Robbie's Scheme

by Justin Haines

  Valuing loyalty over all else is how a crime family behaves, not Wall Street.

  “So, what kind of stuff do you do around the fund?” Maya asks delicately. She doesn’t want to spook Jalen and have him clam up now.

  “Whatever Robbie needs me to.”

  “But, like day-to-day, what are you in charge of?”

  “Oh, I have my hand in lots of pots. Robbie tasks me with overseeing our venture capital investments in start-ups and most of our long-term stock purchases. I also listen to private equity proposals for us to become involved in.”

  “Do you guys do a lot of business in those areas?”

  “Not really. It’s becoming few and far between as it becomes impossible to find the next great guaranteed investment. Unfortunately, companies aren’t walking around with posters declaring their future growth and earnings.”

  Maya thinks that he’s trying to make a joke, but it falls flat. She believes it’s really the kind of strategy Jalen’s walking into these meetings with. With his lack of formal business education, what other strategies could he know?

  “So, where does the fund make most of its money from, if it’s none of those major areas?”

  “That’s what Luka and Al are for. I don’t see any of their trades, but Robbie tells me Luka’s high-frequency stuff makes a killing for us. I don’t understand all of it, but he says owning a stock for only a few seconds and moving it on a different market can make us like half a percent. Doing that three-hundred times a day for the sixty-five or so days the market is open each quarter adds up to quite the tidy profit.”

  “Does that math really add up?” Maya asks as she tries to do it in her head.

  Math has never been her strong suit, so she’s hoping the Wall Street banker can help. But as he said, Jalen doesn’t belong there and math isn’t a strength for him either. Before either takes their shoes off to start counting their toes, she decides to move on. She can circle back with a calculator and business reporter later.

  “And how does Al factor into this? I haven’t heard his name from Robbie before.” Racking her brain, Maya can’t remember John or Gilbert mentioning an Al to her either when laying out their suspicions of how Robbie’s pulling it off.

  “He’s our head trader. He makes all of the stock purchases that Luka’s machines don’t.”

  “But where do those purchases come from if you aren’t finding any good investment ideas?”

  “Well, sometimes Robbie’s takes me up on my advice without telling me. Or there’s been a few times where I never even decided to bring him something, but he said it popped up in my analysts’ emails or requested reports, and he looked into it further.”

  “It popped up in their emails?”

  “Yeah, Robbie has high-tech surveillance set up for everything relating to Merry Men Financial. He can access all of our emails and gets summaries for any keywords he wants.”

  Good to know, Maya thinks. She’ll have to carefully consider everything she sends him going forward. “Isn’t that a little creepy? Like an invasion of your privacy?”

  “Hey, it’s minting us a fortune, so no one’s going to complain.”

  Taking a deep breath to compose her thoughts and avoid offending Jalen yet again, Maya tries to come up with a summary of this conversation. She knows it won’t look good when written down in the paper.

  “So, that’s it? Robbie’s a billionaire because of some algorithm Luka works on, email surveillance, and ideas his first instinct is to reject when you present them to him?”

  “No, Robbie’s a billionaire because of his gut. Most of the stocks Al buys are from Robbie’s recommendation directly. He just has these great ideas before anyone else. Somehow, he can always tell when a stock’s about to shoot up and knows to sell before it drops. Normally, he doesn’t even tell anyone he’s investing in it. We only find out after Al sells it and Robbie does a victory lap with the profits.”

  “Are you saying Robbie’s stock picks are essentially secret?”

  “It’s normal in our business. No one wants to share their good ideas. Wyatt makes sure we fill out all the necessary disclosure forms and everything else is between Robbie and Al. I usually only find out about Robbie’s home runs when he brings them up in a pitch meeting. Oh, I guess that’s another big part of my job.”

  “Pitch meetings?”

  “Yeah, for new investors in the fund. Robbie likes to make people come to us and beg us to take their money, but every so often, he sets his sights on someone, and we try to convince them to invest with us. Lately, Robbie’s been trusting me to run a lot of these meetings. It’s my chance to try and bring more capital under our umbrella. As Robbie always says, the fund’s dying if it isn’t growing.”

  “Robbie says your fund has to grow to stay alive? Isn’t that what the investments are for? The profits should be sustaining you.”

  “Like I said, I don’t understand everything about what we do. I just do as Robbie tells me and he rewards me for it. I’m a good worker, Maya. I don’t try to question him. When he says we need new investors, I try to bring them in.”

  “But what kind of investment fund always needs new investments?”

  Maya knows the answer to her question. It’s an obvious one. But she’s trying to figure out if Jalen knows the truth and is covering for Robbie, or if he’s gullible enough to think this is all normal.

  “Hey, it’s the fastest way to grow and be the biggest in the business. And with Robbie’s gut, we’re always the best for return on investment. We just need better size. You know what they say, if you’re not first, you’re last.”

  Maya takes a deep breath as she processes this and decides not to press Jalen any further. The New York City skyline is appearing on the horizon, meaning she won’t have much more time alone with him. She doesn’t want him to be agitated or suspicious as she prepares to move in for the kill.

  She knows how valuable this conversation could be for her, but she doesn’t want Jalen to realize it.

  After looking back out the helicopter and reaggravating her nausea, she tries to take a few more deep breaths with her eyes focused on Jalen’s legs. Sitting on her hands so he doesn’t notice any nervous shakes, Maya tries to make her voice sound as casual as possible.

  “I’m toying with the idea of writing a profile on Robbie. I want him to get more recognition for all the amazing work he does and the ways he gives back. Would you be cool with this conversation being on the record, so I can give people a little glimpse into where our wonderful philanthropist gets his money from?”

  Turning his head away from the skyline and back inside the helicopter, Jalen stares at Maya for a moment as he appears to consider her proposal.

  “I don’t really remember everything I said. Are you planning to quote me directly from this conversation?”

  “I don’t think so. It would be more of a background to the stuff directly about Robbie. Just painting the picture for my readers.”

  Maya’s willing to offer him anonymity for her to be able to use this information on the fund’s structure and apparent source of capital, but she won’t bring that up unless Jalen turns her down. Her first choice is to use a couple of these quotes. It would do wonders for the credibility of her article if she can attach his name to the claims she’ll be making.

  “Yeah, I guess that’s fine.” Jalen shrugs as he turns back to admire the approaching skyline. “I don’t think I have anything else to say though. We’ll be landing soon, do you want a ride home? There’s a driver waiting for me.”

  Maya smiles but shakes her head. She genuinely appreciates the offer but after two days of investigating, she wants to go straight to her newsroom and put all of her thoughts to paper. Plus, if her editor hasn’t gone home yet, she wants to give him and legal a heads up on this article. The more warning they have to clear it, the better she hopes her odds will be that it doesn’t get buried.

  As the helicopter hovers over the landing pad, she decides to push her luck and try
for one last question before Jalen opens the door and jumps out.

  “Do you have a lot of your own money invested with Robbie?”

  Jalen turns back and smiles. It’s not exactly a friendly smile. It’s more pitying, as if the answer’s the most obvious thing in the world.

  “Of course. All of it. I trust everything I have with Robbie.”

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Maya slurps her coffee down as she rides the elevator up to the newsroom. She’s grateful her editor sent out an email pushing this morning’s meeting back two hours. After two sleep-deprived days full of activities, Maya needed the extra sleep this morning.

  When the elevator doors open to the newsroom, Maya steps out into a chaotic scene. In every direction she looks, there’s a flurry of activity. The business section is the loudest and craziest, with the financial reporters yelling as if the world’s ending and several journalists from other sections running all around them. She notices one of her fellow political reporters, Selena, speeding away from the section and rushes over to her.

  “Who died?” Maya asks half-jokingly, partly to see if that’s actually what’s causing the scene.

  “Our economy,” Selena says solemnly.

  Selena doesn’t look like she’s joining Maya in joking. The expression on her face is far more serious, forcing Maya to confront that whatever’s causing this excitement in the office isn’t a laughing matter.

  “What’s going on? I’ve been sort of off the grid since Tuesday.”

  “Sorry, I’m being dramatic. Kirkendall Financial is the only one dead so far. But their bankruptcy announcement last night is plummeting Masonville Bank’s stock below a dollar this morning. It just feels like the entire economy is dying with them.”

  “Why? What’s causing it?”

  “They’re blaming some bad tech investments and some sort of fraud over in Asia. I think you can just chalk it up to Kirkendall’s general incompetence. But the Street’s not taking the news well. The DOW is down over a thousand points and the NASDAQ has lost almost nine percent. Futures for the Asian markets are taking the news even worse.”

  “What kind of fraud?” Maya asks as she thinks about Robbie and POTCH. Could he be tied up in this?

  “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask the business guys about that after our meeting. I only know what’s going on and how the Mayor’s reacting. Spoiler alert, it’s not well. Apparently, he took a bunch of donations from some Malaysians who might be involved. But we’re running late, so I can’t talk to anyone else right now. Let me know if you hear anything from your sources after this meeting.”

  With Selena pulling her hand forward, Maya follows her into their editor’s office for the morning meeting. She quickly senses that the room is even more tense than normal. The chairs are all taken already, but her editor doesn’t seem in the mood to wait for them to find a place. Instead of being in his usual spot sitting on his desk, their editor is pacing around the edges of the room. As soon as they enter, he moves to close the door behind them.

  “I’m hearing everyone’s quitting the campaign trail to head back to Washington. Consider your current assignments canceled.”

  Maya follows Selena to the far side of the room and props herself up on the windowsill, it’s the best option for her exhausted body with all of the chairs occupied. It’s also an easy spot for her to grab the room’s attention and ask a question from. But for now, she’s content to listen and play catch up.

  “I don’t know yet if this is just another flash crash or the start of a recession,” her editor continues. “But the reactions from the business section are making me worry. Two failed banks could lead to a wide variety of issues.”

  “What do you want us to do?” Selena asks.

  “Money’s the name of the game now. If anyone has a financial angle to any of their current stories, lean into it. Heavily.”

  “Are there any specific assignments?”

  “With everyone down in D.C., our Washington bureau will take over the political coverage. I want you guys assisting the business team and pounding the pavement down on Wall Street.”

  Thinking about working with the financial guys makes Maya’s eyes roll.

  She instantly regrets it. Her perch by the window has her on display to the room and doesn’t give her any option to hide. She hopes her editor didn’t notice.

  “We need to turn up some stories on corporate America, it’s what our readers will be looking for now. Hopefully, we can help them find someone to hold responsible for this, unlike in 2008.”

  “How does this impact the political stories we were working on?” Maya asks. “Will we still be publishing anything from the last few days?”

  “Weren’t you listening? All of the campaigns are suspended. They recognize this is a bigger deal and the pages in our paper need to reflect the same. I’ll review your assignments when anything starts to change. I imagine this will be a fluid situation as everyone assesses the extent of the damage. If there’s no need for any bailouts or other emergency legislation, I expect Redman, Lola, and the others will be back in Iowa and New Hampshire soon.”

  Maya nods in response. A part of her likes what she’s hearing. She’ll miss covering Redman and the campaign trail since it’s what she knows and loves, but this sounds like the perfect environment for the Star to publish her piece on Robbie.

  “If there are any investment bankers you use for quotes, call them. Let’s figure out what they know and what they surmise about all of this. I want to tell our readers what’s going to come next before it happens.”

  “If we happened to already have a pretty big Wall Street story, can we keep working on it?”

  “How big of a story?”

  “Big,” Maya assures the room.

  Her editor smiles, happy to hear one of his people is working on some breaking news that could steal a spot on the front-page amidst an economic meltdown.

  “It won’t be my call, but I imagine your story just became a lot more important and its prominence in the paper will reflect that. For now, the Star can’t afford to fall behind on this. I want everyone to head over to the business editor right away. Ask him where you can be of help. They’re running the show now.”

  The whole room starts nodding their heads and jumps up from their chairs. As the crowd bottlenecks at the door, Maya and Selena realize their mistake in crossing the room and sitting by the window. Everyone’s eager to be the first ones over to business, not wanting to get stuck reporting on whatever story’s at the bottom of the priority list.

  Near the back of the line, Maya’s happy she doesn’t need to worry about asking for an assignment. She feels sorry for Selena, not having a story to pitch. It’s bad enough they’ll be in unfamiliar territory, none of them want to wind up at the bottom of the pecking order amongst their own people.

  Just before Maya squeezes her way through the door frame, she hears her editor yell for everyone’s attention. In response, the flow of bodies pushes backward, forcing Maya back into his office.

  “From now on, no one wastes any time on interviews without editorial approval beforehand. Understand?”

  While her colleagues go back to nodding like bobble-heads, Maya ignores her boss and tries to push back out of the room. She has no plans to seek anyone’s approval for her interviews. She’ll do whatever she determines to be best for her stories, regardless of an editor’s opinion on time management.

  As they travel across the newsroom, Selena’s purposeful walk helps her pass a few older, slower, reporters and catch up with Maya. She’s happy to let Selena step in front of her. It’ll give her a better assignment and help Maya’s chances of avoiding having to report on something else while pitching her story on Robbie.

  “I wonder what they’ll assign us,” Selena says as they wait outside the business editor’s jampacked office. “I hope it’s nothing boring or full of math. I signed up for politics, not numbers.”

  “I’m just hoping they don’t make m
e pull double-duty while I finish my article. It’s definitely financial so I want to be spared any of the grunt assignments they’ll be doling out.”

  “Lucky you. Need any help on it?”

  “Sorry, already working with a coauthor. He’s out in the field today. You’ll be my first call if I need any more help.”

  Once a few people clear out of the office, Maya lets Selena slip in first. As far as she’s concerned, the fewer people in the room for her pitch, the better.

  She decides that she isn’t ready to reveal her bombshell story to an editor she doesn’t trust, especially after hearing Ralph’s accusations of stories being killed. Replacing Selena in the office, she instead informs the business editor of a personal relationship with someone at Merry Men Financial Management and that she already has a story almost ready to print. To seal the deal, she also insists that she can score an in-person interview there tomorrow. With so much going on, nobody bothers to argue with her.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  John tightens his tie and checks his watch as he waits for Sally Clayton, a prosecutor representing the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to finish speaking. He’s not sure if the clock behind the judge’s desk is one of the old-fashioned kind with the obnoxious ticking sound or if the ticking clock is only in his head. Either way, it’s distracting him from Sally’s speech.

  But honestly, he’s not really trying to listen. John’s sick of hearing her lay out all of the reasons why they shouldn’t arrest Robbie. As far as he’s concerned, they have ample evidence to move in on Robbie and end his fraud. He’s sick of people getting cold feet when it comes time to deliver justice.

  The ticking noise continues to grow louder as Sally talks about a thin margin for error. John’s a man who trusts his gut. And right now, his gut’s screaming about Robbie’s guilt. More evidence will come out when they arrest him and search all of his properties. Plus, he believes the news of Robbie’s arrest will make informants chattier.