"Hello, Karen. It's Francisco Mela."
"Oh, hi, Mr. Mela! How are you?"
"I'm doing well, Karen. Could I speak with Jerry, please?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Mela, he's in a meeting right now."
"Could you ask him to come to the line for a moment? It's urgent."
"Sure, Mr. Mela. Please hold on."
Jerome L. Cartwright, CPA came onto the line. "Hi Frank. Karen said it's urgent?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Jerry."
"What's happening?"
"My bank accounts have been frozen."
"Frank, give me...give me thirty seconds."
Instrumental music played while the line was on hold. Francisco realized in that moment that he didn't know what the L in Jerry's name stood for.
"Okay, Frank, tell me everything."
"Are you still in your meeting?"
"Wendell is handling it. I need to focus on you."
"I appreciate it."
"When did this happen?" Jerry asked.
"I just learned about it," Francisco explained. "I'm concerned about cash flow at the ranch and in the other business ventures."
"Yes," Jerry agreed. "That's what we have to address first. Do you know if any of the business accounts have been impacted?"
"I'm not sure."
"Give me a second."
The line went on hold again. The music hadn't improved. Jerry came back onto the line.
"Anna will test access to all of the accounts by running some small transfers."
"You can do that?"
"You gave us permission to do that."
"Oh!" said Francisco. "The things you learn."
"We need to manage payroll, accounts payable, what else?"
"I think those are the big ones," Francisco confirmed. "When are you going to change that music?"
"What music?"
"The music that plays when you put people on hold."
"You know, it was supposed to be jazz," Jerry explained. "I mean, like, real jazz. Not this elevator jazz crap. I'm gonna have to turn it off."
"Or switch it to something else."
"Yeah, okay, back to business," Jerry urged.
"Sorry," Francisco admitted.
"It's okay, Frank! You've got a lot on your mind. But we need to keep your operations running."
"Right."
"Worst case scenario, we can transfer cash from one of your offshore accounts in order to keep the bills paid. You might just have to deal with some currency fluctuations."
"I'm not worried about that," Francisco said abruptly.
"Okay, and how do customers pay you? Oh wait, hold on."
Smooth jazz for geriatrics bubbled out of the phone until a second call triggered the ring tone. It was Terri.
"Hi, I'm on a business call."
"Oh, okay!" Terri said. "I just wanted to thank you for lunch."
"You're most welcome," Francisco said.
"And I wanted to ask...if I could come over tonight."
"I would be delighted!"
"Okay, I'll see you later!"
"Ciao!"
Jerry came back onto the phone. "I've got some bad news, Frank. The business accounts are frozen, too."
"¡Mierda! Who is doing this?"
"It doesn't matter, Frank. We're going to fix it." Jerry had a tinge of excitement in his voice as though he were gearing up for big game. Jerry had played on a state championship baseball team in high school. He loved competition, and he loved to win.
Jerry continued: "I'll call Parker Worthe as soon as you and I hang up. We'll set up an LLC here in the states and a separate company offshore. We'll open bank accounts for both companies.
"You can fund the offshore account from your Swiss holdings, as much or as little as you like. You'll be able to transfer money as needed into the domestic accounts and use that channel to pay bills and manage payroll. Your clients will be able to write checks to the new account."
"Sounds good," said Francisco.
"Oh, and I'll set up a separate account to make and receive online and credit card payments. If any of these domestic accounts get shut down or frozen for any reason, the bulk of the money will reside offshore. You won't sacrifice anything."
"Perfect!"
"How are you set for cash?" Jerry asked.
"I'm fine," Francisco replied. "There's plenty in the safe."
"Okay, we'll work on getting you a debit card out of a foreign issuer. Uncle Sam won't be able to confiscate it," Jerry assured him. "Actually, we'll make two. You can keep the second one as a spare."
"You think of everything, Jerry."
"Is there anything else?"
"Yeah, Park told me to ask you to put together a list of assets in case of an attempt at seizure."
"Oh, okay. We can work that up," Jerry said, "but it will take a few days. Maybe a week."
"It doesn't have to be exhaustive," Francisco explained. "Just the key assets. I want to make sure that they can't shut down the business."
"Well, there's no foolproof way of preventing that. But we'll work up a strategy to protect as much as we can."
"You're the best, Jerry!"
"That's why you hired me."
"Bueno. And fix that music, okay amigo?"
"What do you think, Frank? Would you like me me to protect your assets, or do you want me to sit around on hold with the phone company for the next two hours?"
"Good point!" Francisco noted. "Save the assets."
"It wouldn't be the first time I saved your assets."
'The Horse Farm'
Copyright © 2015 Daniel R. South
All Rights Reserved
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