settled most civil claims through cash, insurance, and transfer of one historic property back into the trust.
Olivia personally faced liability for specific undisclosed transactions and document misrepresentations.
Richard for later concealment and false certifications.
Northgate abandoned the original sale.
A smaller transaction proceeded for undisputed Vance-owned properties.
Employees kept jobs at those locations.
Some corporate restructuring caused layoffs.
Real costs.
I refused anyone calling that my victory.
Workers losing jobs because executives lied is not a trophy.
Vance Hospitality survived.
Independent board.
Olivia removed.
Richard resigned.
No one renamed everything after me.
Thank God.
Sterling Heritage also changed.
Julian’s board had allowed temporary proxies to remain unquestioned for too long.
Their audit committee received criticism.
May you like
Julian accepted it publicly.
No family side got to write itself clean.
