"Special Agent Stuart Thomas and this is my partner, Special Agent Glenn Woods. We're with the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force."
We shook hands and I led them into my office and offered them both a chair.
"I just spoke to my Chief Financial Officer, Keith Shepherd. He says you had a warrant to search his office and to seize his computer and business cell phone. Can you please tell me what this is about?"
The two men sat in the respective chairs and Special Agent Thomas cleared his throat. After adjusting his jacket, he glanced at me, his expression intense.
"We've received information that led to a Federal Judge issuing a search warrant for Mr. Shepherd's computer and cell. According to this information, MBS has been manipulating its accounts to avoid taxes for the past five years and hiding the money in illegal offshore accounts."
"That's impossible. We have been audited for the past five years by the IRS and each year, have been given a clean bill of health."
"Apparently, there was coordination with an officer in the IRS office in Manhattan. Here's the warrant."
Thomas placed a document on the desk in front of me. I glanced at it, noting that the warrant mentioned Keith by name and position and also mentioned several other people, whose names were redacted. It detailed actions Keith had taken to direct those working for him to falsify accounts.
"We wanted to ask you a few questions about Mr. Shepherd and his work for MBS," Thomas said.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to speak to my lawyer before I can answer any questions."
"Fine," Thomas said. "You could come down to the Field Office on Monday and meet with us, with your lawyer present."
The two men stood, and Thomas handed me his business card.
"Call my office to arrange a time to come in."
"I'll do that."
They left and I sat down behind my desk, my gut in a knot. Jenna came running in after they'd left.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Macintyre. I had no idea they were even in the building. They came in while I was in the washroom and--"
"Don't worry, Jenna," I said and waved my hand. "It's not your fault. They had a warrant to search Keith's office. There was nothing we could do. Go back to your desk. I'll take care of this. Send Mr. Sullivan down to my office when he arrives."
"I will," she said and left my office, closing the door behind her.
Just then, my cell chimed, and I checked it, remembering that I had promised to meet her and Steph for dinner and drinks at the Ritz. I begged off and told her something came up. She didn't need to worry about any of this until I knew more myself.
I sat for a moment with my head in my hands but glanced up when there came a knock at my door. Keith came in, shaking his head when his eyes met mine.
"I swear, Josh, I had no idea about any of this," he said and sat on the chair across from me, his face pale. "This is complete and utter bullshit. We haven't been evading taxes or laundering money. It's crazy. It's like we've been set up or something."
"I know," I said. "I'm thinking the same thing. Someone set us up and I think the hack has something to do with it. They hacked our servers and then probably used the hack to try to implicate us. We need access to those servers and all our data on the cloud. That should prove that we were above-board with all our financial deeds."
"Our hack was part of a larger attempt," Keith said. "I spoke with my guys in IT. Several other big news companies were also targeted, although not all of them were successfully breached. Whoever did this used pretty basic techniques to gain access to our email system, but then they were pretty damn expert in what they did after that. Our data was all corrupted. It had to be someone inside who could access our cloud data and then upload corrupted data. That's what the Feds got hold of. It's manufactured, Josh, to make us look like we were evading taxes and laundering money. But it should clear up fast, too, as long as we can prove that our system was hacked as part of a larger attempt to wipe out financial data and upload false data."
"Damn," I said. "What's with these hackers? So, we weren't the main target? It wasn't personal?"
"Who can say? Until we know who the hackers were, or who they were working for, it's impossible to tell. Trying to hack other news organizations might be cover to hit us without it being seen to be personal."
"In the meantime?" I asked, closing the file in front of me. "What do we do?"
"Cooperate with the Feds. We have no other choice, but we've done nothing wrong, Josh. I've done nothing wrong. You know you can trust me. We've been friends since college."
"I know I can trust you," I said, and I meant it. Keith was not only my CFO, he was a friend. "Let's just wait to see what our lawyers say about how to handle this. We'll do what they say. That's why we pay them the big bucks."
"Exactly," Keith said and exhaled, sounding relieved that I was being reasonable. Of course, there was no reason not to suspect he or someone in his department was cheating, but he was a friend and I trusted my instincts.
I hoped I wasn't wrong to do so.