Read Online LAUNDRY MAN (A Jack Shepherd crime thriller) by Jake Needham - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jake Needham
Tags: 03 Thriller/Mystery
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off.”
“Jack, I didn’t fucking
let
Jimmy Kicks do anything. Harold was going to get gutted. That’s all there was to it. Jimmy offered to use Harold’s body to fake a suicide for me and give me a clean start if I’d do the bank deal for him. It was just that simple.”
Barry looked off into the darkness and for a moment I wondered what he was seeing there.
“What bank did you buy?” I asked eventually.
“The Asian Bank of Commerce.”
I stared at Barry. The ABC was a very minor Philippine bank that would have been utterly unknown had it not been making headlines over the past few months with sensational allegations of corruption on a grand scale. The cast of characters rumored to be involved was colorful if a touch familiar: the usual contingent of corrupt government officials, fabulously wealthy sheiks, shady arms dealers, out-of-control intelligence agencies, and Asian criminal gangs. In fact, about the only international villains who
hadn’t
been getting press in connection with the ABC were Russian mobsters.
“How could you buy control of the ABC for the Russian mob without anyone finding out?” I asked.
“It was no big deal. I set up a string of shell companies to hold the stock and some corporate cut outs that kept anyone from tracing its real ownership. I used a private investment fund registered in the British Virgin Islands, a venture capital group in Luxembourg, a Panamanian shipping line, two Hong Kong insurance brokers, and a whole bunch of companies that owned companies that were in partnerships that owned other companies. Hell, Jack, you know how it’s done. You’re better at putting together that sort of stuff than anyone I ever knew. Except maybe me.”
“You sound like you’re proud of what you’ve done, Barry.”
“A little, I suppose. It was a cute deal. I did a hell of a job.”
I just shook my head and said nothing.
“Oh for God’s sake, Jack, lighten up. You know the old saying. Every man loves the smell of his own farts.”
In spite of myself, I had to laugh. “Did you just make that up?”
Barry shrugged. “Old Icelandic proverb.”
I chuckled again and shifted my weight on the step. I knew I should just keep my mouth shut, but I was curious.
“So how did you deliver the bank to Jimmy?” I asked.
“It wasn’t too tough. When the peso went down the toilet a few years ago, the ABC was fucked. They tried to sell some convertible bonds to raise capital, but the market just laughed. My shell companies scooped up most of the bonds for a couple of cents on the dollar, then we converted them all into common stock.”
“And that gave you control of the Asian Bank of Commerce.”
“Only nobody knew it because we used about thirty different companies to buy and convert the bonds. It looked like a whole bunch of different companies each had a small piece.”
I doubted that. It certainly wouldn’t have looked that way if anyone was paying attention. On the other hand, Manila wasn’t much of a financial center and Barry had probably struck on one of the best places in the world to find exactly the right combination of credibility, stupidity, and greed he needed to make his deal fly. What passed for the banking authorities in the Philippines were mostly local politicians, none of whom would have particularly cared what Barry and his friends were actually doing with the ABC as long as they were taken care of.
The gist of the story that Barry had told me was beguilingly simple, but the implications were breathtaking. On the surface, he had just bought a broken-down bank that was operating in a reasonably respectable place and used a string of untraceable shell companies to control it. As a practical matter, however, Barry had done nothing less than hijack an entire country as a front for a gang of Russian mobsters.
“It sounds to me like you and your new pals are on the train to glory, Barry. So why are we having this conversation? I can’t believe you’ve
“Jack, I didn’t fucking
let
Jimmy Kicks do anything. Harold was going to get gutted. That’s all there was to it. Jimmy offered to use Harold’s body to fake a suicide for me and give me a clean start if I’d do the bank deal for him. It was just that simple.”
Barry looked off into the darkness and for a moment I wondered what he was seeing there.
“What bank did you buy?” I asked eventually.
“The Asian Bank of Commerce.”
I stared at Barry. The ABC was a very minor Philippine bank that would have been utterly unknown had it not been making headlines over the past few months with sensational allegations of corruption on a grand scale. The cast of characters rumored to be involved was colorful if a touch familiar: the usual contingent of corrupt government officials, fabulously wealthy sheiks, shady arms dealers, out-of-control intelligence agencies, and Asian criminal gangs. In fact, about the only international villains who
hadn’t
been getting press in connection with the ABC were Russian mobsters.
“How could you buy control of the ABC for the Russian mob without anyone finding out?” I asked.
“It was no big deal. I set up a string of shell companies to hold the stock and some corporate cut outs that kept anyone from tracing its real ownership. I used a private investment fund registered in the British Virgin Islands, a venture capital group in Luxembourg, a Panamanian shipping line, two Hong Kong insurance brokers, and a whole bunch of companies that owned companies that were in partnerships that owned other companies. Hell, Jack, you know how it’s done. You’re better at putting together that sort of stuff than anyone I ever knew. Except maybe me.”
“You sound like you’re proud of what you’ve done, Barry.”
“A little, I suppose. It was a cute deal. I did a hell of a job.”
I just shook my head and said nothing.
“Oh for God’s sake, Jack, lighten up. You know the old saying. Every man loves the smell of his own farts.”
In spite of myself, I had to laugh. “Did you just make that up?”
Barry shrugged. “Old Icelandic proverb.”
I chuckled again and shifted my weight on the step. I knew I should just keep my mouth shut, but I was curious.
“So how did you deliver the bank to Jimmy?” I asked.
“It wasn’t too tough. When the peso went down the toilet a few years ago, the ABC was fucked. They tried to sell some convertible bonds to raise capital, but the market just laughed. My shell companies scooped up most of the bonds for a couple of cents on the dollar, then we converted them all into common stock.”
“And that gave you control of the Asian Bank of Commerce.”
“Only nobody knew it because we used about thirty different companies to buy and convert the bonds. It looked like a whole bunch of different companies each had a small piece.”
I doubted that. It certainly wouldn’t have looked that way if anyone was paying attention. On the other hand, Manila wasn’t much of a financial center and Barry had probably struck on one of the best places in the world to find exactly the right combination of credibility, stupidity, and greed he needed to make his deal fly. What passed for the banking authorities in the Philippines were mostly local politicians, none of whom would have particularly cared what Barry and his friends were actually doing with the ABC as long as they were taken care of.
The gist of the story that Barry had told me was beguilingly simple, but the implications were breathtaking. On the surface, he had just bought a broken-down bank that was operating in a reasonably respectable place and used a string of untraceable shell companies to control it. As a practical matter, however, Barry had done nothing less than hijack an entire country as a front for a gang of Russian mobsters.
“It sounds to me like you and your new pals are on the train to glory, Barry. So why are we having this conversation? I can’t believe you’ve
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