Offerings Read Online Free PDF Page B

but if you don’t, then welcome to my world. I should warn you, though, my world at this point is somewhere between the third and fourth cantos of Hell.”
    Kate looked back to the stream of parents and children for Peter. She motioned for him to join her and Sarah. He raised his index finger in a sign he’d do so in a minute.
    “Let me ask you something, Compadre. Have your shareholders filed suit yet?” Karl asked.
    “Over what?”
    “Over gravity. Shit, Peter, the only thing we were guilty of at Bennett was of raising money that created millions of jobs and nearly half a trillion dollars for shareholders, but as of the time I left the house for the concert this afternoon, I was named a defendant in nine class actions and four individual suits. The process servers don’t even bother looking for me in person anymore, so there probably will be two more in my mailbox when I get home. Pissed off investors don’t need a reason to sue. They just need a lawyer with a word processor.”
    “And no scruples.”
    “That’s redundant. David Boies took my deposition last week for three days. It was like having a weasel climb into my scrotum. Fuck ‘em all. Seriously, how are you holding up?”
    Karl lowered his voice. “I was going to call you. I overheard a couple of lawyers from one of the shit-brained firms that’s after me gossiping in the hall when I was stuck in their office. They were saying the skinny on your company was someone wanted to buy it, but Kate gave the deal a pocket veto so she could land a spot with Ed Roth. They’re busting their humps to find a plaintiff to represent the investors. They’ll probably pay some asshole to fill the role. Fucking low-lifes.”
    Peter looked at Kate with a combination of fear and remorse. She tried to hide the fact she’d heard just enough of what Karl said to want to interject that the whole thing was a fabrication.
    “How worried should I be about this rumor?”
    “You’ve come to the right place for legal advice. I assume you want our conversation covered by the defendant-soon-to-be-defendant privilege.”
    Karl laughed at his own joke before he continued with his narrative. “You’re pretty much toast. There are at least four lawsuits here. Greene for sitting on its hands. Drake for being the beneficiary of Kate’s pocket veto. You for breaching your fiduciary duties to your shareholders to maximize their recovery and you and Kate for trying to play the system for your benefit.”
    Sarah looked up at Kate when she felt her mother’s grip on her hand tighten. Kate put her hand on Sarah’s back and moved her along the corridor.
    “Whoever put up your directors and officers liability insurance will take the position you defrauded your investors and won’t cover the legal fees and your homeowner’s insurance won’t help you either.”
    Peter looked as though he was searching for something to say, but was struck dumb by the message Karl was delivering.
    “And don’t talk to Kate about this because everything you say will end up being discovered. I once thought there was a husband and wife privilege but that illusion faded sometime around my third class-action because Joanie worked for the firm we hired as our decorator. Kate was your banker on your IPO, right?”
    “Any other advice?”
    Karl was about to prove how well-schooled he had become in the cat and mouse game of high-stakes litigation. “I presume you don’t own anything in your own name.”
    Peter nodded. “Other than my Ascalon stock, no. We put pretty much everything of value into trusts a long time ago to keep it away from possible creditors.”
    “Smart. Then just listen to Bob Dylan. He’s not only the best poet on the planet, he’s also the smartest lawyer there is. When you ain’t got nothing you got nothing to lose. There will be so many lawyers whacking at you that after a while you’ll feel like a piñata. My advice is just to lie back and enjoy it. Fighting those pricks just