So the board — five people, two of them outside directors — met in the third week of September and appointed a special committee of the two outside directors, and that committee retained a Hartford firm, and Marguerite Okonjo brought in Desmond Pilcher’s shop, and from that point on Arthur Vance was a witness and not a participant.

They looked at seven years of accounts payable.

Four vendors came out of it.

Halyard Consulting Partners. Registered in Delaware in 2021.

Billed $1.14 million across nineteen invoices for “strategic market assessment.” Registered agent address only.

No employees on any filing anywhere.

Brightline Technical Audit LLC. $780,000 over two years for warehouse systems audits.

Its listed manager is a man in Stamford who is a genuine person, who was paid four hundred dollars a month to be a name on a form, and who cooperated instantly and completely and was never charged with anything.