Never Apologise, Never Explain - James Craig [98]
‘He’s confessed, Carole. He’s admitted to defrauding his investors.’
‘You told him to do that?’ she asked incredulously.
‘No, no,’ the lawyer said, shocked. ‘Of course not. I’m not even completely sure what exactly he’s confessing to, at this point. He was looking to wind the fund up, which isn’t really what you would expect of someone in these circumstances.’
‘What do you mean “in these circumstances”?’ she asked sharply.
‘Well . . .’ Lucas chose his words carefully, ‘in a so-called pyramid or ponzi scheme, things usually get to the point where the whole thing collapses as a result of too many people trying to take their money out at the same time. Here, it seems, Joshua was trying to give their money back to them – or at least part of it.’
‘Doesn’t that make him innocent?’ She used the word in the narrowest, legal sense.
‘By crystallising the losses,’ Lucas continued, not caring to answer the question, ‘he could have been hoping to share out the losses among everyone, rather than leaving the last ones left in holding the baby, and facing total financial ruin. If that was the thinking behind it, he would have known that there would still have been a big row about it, but the whole thing could have been represented as bad luck rather than actual fraud.’
That made his damn letter even more stupid, Simpson decided.
‘At the moment,’ Lucan continued, ‘all this has to be argued over. We certainly don’t know what the authorities have as yet, in terms of developing a case. Given where we are at this stage, I told him to say nothing. He chose to ignore me.’
‘Not much use then, were you?’ Simpson said bitterly.
The lawyer chose to ignore the barb. He’d been here many times before. One of his great strengths, so he liked to think, was an ability not to get wound up by clients who were, inevitably, having to operate under a great deal of pressure. ‘That is always the client’s prerogative,’ he said gently. ‘It may even be for the best, in the long run.’
‘How so?’ she asked, not prepared to believe it.
‘Well,’ the lawyer said, ‘this way we can avoid a trial and can negotiate a lesser sentence.’
‘So that’s it?’ she said, trying not to wail.
‘Goodness, no,’ said Lucas, trying to sound fatherly, even though he was at least five or six years younger than the woman struggling to hold it together on the other end of the line. ‘Not at all. Whatever Joshua has said, it is still very early days here.’
‘So what happens next?’
‘He’s going to be handed over to the City of London Police’s Economic Crime Directorate. In due course, they will probably look to charge him under the Fraud Act of 2006. I expect that they will claim he is guilty of either false representation, failing to disclose information and or abuse of position. However, there’s a long way to go yet. There are still various different possible outcomes, and we want to optimise the result for Joshua – and for you.’
‘Should I go and see him?’
‘Not yet,’ the lawyer said firmly. ‘Apart from anything else, they’ll probably move him about a bit, depending on cell availability. You know what it’s like.’
‘Yes,’ she said icily, ‘I do.’
‘You don’t want to be rushing off on a wild-goose chase across London, especially if the media are on your tail.’
‘No, you’re right.’ Simpson thought about taking a slug of wine, and decided against it. Putting the glass on the table, she cut to the chase. ‘Will he go to jail?’
Definitely, thought Lucas. And for quite some time. There had never been a worse time to be caught out as a financial crook. All it needed now was for the American authorities to get involved and the silly sod would have hit the jackpot. Those buggers would quite happily lock you up forever, with an extra hundred years on top, just to make them feel better. ‘That is a possibility,’ he replied cautiously, ‘maybe even a probability. But that is not what you should be worrying about now.’
‘No? What should I be worrying about?