When she inquired about his former address, the owner refused to divulge that information. She thanked the man, hung up and started to cry.
By now, Lea was slowly coming out of her mesmerizing state. For a split second, she started to call out to Ebo but remembered he was in California attending to business.
Somehow, she was having short-term memory gaps as to what had taken place during the previous two weeks. All she remembered was sipping wine with him.
When she went to the phone, there were over one hundred messages. As she listened, several were from Penny, and the remaining calls were from clients and vendors, requesting confirmations and down payments for upcoming events.
To say she was in a state of disorder was an understatement. She assured each caller that arrangements and preparations for upcoming events were moving forward and started writing checks to the various vendors.
There was a big ceremonial dinner coming up in one week. Lea had ordered the supplies and food and hired extra staff to help with the catering. Everything was going efficiently. Then, the unthinkable happened.
Merchants were calling and complaining that checks were coming back stamped insufficient funds. She knew that was impossible, because there was over one million dollars in her business account. The bank must have made an error.
She immediately went on-line and discovered there was only one hundred dollars in her business account and nothing in her savings or checking accounts. She ran to the bank, became hysterical and accused the bank of stealing her money; she threatened to call law enforcement.
She was so loud, a crowd started to gather.
After calming Lea down, the bank manager pulled up her records, which showed that she had wired over one million dollars to an offshore bank account about two weeks ago.
She insisted no such transaction took place and wanted to know where this account was located.
The manager checked and said, "As soon as the money was received, the account was closed by a Mr. Ebo."
Lea hollered, "Ebo! How could you do this to me? Why did you deceive me in such a despicable manner? I trusted and loved you with all my heart."
The manager then said, "It sounds like you were swindled by this man. My advice to you would be to file charges against this person, but it will be difficult to track this individual. These crooks disappear once they get the money. Most often, they are using fake identities, and if they are operating in a foreign country, you may not have any recourse for getting your money back. The law has no jurisdiction in another country. I am truly sorry for your loss."