CHAPTER FIFTHTEEN
TAKING CHARGE!
“I know in my heart that man is good.
That what is right will always eventually triumph.
And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life”
Ronald Reagan
January 06, 2004 – Blacker called Tony and told him that some checks were returned on the business account in Brazil, and that the clients in a specific PepsiCo deal did not pay as agreed.
Tony replied, “Blacker, I don’t like what’s go on, I am going to Brazil.” Tony, very upset, arrived in Brazil and decided to fire Bernard and Blacker, not liking anything that was going on. He thought that Pierre was behind this but at no time did he think that Blacker was; only that he was a bad Finance Manager, and was not controlling the payments correctly.
Tony had just arrived at Exbrus Sao Paulo and had just walked in his office when Bernard came in and quit. Tony asked him why and he said that he was tired and wanted to rest; after that he would look for a new job. Tony suspected that he already had a new job. Bernard had always been a trustworthy man, and Tony had no idea that he had already setup everything with Blacker. The only company with all licenses to import was registered under his name, because of Blacker’s suggestion in the past. So Tony let him walk out without signing anything.
Tony went to the Finance Department and asked Teresa (the girl in charge of Finance), what was going on and where the returned checks were. Without answering the young woman got up and walked out of the office. An enraged Tony went to Blacker’s office and asked him, “What fucking checks have been returned, Blacker?”
And Blacker calmly answered, “No, they tried to cash it at the bank; the checks were not returned.” Tony couldn’t believe anybody any longer, so he called everyone into his office, and fired Blacker and most of the employees, except six. He explained that he did not know what was going on, and for the moment everyone was fired, except those six, but he would hire them back if he could figure out what was going on!
The Plan: Tony had no idea what they had planned! At first Blacker had convinced Pierre to come with him. Then he contacted all of the employees, including Neli from Miami, who Tony had fired. The only exception was Carlos Costa, Carmen (the sales lady) and Magda (the receptionist), because they were close to Tony and therefore not trustworthy. The plan was brilliant. They had both local corporations (importer and a distribution) titled under Bernard and his brother who worked at the distribution center. All this had been planned by Blacker. The idea was to take over all the business from Exbrus, telling the clients that Exbrus closed down and that they would conveniently operate the business, since there was no more Exbrus. So this scenario would put the onus on Tony. Of course for Blacker, this plan was almost a joke because with all the money he had stolen by now, he could retire for the rest of his life.
The next day Tony arrived at the office and Blacker, pretending nothing happened, was there. He was on the phone talking to Pierre, telling him that he could not make the payment, because Tony was there. Tony walked in to his office and asked, “Who are you talking to, Blacker?”
Blacker pressed the speaker phone button, and started speaking very loud to alert Pierre. “What are you doing, Tony? What is it?”
“That is it! Game over!” Tony could not take this anymore, so he snatched up the stapler on the desk, and wanted to staple the SOB on his head, but instead he slammed it on the glass table, breaking it into pieces. Tony kicked Blacker out of his office like a dog. (Man, about time!)
Believe or not, Tony had no suspicion whatsoever that Blacker was stealing money from him. Blacker left the office and called the girl from the Finance Department. He went to the bank and cashed out all the money from the business and deposited it to Pierre’s account supposedly; that was approximately two hundred thousand dollars.
This whole mess was happening while Mr. Lima was still recovering at the hospital, and he was the only person other than Blacker who signed the accounts, because Tony never stayed in Brazil, so his name wasn’t on any of the accounts. If Mr. Lima had died, that would have been paradise for Blacker!
Tony only learned of this the next day, and cancelled all the signatures at all banks, changed passwords, and called all clients and instructed them not to do any more deposits to Exbrus until further notice. He called PepsiCo and set a meeting that had a deposit for Exbrus that day in the amount of five hundred thousand dollars. When he arrived he learned that Blacker and Bernard had already been there, and told them that they were taking over the business because Tony would take their money and would not pay any suppliers. He told them that since they still had the old staff they would be able to do the job just fine.
The following day two additional employees quit and Tony discovered that Blacker had changed the name on the lease contract for one of the offices Tony had leased previously (in other words this office was leased by Tony, and Blacker just made it his new office) and they were working at this location already.
That weekend Tony called Cano (the politician) to see if he could help, and again Tony had no idea that he was also part of the plot, and he immediately offered his help, came to the office to meet Tony and took everything that was in Blacker’s office including a computer notebook, saying that he would take this to the Federal Police so they could examine it! He probably sold everything back to Blacker and making a joke, saying how stupid he was by leaving all that proof behind (is this Tony stupid or naive?) and on top of that recommended that Tony move out of the office.
Tony called Cano a few days later to find out about the investigation and asked if he would bring the computer back. Only then did he find out that Cano was part of the plot.
So Tony called some people he knew and started to hire new employees. At this point the accountant called and told Tony that he was aware of what was going on and he would like to be a mediator between Tony, Blacker and Bernard.
Tony agreed and the next day set a meeting. Up to this point Tony still had no proof that he was being robbed.
Next day he was at a studio hotel with his parents. Mr. Lima was out already and Tony was exhausted and almost crying. He said to his parents, “I can’t take this anymore! I do not want this! I will give everything to these people!” After his father talked to him he calmed down, and accompanied Tony to the meeting. Even having just been released from the hospital his father was a big help.
When they got to the meeting at the accountant’s office, they went into the conference room. Blacker, Bernard and the accountant were there: Tony was with his father and two attorneys. Tony looked at Blacker and Bernard and asked, “What else do you want from me?”
Bernard said, “We are going to tell you what you have to do, Tony.”
Boy that was it! This clerk acting as a professional entrepreneur! Bernard’s voice seemed to energize Tony, who finally took charge of the situation. Tony asked everyone to step out side, and the accountant looked at him, and said, “This is my office.”
Tony replied, “I know it is your office, and I also know you have no other room, so please step out.” From this moment on Tony was filled with all of the power of the universe and took charge of the meeting and listened to all the stupidity of the cowards.
Again, Tony still thought that all they were doing was taking his company; after all, this already had happened three times before. He yet hadn’t realized about the robbery, and that was big! And of course Blacker was the only beneficiary; the others were used by him.
Tony got the situation under control, asking Blacker what was his situation with the company, and how much does the company owe him. (Can you believe this guy? With all this shit going on and Tony still worried about the asshole.) They had a proposition. Bernard stated it. They said that they would keep the Brazilian corporation and they wanted Tony to give them some clients and they would help Tony import the goods temporarily to Brazil and they would charge 5%. And Blacker, (Mr. Nice Guy) said, “No, Bernard, 5% is too much, let’s charge 2.5%.” His good will was truly unbelievable!
They even took meeting notes, where they would mention all the topics that they would send to Tony later.
They left the meeting and one of the attorneys suggested lunch at a nearby Arabic restaurant. Tony agreed and guess what a coincidence? When Tony arrived at the restaurant he found Pierre waiting for Blacker and Bernard to find out the outcome of the meeting. What a small world! Of all the restaurants in that area, and there were hundreds, they ran into Pierre. And Tony yet believed that he was the mentor of this coup. In truth Blacker had his next victim already! From one fool to the next one!
When he returned to the office Tony asked the Finance Manager, “Have you found anything yet?” And he showed Tony the account statement of one of the bank accounts. Out of more than three million dollars that had been deposited in this account, not a dime was sent to Miami, and it was only there that Tony finally realized what was going on, and he saw all kinds of payments sent to ghost companies.
Deposits in Blacker’s personal accounts, in amounts in excess of two hundred thousand, restaurant bills in the amount of one thousand dollars; you name it was there. Tony could not believe what was happening. It was like a horror movie with no end. The coin had dropped!! Finally!!! They took him to the cleaners all right!!
Then Bernard’s personal savings account statement arrived in the mail; that, believe it or not, used the company address, and showed a balance of over fifty thousand dollars, odd for a guy who had a salary of two thousand dollars per month. And of course Blacker made all of this look legal. According to the books these were commissions on sales. That’s how he was able to manipulate Bernard. One can see Tony’s rage. Tony’s personal account balance that month was under two thousand dollars.
Tony, now desperate, consulted with the attorneys and called a sheriff from the Federal Police, who he had met some time ago, in one of Blacker’s imposters. Blacker had never met this guy. Tony explained what happened and he suggested setting a meeting because they had an obligation to report what went on, and Tony did not want to involve police at this time; he only wanted his company title back, so he could operate the business. At this point Tony had no employees and no company to operate. The Sheriff agreed to come to the meeting as an observer.
Tony set the meeting and Blacker agreed to come. Present were two Exbrus attorneys, the Sheriff, Tony and Teresa. Bernard did no show up. Teresa was now on the computer trying to show the statements, and she was shaking like a rattler, and was unable to answer any of Tony’s questions. So Tony started to question Blacker and asked him about the money transferred to his personal account. Blacker claimed that the money was used to bribe the customs inspectors!
At this moment the Sheriff got up and identified himself. Addressing himself to Blacker, he said, “I have heard enough, there have been so many crimes committed here, that since I am here as a friend and Tony does not wish to prosecute I recommend you settle it with him otherwise there will be trouble ahead for you.”
Amazingly, Blacker kept acting like nothing had happened. Since, according to him, he knew nothing about the system and by now Teresa would have left. Tony picked up a piece of paper and asked. “OK, Blacker, forget the system; we had three million dollars last month. Is this correct?”
He agreed.
Tony went on. “So just give me the checks and payments you have made; just the large ones leave the small ones out.” And he started to state all the payments that he did, and they amounted to two million dollars.
A very irritated Tony asked, “Where is the rest of the money, Blacker?”
Blacker kept insisting that he could find all the information on the company’s financial software. He claimed it was all there.
Even now, armed with all the proof, Tony was so obstinate that he wanted to keep the business. In Brazil you need a license to import and it can take up to one year to get all the licenses required. How could he go on without a proper corporation? So he made the following proposal: “Blacker, you bring Bernard here, sign over the stocks to me and you will go free. I will not take this to the police.”
Blacker agreed and said that would bring Bernard that evening.
Blacker would want to make this deal; basically he was the only one to benefit from the crime and it would be the perfect crime. Can you believe it? But then he talked to Bernard and found that he obviously did not agree. So now Bernard was on Blacker’s ass for a solution, because he would not give the corporation back. No way!
Tony, like a fool, waited until 8:00 P.M. that evening, until some scam low degree attorney called, and said that they would give the corporation back, but he wanted a document, bla, bla, bla. In other words it was a trick to try to buy time and not to give it back.
By now Tony realized he is completely fucked!! He called Bernard’s brother, who had the other distribution corporation. Initially his brother did not approve of Bernard’s acts, and he hesitated a little, because his brother did not want him to give it back, but ended up signing the stocks over to Tony, even though he later went back to work for Bernard. But that is life!
Tony called all his contacts and decided to be creative. The only good thing he had by now were several customers, and one was a very big company in Brazil called Sadia which was just about to start to operate with Exbrus. So out of nowhere a lot of people showed up. He was able to hire all the people needed and made agreements with other companies to import temporarily for him, on a fee basis.
Tony in action was something to see; he really had the magic. He makes impossible things happen easily. Doing business for him is like dancing. So easy!
Tony set a meeting with PepsiCo, now that he understood what had happened; he asked them to release the payments since all the goods had been delivered to them. Now they owed about five hundred thousand dollars to Exbrus, and out of this money suppliers and taxes had to be paid. Tony explained what happened and proposed to renegotiate with suppliers to pay them in monthly statements. And an incredible coincidence here was that the Taiwan supplier was the one with the highest balance. Initially they agreed to that, although they never believed that Blacker had taken money. Again I think that people believed in the most convenient truth for each situation.
A few days later PepsiCo decided to hold the payment and cancel all future business with Exbrus. Try to understand the situation, Exbrus acquired the goods, did all the transportation, paid the duties to clear customs, paid all local taxes and delivered the goods to PepsiCo. How could they then justify holding up payment in behalf of a supplier? Although they were a worldwide supplier, they had no legal authority over this transaction. And of course when the supplier in question found out what was about happening they did not want to talk to Tony or anyone from Exbrus. And now all of his invoices were to PepsiCo. It’s amazing all the politics inside of major corporations. This is another big loss for Tony. PepsiCo was the biggest account at this point, with several orders in place! No need to say that Blacker and Bernard did an excellent job at PepsiCo, since they knew everyone there, and provided all kinds of wrong information in order to secure business from them. They were successful in losing a big client for Exbrus. However, PepsiCo chose to not do business with them either. Well, here at least was a decent decision. When a company delivers the goods and does not receive payments, they can sue the client, although in Brazil nobody dared to do this with a large corporation. But Exbrus’ attorneys managed to sue them, and PepsiCo was forced to deposit the money in a trust account held by the government, and now is in the Brazilian justice system, with all the bureaucracy that goes with it. A process like this can take up to ten years to resolve.
By now Tony had made the operations in Miami and Brazil work again, hired new people and companies to import and export the goods and he learned now that the other Exbrus offices were taking advantage of the situation and everyone wanted to get a piece of Exbrus! They wanted to emulate Blacker and Bernard.
Manny Green (the ex Coca-Cola buyer) was in charge of the new Exbrus Rio de Janeiro office; he also had an additional operation of selling medical equipment at that location. Tony would have authorized payment for all the expenses of the office in Rio for the medical operation as well. Manny got together with the manager of Exbrus Hong Kong and set another operation and he just wanted to walk away without paying anything. After many attempts the Exbrus attorneys were able to negotiate with him. He ended up paying, but took advantage of Tony’s weakness.
Blacker and Bernard were calling all the clients now, and telling them that Exbrus had closed down, and they would handle all the business, including paying the suppliers in order to get the business. They went to Komatsu. Exbrus at the time owed Komatsu Miami over one hundred thousand dollars, and they nicely offered to pay it off in order to get their business. The people from Komatsu were among the few clients who knew about Blacker’s dishonesty.
Tony published a statement on the front pages of all the major newspapers in Sao Paulo that Blacker and Bernard no longer worked for Exbrus, or were authorized to do any business in Exbrus’ name.
He also opened an investigation with the local police in Sao Paulo against Blacker, Bernard and Teresa. Moreover, he had the attorneys prepare several civil suits which languished in the hands of the marvelous Brazilian Justice system moving at a turtle like pace. People in the USA have no idea how wonderful the American justice system is.
Tony now needed to get his properties free in Miami so he could use them to give Komatsu and others guarantees and to extend their debts. According to the Exbrus books, it had been paid all the debts with Pierre LaCosta, who had mortgages on two properties. In fact, Exbrus had paid over one hundred thousand dollars to Pierre. So Tony called Pierre to clear the properties, and he also found that Pierre had opened a corporation in Miami to do business with Blacker and Bernard. Is this a non-stop nightmare or what? And of course Pierre denied it. Tony got really mad and sent an e- mail to Pierre explaining the whole Exbrus story from the beginning to today. Now Tony had a better understanding of what happened and he knew that Pierre was used. He never knew how he got into this mess today and after writing the novel, in about 5 pages would say the following:
Dear Pierre:
I hate novels, but to explain to you what happened, that only now I know, I will have to write one….
Tony explained what happened with Exbrus since he began up to now with less details, of course. He later wrote:
….little by little I began to understand what happened:
Blacker told everyone, literally, that I was crazy and that all money that he sent to Miami I squandered on personal things, and would not pay the suppliers, and Exbrus could not go on like this. In other words, the business was fantastic; the only thing wrong was Tony. We need to take him out of the business.
The plan built by him was fantastic, he was good! I just found out at the last minute! A little more, all of you would have killed me!
Now, Pierre, I have no idea how involved you are in this shit, and honestly at this point I do not want to know, and don’t play the innocent guy with me, I already know about the International Import Export, LLC, created January 07, 2004 by you. What a coincidence, ahm?
I already put the local police onto Blacker, Bernard and Teresa and also will file several civil suits against them. I will also go to the Federal Police and I have a dossier in the hands of a good friend of mine who works at Globo TV (the biggest TV network in Brazil) in case if these don’t work it will go on at “Jornal Nacional” (the 8:00 p.m. TV news).
I will file complaints everywhere! I know a lot of people in lot of countries! No SOB will enter my home and steal from me!
PIERRE, BELIEVE ME! I AM AFRAID OF NOTHING!!! I HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE!!!
I WILL GO ON WITH THIS TO THE END.
BLACKER IS USING YOU, LIKE HE USED ME,
I KNOW EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE COUP, EVEN THE ONES, HIDING BEHIND THE CURTAINS.
I AM SURE THAT YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO STEAL,
YOU ARE AN INTELLIGENT GUY, HAVE A NICE HOME, HAVE A BEAUTIFUL FAMILY,
I AM SURE YOU WOULD NEVER PUT ALL OF THIS AT RISK!
PIERRE, AT THIS MOMENT I HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE ANY MORE, SO I BEG YOU, GET OUT OF THIS MESS!
IT WOULD BE HARD TO BE YOUR FRIEND AGAIN, BUT PLEASE DON’T TURN ME INTO AN ENEMY!
IN THE NAME OF OUR KIDS, DON’T DO THIS I IMPLORE YOU
IN THE NAME OF GOD GET OUT!
I DO NOT WANT TO INVOLVE YOU MORE!
I WANT THE PROPERTIES CLEAR AND FREE IMMEDIATELY!! IF THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN I WILL INCLUDE YOU ON THE LIST, AND AT THE END THERE WILL BE SHIT EVERYWHERE!!
AND IN ADDITION I WILL SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY, EVERYONE WILL KNOW ABOUT THE TYPES OF DEALS
IN WHICH YOU GET INVOLVED!
IF I OWE YOU ANYTHING I WILL PAY EVERY DIME (AS OUR BOOKS SHOWS, WE OVERPAID YOU ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND)
PLEASE GET OUT OF THIS FIGHT; YOUR FAMILY DOES NOT DESERVE THIS!!
I HAVE GIVEN ALL THE CHANCES IN THE WORLD TO BLACKER AND BERNARD AND THEY REFUSED, PLEASE DON’T DO THE SAME MISTAKE!!
PIERRE, GET OUT!!!
I WISH GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, I WISH NO HARM TO YOU OR YOUR FAMILY.
JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!
TONY LIMA
Needless to say Tony was very clear in his message to Pierre, convincing him to release all the properties immediately to him, and to stop operating with Blacker and Bernard.
So Tony went on with business and tried to negotiate with a few banks to get credit and bring them in as partners to the business. He met the people at a bank called Farmer’s Bank that gave credit to Exbrus. You have to understand the type of clients that Exbrus has. It is a dream come true for most banks to get such clients.
Having had some dealings with the Bank Tony proposed to sell part of the corporation to them. So he set a meeting with the bank CEO and he gets very interested. A few days later he sent a negotiator to purchase the business, sending a message to buy 51% of Exbrus for one million dollars. Thank’s God Tony did not take this seriously; later on this bank got involved in one of the biggest scandals in Brazil which involved the local government! Exbrus had almost been involved in this scandal!
The war went on. Now it is Arica, Chile’s turn, where they are trying to do the same thing. Exbrus had a local partner who had negotiated with Blacker before. Blacker had tried several times by now, to get the business in Chile for him. Fortunately Tony had stood in the way because he had 51% of the shares. The local partner, a custom broker name Pablo Saconi, had also been manipulated by Blacker, and according to him he had put some money in the business, on the promise that Blacker would pay him back. Now he had used money from his personal clients and was in serious trouble since the law in this country, unlike Brazil, seemed to work. And in addition there were two other minor partners for the business. All the directors were formed by the three partners mentioned, and Tony wanted to remove everyone on the board and reshape the business because at this point it was losing money because of high salaries for the directors.
So Tony hired a local attorney who instructed him what to do and he fired all the local directors. But now the local partner wanted to get out and they wanted to sell their stocks. It seemed this would turn out fine, as their strategy was to keep the business. They always thought that Tony would not be able to pay them back. So they agreed to sell their shares of the corporation, to be paid in four installments, with the stocks as guarantees. If Tony were to fail on one payment, they would take the corporation over. I tell you it was through. Tony had paid over price for the shares, and almost could not pay it off, thanks to the local attorney who became a good friend of Tony’s. If it hadn’t been for him Tony would have lost this business as well. Today it is this company that has grown most out of the group, and thanks also to Carlos Costa who came, assumed the business and did an outstanding job! He has been there until today. A great warrior!
The nightmare goes on! Tony now found that the person who was the Software Manager, Diego Antunes, who helped Tony to develop the ICO (international Control Operations) created and designed by Tony, had sold the software to Blacker and Bernard. Tony talked to Diego and he confessed and returned all the software fonts. He called on the local police to witness the transaction, since he had done it manipulated by Blacker, so the police could search Bernard and Blacker’s offices.