Chapter 9 - Northstar’s Audit Was Worse Than the Affair
Outside forensic accountant Dana Ruiz spent six weeks reviewing Crescent House.
Gross payments over twenty-two months:
$512,840.
Documented legitimate event services:
$196,500.
Reasonable vendor markups and deposits:
Approximately $41,000.
Unsupported, inflated, duplicated, or personal-benefit-linked amount:
Approximately $275,340.
Not every suspicious dollar stolen.
That distinction mattered.
The strongest categories:
Apartment lease used by Glen and Clara:
$48,000.
Personal travel disguised as site visits:
$36,700.
Duplicate vendor deposits:
$61,200.
Invoices for events that never occurred:
$74,900.
Inflated rentals and catering above source costs without contractual justification:
$54,540.
Some of inflated amount could be legitimate profit if disclosed.
It was not.
The company had been paying my husband and stepmother to conduct their affair.
Not directly.
Through manipulated vendor system.
I sat with independent committee.
Mark Ellison asked:
“Did Natalie approve any Crescent House budget?”
Dana:
“She approved three annual event budgets at category level. Glen approved vendor-specific invoices.”
“Could she reasonably know?”
“No evidence.”
“Did CFO?”
“Several payments cleared automatically under threshold. Others were split.”
Mark looked at Glen’s operations authority.
“Who created threshold?”
I did.
That stung.
“Me.”
Dana said:
“Threshold itself is common. Splitting to evade review is control circumvention.”
I wrote that down.
Professional humiliation arrived alongside personal.
I had built control Glen learned how to bypass.
The committee suspended him.
Then terminated for cause after giving response opportunity.
Not because adultery.
Because vendor misconduct and misuse of company resources.
Glen’s lawyer negotiated preservation of earned compensation but no severance.
He had no equity to seize.
No dramatic corporate execution.
Just termination.
His access disabled.
May you like
His office packed under supervision.
I did not attend.
