Business executive Cleo Vanderlip, an old rival of SJ North from decades earlier, sought to crash the stock value of her employer, the high-tech corporation Rycom, so she could take it over. She arranged for them to purchase and heavily invest in Luke Jacobson Fashion, planning to ruin the company by killing Luke. Making herself Merchandising vice president, she blackmailed Luke's love-struck Assistant, Anna Stasio, into assisting her. Wanting to destroy SJ by slaying Dakota too, Cleo had thug Scott "Otto" Shanks vandalize Jacobson's workplace, then suggested that Luke hire Dakota for protection. Vanderlip then instructed Shanks to kill both, but North saved Jacobson, killing Shanks in the process.