Noble turned around abruptly as Hamilton entered the room. Obviously, he was startled, and Hamilton could see that Noble was utterly exhausted.
Time was not on their side—and they both knew it.
“We have to keep the president at bay and definitely find Simon,” Noble underscored.
“First, we have to make sure all of our facts are straight. We are dealing with the presidency of the United States, and there is no room for error,” Hamilton reminded him. “There is one more piece of the puzzle I must clarify. I need to speak with the Treasury secretary.” Hamilton told Noble he had called the secretary’s office before leaving Langley. “Fortunately, he was meeting with the president at that moment, so I requested that the secretary stop by my office before he walks across the street to the Department of the Treasury.”
It was early evening, but within the hour, he was in the director’s conference room.
Noticing the red light blinking on his phone, Hamilton announced, “The Treasury secretary just arrived. I’ll return shortly.”
—
After a few pleasantries, Hamilton asked the secretary, “Do you know a man named Simon Hall?”
“Yes.”
“How did you come to know Simon?”
The secretary mentioned he had taken a few classes with him at Harvard. He didn’t know him well until a few years ago, when he ran into him at a local restaurant near the Capitol. “We met occasionally over a period of a few months and chatted about the topic of the day. Usually it involved the financial crisis, a subject about which he was well informed.”
“Mr. Secretary. With all due respect, who conceived the idea for TAP, the plan to buy the toxic assets from the banks?”
“I believe it just gelled from the many conversations I’d had with Simon and a number of my peers, but it was Simon who suggested the broad outlines of TAP,” he replied quite openly.
The secretary conceded that he was quite surprised to learn how knowledgeable Simon was about the Savings and Loan crisis of the late eighties and the current crisis. “His expertise goes far beyond technology. He often spoke of how profitable it proved to be for the government when it bailed out the S-and-Ls. The TAP concept emerged out of those conversations,” the secretary admitted.
The director then asked what he suspected to be true, yet no less frightening. “Did you hire Simon to design and program TSAR?”
“Yes,” he replied, with a bit of hesitation. The secretary, feeling the need to defend his decision, explained he knew Simon’s reputation for being a phenomenal computer systems designer and programmer, and he screened him, along with many other highly qualified applicants. “Simon, however, was head and shoulders above the rest in his dossier and performance. Ultimately, I hired him to design the Treasury Sorting Accounting and Reporting system you referred to earlier as TSAR. TSAR was a directive from the president,” he stated, this time with more self-assurance.
“It’s my understanding, correct me if I wrong, that the purpose of TSAR is to track the outgoing and incoming TAP funds?” questioned the director, looking for confirmation.
“Yes, that was the original plan, but the president also requested it track many of the other appropriations, and direct certain portions of those funds to be set aside and used for certain designated projects of the president. Some observers referred to them as his ‘pet projects’ to fulfill his campaign promises.”
“So TSAR became a sort of ‘self-appropriated’ account separate from the TAP funds?” probed the director.
“Yes, one might call it that.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Secretary, but didn’t you think it was outside the realm of acceptable government appropriation standards?”
“It falls within the broad outlines used in the past. Furthermore, I serve at the pleasure of the president,” he stated with unusual sternness.
When the director asked him if anyone other than he and the president knew about TSAR and the president’s special account, he responded, “No one else, except Simon, the programmer, of course. Director Scott, may I ask you what this is about? I’m not comfortable in the way this is all unfolding.”
“To answer your question, at the moment I’m not sure.”
The director extended his arm, signaling the meeting had ended. He shook the secretary’s hand and thanked him for his time.
They both left the conference room and the director returned to his office.
—
When Hamilton walked into his office, he noticed the large bag sitting on his desk. He had forgotten that he had made a stop on his way back from Langley; it was dinner. After some urging, Noble agreed to take a break and chow down on some beef with broccoli and the house fried rice Hamilton had picked up from the Hunan Palace on Vermont Avenue, one of Noble’s favorites. Although the food had lost its original appeal, both of them were too hungry to care.
As they sat in the two overstuffed chairs on opposite sides, deftly wielding chopsticks, Noble informed Hamilton he had made a phone call to Natalie earlier. “I knew she’d be worried, and I needed to explain why Paolo wouldn’t be returning home tonight. More important, I reiterated that she must not discuss any of the information Paolo had shared with her.” Noble sensed from the tone in her voice that she was fearful. Natalie said Paolo’s last words to her were not in his normal passionate voice; it was a voice filled with uncertainty. “I assured her everything would be clearer in a few days and asked her to be patient.”
Earlier, while Hamilton was meeting with the Treasury secretary, Noble was in the midst of constructing a timeline of events known to them thus far. Before Noble began to review those events, Hamilton first apprised Noble of his conversation with the Treasury secretary, which uncovered a vital piece of the puzzle.
“Are you ready?”—Hamilton cautioned—“Simon designed TSAR!”
Noble was dumbfounded, even though he had considered it a possibility; hearing confirmation of what he had suspected left him speechless. In part, it was a reaction to having to add another factor to an already long list of issues, creating an even more massive problem to solve.
“My friend, we’ve shared many dinners together dominated by a lot of lively conversation, but did you ever think we would be discussing a breach of such magnitude?” Hamilton bemoaned as he shook his head.
“I’m pleased my inquisitive nature produced results, but the results are frightening—I’m afraid I am the one who got us into this mess.” Noble sighed.
“Thank God you did!”
As Noble was poking at the remains of the fried rice, he reviewed with Hamilton the events, starting with those that followed the subprime scandal, many of which were revealed by Chase during his interview. “For the moment, we can set everything aside, all that preceded the financial crisis, and the time spent on grooming the senator and then the president.”
Hamilton agreed. “We have the evidence on Baari’s culpability, which we can deal with later, but evidently the game did not end with the inauguration.”
“All the facts thus far point to Simon, and in turn—as you’ve discovered—are linked to TSAR,” Noble said dejectedly.
—
A few days before they held the interrogations, Noble explained to Hamilton that on a whim, he decided to locate his personal copy of his thesis. “Seeing my name in print on the cover page of Simon’s thesis was troubling and persistently intruded on my thoughts at a time when I needed to focus. I wanted to find my copy, once and for all,” he fumed.
Fortunately, he discovered it in one of the first boxes he unpacked. He was relieved to learn his thesis had been in the spare bedroom closet all that time. When Noble dumped the contents of the box on the rarely used bedspread, he had found it also included several other mementos from his days at Harvard. Among them, he found the tuition slip receipts and stub of an airline ticket to Kansas, all paid for by none other than Simon, on his personal credit card.
“I immediately deduced that if he had the balance due on his
credit card automatically debited from a checking account, I might be able to trace those charges to a specific bank account, and hopefully an address,” Noble exulted.
“And were you able to locate the bank where the account is held?”
“Yes. I traced the credit card to an account at the National Depositors Trust Bank branch in Menlo Park, California, which included an address for the account, Simon’s address!”
Noble admitted he was able to access, or rather hack, Simon’s bank account, and found the usual monthly utility charges and debits for a few grocery stores and gas stations, but nothing that indicated a slush fund. It appeared Simon had paid Noble’s expenses out of his own account; it was not compliments of Uncle Rob, based on the available information. “Why Simon would do that is another question.”
“Perhaps, he had true affection for you, born out of admiration,” Hamilton counseled.
“I don’t find that very comforting.”
“Take comfort in that fact that we might be getting closer to finding Simon.”
Hamilton immediately requested that the Menlo Park Police send two officers to the address, with instructions only to report their findings, along with strict orders not to apprehend the occupants.
As it developed, the police officers reported the house was stripped clean, and it appeared no one was living there. Menlo Park was not equipped with an evidence team, so Hamilton immediately contacted the chief of police, an old friend, at the San Francisco Police Department, and asked for a personal favor. He requested that the chief send a crime investigation unit to look for prints, hair, anything that could link it to the occupant. He explained it was a rather delicate situation and requested that the chief instruct his crime lab not to pursue the investigation further, only to turn the evidence over to him. Hamilton didn’t care to mislead a friend, but in this instance, he thought it was vital; the fewer people involved the better.
Much to their disappointment, all they were able to retrieve was one lonely fingerprint on a light switch near the front door. Hamilton and Noble hoped that, somehow the print would lead them to Simon—and if not to Simon directly—then to his next move.
—
While Noble continued to review the events with Hamilton, the computer beeped.
An e-mail had just arrived from the police chief in San Francisco, with the scanned fingerprint from the Menlo Park house. If Simon had been fingerprinted in the United States, there would be a record of him in the system. That print was now in the process of running through IAFIS.
Still sitting in the overstuffed chair, Noble kept glancing across the room at the computer on the right side of the credenza and noticed the data on the screen was still spinning. With great anticipation, they hoped the print might be their first significant break in the case, a print that came to them under an unconventional set of circumstances.
Minutes later, in the midst of their discussion, they heard the computer beep again, this time—No Match—appeared on the screen. “There is one more thing I can try. It may not be over,” Noble opined. As he dashed across the room, he announced, “I’m scanning the print to Interpol. Perhaps they will find a match. All we can do at this point is wait for a response.”
Noble returned to his comfortable chair and continued to summarize the events on his timeline since the financial meltdown began. “We learned Chase was the catalyst behind the subprime scandal, which caused a panic in the housing and financial sectors, resulting in the rapid decline in the markets around the world. We know it occurred during a heated campaign, while the focus was on the war on terror.”
“And we personally witnessed the crisis shift almost overnight to the economy, and Senator Baari became President Baari on January 20, 2009,” Hamilton added.
“And we surmise La Fratellanza, specifically with Simon at the helm, was behind the manipulation.” Noble questioned, “What was the motivation?”
“That is the trillion-dollar question.” Hamilton winced.
Adding to the “what we know” scenario, Hamilton reminded Noble that he was able to confirm from his conversation with the Treasury secretary that the purpose of TAP was to transfer over $700 billion to various banks to buy their “toxic assets,” which in turn would help free up credit to stimulate the economy. He also discovered the secretary knew at the time, of the announcement about TAP, that there would be a time lag in the distribution of stimulus funds.
“Therefore, the secretary was urged to make a ‘promise’ of funds to be forthcoming, which would be paid out in the near future,” Hamilton assumed.
“Very interesting; in Chase’s testimony, he claimed the strategy was his idea. In a separate white paper, he suggested a ‘promise’ of stimulus funds geared to placate the public would be enough to calm the financial markets,” Noble recalled.
Initially, the strategy produced some positive effects, visible in the world markets, a fact on which Senator Baari capitalized and reaped the political advantage from the intervention.
“Whether it was manipulated or not, he won the election,” Hamilton carped.
Based on the further testimony of Chase, they discovered that President Baari ordered the Treasury to force the major banks to draw on the TAP funds. Then the Treasury was to refuse to allow the banks to repay the money until after some proposed stress test, scheduled for April. They touted the stress test as a means to determine the financial health of the banks.
“Am I to assume the communications chain of our government starts with Simon, formulated by Chase, passed on to Hank and then to the president?” Noble asked caustically.
“Obviously, the government intends to create the appearance of cracking down on the financial industry, and to simultaneously create the appearance that TAP is successful, based on the illusion of positive effects,” Hamilton implied.
“Let’s not forget the other extraordinary piece of information I discovered when questioning the Treasury secretary. The president has earmarked not only the returning TAP funds, but also other appropriations. He plans to use his ‘private stash’ for social programs he intends to push through.”
Noble chimed in, “In fact, Hank confirmed in his testimony that the president’s agenda had always been to push through as many of his social programs as possible, before the end of the president’s first term, presuming it would ensure his reelection.”
“It was the ‘strike while the iron is hot’ political theory, known to generations of politicians,” Hamilton reminded him.
Their thoughts returned to the young economist, the same Harvard graduate Simon had befriended, the same person confirmed as secretary of the Treasury. Finally, with utter wonderment, the enormity of what they had uncovered struck them like a bolt of lightning.
It was a moment in history that would leave an indelible mark.
They sat staring at one another, feeling a mutual chill, quickly followed by a sense of dread. They also recalled that it was the president, who wanted yet another type of tsar—and it was Simon who had programmed the Treasury Sorting Accounting and Reporting system—as a holding tank for an astronomical amount of funds.
“TSAR was structured to house the $700 billion in TAP funds, but also many of the other appropriations, such as the $300 billion in Housing and Economic Recovery funds, and the $700 billion for an Economic Stimulus Package. The list keeps growing,” Noble recapped, with dismay in his voice.
Hamilton grimaced. “I also asked the secretary how they tracked the funds going in and out of TSAR. He said he received a daily report indicating the balance from the previous night. He appeared unconcerned, stating that everything looked copacetic.”
“There are many ways around that!” Noble said, his words bursting out. “Simon could have corrupted the reporting system, but then it could be easily discoverable if another programmer were asked to create a different report. If he were truly transferring the funds out of TSAR, he could have programmed a parallel system to run in tandem. One reporting the actual transfers, S
imon’s transfers, deducting the funds from TSAR, and then crediting the funds to the parallel system, one virtual dollar for each dollar removed.”
“Then both systems would appear to seem accurate and in balance?”
“Exactly!”
“Could all this have been orchestrated by Simon?”
Ignoring his query, Noble asked, “More important, was Simon siphoning off those funds, and if so, for what use?”
Hamilton, unnerved as all this was shaping up, avowed, “If this is truly the case, and if Simon is siphoning cash, we not only have to find him, we have to find some way to retrieve the misappropriated funds before it becomes known to the world at large. I officially authorize you to play ‘unofficial’ hacker one more time. You must locate and tap into all of Simon’s bank accounts, and into TSAR. We need to follow the money,” Hamilton insisted.
It was 1:30 a.m., and Noble especially needed a clear head before infiltrating the various banking systems. They needed to go home and get some rest.
Noble wrapped up his work and they left 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Hamilton headed for Dupont Circle, and Noble headed for Georgetown.
24
THE DOUBLE STING
The director arrived at his office the next morning at seven, only to find Noble already working at his desk.
As he offered Noble coffee that he had picked up en route to the office, the computer signaled an incoming message. Noble spun his chair around to face the computer and opened the e-mail immediately.
It was from Interpol.
He turned back around slowly to face Hamilton. While the color drained from his face, he stumbled over the words, “They found a perfect match.”
At that moment, things went from awful to devastating.
Hamilton bolted over to the computer screen to find it was not Simon Hall. The lonely fingerprint belongs to Mohammed al-Fadl. He was the head of a notorious sleeper cell, a cell the agency had been tracking for years.
“Incredible.” Noble gasped. “The photo in the upper-right-hand corner staring back at me—is the face of Simon Hall.”
Brotherhood Beyond the Yard (The Simon Trilogy) Page 21