Chapter 13 - Brandon’s slap became the smallest charge against him
The lobby assault still mattered.
Brandon had publicly slapped and shoved a seventy-one-year-old man.
Walter gave a truthful statement.
He did not exaggerate the injury.
He had facial soreness and bruising but no serious harm.
Security footage from the lobby documented the entire confrontation.
The financial case became much more significant, but Walter refused to let people treat the assault as irrelevant simply because bigger misconduct emerged.
“Violence doesn’t become acceptable because accounting fraud is worse,” he told the investigator.
Brandon’s legal consequences ultimately involved multiple issues handled through separate processes—financial misconduct, evidence-related conduct, employment and governance violations, and the assault.
Walter did not control the outcome.
That frustrated him sometimes.
Then he remembered that was the lesson.
He had spent too many years inside a family and business culture where powerful people believed personal relationships could substitute for systems.
Now he wanted systems.
Evidence.
Procedure.
Even when procedure felt slow.
May you like
Especially then.
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