by J. D. German
Chapter 24 – The Annuity
Lynn pulled the next folder from the stack and opened it. Leticia Gonzales – 31 years old with three kids ages two, three, and five. Her husband, Roberto Gonzales, left her a year ago after police were called in on a domestic abuse call. Roberto had put her in the hospital twice with broken ribs and a beating that left her face with several stitches. He spent a week in jail on the abuse arrest until the judge sentenced him to parole for six months with a court injunction to stay away from his wife and family, and $250 a month in child support. But that didn’t stop his threatening phone calls to Leticia.
He has a good job in the municipal vehicle maintenance department and makes enough to pay the child support the court ordered, but he hadn’t paid a dime of it. Lynn mumbled to herself, “This one is more complicated than the others I’ve done. If I turn him in to the police, he’ll get jail time, but he will also lose his job so he couldn’t pay child support even if the court wanted to garnishee his wages. I want him to get what he deserves, but I want him to pay child support. How can I fix this?”
Lynn began by examining his finances. His paycheck went into a local bank account with frequent ATM withdrawals. Nothing big – food, liquor, internet, and rent to Green Terrace Apartments in Northeast Philly. He apparently spent most of his paycheck for living expenses with little left at the end of the month. Next she checked the motor vehicle registration records and found a big surprise. Roberto owned a new BMW Z4 sports car. “That’s funny. I didn’t see any auto payments coming out of his bank account for that. The Z4 retails for over $60,000. Let’s see where he bought it from and how he’s paying for it.”
Lynn hacked into their sales records of the only two BMW dealers in town. When she typed in the serial number of Roberto’s car she got a hit at one of the dealers. Their sales records show that he paid cash for the car! “Where did he get money like that. He must be doing something on the side to have all that money. Maybe he’s got a rich girlfriend . . . or is he dealing drugs maybe? Let’s see if I can find another bank account I missed.”
Lynn entered the Darknet and searched for accounts linked to Roberto Z. Gonzales. The only account she found was for Robert Zapata Gonzales at a bank in Miami, Florida. When she hacked into that account she found what she was hoping for – a half-million-dollar account with frequent large deposits and withdrawals, which is typical for drug dealers. But was this actually the Roberto she was investigating? When she found where the monthly statements were mailed to she knew she had him – Green Terrace Apartments!
She thought a bit about what to do with this information. “If he’s a big-time drug buyer and seller like I suspect, he definitely wouldn’t want the IRS to know about this account. But if I turn him in for that his wife has no hope of seeing a support check. . . . but . . . maybe I can arrange a way for her to get something from this account. . . . No, the IRS will freeze it as soon as they find out about it. . . . What if . . . what if I hacked into his account and withdrew enough money to open an account in Leticia’s name? But that wouldn’t survive the IRS snooping. There must be a way.” After a minute she picked up the phone and dialed Rick Goodman’s number.
“Hi Harriet, it’s Lynn.”
“I’m so glad you called. I haven’t heard from you in awhile and was getting worried.”
“I was on a couple of undercover assignments from Dave, but I’m back in the office for now. Is Rick available?”
“Sure. I’ll get him. . . .”
“Hey, Lynn. What’s up?”
“I need some financial advice from my friendly wizard.”
“I’m no wizard, Lynn.”
“Based on what you’ve done with our Forsetti funds, you are definitely a wizard. Here’s what I want to do.”
Lynn went on to explain the situation with her latest case, leaving out Gonzales’ name to protect Rick in case he’s investigated over this. As she expected, Rick had an immediate answer.
“I can set up an anonymous annuity that will send a monthly check to the wife and an annual check to the IRS to keep her out of tax trouble. If the annuity is large enough the monthly interest income will cover the checks and the principal won’t be depleted. How much a month are you talking about?”
“Oh . . . lets make it $1,000 a month.”
“Okay. That means that you would need to invest around $240,000 in the annuity.”
“I can arrange that. But what happens to the principal eventually?”
“Annuities cover a certain length of time – typically ten or twenty years – then the remaining amount goes to the beneficiary; the wife in this case.”
“Great. Let’s do a fifteen-year term so the final payout will arrive in time to send the kids to college. Can you do that for me?”
“It will take me a couple of days to set up the paperwork. Then all I need is the money.”
“Let me know where to transfer it to when you’re ready, Rick.”
Lynn went to work on getting the money right away. She opened up an account in an offshore bank under one of the aliases Jack set up, then hacked into the Roberto’s Miami account and transferred $240,000 into the offshore bank. Whenever Rick needed it she would transfer it to the annuity account, then erase any trace that the offshore account ever existed.