Title: The Last Link prompted by Michael Poole
Genre: Legal thriller / Historical mystery / Financial crime drama

Back Cover Blurb:
In a dusty Polish archive, a hyperlink buried in a scanned PDF reveals a forgotten Jewish family’s lineage in the once-German town of Briesen. For 63-year-old Jakub Rothmann, the discovery is more than ancestral nostalgia—it’s the key to unraveling the multi-billion-dollar offshore conspiracy that robbed him of his inheritance, killed his family, and nearly cost him his life.

What began in 1977 with a fraudulent guardianship rip-off in Jersey spiraled into a global web of corruption stretching from Barclays and RBC to elite legal firms with deadly ties to ‘Ndrangheta, Hamas finance networks, and corrupted heads of state.

Now, as a second laundering attempt looms in the fall of 2024, Jakub must outmaneuver a psychopathic lawyer-turned-powerbroker, Edward Schofield, who commands a private syndicate of 13 ruthless attorneys with more global reach than any intelligence agency.

Haunted by decades of psychiatric misdiagnosis, betrayal by his own sister, and the recent murder of his father—Jakub has nothing left to lose…except the truth.

Plot Summary:
Act I – The PDF

Jakub Rothmann, a quiet and eccentric man living in exile on the edge of Europe, finds a decades-old PDF on a Polish genealogical website. It contains a hyperlink—misplaced, overlooked—which leads to a hidden cache of legal documents from Briesen, his ancestral town. What he uncovers is undeniable proof of his family's estate, stolen during a 1977 fraudulent "tutelle" process in Jersey when he was just 15.

Flashbacks reveal how his grandmother's estate was laundered through complex offshore structures while he was placed under psychiatric watch, diagnosed with ever-changing labels to discredit him.

Act II – The Conspiracy

Jakub traces the original fraud to Edward Schofield, a rising legal star in the 1980s who partnered with major Jersey firms and had links to Barclays and RBC. In 1994, Schofield orchestrated a fraudulent signing Jakub was coerced into—meant to both finalize the laundering and eliminate him.

When Jakub survived, Schofield's strategy shifted: delay, misdiagnose, isolate. He altered Jersey’s tutelle laws in 2016 through then-Chief Minister Gorst, removing legal routes Jakub might have used. In 2021, Jakub’s father—a potential witness—dies suddenly in hospital under suspicious circumstances.

Act III – Fall 2024

In a climactic showdown, Schofield’s syndicate of 13 lawyers forces Jakub’s estranged sister to file a variation order in court, aiming to finalize the fraud and silence all investigations—particularly into the 2021 murder and past crimes. But Jakub has been documenting everything. His blogs, emails, and encrypted leaks have reached foreign intelligence agencies who now realize the scope: the laundering syndicate has ties to known terror finance actors, especially Hamas cells skilled in global wire systems.

America and Israel are interested. The assets Jakub has identified are now counterterrorism currency.

But Schofield is ready to kill again—and has the means.

Act IV – Justice or Death

In a final bid, Jakub prepares a legal and digital blitz: releasing his files to a coalition of independent journalists, intelligence veterans, and blockchain-based archivists. The story breaks globally. Schofield’s empire begins to crack. Arrests begin in Jersey and Calabria.

Jakub receives an encrypted message from Tel Aviv: We see you. We owe you. Stay alive.

But he doesn’t want safety. He wants truth.

And for the first time since 1977, he’s in control.

Themes:
Intergenerational trauma

Legal corruption and offshore finance

Psychiatry as a tool of silencing

Digital truth in the age of lies

Identity, survival, and the meaning of legacy