It was a perfect evening for a high-society event on Mr. Esposito's yacht. He had docked in the South Hamptons for this particular party, even though it wasn't his favorite locale. The main reason he'd purchased the 120-footer was to entertain his wealthy business connections and this is where a couple of them were living for the season.
Francesco "Frank" Esposito definitely knew how to host a party. Everything, including the catering and entertainment, were top-notch without seeming garish or pretentious. His date for the evening, Mia, was gorgeous in her little black dress, yet quite outgoing and charming. She was always at his side, normally with one of his arms around her slim waist. Even Anthony, Frank's head accountant, couldn't keep his eyes off her as he sat alone at the bar. It was partly because she was the sexiest woman on the boat that night, but mostly because she was his wife.
This bizarre scene made Anthony think back on how this all came to be. He had been working as an accountant and financial advisor for the Esposito family's businesses for almost eight years. They owned and operated fourteen auto dealerships in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and were obviously successful. For the first four or five years, he wasn't privy to the real books, so he thought everything was above-board.
Once he moved up the company ladder, he became aware that the purpose of the dealerships was as much about money laundering as it was about legitimate business. Based on the people and organizations they were laundering money for, he knew he'd probably gotten himself into a very sticky situation. If things ever went south, he doubted he could even turn state's evidence due to their well-known connections to powerful politicians, judges and police commissioners.
But since he was unusually well-compensated for his work and discretion, he made the best of the situation and did a great job for the family. He was even rewarded off the books with hefty bonuses, but was never told where the funds came from.
Aside from making great money for a CPA, another perk was the events to which he and his wife, Mia, were invited to attend. It wasn't unusual for these parties to be held on private yachts, in part because one of the owner's cousins was a yacht broker in Miami. He assumed the yacht business was every bit as legitimate as the car dealerships.
The parties were enjoyable for Anthony, even though he'd never been the party type, but Mia absolutely loved them and became well-known in their circle. Her bubbly, genuine personality made her a hit with the wives, and her stunning good looks surely helped win over the husbands. He noticed the not-so-subtle stares and off-color, whispered comments from these men, but he was in no position to call anyone out for it.
Anthony knew he'd married out of his league and occasionally wondered if the only reason they'd been introduced by the Espositos was for her to keep tabs on him. Either way, she was gorgeous and had been a good wife for four years, so he never dug too deeply into that conspiracy theory.
Once Anthony had amassed sufficient capital from his more-than-adequate salary, he began looking for ways to let his money work for him. Real estate investing, specially house-flipping, was a hot commodity in the early to mid 2000's, His father had been a construction contractor, so he probably had better than average knowledge of the business compared to many of those getting into it. He started out small with one house at a time and tried to resell them in less than thirty days
He quickly developed a network of subcontractors hungry for work and was doing better than expected. The lure of quick success is often the downfall of investors, however. Instead of sticking to a small portfolio of one or two homes, he was keeping several in the pipeline at once, depending on funds from upcoming sales to purchase new properties.
When the mortgage crisis hit in the late 2000's, he was caught severely overexposed. With far fewer buyers able to obtain mortgage loans, he found himself stuck with six homes he couldn't sell without taking a loss on them, and the payments were quickly depleting his cash reserves. He needed cash to to sell the properties at a loss but still pay off the notes.
Estimating he'd need about $250,000 to get out from under those homes, he decided the only way to avoid bankruptcy was to ask Frank for help. He knew the Espositos were not the type people you'd ever want to default on, but he had no intention of doing so. If he and Mia lived modestly, they should be able to repay a loan within a couple of years with the salary he was bringing in.
When he sat down with Frank to ask for the loan, the conversation didn't go quite as he expected. It certainly wasn't a huge sum of money given the size of the Esposito fortune, but Frank had his reservations.
"So, Anthony, let me get this straight. I trust you with millions of dollars of my money and you can't even keep your little side business solvent? Why should I even trust you anymore?" Frank asked sternly.
"Sir, I'd never risk your money like that. You can have anyone you trust check the accounts any time you'd like and they'll confirm that. We even moved cash out of certain banks that seemed to be putting themselves in danger with risky loan practices before this banking crisis even began," Anthony assured him.
"I plan to do just that. I'm not accusing you of anything, but I'd like one of my brother's money guys to do a little audit just to ease my mind, okay?"
"I'll be happy to help them, Sir."
"So assuming you haven't been fucking around with my money too, let's talk about this little loan you need. What kind of collateral can you offer me, besides your continued good health, if you know what I mean?" Frank asked while including an obvious threat.
"Well, that's the thing, Frank. Most everything I had was in cash and those devalued properties. I own my home, but with the real estate market taking a shit, I don't have any equity in it either. I was really just hoping you could just withhold a big portion of my pay every month until it's paid back."
Mr. Esposito silently contemplated the deal for a minute and replied, "So, as you know, I'm not a banker, so my terms may be a little 'unconventional', you might say. The way I see it, the only things you have of value are this job, which you could lose at any time if you fuck up, and your beautiful wife who, by the way, doesn't deserve to be put through any of your bullshit."
"So here's what I'll offer you: I'll loan you the money you need at a ten percent interest rate. If you do anything to get yourself fired or try to skip out on this loan, I don't think I need to tell you how 'unhealthy' a decision that would be. But since I'm not in the personal loan business, let's make this deal interesting enough for me to even bother with it."
Anthony had no idea what he was hinting at, but assumed it wasn't going to be good.
Frank continued, "The way I see it, your only collateral of any value to me is Mia. So until I'm repaid in full, she'll be my 'date', if you will, to my client events whenever I need her. Probably not more than a couple of times a month, as you know. It's very difficult for someone in my position to trust any woman enough to date, must less hang out with the people I associate with. I already trust your wife and my clients seem to love her."
