Sometime later, media outlets received a press release from Security Pacific National Bank announcing a $400 million loss for the quarter. The release was a phony—it wasn’t really from the bank, which had not in fact lost money in that quarter. Of course the higher-ups at the bank were sure I was behind it. I didn’t learn about any of this until months later, at a court hearing, when prosecutors told the judge that I had committed this malicious act. Thinking back, I remembered telling De Payne that my job offer had been pulled. Years afterward, I asked him if he had been behind that press release. He vehemently denied it. The fact is, I didn’t do it. That wasn’t my style: I’ve never practiced any kind of vicious retribution.