PrivilEged

Silicon Valley tech titan J.B. Luttekin stands trial for a global bid rigging conspiracy, foreign bribery, and obstruction of justice. He is targeted by San Francisco’s ambitious U.S. Attorney Jackie Shell and the FBI. Defending Luttekin is Colt Symonds, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago and South Dakota state high school bull-riding and debate champion, and his talented associates Odette Samson and Oliver Chan. Co-defendant Tina Lambert, a former lover of Luttekin, is represented by a cagey 80-year-old defense lawyer Axel Stenmire.

Presiding over the high-stakes trial is Judge Bernard Dutton, whose courtroom becomes a battlefield of ambition, corruption, and intrigue. The government’s star witnesses—a terminal ill billionaire competitor granted immunity, a Nigerian Minister of Health whose charity is the recipient of a large donation and a Mendocino economist whose regression analysis methodology is seriously flawed—crumble under cross-examination. Still, a damning secret FBI recording of Luttekin at Stanford Hospital seals the billionaire defendant’s fate before the jury.

Just as Luttekin’s sentencing looms, shocking revelations emerge: cryptic anti-Luttekin blog posts created to influence the jury, Shell’s unsettling conversations with the judge, and prison gangs intent on extorting the mega-billionaire. Then, on New Year’s Eve, a natural gas explosion tears through Luttekin’s landmark mansion, leaving among the rubble a badly charred body. Who ignited the explosion? Is the victim truly Luttekin? If not, where is he and why is Judge Dutton considering upending Luttekin’s conviction? Who are the beneficiaries of Luttekin’s $70 billion estate? Above all, will the truth emerge and there be justice?

THIS NOVEL WILL FOREVER CHANGE HOW YOU LOOK AT A WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINAL TRIAL.