Excited, we raced back to tell the underwriter, sure they’d relent.

“Well, there’s still the report,” they said. “If the PI takes back the report, fine. If not, what can we do?”

A lot of answers were going through my head, but what I said was, “We just want justice. We’ll even pay you to investigate your own report and either confirm it or dispel it, with no liability to you.”

“But how can we do that when we won’t acknowledge there’s any report to begin with?”

The calendar said 1997, but these guys were in an Orwellian 1984 and wouldn’t come out.

By this point, Jim, along with Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (a member of our board, former senior officer on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former commander of all U.S. naval forces during the Vietnam War, and a great military hero) was visiting the chief guys at the investment banks.

I also offered Admiral Zumwalt the opportunity to resign. “Are you crazy?” he said. “I’m a soldier. I don’t run under fire, and I don’t allow bullies to push good people around. Don’t worry about my reputation; I’ve been around a long time. I have a long list of friends and a long list of enemies, and I’m equally proud of both lists.”

The bankers were now being confronted by a former congressman, presidential officer, and head of the U.S. Navy.

“This is a great company being run by great guys,” they told the bankers, putting their professional prestige on the line. “They’re being railroaded. It’s up to you to stop this injustice by forcing the PI firm to prove its allegations or take them back.”

“We’ll work on it,” the bankers equivocated. “We know it’s a great company, and we trust the management. We just need time.”

The bankers weren’t giving in. They couldn’t, but they were beginning to waver.

“Tell me,” I demanded. “Who did the firm say is investigating us? Exactly who?”

“I can’t tell,” the senior banker protested.

“Well, don’t tell me who they said is investigating. Just tell me which agencies you’d like to know aren’t investigating before you’d be ready to sign off on the deal.”

“Just one,” came the reply. “The FBI.”