“Good morning gentlemen! Morning Ms. Rotterdam! Sorry for the delay. So what is the agenda today?” he asked courteously, feigning innocence, his glance sweeping across the table to include the auditors and Cromwell across the table. He wanted them to disclose their urgency for this meeting first before defending himself. The fiercely angry glare he was receiving from Beatrix was enough to warn him that she knew about his involvement with Eva. Maybe that was what it was all about! She found out about his involvement with Eva and wanted to teach him a lesson for life!
“Were you not aware of the internal audit that had been scheduled for today?” asked Mr. Strasbourg, giving Alexander a questioning look.
“I’m afraid, no. I just returned from the London tour and reported today. There has been no update from the finance team regarding this audit. So what was the urgency to conduct an audit today without my knowledge?” he asked, turning to look at an uncomfortable Mr. Cromwell.
“The audit has been scheduled by me to understand the loopholes discovered in the company accounts,” said Beatrix with a look of triumph in her eyes.
“I don’t think that’s possible, Ms. Rotterdam. I have checked the company accounts myself before leaving for London,” said Alexander while Beatrix tried hard to suppress a smile at his statement.
“If that is the case, then why do we have an instance of fraudulent financial reporting here? Can you explain that Mr. Van Every?” asked Mr. McCabe, another board member.
“What do you mean? Would you care to explain further?” he asked, waiting patiently for them to accuse him. His defense was ready. Mr. Strasbourg turned towards Mr. Cromwell, giving him the nod to proceed.
“Mr. Cromwell has discovered an intentional manipulation of the current financial statement of the company. Please, proceed, Mr. Cromwell.” Mr. Cromwell cleared his throat and gave him a stiff smile while his eyes glittered like a greedy animal. Alexander didn’t react at all and waited patiently for him to speak.
“With due respect, I wish to put forward before the board my current findings. I found an instance of intentional manipulation of the figures in our current financial statement to portray that an accounting fraud has indeed taken place without my knowledge. Mr. Van Every, Mr. Thorpe our CFO, and I are the only ones who have the authority to make changes to the statement. My first call was to Mr. Thorpe but he hasn’t been to the office for the entire month owing to a gall bladder surgery. With Mr. Van Every away, I consulted Ms. Rotterdam and she suggested we conduct an internal audit,” said Mr. Cromwell, starting his laptop to prove his point.
“Why didn’t you inform me?” asked Alexander, pinning him with his angry stare. Mr. Cromwell looked uncomfortable and glanced at Beatrix for help.
“I asked him not to. With Mr. Cromwell and Mr. Thorpe out of the picture, my suspicions were on you, Mr. Van Every,” said Beatrix, returning the hateful look he gave her.
“Are you accusing me of carrying out an accounting fraud, Ms. Rotterdam?” he charged her directly and she looked ill at ease.
“Yes, Mr. Van Every. The internal audit conducted in your absence has confirmed it. Here is the finding,” said Mr. Cromwell, answering on behalf of Beatrix. He sought permission from the chairman to present the findings to the board.
“Please allow him to proceed, Mr. Van Every. The board will give you ample time to defend yourself before any action is taken,” said Mr. Strasbourg.
“Thank you, Mr. Strasbourg.” He waited patiently watching the ongoing drama as Cromwell started his presentation with the help of the auditors. He went on to provide evidence about how Alexander manipulated the company accounts overstating the revenue and understating the expenses to grow quickly.
“The truth is after Mr. Rotterdam stepped down, Mr. Van Every has failed to meet the expectations of shareholders and the board. For the last four years, he had Mr. Rotterdam helping him out but after his sudden demise, Mr. Van Every had no other way than resort to fraudulent ways to avoid paying the price of failure. He opened a score of branches all over the world without any research and the report here shows the losses incurred by the company because of his rash decision-making,” said Mr. Cromwell, presenting the manipulated reports he had created as proof. He went ahead to present more documents to prove that the branches Alexander set up weren’t performing well. It was true that two of them weren’t and were on the verge of shutting down but two franchisees couldn’t make much of an impact on the parent company.
“That’s all, gentlemen. Now I would request our chief auditor, Mr. Gabriel to take over the presentation and inform us about his findings.” Mr. Gabriel took over and presented the entire manipulated financial statement just as Mr. Cromwell did. It wasn’t anything new.
“That’s all, gentlemen.”
“I would request the board to take action against Mr. Van Every. He’s not capable of continuing as CEO of Rotterdams. He should be made to step down from the post with immediate effect for the welfare of the company,” said Mr. Cromwell, giving Beatrix a smug look.
“Thank you gentlemen for helping us detect the scandal before it reached the press. It could have been detrimental to the goodwill of the company. Mr. Van Every, do you own up to your crime? Do you have anything to prove your innocence?” asked Mr. Strasbourg.
Alexander stood up, ready to fight all the allegations against him. “Before I proceed, I wish to ask Mr. Cromwell to prove my involvement in the scam he discovered. He has just laid down the facts and reports to prove that an accounting fraud has taken place in my absence. He needs to prove my involvement in the crime before accusing me and demanding my resignation,” said Alexander while Mr. Cromwell glanced at Beatrix.
“If Mr. Cromwell and Mr. Thorpe haven’t done it, the only one who can do this is you. What other proof do you need? You have the motive which others don’t,” said Beatrix impatiently. Alexander shook his head, not at all convinced.
“What proof do you have to state that Mr. Cromwell hasn’t manipulated the records?” he demanded, holding Beatrix’s angry gaze. Mr. Cromwell paled and stuttered, looking at him the board of members defensively.
“I don’t need any proof. He has always been a family friend to me and dad.”
“Is that true? I have never seen him at the hospital when Mr. Rotterdam was struggling with his health. I haven’t seen him when I visited your house. What if I accuse Mr. Cromwell of the crime he is accusing me of? Mr. Cromwell wants me to step down so that he can be the new CEO of Rotterdams.” There was a stir amongst the board members as they discussed this new turn of events.
“What proof do you have for accusing me?” demanded Mr. Cromwell, trembling with fury.
Alexander smiled and started his laptop while they all gaped at him, wondering what he was up to.
“Last night I received a call from a very trusted employee of ours that a scam was being staged against me. I arrived at the office after midnight to investigate. I am now running the CCTV footage of the entire time I was here last night.” Alexander started the footage while everyone sat and watched, too shocked to react.
“From the footage, it was clear that all the original documents and tampered documents were stored in Mr. Cromwell’s electronic safe and office. How is it that I don’t possess any copy of them as the CEO of the company? It is because they have been created in my absence!”
“I object to this,” stated Mr. Cromwell.
“Please don’t intervene, Mr. Cromwell. You will get an opportunity to defend yourself,” said Mr. Strasbourg.
“Here is a detailed report on the login information of the last ten days, extracted from the server. It shows that only one admin account had accessed the financial statements in the last 72 hours and that is you, Mr. Cromwell. The IP address of your computer is clearly visible here in the database. It clearly proves that you have made the modifications yourself. Without accessing the software, we cannot make the alterations. Can we?”
There was a deafening silence around as all eyes turned towards Mr. Cromwell who paled and stared at Alexander with disbelief.
“I didn’t want anyone to know that I was aware of everything that was happening behind my back. I conducted my own investigations without anyone’s awareness to catch them red-handed in their crime. As for the other allegations, I accept that two of our franchisees aren’t performing up to the mark but that will hardly affect us much to force me to embrace fraudulent ways. I have the original financial statement with me to prove that the company has recorded steady growth in the last four years under my guidance.” He presented the original documents while Beatrix sat watching him with disgust.
“Thank you, Mr. Van Every. From the proof furnished, it is quite obvious that this was a staged attempt against our current CEO, Mr. Alexander Van Every. We, the board members find Mr. Cromwell guilty of misleading us with tampered information for his personal gains,” said Mr. Strasbourg but Beatrix intervened immediately.
“I apologize for interrupting, Mr. Strasbourg. I plead guilty first forcing Greg to do this. Please don’t punish him for something he didn’t wish to do. I wanted to take my anger out on Alexander,” said Beatrix pleading with the board members, leaving them speechless.
“Fine, the meeting is adjourned.”
“No, wait. I wish to resign from my post as CEO of Rotterdams,” said Alexander, shocking everyone present.