Then an internal audit showed payments linked to shell contractors and cargo that did not match the declarations.”

“You didn’t know what was happening?” Leila asked.

“I knew enough to suspect things and not enough to prove them.

That’s not a defense.

I had a responsibility to ask sooner.”

It was the first time I heard him speak without disguising his own choices.

“Why was he at the restaurant?” I asked.

“I had told him I was bringing records to independent counsel.