Chapter 5 - The Dismantling
Over the next six weeks, the fall of Vance, Sterling & Croft dominated the financial and legal press from Los Angeles to New York.
The investigation triggered by the forty-seven-second video uncovered a decade of systematic corporate fraud, illegal conservatorship manipulations, and estate theft executed by Marcus Vance and his network of associates.
In early August, the California State Attorney General’s office filed formal indictments against twelve individuals associated with the Delaware asset management group. Marcus Vance, facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, wire fraud, and grand larceny, entered a guilty plea in exchange for a twenty-five-year sentence without the possibility of early parole.
Victoria Vance stood trial at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.
The trial lasted less than four days. The jury deliberated for forty minutes before returning a unanimous guilty verdict on all counts. She was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after thirty years—her pristine, aristocratic image replaced by a blue prison uniform at the California Institution for Women in Corona.
Arthur spent those six weeks doing what he should have done two years prior: removing the toxic legacy of corporate greed from his life.
With the help of David Mercer and a new, highly ethical legal team led by a respected probate attorney named Eleanor Reyes, Arthur completely restructured Sterling Dynamics. The twenty-two percent share package was secured in an irrevocable, independent trust for Lily, protected by three court-appointed, non-partisan trustees.
The mansion in the Hollywood Hills—the house with the glass walls, the cold concrete, and the pool that had almost claimed his daughter’s life—was put on the market.
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"Are you sure you want to sell it, Arthur?" Eleanor asked as they signed the final closing documents on the sale in late August. "It’s a extraordinary piece of architecture."
"It was a house built for an image, Eleanor," Arthur replied, handing her his pen. "Not for a family."
