Chapter 7 - The Trial of Astervon
The legal reckoning did not stop with Richard Vance.
In early spring, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York opened hearings on the federal procurement fraud indictments against Astervon Infrastructure and its executive officers.
The courtroom was packed with press and industry insiders. Bianca Astervon, extradited from Milan after her passport was flagged by Interpol, sat at the defense table in a somber black dress, stripped of her jewelry and her arrogant sneer. Her father sat beside her, looking decades older, his hands shaking constantly as the prosecution outlined a six-year pattern of bid-rigging, corporate bribery, and fraudulent municipal subcontracting.
I sat in the front row of the gallery, accompanied by my brother Arthur and Dominic.
When the lead federal prosecutor called the government’s primary star witness, the heavy oak doors at the back of the courtroom opened.
Richard Vance was led into the room by two federal marshals, dressed in an orange Department of Corrections jumpsuit, his wrists shackled to a belly chain. In exchange for a non-custodial recommendation on his own state-level fraud charges, Richard had agreed to turn state's evidence against the Astervons, detailing every conversation, every off-the-books dinner, and every forged signature Bianca had orchestrated to steal Horizon Prime’s capital.
As he walked past the gallery, Richard caught my eye.
His gaze was hollow, completely broken. There was no arrogance left, no corporate grandstanding, no delusion of grandeur. He looked at me with the silent, desperate plea of a drowning man, searching for even a glimmer of the soft, forgiving Victoria who had once stayed awake until three in the morning helping him understand structural trusses.
He found nothing. My eyes remained as calm and unmoved as polished marble.
On the witness stand, under oath, Richard systematically dismantled Bianca Astervon’s defense.
"She told me that Victoria was irrelevant," Richard testified, his voice trembling under the microphone. "She told me that if I publicly introduced Bianca as my fiancée and acknowledged Preston at the foundation gala, her father would guarantee my appointment as CEO of the merged entity. She told me that powerful men didn't have quiet wives—they had strategic partners."
"And did you agree to this arrangement, Mr. Vance?" the prosecutor asked.
Richard swallowed hard, looking down at his chained hands. "Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I was a fool," Richard whispered. "Because I believed that money and prestige made a man untouchable. And because I didn't realize... I didn't realize that everything good in my life had been given to me by the woman I destroyed."
Bianca covered her face with her hands, weeping silently as the jury foreman looked at her with undisguised contempt.
When the verdict was read four days later, the Astervon family empire was officially dismantled. Guilty on all thirty-two counts of federal wire fraud and conspiracy. Astervon Infrastructure was ordered to pay two hundred and forty million dollars in restitution, triggering immediate corporate liquidation.
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As Bianca and her father were led away in custody, I stood up from my seat, smoothed my jacket, and walked out into the sunshine of Foley Square with my brothers at my side.
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