He did not take a representative, which he was entitled to, and he answered every question, and the first thing he said in the room, before he was asked anything, was: “None of it was true and I knew that when I said it.”

Wes Tuppence told him afterward, in a corridor, that this was the only reason the outcome was what it was.

The outcome was a final written warning, which stays on his file for two years; removal from that property and the three others in that submarket; a requirement to complete a compliance module; and a formal letter from the firm to the club’s board correcting the statements, which was read out at a membership meeting in November.

He was not fired.