Chapter 13 Accelerating
Gertie aims to get Gill up to speed
The fraud problem at Winstone's Bank had suddenly turned into a major issue affecting both banks, including Standhope Winter.
At the back end of the previous year, Jake's company, SWN contractors, had detected that Winstone's assets were being used to speculate on foreign futures markets; when profits were being transferred to other bank accounts and the transactions deleted; where the speculative investments were lost, the losses were made up by transfers from 'dead accounts', accounts with assets that had had no transactions for several years. SWN's computer department within Winstone's had noticed these unusual transactions but not who the culprit was but as soon as increased monitoring on bank computer users was introduced, the transactions suddenly stopped as the culprit must have suspected the increased investigation.
Somehow, the fraudster at Winstone's had managed to turn the tables of defence into attack. He or she, Gertie had not been given any specific details, had managed to persuade the directors to call an emergency general meeting of the board of Winstone's after which the bank launched a takeover bid for Standhope Winter.
At the same time, SWN's computer, security and print departments were closed by Winstone's and the equipment left in place was illegally used by the bank. Jake had sent a 'cease and desist' letter with regard to use of equipment owned by SWN as well as taken Winstone's to court over breach of contract, but that would take months to resolve. This meant that Jake no longer had eyes and ears on what was going on in Winstone's Bank.
As both banks were once a single family-owned business that split in the 1890s to concentrate in separate financial markets, one in London, one in Istanbul, they remained private limited companies. Their owners were mostly wealthy people represented by trust funds belonging to family members, and over the years both banks had also attracted investments from institutions that took little part in decision-making but were happy to leave their funds in the hands of the bank directors which consistently resulted in high levels of returns. Also, the shareholders of both banks, and its sister bank in South America were mostly made up of the same family members who long ago surrendered their proxies to standing board members.
Gertie heard from Jake about this twist in the fraud investigation, which focused attention away from the fraud to defending the independent of the banks, and that only a selected set of Winstone's directors had been summoned to the EGM who dominated the decision to amalgamate the banks in a hostile takeover were taken. The constitutions of the three banks that broke from the original Weinstein's bank was that although the shareholders of the private banks were basically the same family members, the directors of each company were completely separate to ensure that each bank operated independently even though they cooperated on many projects.
Jake had never served on the boards of either London-based banks, even though his company SWN contractors were running computer, communications and print departments in both banks as well as all the other banks and financial institutions in the Square Mile. So he embarked on contacting Winstone's Bank shareholders to provide sufficient proxies to be used by a particular supporter on the Winstone's board, a Mr Jameson, to halt the proposed takeover. To ensure this majority, Jake had to fly to South America to persuade the Winter-Perez family to support the Winter family's interests, knowing they would drive a hard bargain, whether it be to sell the shares or even concede proxy votes.
***
Gill was frustrated by being unable to contact Jake while he was in South America and, when she spoke to the young girl Christina who was looking after the print room at the bank in Jake's absence she got answers which rocked her faith in Jake's apparent declaration of love for her.
In her enthusiastic reply to Gill's enquiry about Jake's whereabouts, Christina told Gill that Jake was firstly visiting a riding school in Dartmoor, where he was setting up free bonus holidays for all the SWN staff for that summer, and, after sorting that, he was then going to South America on business. When Gill asked about when Jake was due to return, Christina didn't think he'd return here as she was expecting, "if everything went according to plan", she would manage this department in future.
Gill was shocked. One of the two female partners in the pony-trekking venture that Jake organised for Gill and her family was indeed a very attractive woman called Isote who immediately focussed her attention on Jake, especially after confirming with Gill's children that Jake was not romantically attached to Gill.
At that time, early in their relationship, Gill and Jake were not yet a couple and Jake did not seem to be attracted to the woman. Admittedly, during supper the female partners did ask Gill's advice as a merchant bank manager about their business set-up and both Gill and Jake stressed that they thought their venture was underfunded and would take too long to make a profit that the chances of survival were much reduced.
Maybe Isote had followed up the discussion with Jake about refinancing, but if that was the case, Gill as the banker would have been the logical person to contact, not the print room operator. It looked like Jake had arranged some kind of block booking arrangement that would help out Isote's company but at what cost and benefit to Jake's print department at Standhope Winter? And it seemed that Jake had moved on from the print room, Gill thought, and had he moved out to Devon to work for the pony trekking duo?
Gill's disappointment was starting to turn to anger over Jake's possible disloyalty, particularly since they had made love only the weekend before and Gill jaded admitted she was falling in lovve with him.
***
Gertie spent a lively lunch with her dear goddaughter Belinda Wheatier, who was a granddaughter of Gertie's late best friend Evie.
"I asked you to lunch, Bee," Gertie began after placing their meal order and pouring their tea, "because I want you to shadow Miss Gillian Moorhouse, over the next month or two to help her get properly integrated into the family."
"Who's Miss Moorhouse?" Belinda asked, "and why does she need integrating into your family?"
"She's a senior manager at Standhope Winter, particularly well thought of, being earmarked for Jerry's job when he retires," Gertie said, adding, "and she's Jake's girlfriend."
"Oh my," Belinda said, her eyebrows raised, "Jake with a girlfriend? Good for him! How long has this been going on?"
"Only a couple of months, Bee, but he's been carrying a torch for her for years and it now looks serious on both sides, so I'm crossing my fingers for wedding bells in a year or even sooner if possible."
