The next morning and thanks to a delay on the subway, I arrived in the office only 5 minutes after the Wall St Market had opened.
As I walked across the floor and people started to stand up and applaud me. I stopped by the desk of one of the other traders and said,

“What is this for?”

“Don’t you know?”

“Know what? If I knew I’d hardly be asking you, now would I?”

“Your book is already up sixteen and a half.”

I was flabbergasted. It meant that my trading book was already up sixteen point five million. It must have been the trades I executed on Tokyo the previous day.

“Shit!” I said under my breath and hurried to my desk.

Sure enough, the trades I’d executed on the Nikkei the previous day had netted the bank Sixteen point five million dollars in profit. I let myself have a little smile as I looked at the figure.

---

My joy was short-lived as two people from the Compliance team arrived at my desk less than an hour later.

“Gordon, you need to come with us. There have been some questions raised about the trades you have been making recently.”

I knew better than to argue with these guys. After the Financial chaos of 2007/2008 everything we did was scrutinised far more closely than ever before.

“Sure. I have nothing to hide.”

As I followed them off the floor, I noticed that one person was grinning from ear to ear. That person was Adam Strong. He then had the temerity to wipe his hand over his throat mimicking a throat cut. Then he started laughing out loud.

For three hours without even a comfort break, I was grilled on some holdings I had in a mutual fund. I knew that I was in the clear but it would take a long time to prove that.

When they’d run out of questions, I tried to clear things up.

“In effect, you are saying that I did those trades for personal gain?”

“That is what is alleged, yes,” answered the Chief Compliance Officer, Richard Evanson IV.

“When I joined the bank, I made a declaration of all my financial holdings. Is that correct?” I countered.

“Yes, we have that here.”

“Good. In that declaration was a sum of close on Fifteen Hundred Pounds in a Fund that primarily invested in Japanese Small and Medium sized companies. Correct?”

“Yes. We know all that.”

“I just want to make sure that we both have the same understanding.”

He didn’t answer so I carried on.

“That fund has since I made the initial investment passed through eight different fund managers and that I have as is Bank Policy made no deposits or withdrawals on that fund since I joined the bank. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“And am I right in saying that also according to Bank rules, as long as I don’t make any transactions on that fund for a year after I leave the bank I am also in compliance?”

“Yes.”

“Next, are we agreed that although that fund is not administered by the bank in London and that I have had no communication with the team managing that fund that could be construed as either giving or receiving of data relating to that fund?”

“Yes. We looked at all your phone calls and emails going back a year.”

I let myself have a little smile.

“Finally, do we agree that my recent trades on the Nikkei were legally performed. In that, I issued standard orders to our Japanese office.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Good. So, what you want to know is basically how I concluded that making those specific trades would make a me lot of money outside any bonus that would be contractually due to me from the bank?”

“We think you had inside information or at least the person making these allegations thinks you had which is illegal. The profit from those trades is… shall we say abnormal to say the least.”

“I think I know who that person is but let me show you the data I used.”

I proceeded to reveal all the data I’d used to reach the conclusion that taking a position on three Japanese Companies would prove very profitable in the short term for the bank.
I finished by showing them the results that were posted by those companies the previous day after the Nikkei Exchange had closed for the day. This was the first time that I’d seen them. I was surprised at how good they were. That was why the end result was so good.

Finally, at close to 5pm, I was let out of the compliance office. I was basically told to go home and not come into the office until the investigation had concluded. I was given an escort just to make sure that I did nothing to affect the investigation like deleting data or phone calls or even removing documents from the office.

On my way back to my Desk, I found a cardboard box and collected my personal belongings from my desk and made my way ‘doing the walk of shame’ over the floor to the door. Many people mouthed kind words to me as I passed their desk. Only Adam Strong was laughing and then he did thumbs down at me and let out a ‘Yes’ so that everyone else could hear.

They already knew that he’d stop at nothing to get to be Chief Trader and I was in his way. Well, not any more I wasn’t not, that I wanted that job anyway. I was fed up telling him and everyone else that I didn’t that but had it made no difference. He assumed that it was my way of bluffing and that I wanted it all the time.

---

As soon as I arrived home, I called my local lawyer and arranged to see him the following day. With that done and out of the way, I called the managing agent for my apartment and told him that I’d be moving out a few months early. Once I got through to him that I would pay the lease up to the agreed end date he agreed to come and inspect the place a week the following Wednesday. That would give me time to pack up all I wanted and get it shipped home.

All the time I was making these calls a number of people were trying to reach me. I just ignored them all. I was not really interested in what they had to say at the moment.

I spent most of the night collating the data I had on my trades and all the publicly available references that I used when making my investment decisions. It was fortunate that I made copious records of all my trades and the background behind them, just for this very occasion. I’d done this since well before the problems of 2006/7. It was my insurance policy. Now it was time to cash it in and a lot more.

---

Just before Midday the next day, I walked into my Lawyers office in the City for my appointment. I was ready to strike back at Adam Strong and his lies. I knew that the SEC would not be interested in my holdings. They had been made aware of them before I took the job in the first place. I’d undertaken not to make any further trades on that account until at least a year after I finished my term in New York. I had a letter from them confirming this.

I spent two very long and exhausting days with my lawyers getting everything down in a form that made it clear that I had not done any insider trading nor had I made any trades that benefitted me directly through my existing holdings. It was all done on a timeline basis. In the insistence of my Lawyer I even included everything I’d done that weekend but I didn’t mention meeting Maureen. It wasn’t essential as I had the receipts from my Hotel, the Strasburg Railway and Nieman Marcus as well as the receipt for my rental car but it painted a picture of someone enjoying the holiday weekend and not acting in the least suspiciously.

When we were done, the Lawyers filed suit for wrongful dismissal on my behalf. This was just a covering salvo in case they did fire me. I wasn’t going back to work there in any event. It was time for me to not only leave the bank, but also to leave New York and head back to the South Lakes and retire but I was darned sure that they were not going to ruin my reputation in shoving me out the door.

Then I went home.

I managed to resist just abandoning ship and getting the next flight to London even though seeing the planes taking off from La Guardia were very tempting indeed.

---

By the following Sunday, most of what I wanted to ship home had been packed up. The shipping company were going to collect it the following day so I decided to take a few hours off and go for a walk.

I’d only got as far as the end of the block when I saw Maureen coming towards me. For an instant, I thought that I should not be seen with her but then I said to myself, I’ve done nothing wrong so to hell with it.

“Hi Maureen, I guess you were coming to see me?”

She didn’t look happy.

“Yes. I’ve been let go. Someone made it known that we were having a relationship. The word is that you are ‘toxic’. Anyone who had even the most remote of dealings with you is under investigation.”

That was bad news for her.

“Who instigated this?”

“Three guesses.”

“Adam? He or someone close to him must have seen you escorting me from the building just before the Holiday Weekend.”

She nodded her head.

“We have done nothing wrong. I don’t even know your phone number so it sucks all round. What are you going to do now?”

Maureen looked rather sad.

“I think I’ll have to move back home. Once word gets out I’ll find it impossible to get a job in the city that pays anywhere near as good as this one.”

I nodded my head in agreement.
“Adam is probably contacting all his prep school and frat buddies as we speak to make sure of that. As it is a Sunday, my guess is that he will be at his Country Club on Martha’s Vineyard doing that very thing.”

Then I added,
“I’m going to a small café for lunch. Do you want to join me? If some people think we have a relationship then why don’t we have one? You have been let go and to all intents and purposes I have as well.”

Maureen took a step backwards.

“Eh?”

“Maureen, you are a lovely person and … you didn’t run a mile when I told you about the other side to my life. So, what about it eh?”

She stopped to her drowning fish impersonation after a few seconds.

“Wow! I didn’t expect that. I was very down after getting told late on Friday about my job. All I could think about was telling you. Now you are asking me out.”

“That is true. I normally do things after a lot of thought and consideration but what I just said felt right. I enjoyed our time together last weekend. Your son seemed to like me as well.”

Maureen smiled back at me.

“Why not eh? It is not as if there are men queueing up around the block wanting to take me out so… Yes, why not, I don’t have anything else to do at the moment.”

She put her arm in mine and we headed for the Café to have lunch.

---

After lunch Maureen helped me with some more packing until it was time for her to go and collect her son from a friend’s house.

I took her in my arms and kissed her.

“You are a strange one Gordon McLeish. Very quiet and reserved in the office but quite different when you let your guard down.”

I must have gone red in the face.

“I have to admit, that I like this version of Gordon a lot more than the work one.”

The act of my lawyers filing a wrongful dismissal suit seemed to spur the bank into action. They really didn’t want the bad publicity that such a case would attract especially as by their own admission, I had done nothing wrong.

By the following Wednesday, they offered a settlement that was accepted by my lawyers. The downside was that I had to sign a gag order on the amount of the settlement. I’d managed to get the scope reduced considerably because as I rightly said that if I was to be called to testify in a court of law, I could not refuse to speak because of the gag order.

When I returned home from my Lawyers I was feeling a lot better than I had been for over a week.
That feeling lasted until I opened the door to my apartment and I found a brown envelope waiting for me. It had obviously been pushed under my door while I was at my Lawyers. Which was strange as it had a stamp and my address and everything. Then I realised that it would not have fitted in my mailbox. The postal workers preferred small items as they all fitted into the mailbox that was in the entrance hall. Larger items such as this meant that they had to climb the stairs. Then I realised that my mind was rambling. The stress of the past week was obviously catching up with me.

I closed the door with my leg and walked over to my small kitchen table. I put the envelope down and stood looking at it as if it was an unexploded bomb. In the end, I took a deep breath and picked it up.

I only needed a few seconds to realise that the contents were pure dynamite. I put everything back into the envelope and left my apartment.

---

Half an hour later I was back at my lawyers. Dan Cooke, my attorney immediately saw exactly what I’d seen in the papers. After he’d made three copies of them, he gave me one and told me to go and put it in a safe deposit box somewhere. One copy he kept for himself and the other he couriered to his brother in Los Angeles. He knew the significance of the data that had been contained in the envelope.

Then he called the SEC and the FBI. We both knew that we could not sit on this a minute longer.

I’d only just returned from opening a safe deposit box at a bank not far from my old place of employment when the FBI arrived. I was now well prepared for the grilling that they were probably going to give me. At least I’d have my fully clued up lawyer present.

There were three of them. The one woman was obviously in charge. She had the look of … well, someone who did not know what fun was. Her hair was done up in a very tight bun, had no makeup and wore a three-piece trouser suit just like a man complete with tie and a waistcoat with the bottom button undone and male brogue shoes. My first impression was that she was trying too hard to be man. The idea of her being a lesbian flashed through my mind.

“Mr McLeish, are you seriously trying to say that these documents were delivered in the mail today?” asked Special Agent Carter without any ‘hello, thanks for seeing us today or any other words that might have put me at ease.

The moment I looked at her, I knew that I’d seen her before but could remember where and when it was, I received a nudge from my Lawyer which brought me back to reality.

“Yes, I am saying just that. I had business this morning with my Attorney here and at the Bank. That concluded at a little before midday. It takes me around thirty minutes to get home from here. I’m sure that if you check with the USPS, they will be able to supply the time that my mail was delivered today. As you can see, the postmark is from yesterday. It is highly unlikely that I had these documents before today.”

“Let us be the judge of that.”
“Now, why were you here in the morning?”

“Agent Carter, I am bound by an agreement not to divulge the reason for my visit. All I can say is that it has something to do with my former employers.”

“Which also happen to be the subject of the documents that so conveniently came into your possession, today of all days?”

“If that were the case, Agent Carter, then why did I go home only to return here just over an hour after leaving? Surely, I would have brought them with me this morning? You have the resources to verify that I did indeed take the subway home and back at the times I stated. I might add that the trades that are detailed in the documents relate to a part of the business that I have had no connection with. I am sure that you are aware that we are required by Federal Law to keep these departments totally separate. Next, the dates that these trades took place was when I was representing the bank at a conference in Cancun. Finally, the sheer amount of money involved is such that I could not have made those trades without getting approval from at least two of my superiors. You will no doubt be verifying this with the bank directly. However, here are copies of the relevant pages from my passport. My entry into and out of Cancun is clear for all to see.”

My lawyer handed over the copies and showed her the passport as confirmation.

“It is Special Agent Carter if you don’t mind.”

“Agent Carter, you have done nothing but point the finger at me ever since you got here. Should you not be investigating the allegations contained in those documents rather than point the finger at the messenger? Unless, you have been told that I’m the villain, the perp and that I need to be dealt with without delay that is?”

I looked at her in the hope of getting some reaction. I got a little flicker of emotion and then she buttoned up just like her male shirt.

I carried on.

“As we have a witness to my whereabouts for most of the day and that this meeting is being recorded I am sure that a full and proper explanation and a formal apology should be forthcoming don’t you think?”

Then I added,
“Then there is the CCTV of me entering and leaving this building and the records from my use of my Metro card to go home and then return a few minutes later. Please don’t start to make accusations without knowing all the facts. Jumping to conclusions is not the way to win cases or make money.”

Agent Carter went rather red in the face. I had finally broken through her façade.

“I don’t need to explain myself to you. It is you who needs to explain yourself to me.”

“I think I have done that already. So, I think we are done here?” I said looking at my Attorney. He nodded.

“I agree with my client. We are done. We have provided more than a sufficient level of detail that will enable you to verify my client’s explanations. Now it is up to you to investigate the claims made in these documents or do I have to release them to the press?”

Special Agent Carter glared at the two of us.

“If I find that either one of you…. Never mind.”

She gathered up her papers and left us alone.

“What’s next?” I asked when Dan had returned from showing Agent Carter off the premises.

“Lie low, very low. Don’t use your phone or email unless you really have to. Calling out for Pizza or a Chinese is ok though.”

“As you know, I was planning on heading back to London in the very near future. I nearly bailed a few days ago but I decided to stay and get things sorted out.”

“’Bailing Out’ as you call it will be a mistake believe me. My formal advice is ‘don’t go’. The Feds will see that as a sign of guilt and then try to get you back. The travesty of law that is the Extradition Treaty between the UK and the US is so one sided that the Feds won’t even have to show any evidence just, the prospect of some being available in the future in order to get you put on a plane back here and straight into an orange jumpsuit and a full set of chains and a one-way ticket to a supermax.”

I knew exactly what he meant even if there was a modicum of exaggeration in his words.

“Having to stay here does present me with a bit of a problem as most of my belongings are packed and just waiting to be shipped home. I’ve given notice to my landlord and will be vacating my apartment at the end of next week.”

“Do you have somewhere you can stay for say… the next two to three months at the very minimum?”

“I’ll find somewhere, even it is a Hotel,” I replied.

“You will let me know where that is won’t you?”

“I will. I will also tell you how you can contact me.”

I stood up and was about to leave when I asked,
“Can the Feds really make trouble for me over this?”

“Given the evidence, I don’t it but you know how parochial they are. They’d rather kick a Limey’s butt than a the one of a good ole frat boys any day of the week. Just make sure that you are squeaky clean at all times.”

“Thanks. I’ll let you know where I end up even if it is a bit of couch surfing.

He smiled back at me.

“Good idea.”

---

Once back on the street, I felt a bit lost. I walked about four blocks south and on the spur of the moment, I went into a Coffee Shop. I ordered a Coffee and sat down to drink it. The place wasn’t that busy as it was fairly late afternoon and most people were more interested in going home and it looked like the place was preparing to close.
I ordered a coffee and sat down to consider my options regarding somewhere to live until this had all sorted itself out.

There were only two other people in the shop so it didn’t take a genius to recognise a ‘Fed’ when he walked into the shop. The ‘buzzcut’ haircut and raincoat gave him away and the ‘ear wig’ confirmed my suspicion. I mentally shook my head as I thought ‘It looks like I have a tail’ plus, who wears a raincoat in NYC when the weather is set to be hot and sunny all week. All the movie stereotypes of Federal Agents flashed through my mind. He was so young looking. I wondered if he was fresh out of Quantico.

I let him buy a drink and sit down where he could see me and the front door. Talk about obvious.

I finished mine and walked out of the shop just as he took a drink from his cup. Once outside, I hurried away and went into the first shop I saw. By some freak of chance, it happened to be a Lingerie Shop.

I gulped and smiled at the assistant.

“Can I help you?” she said a little indignantly.

“Yes, I need to buy something but there is someone following me.”

“How much?”

“How much will you give me to hide you?”

“Fifty bucks?”

“Duck in the back room,” she said pointing towards the rear of the shop.

I didn’t argue but quickly went into the room. I kept the door slightly ajar so that I could see out.

Sure enough, the ‘Fed’ came into the shop.

“I’m looking for a man? Did he come in here?”

The assistant laughed.
“This is a Lingerie Shop. Since when do men wear Lingerie? Mind you, I think I have a very nice black Basque with red tassels that would make the woman in your life very interested.”

The agent went bright red in the face and left in a hurry. I gave it almost a minute before I emerged from my hiding place.

“That put down was worth a ‘C’ note,” I said smiling.
I opened my wallet and gave her a $100 bill.

“That poor boy’s face,” said the assistant.
“Priceless,” as the note disappeared like a magician.

“While I’m here, I’d like to buy a few things,” I said.
“This lady must be very special then?”

“Yes, me and it is to impress another lady.”

She did a double take and then laughed.

“I know just the things that will make her love you even more…”

Nearly thirty minutes and close to six hundred dollars poorer, I emerged from the shop carrying a parcel wrapped in plain brown paper. I had a smile on my face at the thought of wearing the contents.

The smile disappeared in a flash as standing next to the subway entrance was my tail. I decided to confront him.

“As you are tailing me, you might as well know that I’m going home. Then I’ll go out for some Pizza or maybe a Chinese or possibly a TexMex meal. Then I’ll go home and go to bed.”

I didn’t wait for him to respond. I headed into the station and jumped on the first train to arrive. It wasn’t until the train stopped at the next station, that I saw that it was going in the wrong direction. After a moment of panic but after a little thought, I realised that I just didn’t care. I’d just about had it with the Big Apple. I changed trains at the next stop and went home with a smile on my face.

[to be continued]