He imagined announcing that Crestline Aviation had entered a new era.
He saw himself congratulated by bankers, investors, and other wealthy aircraft owners.
And he assumed that the buyer would be grateful for the opportunity to acquire assets he'd spent decades assembling.
But Meridian's chief executive was looking at a different picture.
She saw aircraft with complex operating histories.
Long-term maintenance liabilities.
Employees whose livelihoods depended on the fleet.
Insurance obligations that couldn't simply disappear at closing.
And a collection of records that needed to be accurate before money changed hands.
When the due diligence began, she had one instruction for her team.
“Don't tell me what the aircraft look like. Tell me what they are.”
Her chief investment officer understood immediately.
The purchase couldn't be evaluated solely through beautiful photographs and promotional material.
The buyer needed to know the actual condition of the aircraft, the completeness of their records, and the obligations attached to them.
So Meridian commissioned independent technical reviews.
Most findings were ordinary.
Aircraft required maintenance.
Some records needed clarification.
A few components had approaching replacement deadlines.
None of that automatically made the fleet a bad investment.
But one aircraft produced an unusual discrepancy.
The white long-range jet with the navy stripe.
The same aircraft the billionaire planned to use as the centerpiece of his closing celebration.
According to one maintenance summary, the aircraft had completed a particular inspection and had been returned to service after the required work.
But an underlying component record contained a date that didn't agree with the summarized report.
At first, Meridian's technical team assumed it was a clerical error.
Such mistakes could occur in complex maintenance systems.
The team requested clarification.
Crestline supplied a revised summary.
The discrepancy remained.
Then another record appeared.
And another.
Each concerned work associated with a maintenance provider that had handled several aircraft in the fleet.
The independent reviewer stopped treating the differences as routine paperwork questions.
He requested access to the original records and supporting evidence.
The response from Crestline was unusually defensive.
The chief financial officer described the request as excessive.
He complained that Meridian was slowing the transaction.
He insisted the aircraft had operated safely.
And he suggested that the buyer's technical team was exaggerating ordinary administrative inconsistencies.
But Meridian's chief executive remained unconvinced.