Fatal Greed by Denise Yoko Berndt

Author:Denise Yoko Berndt [Berndt, Denise Yoko]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

48

“Richard Glynn lied.”

Amber looked up from her notes. Sitting across from her was Philip Dillon, head of finance at Briconas. “In what way?” she asked.

“He just acted like he wasn't interested in taking over Sweetgreen and Storm Snacks because of the high price.” Dillon leaned forward. He and Amber sat in a small conference room at Briconas. Rajeev and Sara were conducting interviews in other rooms. They'd agreed on this course of action to make faster progress. After all, they had to return to London that evening.

Amber raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean exactly?”

“Richard had already acquired quite a few blocks of shares from small shareholders, without submitting an offer to the respective management or making his intentions known.”

“He'd already furtively secured shares?”

Dillon nodded, leaned back, and crossed his arms. “That wasn't fast enough for him, though. It was too expensive for him too. That part of his statement was true. So he resorted to other means.”

Amber's skin prickled. She sensed that Dillon would come up with a revelation that might have a decisive impact on the course of the investigation.

She didn't ask and just waited for Dillon to continue. He was only too happy to oblige, judging by the smug look on his face. “I was quite sure that he was manipulating the stock price of the two companies with unfair practices. I told him outright about my suspicion shortly before he died.”

Unfair practices? Price manipulations? Did I have the right idea yesterday?

Amber struggled to maintain a calm, collected tone when she asked her next question. “What were those practices? Can you be more specific?” Tensely, she waited for the answer. Did Dillon have information that was vital to the investigation?

“He was spreading false rumours about the companies' financial condition and results of operations.” Dillon's eyes sparkled as he leaned forward again as if to add weight to his words. “He paid two journalists to help him do this.”

Ronan Howell.

“So Richard Glynn bribed journalists to help him push down Sweetgreen and Storm's stock prices so Briconas could then buy them out on the cheap?”

“You summed it up perfectly.” Dillon grinned.

“You wouldn't happen to know the names of these two journalists, would you?”

Dillon shrugged. “No. I'm sorry. I didn't get that detail out of him.” He lowered his voice. “I'd noticed that the stock price of both companies went up a little only to drop quite dramatically a few weeks later. Still, Richard assured me he didn't want a takeover, even though I reasoned with him. Sweetgreen in particular was and still is a perfect takeover target for us. Then, upon closer study of the trade press, I noticed there had been quite a few negative articles about Sweetgreen shortly before the stock-price drop. No big headlines, just small articles with claims that the company was overindebted. I wanted to get to the bottom of it, wanted to know how bad the situation really was, but I never got around to it.” He screwed up his face. “Richard died, then we all had other priorities.

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