Chapter 20 - The financial trial begins
The fraud trial lasted eight days.
Prosecution began with:
Policy.
Dependent IDs.
Original invoices.
Altered invoices.
System access logs.
Then Nina Palmer.
She explained OM-117.
Defense attorney asked:
“Could the chair approve benefit exceptions?”
“Yes.”
“Could Lenora approve payments for extended family under certain circumstances?”
“Yes.”
“Was supporting Lucas forbidden?”
“No.”
“Then what is the crime?”
Nina answered:
“Supporting Lucas was not the problem. Falsely coding him as a deceased child and bypassing approval and reporting requirements was.”
Simple.
Then Audrey testified under cooperation agreement.
She admitted:
She knew benefits exceeded her cap.
She knew I had not approved use of my executive allocation.
She did not know Oliver’s name remained active.
Defense attacked her incentive to blame Lenora.
Fair.
Then the note:
Lucas as replacement dependent.
Defense argued:
Shorthand.
No legal meaning.
May you like
Correct.
But paired with altered invoices, it showed mindset.
