Need You Now

by James Grippando

  “Each of you was invited to this meeting because we wanted you to be the first to hear a major announcement, one that is vital to the future of the worldwide operations of BOS. Without further ado, I’m pleased to tell you that a final settlement agreement has been reached between the International Bank of Switzerland and the U.S. Department of Justice.”

  A chorus of murmurs coursed through the room like a breeze through a wheat field, followed by sparse and nervous applause. Then silence.

  “As you all know,” Klaus continued, “both the Swiss government and BOS officials have been engaged in discussions for several months with U.S. authorities. These discussions…”

  Discussions . Talk about a fudge word. Justice had BOS by the short hairs. The same excesses and mismanagement that had rocked the largest Wall Street investment banks had forced BOS to write down $50 billion in subprime losses in the fall of 2008. The market was in free fall, the world economy was in shambles, and investors from New York to Hong Kong were in a state of panic. The oldest and largest Swiss bank had been on the verge of collapse when the government had come to the rescue with a bailout. At that precise moment, the Justice Department swooped in. With the treasury secretary and the New York Fed warning that the collapse of institutions “too big to fail” could unleash another Great Depression, someone at Justice had the presence of mind-nay, the stroke of genius-to realize that the time was ripe to make Swiss cheese of the secret Swiss banks. The DOJ officially demanded the names of “serious tax evaders.” When BOS balked, they arrested a top financial advisor who was silly enough to state publicly that he’d smuggled a diamond in a tube of toothpaste for a client. When BOS stalled again, they indicted the bank’s head of private wealth management. They threatened to indict the chairman himself. They demanded a “collateral consequences” report from BOS lawyers, which is typically the final step before the indictment of an entire company. Finally, BOS-still in a weakened state, despite the multibillion-dollar bailout-blinked. It turned over the names of 280 of the most serious tax avoiders. Poof. A century of Swiss bank secrecy went up in smoke, just like that. Justice had been hammering away for more names ever since.

  Apparently not everyone who worked for the U.S. government was a dumbass. Yet Abe Cushman had gone unnoticed by law enforcement. Those Ponzi schemes sure are hard to sniff out, especially the ones that last for only two decades and involve a measly $60 billion.

  Hmmm.

  “As part of this settlement,” the chief executive continued, “we have agreed to release the names of four thousand additional clients over the coming year.”

  “Four thousand?” my team leader whispered. “This is good news?”

  I leaned closer. “Actually, the good news is that the bank is offering a free box of Depend to each of our clients.”

  My boss snorted with laughter, a reflex. The chief executive stopped, clearly annoyed. His steely-blue-eyed glare silenced the room-and it nearly sent me running for my own box of adult diapers.

  Klaus leaned forward, his palms resting on the polished wood tabletop as he spoke. “I want to underscore that the only names on this list are clients of our cross-border business. This settlement agreement respects the fact that the cross-border business of BOS consists only of wealth management services offered to American residents outside the United States, that it operates entirely out of Switzerland, and that it is completely separate from the BOS/America wealth management business. In other words, this settlement affects less than one percent of the bank’s total invested assets. To put an even finer point on it, the settlement does not affect our U.S.-based private wealth management clients.”

  Yet , I wanted to say.

  “Which brings me to even more important news,” said Klaus, “and to the real purpose of this meeting. With the DOJ settlement behind us, it’s time to look forward. Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce the new head of private wealth management for BOS/America, a man who truly needs no introduction, Joe Barber.”

  My supervisor and I exchanged glances. His expression matched my unspoken sentiment: Joe Barber? You must be joking.

  Advisors and their clients had been walking away from BOS since the fifty-billion-dollar write-down of subprime losses. The recent threat of a criminal indictment over bank secrecy had pushed the total loss of assets for the year to over 200 billion Swiss francs. BOS was on the fast track to number two-not in the world, but in Switzerland . The much-anticipated announcement of a new head of private wealth for the United States was supposed to restore faith and calm everyone’s concerns. The chosen one, however, had earned his stripes at Saxton Silvers.

  Barber entered the room, the picture of Wall Street confidence as a photographer captured him and the chief executive smiling and shaking hands.

  It was Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Saxton Silvers-in that order-on the list of Wall Street investment banks that had gone the way of T. rex and the dodo bird, swept away by the financial tsunami of subprime lending and mortgage-backed securities. Barber had sown the seeds of disaster at Saxton Silvers before accepting a presidential appointment as deputy secretary of the Treasury, the department’s number two post. Government service required him to liquidate his holdings, which meant that he had cashed out at the height of the market. He took $28 million out of Wall Street, and a year later he orchestrated a government bailout that pumped billions of taxpayer dollars back into the disaster that he and others like him had created. It still wasn’t clear what indictments might come out of the Saxton Silvers collapse. But there he stood, handpicked by the top executive in the world of bank secrecy: Joe Barber, our new leader, the power-drunk pilot who had put Wall Street on autopilot, headed straight for the side of a mountain, only to watch the crash from Treasury’s ivory tower.

  “Gee, I feel better already,” my boss muttered.

  “Me, too,” I said, joining in the lukewarm applause.

  I left the conference room quickly, as soon as the meeting broke, before anyone could ask what the heck I was doing there.

  My palms were sweating as I hurried down the hall to the elevator, but I tried to keep things in perspective. I wasn’t the first junior advisor in BOS history to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Any number of my predecessors had surely crashed a meeting of top producers. In the hallowed Paradeplatz Conference Room. With the chief executive from Zurich, the managing director of U.S. operations, and the new head of private wealth management in attendance.

  Good God, what was I thinking?

  The chrome elevator doors parted, and a man wearing a black suit was already inside. I entered and pressed a button, but the man froze the control panel with a turn of his passkey.

  “Patrick Lloyd?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  He looked like a Secret Service agent, and my impression wasn’t far from the mark. “BOS Corporate Security,” he said as he punched the button for the executive suite. “I need you to come with me.”

  My jaw dropped. I expected some good-natured ribbing from colleagues about the mix-up, perhaps even a brief reprimand from a divisional manager. But calling in security was over the top.

  “It was a mistake,” I started to say, but he wasn’t interested. We rode up to the executive suite, and he escorted me into the lobby. I was hoping the receptionist would recount our earlier conversation and clear things up, but she was away from her desk. My escort from Corporate Security directed me to a leather couch by the window, and he sat in the armchair facing me, as if keeping guard. The expression on his face was deadpan, even by Swiss banking standards. Had I still been in Singapore, I would have thought I was in line for a public caning.

  I surveyed the lobby. A Jasper Johns original oil painting hung on the wall opposite the van Gogh. Fresh-cut flowers were placed tastefully around the room in crystal vases. A table by the window displayed a small vase so priceless that there was actually a plaque to identify it as being from the Ming dynasty. A row of Swiss clocks on the wall caught my atten
tion, each set to the time zone of a different trading market. New York. London. Frankfurt. Tokyo. Hong Kong. Singapore.

  Singapore. I thought of Lilly. She worked with BOS/Asia. Our relationship had been purely business at first, but we ended up dating for six months. Arguably the best six months of my life.

  I looked away, then checked the clock again, and a song popped into my head. In Singapore, it was a quarter after one, and I had a sudden vision of Lilly, all alone, and listening to that megahit by Lady Antebellum that seemed to be playing nonstop on the radio since our breakup. Need you now.

  Yeah, right.

  It was four weeks, exactly, since Lilly and I had gone for our last swim at Changi Beach. Anyone who worked at a place like BOS understood that “lose” was a four-letter word, but Lilly and I tried not to let that competitive spirit spill over to our personal relationship. I was better about it than she was; or it could be said that Lilly was better about it than I was. It depended on whom you asked-not that we were competitive about not being competitive. Swimming, however, was where the gloves came off. We did a mile every Saturday morning. This time, as we headed down to the ocean’s edge, Lilly broke custom. She didn’t snatch my goggles from my hand, pitch them deep into the seaweed, and shout her usual “Loser buys breakfast” as she hit the water with a good three-minute head start. Rather, she led me over to a large piece of driftwood, sat me down, and delivered the solemn words that no man in the history of the world has ever seen coming: “We need to talk.” The way she looked on that day would never leave my memory-the sad smile, her honey-blond hair blowing in the gentle breeze, those big eyes that sparkled even in the most dismal of circumstances. She didn’t exactly say, “ It’s not you, it’s me , ” but she might as well have. I couldn’t find words, just like the first time I’d laid eyes upon her, only this time there were no violins playing. I was about to speak, and then it had started to rain. At least I’d thought it was raining. I felt a drop on my head, and Lilly promptly lost it right before my eyes. She was embarrassed to be laughing-not at me but at the absurdity of the situation. It was then that I heard the shrill screech in the sky, saw the winged culprit swooping down from above the coconut palms to mock me. A seagull had shit squarely on my head.

  Some signs should not be ignored. I transferred back to New York, and Lilly and I said good-bye for life.

  An executive assistant entered the waiting area. “Ms. Decker will see you now.”

  Great. More shit to fall from the sky.

  I still couldn’t believe the big deal this had become. The assistant showed me into the office, and it wasn’t just the managing director inside. Joe Barber, who’d been head of private wealth management for all of one hour, was with her. So was the general counsel. Executives at this level traveled like international diplomats, and it was rare indeed for three of them to actually be in New York at the same time. For the holy trinity of BOS/America to be in a meeting with a junior FA was preposterous.

  “There is a perfectly benign explanation for what happened,” I said.

  “Sit down, Mr. Lloyd,” said Decker.

  The managing director returned to the leather armchair between Barber and the general counsel, neither of whom rose to greet me. This had the feel of an inquisition, not a meeting. I took the hot seat opposite them.

  “This has nothing to do with this morning’s meeting in the Paradeplatz,” said Decker. “I told my assistant that I wanted to see you this morning, and she put you on the list of FA’s for the ten o’clock meeting. An honest mistake on her part.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief, but it didn’t last. The purpose of this meeting clearly wasn’t to show me the BOS secret handshake.

  “Is there some kind of trouble?” I asked.

  The general counsel spoke. “As I’m sure you’re aware, Lilly Scanlon’s employment at BOS/Singapore has been terminated.”

  I caught my breath. “No, I was not aware of that. When did that happen?”

  “Ten days ago.”

  “I haven’t spoken to Lilly in… I don’t know, exactly. Longer than ten days. Can you tell me what happened?”

  “To the extent that it pertains to you, yes. Broadly speaking, it has to do with the Abe Cushman Ponzi scheme.”

  “Cushman?” I said. “I can’t believe Lilly would have anything to do with that. I can assure you that I didn’t.”

  Barber took over. “Mr. Lloyd, why did you go to Singapore?”

  His body language made the question anything but innocuous. I tried not to become defensive.

  “It seemed like a good career move,” I said. “I saw the writing on the wall for Swiss banks. It’s no secret that the BOS strategy is to shift to super-high net worth and Asia.”

  “Why not Hong Kong or Tokyo?” asked Barber.

  I could have recounted my decision-making process; instead, I took the offensive. “Is that what this is about? You think my transfer to BOS/Singapore has something to do with Cushman?”

  Barber ignored my question. “How well did you know Lilly Scanlon?”

  “I didn’t know her at all before leaving New York. We met in the Singapore office. She was an FA, just like me.”

  “This is my first official day,” said Barber, “but I’ve been fully briefed. Don’t waste our time trying to pretend that your relationship was purely professional.”

  Obviously, they already knew the answers to most of the questions on their list. This was a test of my truthfulness, not a search for information-so far, at least.

  “We dated,” I said. “It ended before I left. I’ve had zero contact since.”

  “Tell us about her,” said Barber.

  I didn’t know how to respond. “What do you want to know?”

  “We’re asking the questions here,” said the general counsel.

  “I’m just trying to get some color.”

  “Color” was synonymous with “background” in the BOS lexicon- “Call Goldman for color on the Tesla Motors IPO”- but from the look on Barber’s face, the operative color here was red. His temper was legendary.

  “Listen to me, asshole,” Barber said.

  “Joe, please,” said the general counsel.

  “I’m sorry, but this needs to be said. I spent the last twenty-six years of my career in one of two places-in Washington in public service or on Wall Street with Saxton Silvers. It pained me to watch that firm go down. I’ve seen the kind of arrogance that can breed disaster for a bank, and it starts in puppies like you. I’m not going to put up with it. Are we clear on that?”

  “Crystal.”

  “I could have gone anywhere when I decided to leave Treasury. I chose BOS/America. And the first thing on my plate is an internal investigation into a junior FA’s possible involvement- criminal involvement-with Abe Cushman. If you haven’t figured it out yet, let me spell it out for you: I intend to put out this fire immediately. I will not allow it to heat up and sidetrack my plans to make BOS number one in private wealth management. Again, are we clear?”

  “All I can say is that I had absolutely nothing to do with Cushman.”

  “Did you and Ms. Scanlon ever talk about Gerry Collins?” Barber asked.

  Of course I knew the name, especially in the context of Abe Cushman. Collins’ gruesome murder had been front-page news everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to People .

  “Talk about him in what way?” I asked.

  “Don’t be cute,” said Barber.

  “I’m trying to understand your question. Are you asking me if we talked about him as a person in the news?”

  “No, I’m speaking of Gerry Collins in a very different capacity: as one of Ms. Scanlon’s most important sources of business.”

  It was the bomb, and all three executives measured my reaction when it dropped. I tried not to squirm, but my voice tightened. “Lilly never told me about that.”

  “You worked in the same office and slept in the same bed, but she never mentioned Gerry Collins?”

  Asking how he
knew I’d occasionally spent the night at Lilly’s wasn’t going to get me anywhere. “If you’re telling me that Lilly had a business relationship with one of Cushman’s front men, that never came up. Never.”

  Barber glanced toward the general counsel. Then his gaze returned to me. “I’d like to believe you, Mr. Lloyd.”

  “Did you ask Lilly? I’m sure she would tell you the same thing.”

  “Ms. Scanlon was fired after she was caught red-handed trying to access confidential information about BOS numbered accounts. She refused to discuss it. I suggest you start talking, unless you’d like to join her in the ranks of the unemployed.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing about Lilly, but if it was true, she was in serious trouble. “I have nothing to hide.”

  “Good,” he said. “Tell us about Ms. Scanlon.”

  Again, I wasn’t sure how to respond. “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything,” said Barber, his tone deadly serious. “Absolutely everything there is to know about that woman.”

  3

  I took my lunch break alone but didn’t eat. Couldn’t eat.

  At least you still have a job.

  For some reason they hadn’t fired me. I wasn’t even on probation. That was the silver lining I clung to as I walked down Seventh Avenue, destination unknown, trying to get my head around the worst day of my life since… I wasn’t sure when. An hour earlier, I would have said it was Lilly’s it’s-not-you, it’s-me speech on the beach, but if she was connected to Cushman, our split had actually been a blessing.

  Worst day…

  Probably October 2004, when the Yankees made postseason history by blowing a 3-0 advantage in a seven-game series, which allowed that team from Boston to advance to the World Series and break the eighty-six-year curse of the Bambino. On a bet, I had to wear a Red Sox cap for a month. Very hazardous attire on a New York subway, but who was I kidding? I was twenty-nine years old, I was a lifelong Mets fan, and the two worst things in my life that I was willing to recount were getting dumped and losing a bet on two teams I didn’t even care about. It wasn’t that I was actually that shallow.