Chapter 7 - NORTHPOINT
Northpoint Urban Partners was not a shell company.
It owned a real project.
Two blocks from a major state university.
Proposed:
312 student beds.
Retail ground floor.
Parking.
Budget:
$47 million.
Harrison invested personally.
Lucas invested through a family gift and bank financing.
Whitmore Development was supposed to provide construction management under contract.
That could be legitimate.
Then costs rose.
Permitting delayed.
Interest increased.
An outside equity partner failed to fund a scheduled contribution.
Northpoint needed cash.
Whitmore Development advanced money.
Some authorized.
Board-approved predevelopment services:
$620,000.
Reimbursable engineering:
$180,000.
Emergency bridge advance approved by Harrison under executive authority:
$300,000.
Total potentially legitimate:
$1.1 million.
Ledger total:
$1.68 million.
Roughly $580,000 beyond documented approval.
Not millions stolen.
Good.
Why understate related-party advances on Hartwell certificate?
Because the credit agreement limited them.
Above threshold, Whitmore could lose borrowing availability until cured.
The certificate showed $410,000.
Actual qualifying related-party balance should have been at least $1.1 million and perhaps more depending accounting.
That was a material difference.
Then receivables.
The $18.6 million figure included:
$2.4 million from Northpoint itself.
A related party that had not paid.
Hartwell’s formula excluded much of it.
Remove that plus aged/disputed invoices and borrowing base shrank.
Preliminary calculation:
Whitmore Development may have been overadvanced by approximately $3.4 million.
Not the full $11 million line.
Outstanding revolver balance:
$10.9 million.
Supported borrowing base after correction:
About $7.5 million.
Gap:
$3.4 million.
Could the company repay?
Not immediately without action.
Could it survive?
Yes.
Options:
Sell noncore land.
Bring in equity.
Collect receivables.
Restructure Northpoint advance.
Reduce line.
Painful.
Not extinction.
Harrison’s message about 240 jobs being destroyed by me was manipulative.
Again.
Then something else.
Lucas had approved payment requests from Whitmore to Northpoint.
Conflict.
He was not supposed to approve related-party disbursements.
Why could he?
Harrison signed a temporary authority memo while the CFO was on leave.
The board had not ratified.
Potential governance violation.
Then the false certificates.
Who prepared the numbers?
Whitmore controller, Renee Park.
She cooperated.
She said Harrison told her to “keep Hartwell presentation consistent until Northpoint equity arrives.”
Did she know my name was being used?
At first, no.
She prepared internal schedules.
Lucas converted them into Morrow Financial format.
Later Renee saw a certificate with my signature.
She asked.
Harrison said:
“Tessa is still covering lender continuity informally.”
Renee believed him.
Why not call me?
Because Harrison was CEO and father-in-law.
Again.
Power creates shortcuts.
Then Renee refused to prepare the third certificate after Northpoint balance grew.
Who did?
Lucas.
Using older workbook.
That mattered.
Now Lucas faced potential financial charges too.
Not only assault.
His lawyer became much less conversational.
Then prosecutors recovered the full pre-stair recording but still withheld parts pending grand-jury review.
My lawyer received another authorized excerpt.
Lucas:
She will never sign a replacement.
Harrison:
She doesn’t need to if she confirms the old work was hers.
Lucas:
And if she says it wasn’t?
Harrison:
Then we have to show Hartwell she is changing her story under stress.
Lucas:
She’s pregnant, not insane.
Harrison:
I didn’t say insane.
Silence.
Then Harrison:
Get her talking.
I felt sick.
They had not planned to hurt me.
They had planned to discredit me.
Then Lucas chose violence when I refused to stay for the performance.
May you like
That distinction did not make me feel better.
But it made the coming cases more accurate.
