"At the end of each shift, two spreadsheets were produced," says John. One tallied up all of the "real" money the club made that night, which would go into the bank. "This was composed of door charges, bar/food, and funny money fees. This was also the data that would go to the accountant at the end of each month."

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This is "the best lies contain elements of truth" taken to its logical extreme.

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All the rest was recorded in a second, let's say, more private spreadsheet. "VIP room, shooters, and dancer fees ... this was all cash. From this cash, some of the workers were paid: the DJ, security, and door girl. That was about $200 per night. The remaining cash, and this second spreadsheet, were sealed in an envelope and dropped into a safe for which only the owner had the key."

John estimates that this income would typically be around $2,000 a night, which would be about a third of each night's total take. "Remember, the 'special' income went into the owner's pocket," John says. "Once a week or so, he'd saunter into the club, open his special safe, open the envelopes, briefly scan the spreadsheets, shred them, and pocket the money. Beyond that, I have no idea what became of that cash ... I didn't see his tax returns, but it seemed fairly obvious to me that he had no intention of reporting that cash to the IRS." That would kind of defeat the purpose of keeping two sets of books.