Carter, this is Dale Brogan, Columbus PD. I put you in a car yesterday. " "I remember, officer. I just wanted to tell you something, and then I'm going to hang up because I'm not supposed to be calling you. " Brogan cleared his throat. "My sergeant pulled the body cam and the lobby footage for the report, and there's a piece at the end that nobody's seen because the phones on the balcony were all pointed at you. " "Okay. After they walked you out and after the phone call, there's about 40 seconds where that lobby is dead quiet. " A pause.
"And then one of the maintenance guys starts clapping. Just one guy. And then it's everybody. It's the whole balcony, Mr. Carter.
It's about a hundred people clapping in the lobby of the building that just had you arrested, and she's standing in the middle of it. Ethan didn't say anything. I've been a cop for 26 years, Brogan said. I've never seen anything like that in my life. Anyway, that's all.
You take care of your kid. At 4: 00, the Aurelia Global Board of Directors convened in a conference room on the 39th floor, and Admiral Charles Boyd, who had flown up from Charleston that morning, said, "We're going to do this in the order I say, and nobody is going to interrupt me. Claire, you first. " Claire Donovan spoke for 19 minutes. Renata Osai spoke for six. Gerald Vance spoke for 11, and at minute nine, he read 41 seconds of a transcript out loud into a silent room.
And at minute 10, a director from Minneapolis named Ellen Park said, "Say that last part again. " Gerald said it again. I don't want to know. Ellen Park put her pen down. At 5: 22, they brought Victoria Sterling in. She sat at the far end of the table, which she had never done in 11 years, and Boyd said, "Victoria, I'm going to give you as long as you want, and I'm not going to cut you off.
Tell us what happened. " And Victoria Sterling, who had testified before the United States Senate, who had done 400 earnings calls, who had once talked an activist fund out of a proxy fight in a single dinner, opened her mouth and found that there was nothing in it. She sat there for 11 seconds. Then she said, "I said I didn't want to know. " We heard the recording. I know you did. Did you understand what he was telling you on that call?
Yes, Victoria said. Ellen Park made a small sound. "Yes, I understood him, " Victoria said. "I understood that Marcus was about to put nine critical findings in front of me 18 days before a financing closed, and I understood that once he said them out loud, I would have to act on them. And I understood that acting on them meant a two-quarter slip and a $3 write-down and a very bad conversation with every person in this room.
She looked at her own hands. So, I told him I didn't want to know and I hung up and I did not think about it again. Not once, Boyd said. Not once. For 4 months.
For 4 months. Victoria. Boyd's voice was not unkind, which somehow made it worse. There was a man in your lobby yesterday morning holding the answer in a folder. Yes.
And you laughed. Yes. Why? Victoria Sterling was quiet for a long moment. "Because he was in an old jacket, " she said, "and I had already decided what that meant.
And I've been deciding what that means my entire life, and I have been right about it enough times to stop checking. " At 6: 05 the board voted. At 6: 11 the vote was unanimous. At 6: 14 Charles Boyd said, "Victoria Sterling is suspended from all executive authority effective immediately pending independent investigation. Claire Donovan will serve as interim chief executive. Marion County construction is halted at midnight tonight.
Every worker scheduled to report is paid in full through the stoppage. " At 6: 16 Claire Donovan said, "Add one thing to the record. Go ahead. Danny Whitcomb is reinstated effective this morning with back pay and his insurance restored retroactively, and I want the letter in his hand tonight. " Claire looked around the table. He tried to tell us three times. Three.
We had four separate chances to hear this from an employee for free, and it cost us nothing to listen, and we moved him to nights instead. I want that in the minutes. At 6: 40 in a kitchen in Bellwood, Ohio, a phone rang, and Lily Carter grabbed it before her father could. Carter residence. Ethan reached for it.
Lily. It's a lady. She says her name is Claire. He took the phone. This is Ethan.
Mr. Carter, my name is Claire Donovan. As of about 20 minutes ago, I'm the interim chief executive of Aurelia Global. A breath. The site stopped.
Midnight. Everybody's paid. Ethan put his hand on the counter. Mr. Carter.
I'm here. I wanted you to hear it from a person and not a press release. Thank you. And I wanted to say one thing that isn't corporate. Her voice changed.
I signed that certification in April. My name is on the false filing. Nobody made me. I was busy, and I trusted a memo, and I didn't open the file underneath it, and I've been telling myself for 2 days that being fooled is different from being at fault. A pause.
It isn't. And I know that because I watched a man who doesn't even work for us drive 2 hours to open the file we had on our own server. Ethan didn't answer for a second. Ms. Donovan.