'It would.'
'So they needed to keep these matters off the books, or their profit picture would suck and people would stop buying their stock.'
'Gracelessly put, perhaps,' Marty said, 'but not inaccurate.'
'And the SPEs were their solution.'
'Better,' Marty said. 'They could sell one operation or another, that had a lot of debt, to the SPE and show it on their books as income.'
'And that's legal?'
'Remember what I said about conditions?'
'Essentially that the SPE needed to be independent of the creating company.'
'Yep. These weren't. They were owned mostly by Rowley and Eisen, or Mrs. Rowley, or Mrs. Eisen, people like that. And the money they raised to create the SPEs was guaranteed by Kinergy stock.'
'Including the three percent?'
'Yes.'
'So they weren't independent of Kinergy.'
'Nye, and, as they developed, some of these outfits began have interests antithetical to Kinergy's, but very beneficial to Rowley and Eisen. You want to hear how?'
'Jesus Christ, no,' I said. 'I never want to have this discusion again.'
'Which is why you are not a world-class CPA.'
'Thankfully,' I said. 'Isn't there somebody supposed to approve stuff like this?'
'Board of directors,' Marty said.
'They approved?'
'The Kinergy board of directors, as far as I can see, would have approved compulsory pederasty if urged by Trent and Bernie.'
'Isn't there any outside accounting?'
'There is, one of the best accounting firms in the Northeast. Kinergy pays them about three million a year.'
'So much for them,' I said. 'And where was our man Coop in all of this?' I said.
'Yonder somewhere gazing at a star,' Marty said.
'You don't think he knew?'
'I don't think he wanted to know. A company like Kinergy is out there on a shoeshine and a smile. The way they do business they have to increase earnings every year, so their stock will look good and the investment banks and big brokerage will suck around them.'
'So he looked the other way?'
'I don't think he even had to,' Marty said. 'These deals are very complicated. The flowcharts look like they were created by Hieronymus Bosch. I had trouble figuring some of it out.'
'Holy mackerel,' I said.
'And,' Marty said, 'Coop's probably not that smart.'
'And him a CEO,' I said.
'Disheartening, isn't it,' Marty said.
'Is there trouble ahead?'
'For Kinergy? You better believe it,' Marty said.
'Are they going to go under?'
'Absolutely,' Marty said. 'And pretty soon.'
'Any indication that Eisen knows this, or Rowley did?'
Marty smiled at me.
'They both owned tons of Kinergy stock,' he said.
'How nice for them,' I said.
'Rowley was selling it as fast as he could without causing a stir. Eisen still is.'
'A lot of money?'
'Yes.'
'A hundred dollars?' I said.
'No. That's a lot of money to you. A lot of money to them is millions.
'Millions?' I said.
