They took the scheduled flight from Sundsvall to Stockholm and were in their rooms at the Sheraton Hotel in the city centre just after three in the afternoon. They quickly changed into business suits and ties, and then took a taxi to the Bottens Handelsbank head office where Erikkson received them.
“Welcome back to Stockholm,” he beamed looking enquiringly at the brief case that Kennedy carried, “everything went well, Björn telephoned me from Sundsvall, in case you didn’t know.”
“Every was fine Stig, just fine. Perhaps I can hand this over to you now.”
“No! No!” Erikkson lifted up his hands in worried surprise.
“My dear Pat this will go into the safe deposit box that we have reserved for you,” he dropped his voice, “there’s no way we can put that into an account just like that! It needs a little time and patience. We will provide you with a safe deposit box and Björn here will also have a signature and key.”
“No problem, suits me, in any case it’s not mine.”
“Why not, you will have your share for your efforts. By the way where are the girls?”
“They’re at the Sheraton, no problem,” said Naseman.
“Good, let’s get these formalities over, then you can relax, we shall be flying to Florida and Grand Cayman tomorrow. The flight leaves at midday. Tonight you are in Stockholm and are my guests.”
Erikkson had booked a table at the Opera Restaurant. They were joined by Johansson who spared no expense to impress his girl friend Marietta and the other guests. The dinner was first-class accompanied by an excellent Chateau Margaut followed by Moet et Chandon Champagne, extravagantly expensive in Sweden, with wild strawberries and finishing with a vintage Armagnac.
Lifting his glass Erikkson proposed a toast to their success.
“To our project Pat...and welcome to Marietta and Iris.”
They lifted their glasses, the girls eyes glowed with happiness and excitement. They were convinced Erikkson was a man of substance. Tomorrow Marietta would go to Upsala where Anders Johansson had arranged everything for her and Iris in preparation for their Caribbean holiday.
“Tell me Stig,” Kennedy lowered his voice, “I don’t want to spoil our dinner with difficult questions, but how will you be able to put the money into an account.”
“Don’t worry Pat, you worry too much you know. But I will answer your question. First, even the Bank of Sweden would have the greatest of difficulty in detecting anything unusual in those notes; they are of the highest quality. I think our friend Demirshian told you a little bit about their origin. It’s no exaggeration when I say they come from the Bank of Russia’s printing house.”
They then spent an hour in the discotheque in the Sheraton, whilst Johansson showed off to Marietta and Kennedy continued his flirtation with Iris.
Erikkson had at the outset been attracted by the excitement of dealing with high flying international businessmen and their deals, a relief from the boredom of his staid banking life, he considered his assistance simply as a favour to one of the bank’s customers. He had been introduced to Demirshian by a Johansson, a Swedish businessman, who had needed help in paying commissions for an industrial plant that his firm had sold to a large semi-state owned pharmaceutical company in the Russian Federal Republic of Bashkiristan. It was a relatively uncomplicated arrangement, setting up an account in a Tallinn bank and paying a couple of hundred thousand dollars into the account for the pharmaceutical company’s corrupt managing director.
Demirshian was pleased with the way Erikkson had handled the affair, smoothly without the slightest hitch or delay. He proposed extending the arrangement to other business transactions and little by little Erikkson was drawn into more complicated and crooked dealings, readily accepting money and the women he was offered in Tallinn.
The money was easy and he developed a fascination for the hard drinking men and their women who seemed to move in a world of their own with a total disregard for law and authority. He had earlier suspected their affiliations and his suspicions were slowly but surely confirmed. His new friends were members of the nebulous Russian Mafiya.
He had become very friendly with Anders Johansson, who had originally introduced him to Demirshian. Johansson, a self made man and had spent his life building up his business, Pharmchem AB, a pharmaceutical and chemical engineering firm in Upsala, a town near Stockholm, his markets were entirely export oriented. During the cold war period business had thrived, but since the changes his business had struggled, going from bad to worse, strangled by the need for export licences controlled by the Swedish government, as most of his customer countries were outside of the Western club of nations, and the technology could be easily converted by specialists for the manufacture of chemical or biological weapons.
Pharmchem could only survive through considerably kick-backs to government officials in their traditional Asian and South American markets for the sale of their more conventional plants, where unfortunately the Swedes were too high priced in comparison with their American or Japanese competitors.
Johansson saw a solution to his problems in cashing-in on Demirshian’s need to transfer out of Russia the mass of dollars generated from the crime syndicates; money from drugs, prostitution, illegal arms trade and racketeering.
It was in effect money laundering in a complex system covered by the sale of highly priced, nebulous, Swedish engineering and consulting services to Russia and other countries of the ex-Soviet block. The Russians were invoiced for the use of patents, licences, engineering and consulting services, the monies were then paid to the Pharmchem account at the Bottens Handelsbank in Stockholm.
Then payments were made by Pharmchem to accounts in Luxembourg and Switzerland to companies owned by the Russians for pharmaceutical and chemical equipment designs supposedly delivered to Russia. It was easy as there was no transfer of goods, simply intellectual services and licences in the form of plans, specifications and processes for the cultivation of biological organisms, for which it was difficult to estimate their real value.
Only twenty or twenty-five percent of the funds remained in Sweden as overhead costs, the declared profits being just enough for the firm to remain respectable and continue its business.
Erikkson became Johansson’s accomplice, facilitating all of the movements through the bank and anticipating any difficulties. After some hesitation he co-opted his assistant Björn Naseman into the system. Naseman joined him as a willing partner assisting him in his manipulations in return for greater freedom. Naseman had some unusual tastes but he was competent in his job. The extra money he earned enabled him to pay for his frequent snorts of coke and the special clubs where he met his strange friends. Erikkson, as his boss, opened the door for foreign travel, where Naseman could indulge in his taste for young men having the same sexual preferences as his own.
Demirshian, on the advice of Erikkson, used the laundered monies to invest in property in Estonia, Spain and the Caribbean enabling him and his associates to build a small and respectable property empire, out of reach of the predatory Russian authorities.
The funds received by the Swiss companies were transferred to a number of different offshore banks owned by the Russian Mafiya in Antigua and other small Caribbean countries.
Pharmchem also used its cut to settle payments to suppliers in third countries such as Singapore and Hongkong for goods and services supplied to Pharmchem in the form of assistance for the signature of contracts in Indonesia and the Philippines, where it was practice to pay large commissions to politicians and officials for their services.
These commissions represented considerable sums of money and up to twenty percent of the value of certain contracts, which were worth many millions of dollars; it was an unavoidable necessity to make such payments, without which business became impossible.
The idea had been good at the outset; Erikkson got his kicks from parading as an international wheeler-dealer banker. He then realised the dangers, slowly fixing in his mind a plan to transact
just enough business to build a comfortable nest egg for an early retirement in the sun. What he had not counted on was the demand becoming so great and persistent bringing with it the need of much greater risks. It had become difficult to refuse the demands of Demirshian who threatened him with exposure and worse if he refused to provide his crooked services.
Not only that, but Johansson held him in a firm grip from the Swedish side, his business had picked up and was prospering thanks to Erikkson’s help. As Johansson had gained experience in dealing with Demirshian, and began to understand the mechanism of the Russian’s business he realised that there were huge profits to be made with relatively little risk. The only problem was that the weak-kneed Erikkson could upset their nice arrangement. It was a problem he would deal with when the time came.
Escape had become the only exit for Erikkson. Doudoune would help him; together they planned to enjoy a golden retirement in the far away sun and pleasures of Cuba. There remained just a few loose ends to be tied up before he could escape to his new life.
Chapter 64
The Promoters Meeting
Offshore Islands Page 63
