Author's Note

This book is based on my own experience and on a large documentary record built over many years: correspondence, court papers, company documents, archived websites, press coverage and later research.

Where a point rests on a document, I have tried to make that clear. Where a point remains disputed, or reflects my recollection or interpretation, I have tried to make that clear too. This is narrative nonfiction, not a legal pleading, and it is written in the belief that the human cost of a long corporate dispute should not disappear inside the paperwork.

Dates are given as precisely as the record allows. Some names, quotations and allegations appear in the form in which they entered the documentary trail; others are presented more cautiously where proof is incomplete or the matter remains contested.