CHAPTER 48
“Two hours on the office floor,” Colin Asher replied when Mark asked if he’d managed to get any sleep. “It’s enough. Just because you’re swanning around in Asia nothing stops in the Asher & Asher office. But I’ve postponed my meeting with Keith Nolan until we’re both free – it’ll be dinner instead of lunch.”
“I thought Pret a Manger closed at 8pm.”
“It does but the pubs are open. The point is, buddy, I’ve been waiting for an excuse to meet Isobel’s sister, Kathrine at KRJ Capital. She’s been in Florida but is due back soon. Before I venture out to see her, do you want my current thoughts pieced together over the last few hours?”
“Go ahead.”
“KRJ began ten years ago offering offshore investment and banking for wealthy overseas individuals. Kathrine Johnson, Peter Lester, Michael Jefferson and Maria Benelli joined forces each bringing with them customers, contacts and experience. Eight staff run it in London so it’s not big and everything seems above board, properly registered, fully regulated, above suspicion etcetera. Only Kathrine Johnson spends any time on it. Michael Jefferson is semi-retired from banking and Peter Lester does what he does. Maria Benelli, though, has property and hotels in Italy and, coincidentally, Croatia. Kathrine and Peter Lester separated several years ago but divorce proceedings are long winded – it’s probably a financial mess. Neither seems in a hurry. Next up, we’d not seen any mention of Maria Benelli being involved with Lester until Jeffrey’s recordings last night and there’s nothing on Lester’s PC to suggest it, which makes me think Lester has been covering his tracks and Kathrine isn’t aware of anything.
“We’ve since looked into Maria Benelli and, yes, she’s a distant cousin of Enzo but so distant I wonder if Enzo even knew about her until it became important for him to know. My conclusion is that Enzo is being manipulated by others. He’s a nothing, for God’s sake, a football fan from a low-cost housing area of Naples whose job was to run the old Bio-Cal warehouse, but I think he was plucked out of obscurity and seduced by money because someone was looking for a small, innocent looking business linked to the cosmetics industry to act as a front for money-laundering, narcotics, counterfeiting and other frauds. Still with me?”
“Yes.”
“Now then – not many people know this, but Maria Benelli is the daughter of Franco Benelli a disgraced Italian lawyer with past links to Italian Mafia who married a much younger Russian woman ten year ago and now lives a quiet life sunning himself beside swimming pools in Dubai. His Russian wife was or maybe still is, Olga Puchkov or Olga Mutko or even Margo Puhkov. Getting the messy picture?”
“Ritchie’s very own Olga?”
“It looks like it, but let’s now go back to Vital Cosmetics. Did you know Vital Cosmetics Ltd actually imports its raw materials using a shipping company, a freight forwarder, registered as Vital Trading Ltd? Has Isobel mentioned that?”
“In passing, yes,” Mark admitted, “But when we checked, Vital Trading Ltd didn’t show up. It was a name only.”
“An understandable oversight because Vital Trading Ltd uses the trade name Easy Trading. Isobel has only ever mentioned Easy Trading of Wallingford, Oxfordshire as their sole importer. She, and we, took that at face value and never looked into Easy Trading. However, those with an above average suspicious mind to delve deeply – and, by that, I mean yours truly - will discover that the directors of Vital Trading Ltd, aka Easy Trading, are - wait for it - Peter Lester, Nick Carstairs, Boris Hamilton and Donald McVie.”
“Oh, my giddy aunt,” said Mark. “I reckon you’ve just earned yourself a double-deck Pret a Manger avocado and prawn, Colin.”
“Ha. And that explains the reaction to Isobel’s proposal at the last Vital Cosmetics Board meeting. They were all getting scared that Isobel was digging too deep. They’ve been relying on a hands-off, just-get-on-with-it-boys type of company Chairman who was part of the family, took her annual dividend, said thank you very much and didn’t ask questions.”
“That figures. In short, Vital Cosmetics is being ripped off by its own directors. Eddie was right all along. Vital Cosmetics buys substandard raw materials from Easy Trading and is being used to launder big money. It’s clever.”
“Go careful, Mark. We’ve not yet got proof of laundering but if someone complained about Vital Cosmetics products and a scandal erupted, a solution was easy - issue a quick apology about a temporary lapse in standards, close the company down in an apparently honourable fashion and focus on the company that would never get that sort of public scrutiny - Easy Trading aka Vital Trading Ltd. The directors could shrug and carry on as usual – unless one of the other directors of Vital Cosmetics, the chairman in fact, started asking awkward questions.”
“It begs the question how many other companies like Vital Cosmetics who import via Vital Trading or Easy Trading are also being exploited.”
“You’re right. Vital Cosmetics might not be alone but you can bet your last dollar it’s the biggest because it’s been the easiest to exploit.”
Mark was still trying to digest all this but things were now becoming much clearer.
“It seems to me,” he said, “that the Russian side is behaving like a giant international corporation with numerous subsidiaries. Vital Trading is one, Bio-Kal is another. That’s why Lester and Enzo were comparing notes. They were feeling exploited and wondering what to do.”
“And are Nick Carstairs, Boris Hamilton and Donald McVie even aware of the depth of the fraud?” Colin asked. “Do they turn a blind eye? Do they shrug uninterestedly at whatever Lester does and wherever he goes?”
“They must know something,” Mark replied. “But unless there is no obvious evidence of money laundering, narcotics, credit card fraud, human trafficking, counterfeiting and all the rest of it, and as long as the director’s fees keep getting paid, they sit back, sign a set of decent-looking accounts at the end of each year and carry on.”
“That’s it,” Colin said. “But it’s easy to see why Peter Lester is feeling a bit stressed, don’t you think?”