Read Online Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Scott Andrew Selby, Greg Campbell - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Scott Andrew Selby, Greg Campbell
Tags: True Crime
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Monday morning.
Finotto returned to Turin to lay low, but somewhere along the criminal pipeline, an informant told the police that the burly Italian was behind the failed heist attempt. A Belgian court convicted Finotto in absentia, since the law there allowed criminal defendants to be charged, tried, and convicted without being in custody. To avoid extradition, Finotto hired lawyer Monica Muci to plead his case to the Italian appeals court. Muci convinced the judge that Finotto’s attempted bank robbery wasn’t an attempt at all, but a scouting mission that went awry. They had triggered the alarm while just looking around, she argued. What they intended to do with the knowledge they gained was immaterial, she said, and, legally speaking, a scouting mission by its very nature wasn’t an “attempt.” The Italian appeals court agreed to throw out the conviction of “attempted bank robbery,” though the Belgian court did not. As a result, Finotto was free in Italy, but risked jail in Belgium if he was ever caught there.
Though Finotto didn’t score anything on the bank job, he didn’t come away completely empty-handed. While posing as a diamond dealer, Finotto had rented an office in one building that didn’t screen its tenants as vigorously as others in the Diamond District, the Diamond Center. Although he was working on his bank job, Finotto, like any observant thief, took careful note of the Diamond Center’s security system and the general characteristics of its vault. He also sized up its take, guessing that there must be hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds stored in the underground vault at any given moment. Liquidating diamonds was harder than simply laundering the cash from a bank job, but diamonds were far more valuable by weight than cash, and they were considerably harder to trace. Luckily, he knew a jeweler in Turin who knew the particulars of the industry: Notarbartolo.
The few people Finotto entrusted with the vague outline of a plot were quickly addicted to the idea, enticed by its seeming impossibility. Their tempered experience, however, kept them from getting too swept away; they agreed to send a scout to check it out. Since it was out of the question for Finotto to wander the Diamond District as a wanted man, the obvious choice was to send the jeweler. They agreed to wait until Notarbartolo completed his initial reconnaissance before giving the plot the green light.
It was by far the biggest job the School of Turin had ever attempted. If they pulled it off, it would be the biggest heist of all time.
Chapter Three
PROBING MISSIONS
“Maybe I am a romantic lunatic who lives in his own world of dreams/fantasies, but money was the last thing on my mind. I was always waiting to reach something that was the top of its field.”
—Italian crook Valerio Viccei, after being arrested for robbing
the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre in London
of $65 million in cash in 1987
If he felt like a fool carrying a man-purse, Notarbartolo could at least comfort himself knowing that it would help make him incredibly rich. The little dark-leather satchel was triangular with a flat bottom and a handle on top so that he could carry it like a doctor’s kit bag. What made it special, however, was the hole he’d cut out of the side. It was just the right size to accommodate the lens of a small video camera.
In the early months of 2001, as the School of Turin was deciding whether robbing the Diamond Center was doable, Notarbartolo traveled from Turin to Antwerp often. Cheap flights left daily from nearby Milan to Brussels. From there, Antwerp was just a short distance away. He kept the satchel in his Antwerp apartment so its obvious modification wouldn’t lead to questions from airport security.
As he approached the Diamond District, he carried the little leather purse under one arm with the camera inside rolling. He walked slowly so the recorded image wouldn’t jiggle too much.
Once at the
Finotto returned to Turin to lay low, but somewhere along the criminal pipeline, an informant told the police that the burly Italian was behind the failed heist attempt. A Belgian court convicted Finotto in absentia, since the law there allowed criminal defendants to be charged, tried, and convicted without being in custody. To avoid extradition, Finotto hired lawyer Monica Muci to plead his case to the Italian appeals court. Muci convinced the judge that Finotto’s attempted bank robbery wasn’t an attempt at all, but a scouting mission that went awry. They had triggered the alarm while just looking around, she argued. What they intended to do with the knowledge they gained was immaterial, she said, and, legally speaking, a scouting mission by its very nature wasn’t an “attempt.” The Italian appeals court agreed to throw out the conviction of “attempted bank robbery,” though the Belgian court did not. As a result, Finotto was free in Italy, but risked jail in Belgium if he was ever caught there.
Though Finotto didn’t score anything on the bank job, he didn’t come away completely empty-handed. While posing as a diamond dealer, Finotto had rented an office in one building that didn’t screen its tenants as vigorously as others in the Diamond District, the Diamond Center. Although he was working on his bank job, Finotto, like any observant thief, took careful note of the Diamond Center’s security system and the general characteristics of its vault. He also sized up its take, guessing that there must be hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds stored in the underground vault at any given moment. Liquidating diamonds was harder than simply laundering the cash from a bank job, but diamonds were far more valuable by weight than cash, and they were considerably harder to trace. Luckily, he knew a jeweler in Turin who knew the particulars of the industry: Notarbartolo.
The few people Finotto entrusted with the vague outline of a plot were quickly addicted to the idea, enticed by its seeming impossibility. Their tempered experience, however, kept them from getting too swept away; they agreed to send a scout to check it out. Since it was out of the question for Finotto to wander the Diamond District as a wanted man, the obvious choice was to send the jeweler. They agreed to wait until Notarbartolo completed his initial reconnaissance before giving the plot the green light.
It was by far the biggest job the School of Turin had ever attempted. If they pulled it off, it would be the biggest heist of all time.
Chapter Three
PROBING MISSIONS
“Maybe I am a romantic lunatic who lives in his own world of dreams/fantasies, but money was the last thing on my mind. I was always waiting to reach something that was the top of its field.”
—Italian crook Valerio Viccei, after being arrested for robbing
the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre in London
of $65 million in cash in 1987
If he felt like a fool carrying a man-purse, Notarbartolo could at least comfort himself knowing that it would help make him incredibly rich. The little dark-leather satchel was triangular with a flat bottom and a handle on top so that he could carry it like a doctor’s kit bag. What made it special, however, was the hole he’d cut out of the side. It was just the right size to accommodate the lens of a small video camera.
In the early months of 2001, as the School of Turin was deciding whether robbing the Diamond Center was doable, Notarbartolo traveled from Turin to Antwerp often. Cheap flights left daily from nearby Milan to Brussels. From there, Antwerp was just a short distance away. He kept the satchel in his Antwerp apartment so its obvious modification wouldn’t lead to questions from airport security.
As he approached the Diamond District, he carried the little leather purse under one arm with the camera inside rolling. He walked slowly so the recorded image wouldn’t jiggle too much.
Once at the
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