“NO HE DIDN’T LOSE HIS EYE. HE’S GOT TWO EYES.”
Mary let it go. South Philly nicknames were their own language. “So Pop, do you remember any of the other companies?”
“NO, SORRY, MARE.” Her father turned to Feet, who had discovered the pepperoni on the antipasto platter. “FEET, YOU WERE THERE. YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THE OTHER COMPANIES MACHIAVELLI OWNS?”
Feet frowned, chewing away. “I think there were two more. One was Katonah Industries. That was in New York, too. I remember because I thought of cats and I miss my cat, Jilly. He died.”
“Sorry, Feet.” Mary made a note in her phone. “Do you remember the other company name?”
Feet kept chewing. “Oh, yeah. Florence Financial. I remember it because I dated a girl named Florence, back in the day. Met her at a mixer. Nice girl.”
Mary was making a note in her phone when she noticed Anne leaning over the table, toward Feet.
“Excuse me, Feet?” Anne said, puzzled. “Did you say Florence Financial?”
“Yeah.”
“And Machiavelli owns it?”
“Yeah.”
Mary looked up. “Why do you ask, Anne? Does that name mean anything to you?”
Anne’s mouth dropped open. “Florence Financial is one of the companies in the consortium that owns Home Hacks.”
Bennie looked shocked. “You mean Home Hacks, one of the defendants in London Technologies? Machiavelli has a connection to that case.”
“Evidently, he does,” Mary said, astonished.
Anne nodded excitedly. “He must. I remember from the Certificate of Incorporation for Home Hacks, which I had to get for the Complaint. I saw the name Florence Financial on the list of the consortia that owned the parent company, but I didn’t need to know the details about the parent company to file a Complaint against its subsidiary, Home Hacks. We weren’t suing the parent.”
Judy looked over in disbelief. “So Machiavelli owns Home Hacks, which we’re suing on behalf of London Technologies.”
Bennie interjected, “Correction, which we were suing before Sanjay fired us, just now.”
“Even so.” Judy’s eyes narrowed in thought. “So what are the implications? What’s Machiavelli up to?”
“I think I know,” Mary answered, when it hit her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“Let me break it down for you,” Mary said, standing in front of the easel with the diagram about the data integration business. She, Bennie, Judy, and Anne had come back to the firm after the luncheon, for an emergency meeting with Roger and Isaac. Anthony had taken her parents and The Tonys home, and the Hodges had taken William back to the hotel, leaving Mary remarkably energized, having figured out Machiavelli’s scheme. Lou had gone back to the scene to keep investigating and he’d promised her that he’d keep an open mind about Machiavelli’s being the culprit. She knew in her heart that Machiavelli was guilty of John’s murder, but she couldn’t prove that yet.
Mary pointed to London Technologies on the diagram. “Allow me to remind you that London Technologies developed data integration software that enabled furniture manufacturers to store and organize their own data. It’s a bit player in the data integration market, which was dominated by the defendants Express Management Services and Home Hacks.”
Anne smiled, nodding. “You get an A plus.”
“Thank you.” Mary smiled back. “Home Hacks is a data application provider, in other words, it takes data from the furniture retailer or wholesaler, organizes it, and stores it with Express Management Services. Together they formed the Goliaths in the integration data market. Right, Anne?”
“Exactly.”
“But essentially, Home Hacks is a middleman in the market and they gouge their customers for subscriptions for the service. If you remember, London Technologies’ software would eliminate them, destroying their business, which we know they weren’t happy about.”
Roger cocked his head. “How do we know that? Other than common sense?”
“We know that because the president of Home Hacks threatened Alex Chen, the marketing director for London Technologies, at a trade association meeting. He told Chen that he would put them out of business. I defended the deposition, and Alex is rock-solid on his testimony.”
“Okay.” Roger made a note.
“Alex Chen also testified that Home Hacks took measures against London Technologies to stop them, like the exclusive dealing contracts and so forth, which are anticompetitive business practices unlawful under the Sherman Act. So we know that Home Hacks was attempting to retaliate for being put out of business. In other words, it had it out for London Technologies. That’s why we filed suit on their behalf.”
Roger kept taking notes.
“At the luncheon, we learned that Nick Machiavelli owns a company named Florence Financial, which is part of a consortium that owns Home Hacks. So we came back and did our research.” Mary gestured at an array of documents on the conference table, which they had found online and printed so they could study them. “We did as much digging as we could to learn the company’s value and management. We also wanted to know who are the other owners of Home Hacks, in other words, who makes up the consortium. It wasn’t easy to find because Home Hacks is a privately held company and they play close to the vest. Business articles place their valuation at approximately $16 million.”
“So it’s lucrative.” Roger’s eyebrows lifted.
“Very. There appear to be only two other investors in the consortium, both corporations. One is called the Roma Holdings, LLC, and the other is called The Milano Group.”
“They’re all Italian cities.”
“Yes, now, you get an A plus,” Mary said, trying to play nice with him, since she couldn’t fire him. “We know that Machiavelli owns Florence Financial, and I’m assuming that he owns the other two companies.”
“Is his name on the other corporate registrations?”
“No, they’re owned by two other corporations, and we didn’t recognize the name of the corporate agents who signed the forms.”
Bennie interjected, “They’re probably shell companies, owned by other shell companies. We’ll task Lou with that, ASAP. But right now, we have the only connection we need, which is with Home Hacks.”
Roger frowned slightly. “So why does Machiavelli use Italian city names, if he’s trying to play it close to the vest, as you say? It’s not hard to see that pattern. And why own Home Hacks outright, through one company, and use shell companies for the other two companies?”
Bennie sipped her coffee. “We don’t have all the answers. Maybe when they were incorporated matters or maybe for tax purposes, or tax shenanigans, but we don’t need to know that now.”
“I think I know how to find out, and I will.” Mary didn’t elaborate, since Roger wouldn’t think that Joey One Eye was as reliable as Dun & Bradstreet. Though Joey One Eye was probably more so. “And of course, the gravamen of the London Technologies Complaint was that both EXMS and Home Hacks conspired to maintain a monopoly on the market together and they jointly required dealerships to deal with them exclusively. The point is, the conduct of the two defendants was so coordinated in the market that we strongly suspect that both entities are owned by Machiavelli—not just Home Hacks, but EXMS.”
Rogers eyes flared. “Really.”
“Yes, we researched the corporate registration of EXMS, but that’s a privately held company too, owned by another entity, or shell company. It will take more sophisticated digging to pierce those corporate veils, but we’re working on that assumption for now.”
Isaac frowned in confusion. “But Mary, what does this have to do with anything? I don’t know why any of it matters.”