Chapter 9 - Nathan Discovers His Own Executive Helped
The forensic review uncovered a problem inside the hotel.
Ryan could not have created vendors alone.
Someone with internal authority had approved them.
That person was Nathan’s chief operating officer.
Gregory Miles.
Gregory had worked beside Nathan for eleven years.
He attended birthdays.
Funerals.
Board meetings.
Nathan trusted him more than almost anyone.
Gregory denied wrongdoing.
Then investigators found payments from Hartwell to a consulting company
owned by his wife.
$240,000 over eighteen months.
Gregory claimed she did legitimate marketing work.
Her company had no employees.
No website.
No documented deliverables.
Nathan stared at the records.
The betrayal hurt differently than Ryan’s.
Ryan was an outsider.
Gregory had helped build the hotel group.
Nathan asked:
“Why?”
Gregory eventually admitted helping approve inflated vendor invoices.
He said the hotel was profitable enough that no one would notice.
He told himself the money came from margins, not people.
Nathan corrected him.
“It came from a company with employees, lenders, vendors, and owners.
Money doesn’t become victimless because the building is expensive.”
Gregory resigned pending investigation.
Nathan refused to pretend he had no responsibility.
He had concentrated too much approval power in executives he personally
trusted.
The controls were weak because relationships were strong.
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That was not governance.
It was familiarity disguised as oversight.
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