Stefan Lemieszewski
2003-11-28 13:48:11 UTC
[Cont'd from Part 1 ]
But the stage for such massive flight capital was
already set before the 1991 break-up of the Soviet
Union. The Thomas and Dillon book describes the
role played by Robert Maxwell in cahoots with KGB
bosses and mafia kingpins in arranging such looting
schemes originating in the Eastern Bloc before 1991,
during the 1980s under Gorbachevs perestroika and
Yuri Andropovs leadership.
For example, the authors describe Maxwells deal with
Bulgarian President Todor Zhivkov in the Neva Project,
created by Andrei Lukanov, a former member of
Bulgarias Central Committee (and future Prime Minister).
The deal was made between Maxwell and KGB boss
Vladimir Kryuchkov. They brought Zhivkov on side with
a bribe. Then Kryuchkov appointed Lukanov as the KGBs
point man for both the project and as Maxwells handler.
To raise Lukanovs authority to a higher level more
appropriate for such an important project, Kryuchkov
appointed Lukanov as an officer in the high ranking
Investigation Unit of Soviet Intelligence.
Neva was designed to be the single largest
programme for the mass-scale theft of US technology
operated by Darzhavna Sigurnost (Bulgarian intelligence
service) and brought to Bulgaria under diplomatic cover
where the technology would be re-engineered by
Maxwells companies and then resold to Eastern Bloc
countries including Russia and Ukraine. Profits would
be split among Maxwell, Lukanov and Ognian Doinov
(the vice-president of Bulgarias State Economic
Council). The funds would be money laundered to the
West through Maxwells Bulgarian Co-operative Bank.
To implement Neva, Maxwell created a bunch of
companies, such as Multiart (for producing stolen
technology for the metal industry), Balkan Films (for
providing stolen technology from Hollywood to the
Bulgarian film industry), Stanke Dimitrov (for software
to the pharmaceutical industry), Sophia Insurance
(computers for the office management sector), and
so on. The many companies provided cover for the
Mossad operatives to infiltrate the Eastern Bloc. The
companies eventually would be grouped under
Maxwells Multi-Group (Multigroup) and embraced by
the Russian and Bulgarian mafia.
According to the authors, Maxwell had some 400
private businesses, such as Degem Computers (used
as a cover by the Mossad), which sold software in the
Eastern Bloc, Central and South America. Maxwell
owned Tel Aviv-based Citex Corporation (whose Israeli
head was the son of Yitzhak Shamir). He had 30
percent of the Maariv newspaper in Israel and a piece
of Moscow News in Russia. (Gorbachev sent Maxwell
an icon as a gift when he found out that Maxwell had
bought a stake in Moscow News). The Mossad used
Maxwells publications such as the Daily Mirror to
provide cover for both Mossad operatives posing
as journalists and to publish some disinformation
stories (e.g. about Mordecai Vanunu, who converted
from the Jewish to the Christian faith, and blew the
whistle as a technician at the Israeli Dimona nuclear
centre on Israels secret nuclear program of weapons
of mass destruction).
The authors claim of Maxwell being an Israeli spy
is not new. Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour M. Hersh
wrote the same a decade ago in The Sampson
Option: Israel, America and the Bomb triggering
a scandal in 1991 when two British members of
parliament read excerpts in the House of Commons
under parliamentary privilege. Hersh was sued for
linking Maxwell to the Mossad, but won his case
(see Washington Post; "Hersh Wins Apology from
British Papers").
The same claims about Maxwell being linked to Mossad
were made by the two "rogue" Mossad agents: Victor
Ostrovsky in The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue
Agent Exposes The Mossads Secret Agenda (1994;
ISBN 0-06-017635-0), and Ari Ben-Menashe in his
Profits of War: The Sensational Story of the World-
Wide Arms Conspiracy (1992; ISBN 1-86373-379-5).
The authors Thomas and Dillon interviewed both these
former Mossad agents as sources for their book. The
Maxwell book goes further than Hersh though and
alleges that Maxwell was assassinated by the Mossad
on board his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, for reasons
described in the book. This is a controversial, minority
view. (BTW, Maxwell bought the famous Lady Ghislaine
yacht from the brother of Adnan Khashoggi, the well-
known international arms dealer last reported by Sy Hersh
as meeting with "The Prince of Darkness", Straussian
neo-con Richard Perle).
And the authors claim that Robert Maxwell was looting
Bulgaria in cahoots with the Bulgarian secret service is
not new either. Patrick Brogan reported in the Glasgow
Herald (Maxwell 'smuggled cash from Bulgaria ;
20Jan92) on a New York Times article about Maxwells
embezzlement and smuggling scheme in 1987 with
the Bulgarian president, Todor Zhivkov, and Maxwells
private company called Bimex. He writes:
--------------------------------------------------
. . . that the Bulgarian secret service was heavily
involved in schemes to plunder the treasury and launder
money through foreign companies and banks. That is
where Robert Maxwell was allegedly involved.
The secret service was also engaged in illegal arms
sales, drug trafficking, and terrorism. A presidential
commission is investigating the allegations and a
senior officer in the secret service who was about to
be interrogated committed suicide last month.
He was implicated in the murder in London in 1978
of leading Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who was
jabbed with a poisoned umbrella.
[ . . . ]
Mr Lilov claims that hundreds of foreign companies
from Austria to Singapore were managed by the
Bulgarian secret service.
---------------------------------------------------
Media reports praised Robert Maxwell for buying the
New York Daily News. However, George Garneau
reported in the Editor & Publisher (Maxwell's money
laundry; 19Mar94) that in a court of law, the U.S.
bankruptcy judge, Tina Brozman, found that Maxwells
reason for the purchase was for money laundering
purposes. Garneau quoted the judges ruling:
-----------------
"The evidence here compels the conclusion that
Maxwell's interest, both in purchasing and operating
the Daily News, was to keep the newspaper alive
so that Maxwell Newspapers could function as a
money-laundering device," Brozman said in a
scathing 23-page decision riddled with references
to fraud, misappropriation of funds, deceit and
self-interest.
[ . . . ]
In one instance, she said, Maxwell used the Daily
News to secure a $78 million loan from Bankers
Trust but gave the tabloid only $8.45 million.
Another time, he negotiated to borrow $86 million
from Bankers Trust for MGN and "sent the funds
off on a great circular ride" through the Daily News
and back to Bankers Trust to repay another loan,
the decision said.
--------------------
There are many other information sources for the book
including interviews the authors had with the following:
Maxwells widow Betty and daughter Isabel; John P.
ONeill (FBIs executive agent-in-charge); Yitzhak Rabin
(former Prime Minister of Israel); Ehud Barak (former
head of Israeli Military Intelligence and former Prime
Minister of Israel); William Casey and William Colby
(former CIA directors); Rafi Eitan (former Mossad
director of operations); David Kimche (former Mossad
assistant deputy director-general); Uri Saguy (former
head of Aman, Israeli military intelligence); and Richard
Tomlinson (former MI6 officer). Vladimir Kryuchkov
(former KGB chairman) was listed as one of the
secondary sources.
According to the authors, Maxwells Mossad handler
was Rafi Eitan, the same Mossad official who recruited
Jonathan Pollard to spy on the USA for Israel. The
Pollard recruitment was carried out through Aviem
Sella (the famous Israeli pilot who led the air attack
destroying Iraqs nuclear reactor) and Yosef Yagur,
the science attache at the Israeli consulate in New
York.
It was KGB boss Vladimir Kryuchkov who played a
significant role in the looting plan hatched before the
breakup of the USSR. He wanted to establish hundreds
of business enterprises in the West that would provide
cover for the KGB and Communist Party members to
transfer their assets abroad with the assistance of
organized crime, in a similar secret fashion to what
Maxwell was providing to Mossad katsas. In the latter
case, the authors say Maxwell met and colluded with
Russian Mafia bosses such as Simeon Yukovich
Mogilevich from the Rising Sun (aka Solntsevo) crime
syndicate. Other Maxwell contacts included Andrei
Lukanov and Ivo Janchev in Bulgaria where Maxwell
bought the Bulgarian Cooperative Bank and which had
allegedly laundered over $1 billion for the Solntsevo to
Switzerland, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein.
The KGB-led plan for looting the USSR and Eastern
Europe has been corroborated by others beyond the
Maxwell book, such as Richard L. Palmer, President of
Cachet International, a former U.S. army intelligence
officer, a former CIA operative specializing in money
laundering, and a former CIA Station Chief in the former
Soviet Union specializing in the investigation of Russian
organized crime. Palmer described the plan in his
testimony before the U.S. Congressional Committee
on Banking and Financial Services dealing with the
infiltration of the Western financial system by the Russian
Mafia. Palmer is also recognized by the U.S. Federal
Court as an expert witness on organized crime, official
corruption and the banking system in Russia. Palmer
described the earlier looting steps by the KGB and high
Communist Party officials that were formulated and
implemented (before the breakup of the USSR in
1991) in the second half of the1980s under Mikhail
Gorbachevs perestroika. His testimony is available
at the following URL:
[ http://financialservices.house.gov/banking/92199pal.htm ]
Robert Maxwell and Semion Mogilevich were but two
players in such looting schemes. Other authors have
described similar players such as Grigori Lucky
Loutchanno Loutchansky and his Austrian-based
company, Nordex, and commodity trader Marc Rich
based in Switzerland. Author Paul Klebnikov wrote
that oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Godfather of the
Kremlin, learned from Marc Rich. Marc Rich was
pardoned by Bill Clinton for his crimes in USA, and
like Maxwell, also had links to the Mossad. Many
Israeli officials, some linked to the Mossad, sent
letters to Clinton supporting Marc Richs pardon.
The London Daily Telegraph reported that Robert
Maxwells son, Kevin Maxwell, worked for Grigori
Loutchanskys Nordex as a consultant for several
years, trading in finance and construction in Russia
and its satellites. Grigori Loutchansky has been
banned from Britain by successive Home Secretaries.
In the article, Russian Mafia Strikes Back in Bulgaria,
[ http://www.tol.cz/week.html#bul ]
(Transitions Online; 11-17Sep00), Polia Tchakarova,
points out how Loutchansky/Pordeks, was funding
political parties in Bulgaria, and that Mikhail Chernoy
was expelled from Bulgaria. And RFE Turkmen
Service reported on the alleged bribe of $100 million
made by Loutchansky to Akezhan Kazhegeldin, the
prime minister of Kazakhstan.
[ http://www.rferl.org/bd/tu/reports/2001/04/0-080401.html ]
In his article about Loutchansky titled, Sinned Against
or Sinning (Jerusalem Post; 28Dec95), Tom Sawicki
reported that two Nordex employees were killed in
mafia-style street shootings in Moscow and Kyiv (a third
was wounded), and that the Ukraine-based company,
Ukraintechservice, with which Nordex works closely,
is currently under investigation over several allegedly
shady deals. Sawicki also wrote about Loutchanskys
ties to the Russian Mafia, money laundering for the
KGB, involvement in the illicit trade in nuclear materials
and technology, and the Nordex plane that was stopped
in Kyiv while refueling and loaded with Scud missile
warheads en route from North Korea to Iraq. He also
says:
By 1994, Nordex's turnover had reached some $3 billion
and it had 40 subsidiaries and joint-venture firms in the
West, and some 100 such affiliates in the former Soviet
empire. It employs close to 8,000 people. Among the big
names associated with Nordex are Robert Maxwell's sons
Kevin and Ian in London, the daughter and son-in-law of
President Nursultan Nasarbayev of Kazakhstan, and
until recently former Israeli finance minister Yitzhak
Moda'i.
========================================
[Cont'd in Part 3 ]
But the stage for such massive flight capital was
already set before the 1991 break-up of the Soviet
Union. The Thomas and Dillon book describes the
role played by Robert Maxwell in cahoots with KGB
bosses and mafia kingpins in arranging such looting
schemes originating in the Eastern Bloc before 1991,
during the 1980s under Gorbachevs perestroika and
Yuri Andropovs leadership.
For example, the authors describe Maxwells deal with
Bulgarian President Todor Zhivkov in the Neva Project,
created by Andrei Lukanov, a former member of
Bulgarias Central Committee (and future Prime Minister).
The deal was made between Maxwell and KGB boss
Vladimir Kryuchkov. They brought Zhivkov on side with
a bribe. Then Kryuchkov appointed Lukanov as the KGBs
point man for both the project and as Maxwells handler.
To raise Lukanovs authority to a higher level more
appropriate for such an important project, Kryuchkov
appointed Lukanov as an officer in the high ranking
Investigation Unit of Soviet Intelligence.
Neva was designed to be the single largest
programme for the mass-scale theft of US technology
operated by Darzhavna Sigurnost (Bulgarian intelligence
service) and brought to Bulgaria under diplomatic cover
where the technology would be re-engineered by
Maxwells companies and then resold to Eastern Bloc
countries including Russia and Ukraine. Profits would
be split among Maxwell, Lukanov and Ognian Doinov
(the vice-president of Bulgarias State Economic
Council). The funds would be money laundered to the
West through Maxwells Bulgarian Co-operative Bank.
To implement Neva, Maxwell created a bunch of
companies, such as Multiart (for producing stolen
technology for the metal industry), Balkan Films (for
providing stolen technology from Hollywood to the
Bulgarian film industry), Stanke Dimitrov (for software
to the pharmaceutical industry), Sophia Insurance
(computers for the office management sector), and
so on. The many companies provided cover for the
Mossad operatives to infiltrate the Eastern Bloc. The
companies eventually would be grouped under
Maxwells Multi-Group (Multigroup) and embraced by
the Russian and Bulgarian mafia.
According to the authors, Maxwell had some 400
private businesses, such as Degem Computers (used
as a cover by the Mossad), which sold software in the
Eastern Bloc, Central and South America. Maxwell
owned Tel Aviv-based Citex Corporation (whose Israeli
head was the son of Yitzhak Shamir). He had 30
percent of the Maariv newspaper in Israel and a piece
of Moscow News in Russia. (Gorbachev sent Maxwell
an icon as a gift when he found out that Maxwell had
bought a stake in Moscow News). The Mossad used
Maxwells publications such as the Daily Mirror to
provide cover for both Mossad operatives posing
as journalists and to publish some disinformation
stories (e.g. about Mordecai Vanunu, who converted
from the Jewish to the Christian faith, and blew the
whistle as a technician at the Israeli Dimona nuclear
centre on Israels secret nuclear program of weapons
of mass destruction).
The authors claim of Maxwell being an Israeli spy
is not new. Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour M. Hersh
wrote the same a decade ago in The Sampson
Option: Israel, America and the Bomb triggering
a scandal in 1991 when two British members of
parliament read excerpts in the House of Commons
under parliamentary privilege. Hersh was sued for
linking Maxwell to the Mossad, but won his case
(see Washington Post; "Hersh Wins Apology from
British Papers").
The same claims about Maxwell being linked to Mossad
were made by the two "rogue" Mossad agents: Victor
Ostrovsky in The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue
Agent Exposes The Mossads Secret Agenda (1994;
ISBN 0-06-017635-0), and Ari Ben-Menashe in his
Profits of War: The Sensational Story of the World-
Wide Arms Conspiracy (1992; ISBN 1-86373-379-5).
The authors Thomas and Dillon interviewed both these
former Mossad agents as sources for their book. The
Maxwell book goes further than Hersh though and
alleges that Maxwell was assassinated by the Mossad
on board his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, for reasons
described in the book. This is a controversial, minority
view. (BTW, Maxwell bought the famous Lady Ghislaine
yacht from the brother of Adnan Khashoggi, the well-
known international arms dealer last reported by Sy Hersh
as meeting with "The Prince of Darkness", Straussian
neo-con Richard Perle).
And the authors claim that Robert Maxwell was looting
Bulgaria in cahoots with the Bulgarian secret service is
not new either. Patrick Brogan reported in the Glasgow
Herald (Maxwell 'smuggled cash from Bulgaria ;
20Jan92) on a New York Times article about Maxwells
embezzlement and smuggling scheme in 1987 with
the Bulgarian president, Todor Zhivkov, and Maxwells
private company called Bimex. He writes:
--------------------------------------------------
. . . that the Bulgarian secret service was heavily
involved in schemes to plunder the treasury and launder
money through foreign companies and banks. That is
where Robert Maxwell was allegedly involved.
The secret service was also engaged in illegal arms
sales, drug trafficking, and terrorism. A presidential
commission is investigating the allegations and a
senior officer in the secret service who was about to
be interrogated committed suicide last month.
He was implicated in the murder in London in 1978
of leading Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who was
jabbed with a poisoned umbrella.
[ . . . ]
Mr Lilov claims that hundreds of foreign companies
from Austria to Singapore were managed by the
Bulgarian secret service.
---------------------------------------------------
Media reports praised Robert Maxwell for buying the
New York Daily News. However, George Garneau
reported in the Editor & Publisher (Maxwell's money
laundry; 19Mar94) that in a court of law, the U.S.
bankruptcy judge, Tina Brozman, found that Maxwells
reason for the purchase was for money laundering
purposes. Garneau quoted the judges ruling:
-----------------
"The evidence here compels the conclusion that
Maxwell's interest, both in purchasing and operating
the Daily News, was to keep the newspaper alive
so that Maxwell Newspapers could function as a
money-laundering device," Brozman said in a
scathing 23-page decision riddled with references
to fraud, misappropriation of funds, deceit and
self-interest.
[ . . . ]
In one instance, she said, Maxwell used the Daily
News to secure a $78 million loan from Bankers
Trust but gave the tabloid only $8.45 million.
Another time, he negotiated to borrow $86 million
from Bankers Trust for MGN and "sent the funds
off on a great circular ride" through the Daily News
and back to Bankers Trust to repay another loan,
the decision said.
--------------------
There are many other information sources for the book
including interviews the authors had with the following:
Maxwells widow Betty and daughter Isabel; John P.
ONeill (FBIs executive agent-in-charge); Yitzhak Rabin
(former Prime Minister of Israel); Ehud Barak (former
head of Israeli Military Intelligence and former Prime
Minister of Israel); William Casey and William Colby
(former CIA directors); Rafi Eitan (former Mossad
director of operations); David Kimche (former Mossad
assistant deputy director-general); Uri Saguy (former
head of Aman, Israeli military intelligence); and Richard
Tomlinson (former MI6 officer). Vladimir Kryuchkov
(former KGB chairman) was listed as one of the
secondary sources.
According to the authors, Maxwells Mossad handler
was Rafi Eitan, the same Mossad official who recruited
Jonathan Pollard to spy on the USA for Israel. The
Pollard recruitment was carried out through Aviem
Sella (the famous Israeli pilot who led the air attack
destroying Iraqs nuclear reactor) and Yosef Yagur,
the science attache at the Israeli consulate in New
York.
It was KGB boss Vladimir Kryuchkov who played a
significant role in the looting plan hatched before the
breakup of the USSR. He wanted to establish hundreds
of business enterprises in the West that would provide
cover for the KGB and Communist Party members to
transfer their assets abroad with the assistance of
organized crime, in a similar secret fashion to what
Maxwell was providing to Mossad katsas. In the latter
case, the authors say Maxwell met and colluded with
Russian Mafia bosses such as Simeon Yukovich
Mogilevich from the Rising Sun (aka Solntsevo) crime
syndicate. Other Maxwell contacts included Andrei
Lukanov and Ivo Janchev in Bulgaria where Maxwell
bought the Bulgarian Cooperative Bank and which had
allegedly laundered over $1 billion for the Solntsevo to
Switzerland, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein.
The KGB-led plan for looting the USSR and Eastern
Europe has been corroborated by others beyond the
Maxwell book, such as Richard L. Palmer, President of
Cachet International, a former U.S. army intelligence
officer, a former CIA operative specializing in money
laundering, and a former CIA Station Chief in the former
Soviet Union specializing in the investigation of Russian
organized crime. Palmer described the plan in his
testimony before the U.S. Congressional Committee
on Banking and Financial Services dealing with the
infiltration of the Western financial system by the Russian
Mafia. Palmer is also recognized by the U.S. Federal
Court as an expert witness on organized crime, official
corruption and the banking system in Russia. Palmer
described the earlier looting steps by the KGB and high
Communist Party officials that were formulated and
implemented (before the breakup of the USSR in
1991) in the second half of the1980s under Mikhail
Gorbachevs perestroika. His testimony is available
at the following URL:
[ http://financialservices.house.gov/banking/92199pal.htm ]
Robert Maxwell and Semion Mogilevich were but two
players in such looting schemes. Other authors have
described similar players such as Grigori Lucky
Loutchanno Loutchansky and his Austrian-based
company, Nordex, and commodity trader Marc Rich
based in Switzerland. Author Paul Klebnikov wrote
that oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Godfather of the
Kremlin, learned from Marc Rich. Marc Rich was
pardoned by Bill Clinton for his crimes in USA, and
like Maxwell, also had links to the Mossad. Many
Israeli officials, some linked to the Mossad, sent
letters to Clinton supporting Marc Richs pardon.
The London Daily Telegraph reported that Robert
Maxwells son, Kevin Maxwell, worked for Grigori
Loutchanskys Nordex as a consultant for several
years, trading in finance and construction in Russia
and its satellites. Grigori Loutchansky has been
banned from Britain by successive Home Secretaries.
In the article, Russian Mafia Strikes Back in Bulgaria,
[ http://www.tol.cz/week.html#bul ]
(Transitions Online; 11-17Sep00), Polia Tchakarova,
points out how Loutchansky/Pordeks, was funding
political parties in Bulgaria, and that Mikhail Chernoy
was expelled from Bulgaria. And RFE Turkmen
Service reported on the alleged bribe of $100 million
made by Loutchansky to Akezhan Kazhegeldin, the
prime minister of Kazakhstan.
[ http://www.rferl.org/bd/tu/reports/2001/04/0-080401.html ]
In his article about Loutchansky titled, Sinned Against
or Sinning (Jerusalem Post; 28Dec95), Tom Sawicki
reported that two Nordex employees were killed in
mafia-style street shootings in Moscow and Kyiv (a third
was wounded), and that the Ukraine-based company,
Ukraintechservice, with which Nordex works closely,
is currently under investigation over several allegedly
shady deals. Sawicki also wrote about Loutchanskys
ties to the Russian Mafia, money laundering for the
KGB, involvement in the illicit trade in nuclear materials
and technology, and the Nordex plane that was stopped
in Kyiv while refueling and loaded with Scud missile
warheads en route from North Korea to Iraq. He also
says:
By 1994, Nordex's turnover had reached some $3 billion
and it had 40 subsidiaries and joint-venture firms in the
West, and some 100 such affiliates in the former Soviet
empire. It employs close to 8,000 people. Among the big
names associated with Nordex are Robert Maxwell's sons
Kevin and Ian in London, the daughter and son-in-law of
President Nursultan Nasarbayev of Kazakhstan, and
until recently former Israeli finance minister Yitzhak
Moda'i.
========================================
[Cont'd in Part 3 ]