CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE GRAND OPENING OF ARICA
“Hatred does not cease in this world by hating,
but by not hating; this is an eternal truth”
Buddha
Tony arrived in Arica and was surprised by the huge party for five hundred people with the participation of the President of Chile. Blacker had not informed him of the details other than that they would have an opening in Arica. In addition Blacker invited several people from Brazil to come with their wives, with all expenses paid by Exbrus. Tony argued with Blacker and as usual he would come up with all kinds of excuses, and Tony would believe it! (What planet is Tony on?)
The inauguration party was a great success with all the local press, the President of Chile, ministers, ambassadors, politicians, and other high authorities present. At least Tony started to believe there might be potential there. This was Blacker territory and he did not interfere.
When Tony returned he talked to his friend, Pierre LaCosta (the neighbor) to explain the situation of the company, and convinced him to join the company. Pierre was scheduled for a vacation but on his return he would do as Tony asked. And he did; not only had he put money in the business, he left his own endeavors to help Tony. Of course Tony gave him a second mortgage on the warehouse and one of his personal properties. Pierre really dedicated himself even helping with the day-to-day activities at the Exbrus warehouse.
Blacker did not like this at all. He got desperate by this point, having a new company partner that he did not want. So he started to make excuses to come to Miami, and tried at all costs to approach Pierre; he needed to control him, otherwise he was, as we say, fucked! Tony didn’t understand all of this interest on Blacker’s part. What is the problem? The guy was helping us and putting money in the business, and slowly things were moving, Tony thought.
Blacker managed to set a meeting at the Miami office without Tony’s knowledge, got everyone together including Pierre and announced to all that Exbrus was a fantastic corporation; the only problem was Tony who was spending all the corporation’s money, and even worse was taking money needed to pay suppliers and using it personally. He was spending on helicopters, planes, and trips. This was the same story that he had already told in the Brazil office as well. It makes sense to everyone because nobody knew the true facts other than Tony and Blacker.
Now let’s stop for a second. This Blacker guy is good; the SOB does all the shit, and yet he managed to put the blame on the very guy he is stealing from; is he good or what? Could you for a second imagine if he invested all his intelligence together with Tony for the common good? I guess some people are born to be bad. It was in the blood; there is no other explanation.
Tony had no knowledge of these facts and he was still pursuing his plan to put the business on track. When he got back to Brazil he called Pedro Cano (the politician), setting a weekend aside to go to Jaguariuna to help him acquire the lot at Rodeo Show Park. He also took the opportunity to introduce his family and his background to Cano, and he set up a meeting in the Team Park Hotel called Ubatan, built by his Uncle Frederico. He managed to bring Blacker, Pierre LaCosta, Cano and himself to this historic meeting.
Again Tony called Santos and ordered a helicopter to take Cano to Jaguariuna and after then to Ubatan Team Park Hotel. So everything worked perfectly. Tony and Cano spent Saturday in Jaguariuna, where Tony’s mother prepared this great dinner for them. Tony really wanted to impress this guy, because he believed he could help Exbrus a lot. So the next day they flew to the Ubatan Hotel and on the way over, Tony stopped at the old farm where he was raised until age 13. Cano could not believe that Tony came from such a humble place.
Although, like many, Tony was skeptical about politicians, for the moment he really believed that this guy could be different, especially because he was the son of ex- director of the National Agency.
They arrived at lunchtime, and Blacker and Pierre came later to enjoy the dinner and for the meeting. Tony explained his plans for Exbrus, and suggested to make all four partners. He told everyone that this was a unique opportunity. He said, “If none of us try to outsmart the other, we can make more money than we all could spend. I’m so sure of that.” At such times Tony felt that he could see the future.
Tony stayed and Blacker, Pierre and Cano returned together. Blacker again repeated his allegations about Tony. “Exbrus is fantastic, the problem is Tony, and we must eliminate him!”
The story now becomes a nightmare, the ones from which you can not wake up! What Tony did not know was that a private investigator had researched everyone’s lives, and easily discovered what Blacker was doing. He had a history of being him a con man. Tony was completely unaware of this, so the private investigator and Cano got together, and made Blacker a pay-off offer. They asked for one million dollars, and believe it or not, Blacker still tried to make Tony pay that.
Blacker had set up some offshore accounts in Chile and all the money from Exbrus Sao Paulo would go there first, and after to Exbrus Miami. The reasoning offered by Blacker was that Customs would fine the corporation if the exporter were related to the importer. Tony believed that and was setup in a way that only Tony or Blacker could check. Since Tony never checked it, the people from the office never found out, because, it seems that Blacker was doing his job, and in fact he was getting all the money that comes in Sao Paulo. Instead of paying suppliers, he was paying his own accounts! And believe it or not, Tony doesn’t find this out! And everyone believes that Tony is taking the money and not using it for the corporation.
Even with all this mess, things started to work now. New projects came along with new clients and a large project from PepsiCo. Pierre hired a finance guy to work in Sao Paulo, and Blacker was completely out of control now. He manipulated the guy in every imaginable way, and began to make comments to Tony about Pierre and vice versa, trying to create discord between Tony and Pierre. I tell you, Blacker was good. He gets it! Pretty soon Tony hated Pierre and Pierre hated Tony! Pierre was very similar to Tony, believing in people and he started to believe in Blacker.
Blacker needed to get Tony out, so he came up with an excuse that Tony must go to visit the PepsiCo supplier in Taiwan, because there is the next project, and they need it. It seemed like we are going to lose it for a Brazilian supplier. Again Tony believed and decided to go to Taiwan.
Tony talked again with Sharon about the divorce, and it seemed that she might be OK, but now she wanted to return to Miami; she wanted to establish her own business, and she wanted to buy a new car. Tony said OK, and they went together to Miami. Blacker also made another excuse to go to Miami as well.
When they got together in Miami, Blacker wanted very badly to get close to Pierre, and again he also managed to make everyone in Miami believe that Tony was crazy.
Tony flew to Hong Kong and Taiwan and visited the supplier, and to his surprise the supplier knew nothing of his visit, and even refused to talk to him. Tony was so upset, he believed that PepsiCo from Brazil did not communicate with the supplier; he tried to explain but nothing worked. Later he talked to Bernard Silva at the Sao Paulo office who by now was making the plans to kick Tony out. He blamed everything on PepsiCo, and told Tony to bring a sample of the goods for testing, because they had not received a package sent before. So, on the way back, Tony stopped again at the supplier and tried to explain to the manager’s secretary that he wanted to take some samples. After she went into a back office a guy comes out screaming at Tony saying, “I do not want to talk to you, and nobody from PepsiCo has authorized me to give you anything.” Tony thought he was doing this for his client in Brazil, and this guy just now had become an asshole. He got very mad and talked back to the guy and the guy called the Security people to get Tony out of his office! And Tony left the building without taking the samples. He was furious now!
Tony went to Hong Kong, and learned that Sharon had gone to the Exbrus office and again made a scene. When he tried to call her later she did not answer the mobile phone. Later still she hung up on him and he hears laughter in the background. Next day he learned that she was going out to dinner with Pierre. Now try to add one thing to another here, Tony was already mad with the guy and he found out that he is taking his wife out. Even though he didn’t want her anymore, he found Pierre’s behavior very offensive. Everything made sense: He is the one who wants to put me down, he thought.
And to make this worse Sharon took advantage of it, and lied to Tony, telling him that she went out with a friend. Really furious Tony returned to Miami. And Sharon played Tony good; she did her little games, pretending that she was sick because she knew sooner or later Tony would come back to her. Amazing, isn’t it?
Tony arrived in Miami and Sharon had left for Brazil. And things started to go wrong, all the way. His attorney from Miami, Mark Campus called him and told him that he wanted to meet him but not in his office. He wanted to meet him at a bar after work.
Mark Campos: Tony had hired him as the attorney for Exbrus and they became friends as well.
So later they met, and the first thing Campus said was, “Who the fuck is this guy Pierre LaCosta and what are you doing with him?”
Tony said, “Why?”
Campus advised that Pierre and Robert were at his office charging that Tony was taking the money from suppliers and not paying them and this was a crime here! Tony could not believe it. He hated this Pierre and he wanted to see him dead!
So the next day he called Robert, who confirmed the conversation and started accusing Tony. Why are you doing this? Why are you messing up the business? This was unbelievable from the guy hired to be the controller, and even he does not realize what is going on, Tony thought. Next he called Pierre and Robert to his office and explained to both what had been going on during the two last years, that he had all his personal funds in the business and how could he do such a thing? And Robert must be aware. So at this point Pierre said, “You must clarify that with Blacker and your people in Brazil. That is not what they are saying.”
More than ever Tony was convinced that Pierre was there to destroy him! And he could not get the guy out, because all the money was tied up with his properties and he could not pay him back yet.
That evening Tony discovered that a new personal credit card had come and Neli had put it in the company safe, by Robert’s office with the following comment: keep this in the safe, otherwise Tony will spend it all again! And maybe we can use it to pay other bills. Tony, flaming now, went to Robert’s office and asked him and he confirmed the story. I will tell you, poor Robert heard everything that was stuck in Tony’s heart. And Tony fired him. Neli had already left for the day, so he sent a message by phone. By now there were few employees left. Tony was so disheartened by what he considered a betrayal from those two people who he liked so much, and had been so close to him. In Tony’s minds all the blame was on Pierre; he was the SOB behind all this shit! Blacker once more did it good!
Tony called his sister to help him out, and she did; soon she was able to handle everything, and together with Tony they were able to do the job.
So the game was good for Blacker. He next called Tony’s parents and Sharon, and told them that Tony was crazy and needed professional care and that he must go to a clinic for treatment. The kind of institution he was talking about is like a prison. Of course Tony knew nothing of this!
And believe it or not even Mr. Lima believes that. It was Sandra who in Miami saw Tony and told his father, that crazy is the only thing that Tony is not. He never worked so much, she told Mr. Lima.
In the middle of this mess Tony had to stay in Miami, and since Sharon wanted to come back, he brought her and the kids back to Miami. This was towards the end of 2003. And again Tony ended the relationship with Anna Paola.
Blacker now told Tony what he had found out through one of his friends who worked for the police (one of those very corrupt kinds). And he stated that because the delayed taxes would come to this office, that they must move to a different location. Tony again believed in Blacker.
Let’s stop for a second now. I believe that Tony was crazy! How can that be? How could he not see? If the police were looking for him or the business, does it matter if he moved? I think that Blacker was right and he needed special treatment!
So, Tony went to Brazil and following the Blacker’s suggestion rented a new location, one for the Sales and Finance Department and another for the Operations Department.
Right before Christmas 2003, Sandra returned to Brazil and continued working at the Sao Paulo office. Tony hired new employees and planned to move back to a small office at the NNR Air cargo, the same place he had started the business in Miami, way back. He walked away from the lease on a not so friendly agreement. But what to do?
Gary Nobel, his friend from Jaguariuna came to spend the holidays with Tony, and to Tony’s surprise Arthur, his oldest son, now 18 came to live with him. That was a big dream of Tony’s, he knew one day he would come; of course he did not like the whole situation, but he believed that nothing was coincidence, and there must be a reason for that.
Blacker continued his program of disinformation to confuse Tony, and told him that most of the customers would be closed for the holidays, and he would close the Brazil office as well. Tony found it strange he never heard this before. He also told Tony that he had some money from loan sharks and had several checks returned from the bank as “insufficient.”
Tony did not understand, because the business was OK. In December alone they had sold over three million dollars, how could we not have the money to pay? And the transactions had a very good profit, but Tony could leave his friend to go to Sao Paulo, and he had to move the Miami office at the beginning of the year.
December 31. 2003 – Tony received a phone call that his father just had a heart attack and was in Jaguariuna. He instantly called Blacker to ask for help. Blacker had no intention of helping. Tony found it strange that even at Christmas Blacker did not call him. Tony took the first flight to Brazil, and spent New Year’s Eve with his father; the danger had already passed, and he was OK. So he returned on the following day.
Tony returned to get the moving done, and found it very strange that nobody, either Blacker or Bernard went to visit his father. They used to like him so much. Only Carlos Costa went to see him.