Chapter 10 - THE SECOND LEDGER
The warehouse case opened fully.
The second inventory ledger showed:
real materials,
actual equipment,
and vendor pricing.
The insurance claim was inflated by roughly $790,000.
Who created the inflated numbers?
Daniel signed the final claim.
Lorraine’s company submitted several supporting invoices.
Were they fake?
Some were.
Others were inflated.
Then Lorraine’s brother, Frank Bennett, entered the story.
He managed Bennett Procurement.
He told investigators:
Lorraine instructed him to “clean up” old invoices after the fire.
He thought she meant formatting.
Then she asked him to reissue invoices at higher replacement values.
He did.
Why cooperate now?
Because Lorraine blamed him in her first interview.
Family loyalty ended at indictment risk.
Then Claire discovered Daniel had used her name in one insurance document too.
Emergency contact?
No.
Beneficial owner certification.
He listed Claire as a passive household beneficiary of the business.
Not criminal by itself.
But she never signed.
Again:
her identity used as decorative legitimacy.
Claire said to Maya:
“He doesn’t need me to do anything. He just needs my name nearby.”
Maya nodded.
That was Daniel’s pattern.
Claire as wife.
Claire as driver.
Claire as signer.
May you like
Claire as credibility.
Never Claire as decision-maker.
