The investigators weren't prepared to conclude that every bonus had been obtained fraudulently.
But they needed to determine whether performance data had been knowingly manipulated and whether compensation had been approved on the basis of inaccurate reports.
The bank's compensation committee began reviewing the relevant awards.
For Amelia, the discovery was deeply frustrating.
She had spent years telling managers that performance should reflect the value a bank created for customers and shareholders.
Now she was looking at evidence that a regional program had rewarded people for discouraging business while making the results appear better.
The bank had been paying employees to celebrate numbers that concealed the very customers it claimed to serve.
Cynthia Price became increasingly anxious.
She had never considered herself a corrupt person.
She paid her taxes.
Attended her children's school events.
And volunteered occasionally with a neighborhood charity.
She also believed she had been a loyal employee.
When Keller introduced Project Meridian, she treated it like any other management initiative.
The regional office wanted a certain kind of customer.
Her job was to make the branch efficient.
At first, that meant directing premium clients toward appropriate relationship bankers.
Then it meant encouraging lower-balance customers to use online channels.
Then it meant discouraging applicants who might consume staff time without generating enough revenue to improve the branch's scorecard.
Cynthia didn't remember the precise moment she stopped questioning the difference.
By the time Sofia raised concerns, the practice felt normal.
Everybody knew which customers Keller preferred.
Everybody knew which applications should be recorded as abandoned.
And everybody knew that contradicting the manager in front of customers could damage a career.
Cynthia had participated in the system.
She had also used unattended workstations to complete intake corrections, sometimes without documenting who made the changes.
She told herself it was a practical solution to an administrative backlog.
But now investigators were asking whether she used Sofia's session to alter records the young receptionist had refused to change.
Cynthia sat in an interview room with external counsel and an investigator.
For several minutes, she insisted the corrections were routine.
Then the investigator placed a transaction log on the table.
It showed a series of application status changes entered from a workstation assigned to reception.
The user session belonged to Sofia.
But the changes occurred on a morning when Sofia was absent.
The building's access system showed Cynthia entering the area near the workstation.
Additional evidence, including available video and system activity, helped investigators reconstruct the sequence.
Cynthia stared at the record.