Deadly Game. R. B. Conroy

shook his head, “We have no way out of this. We have no paper trail showing attempts to process the information for the file! We have no e-mail records showing that we had sent the requested information to the SEC. This is unbelievable.”

      “I have an idea, boss.”

      Vito stopped his ranting and looked hopefully at his young assistant. “Go on.”

      “Well, the way I look at it, the SEC has just as much to lose as we do. They are going to have to explain how they gave a branch approval for a large securities dealer without receiving the necessary documentation. It usually takes months and years to get branch approval. It all smacks of political cronyism, which could reflect very badly on the Chairman of the SEC and eventually on the President. If this leaks out, the media would have a field day.”

      Vito coughed nervously. “Good point. Go ahead.”

      “I would suggest that we stall Alex as long as we can—just tell him we are trying to obtain some necessary documentation from the SEC and they are not cooperating. That will buy us a little time. Then, in the meantime, we could have Jason contact our man at the SEC and explain our predicament and ask him if he has any ideas on how we can deal with this problem. Something tells me he will come up with a solution.”

      Vito spoke quietly, almost to himself. “Alex will be very suspicious; he knows how these things work. But it’s far better to have him wondering why we’re stalling than to have him know the truth. It could be, that at the end of the day, nothing will happen. Alex may threaten us, but it’s highly unlikely that a banker from Indiana-polis will try and take on the Federal Government.”