Money lost, trust destroyed

Remember that legal settlement? The one that put money into my anemic bank account?
(I haven't written about this because I've been too damn angry) It went poof. All of it (that was in checking and savings) As did all the money in my personal accounts. As did all the money in my mom's personal accounts.

I have my father to thank for this. The Practice was involved with an Infusion Company, and papi has gone out of his way to make grossly stupid decisions made with astonishing hubris and aggressive ignorance--he was told repeatedly these were horrible decisions/actions and did them nonetheless. In list form because a narrative would take me a week:

1. Signed a contract without having a lawyer read it: shockingly, they screwed the practice out of money.
2. Resigned contract.
3. When practice was in financial trouble, money was borrowed from Infusion company,
shortly after, he broke ties, all hell breaks loose.
4. Refuses to mediate. Even though he is in a position of weakness (through his legal bungling) and has the resources to meet a settlement that is LESS than 6 figures.
5. Infusion company's legal rep sent letter. The good doctor responded to it personally, instead of handing it over to a lawyer and letting him deal with it.
6. Even though he transferred some of his money into my NEW accounts, (a process that took 8 days) he has shown little interest in mediation to retrieve our money.
Nor does he seem particularly concerned that the Infusion Company is beating its chest about sending mom to jail. He would rather try and sue them for what he believes he is owed (ethically he might have had a point, but he SIGNED CONTRACTS..see point 1. Yes, there are ways out of contracts, but legal advice procured after the fact showed that document was ironclad then, doubtful it would have changed).

I am appalled by this serious violation of trust, I remain unconvinced that he feels any way responsible for this. In fact, I'm worried he'll turn around and try to sue HIS lawyer. In his mind this is about HIM, not the practice, not me, not mom, not the employees. Stupidity is radioactive, and my father is fuckin' Chernobyl.

PS. --how can such astute physician be so goddamned self destructive when it comes to everything else??

PSS--the process by which said Infusion Company pulled off this vicious little shit-ball coo is called "piercing the corporate veil". When personal assets are closely tied to business assets, a corp can petition to go after 'em.

Cash Money

Endorsed THE check a few hours ago, fed ex-ing it back to my lawyer. I'm hoping to have the money by next week so I can invest it and stop worrying about the damn thing.

I'm pretty sure my uneasiness disqualifies me from the high risk tolerance category of investor. My politics are all left, but this may very well be the one issue where the words "Tigr" and "conservative" exist harmoniously.

I know what my problem is, it isn't that I don't trust someone to manage my money for me, it's that I don't trust the corporate sector to be honest about its books. I've seen Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room one too many times (they just made their profits up! how scary is that?).

THUMP!

Am back at the homestead. Things have changed drastically, yet there is no feeling of change, I've even started to break down what I'll be doing with a hunk of change, and things still don't feel any different.

My one concern with respect to the money is I fuck it up. I want to invest it, I don't want to do anything risky, but the market is doing a performance piece I like to call "Little Viet Cong Boy trips on land mine, plays hopscotch"

A quick word on a Major Victory

I can't say I believe in closure; I can't say I've ever experienced closure, but yesterday was a victory--a Major Victory--for both me and Girlfriend, one that has nothing to do with jujitsu technique. I've alluded obliquely to civil hearings on this blog. I don't want to say too much at the moment because I signed a confidentiality agreement, and anonymous or not, should honor the agreement in good faith. Until I figure out where "the line" is, I'll just say this.

The perps are still out there, but yesterday a specific entity learned the value (we hope) of real security versus the illusion of security.

I need to talk to my lawyer before saying anything else, and I've got reading (Faust) to do.
To quote Scott Hall, "survey says, score one for the good guys" (insert smirk here, throw toothpick at camera).

1-2-3 Get off my grandfather's apple tree

Tomorrow, I turn around and go to Florida. I meet up with my Gal, and we prepare to do battle in that ugly ugly thing called mediation. Hopefully, this will symbolize the end of one battle in our search for justice. We have no wish to fight that even uglier battle often referred to as a "lawsuit"