Chapter 7 - The Final Audit
Three months later.
The high-profile legal battle surrounding the collapse of Apex Financial reached its absolute conclusion in the United States District Court in downtown San Francisco.
Richard Vance, Ethan’s former CEO, entered a guilty plea to sixteen counts of federal wire fraud and securities manipulation, receiving a twelve-year sentence in a maximum-security facility.
Ethan Caldwell, sitting at the defense table in a wrinkled, court-provided suit, avoided prison time only because his legal counsel proved that Ethan was too utterly ignorant of financial law to have consciously planned the scheme—a defense that stripped him of every last shred of professional dignity he possessed.
However, the judge ordered total restitution.
Every dollar Ethan had ever earned, every asset he held, and forty percent of any future wages he might earn for the next twenty years were ordered garnisheed to pay back the low-level investors who had lost their life savings in the Apex collapse.
When Ethan stepped out onto the courthouse steps after the sentencing, there were no Lamborghinis waiting for him. There were no news cameras asking for his statement. There was only the cold, damp San Francisco fog rolling in from the bay.
He walked down to the bus stop on the corner, holding his plastic envelope containing his legal papers.
As he sat on the cold metal bench, a large electric bus pulled up to the curb. The side of the bus featured a massive, beautiful advertisement for Sterling Vanguard Logistics.
In the advertisement, Amelia Sterling and Julian Vance stood side-by-side in front of a massive, zero-emission cargo ship, smiling warmly under the bright sunlight of a new era. Beneath the photo were the words: BUILDING A FUTURE FOUNDED ON TRUTH.
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Ethan stared at the sign as the bus doors hissed open.
He didn't have enough change in his pocket to pay the two-dollar-and-fifty-cent bus fare. He had to step back onto the pavement, pulling his thin jacket tight around his shoulders, and begin the long, cold four-mile walk toward the homeless shelter in the Tenderloin district.
