Arthur Poe is a banker at Mulctuary Money Management in charge of the Baudelaire and Quagmire fortunes and the Baudelaire orphans' guardianship. He is distinguished by a congenital cough, purblind demeanour, and general inefficacy in caring for the Baudelaire and Quagmire children. Poe is the first to bring the news of Bertrand and Beatrice's death to the Baudelaire children who were at Briny Beach. As executor of the Baudelaire estate, he interprets the will's instructions that the children "be raised in the most convenient way possible", meaning they should remain within the city limits, and arranges for their distant relative Count Olaf to take custody. When the Baudelaires contact Poe at Mulctuary Money Management to report Olaf's abuse, the banker points out that Olaf is acting "in loco parentis", and can raise them as he sees fit. However, when Olaf traps Sunny in a birdcage and attempts to force Violet to marry him during the play while exposing his plot, Poe invokes citizen's arrest just prior to Count Olaf's escape.