by Leo James
'Mr Roussos, I'm working on the murder case of your colleague, David Morris and his wife Patricia Morris. If you have specific evidence that will help us in this matter, please send it over.'
'I have evidence that Q7, the company we have been dealing with over here, is at the centre of a black market for buying and selling, with vast amounts of money raised funding the triad gang that Prem Jothi heads.' He listed the things he had found. 'Buyers and sellers worldwide.'
'If you have evidence connected to the murders, I will help. From what you describe this comes under one of my colleagues at The Fraud Office in the National Crime Agency. I can get somebody to contact you.'
Steve found it hard to conceal his frustration. 'That's disappointing. I aim to prove Prem Jothi murdered David Morris. Once I find concrete evidence, I'll be back on to you. Meantime, yes please get the Fraud Squad to call me on this local Malaysian number.'
He ended the call and walked from his bedroom back into the lounge to update Adam and Mai.
######
'OK, I've spoken to the UK police and they don't want to know. They've palmed me off to the Fraud Squad. Someone will contact me. What about the Malaysian police? Can we find anyone, not in the pockets of Prem? Or Malaysian Government officials through the embassy?'
'We must be careful,' Adam said.
Steve pursed his lips together in a faint smile and shook his head. 'I can see why they chose us at Seguro. Converting any currency into another is a dream to Q7. We played right into their trap. We are protecting the thieves. Crazy! In the wrong hands, every payment system or any secure system can be open to abuse. We have security and payments with an active audit. However, Q7 cut Seguro support staff off from the system so we couldn’t see what was going on. Couldn't do this in the UK.'
'Yes. This is Malaysia,' Adam mused.
'OK, let's figure out how we can use the evidence,' Steve said. 'How can we make the most impact? Several things we can do. We've got to be careful. If they rumble us, it'll be difficult to get back in.'
'What can we do?' Mai asked.
'Right, we can send out alerts to the buyers and the sellers saying the police are on to them. Also alert the authorities about the stores, run by the mafia in several countries,' Steve said, 'But as soon as they get wind of this they'll stop us. We only get one shot at that. Stop a lot of buying and selling for a short while. We could close down one or more of the sites. Create havoc and lose them lots of business.'
'Yes, but that would just be temporary,' Adam said.
'Well, if we delete the databases and anything else we can find, it would shut them down, whilst they restore from their backup. Again temporary. As we are an administrator on the Seguro system, we can divert payments or set-up new payment options,’ Steve explained, ‘That would be another temporary solution, but they would be back…We could take bitcoins. As a percentage, like Grithos.’
'So, move money into another account?' Adam said
'Yes, we could do that, but it's illegal,’ Steve answered hesitantly.
'If it’s illegal, we become like them. Like my brother.' Adam shook his head.
'Nobody seems bothered, here or in the UK. They are up to bad stuff, so would they be able to chase us down?' A million thoughts rushed through Steve's mind, though he couldn't snatch and hold on to any single one. Think. Think.
'But it is illegal, Adam repeated.
'Maybe divert buyer’s payments from sellers to us,’ Steve continued, ‘Now I'm getting carried away. What if we divert funds into Prem's account? Even the seller's payments into Prem's bank account. Authorities and gangs would be after him. We might be better tracking the money flow for Grithos into the offshore accounts. Find out who's behind Grithos. Then we have a case.'
'OK, how does this help to get Mark released and bring my brother to justice?' Adam enquired.
'We need to force your brother to release Mark. Let's focus on the buyers and sellers’ transactions, on the Seguro system. We can check this out without getting caught. OK, look here.’ Steve pointed to the computer screen. ‘Buyers. Most pay in bitcoins. They're not exchanging bank or card details to buy the bitcoins, they must exchange elsewhere. I can't find many who pay by debit or credit cards. Anyway, they're probably stolen cards.' Steve tried to settle on an action.
'What reliable information can you get?' Adam asked Steve.
'We can get the country. We must do a live trace of each transaction, to get their IP address, which gives us their location. There are millions of transactions though, so not practical.'
'What about sellers?' Mai enquired.
'They receive bitcoins and keep them as bitcoins. Can't find the sellers locations,' Steve said.
'Can you get delivery details of the buyers who ordered goods?' Adam asked.
'No, I need to go onto the onion router network to get information. Hey. Odd?' Steve paused.
'What?' Adam said.
Steve released a sarcastic laugh. 'Guess the name of the company who are receiving the commission on the bad stuff?'
'Q7?' Adam guessed.
'No. Grithos PTE Limited.'
'Can you trace the company?' Adam asked.
'I've got the IBAN for the payment which gives me the bank account number and location, plus a postal address in Singapore. What about Lloyd Dodd?' Steve thought aloud.
'Lloyd Dodd?' Adam questioned.
'Oh, sorry Lloyd, is a friend. He works at Goldman Sachs in Kuala Lumpur,' Steve said.
‘Yes, I know Lloyd. He is a nice man. Good friend of Glen,' Mai said.
'I'll call him,' Steve said.
Steve called Lloyd and after they had shared a few words about Glen’s untimely death, Steve explained the situation that he now found himself in. Lloyd told him that a guy who resembled tattoo man and a police officer had visited the Cuban bar and questioned Lloyd about Steve and Mai. Steve was very concerned and chose not to tell Adam or Mai.
Lloyd offered to help in any way he could, and Steve asked him to get back to him as soon as possible.
######
Later that day, Lloyd called Steve.
'Hi, Lloyd, I'll put you on speakerphone, Mai and Adam are here.'
They gathered around the phone.
'Hi,' Lloyd said, 'I am so sorry to hear about Glen. My deepest sympathies, Mai. I can't believe he has gone,'
'Thank you, Lloyd. I miss him so much,' Mai said.
There were a few moments of silence before Steve said, 'What did you find?'
'Grithos PTE is an offshore business based in Singapore. They run the location from a serviced postal address, so no real detail. But, it gets interesting. It's owned by a Shell company based in the US called Columbus Properties NYC.'
'A US firm, eh? How is a Shell company different?' Steve drilled down.
'It's a company which does business transactions but has no assets or operations in the US. It's basically the same as the offshore business in Singapore.'
'So, they are taking the money out of Malaysia to Singapore and then out of Singapore to the US. Perfect,' Steve said.
'It gets worse,' Lloyd carried on. 'Columbus Properties NYC own condominiums in New York, including The Plaza and The Warner Centre.'
'So, they must be worth millions of dollars,’ Steve said.
'And they avoid any lawsuits or double taxation because they are a Shell company,' Lloyd advised.
'How can you tell who the owners are?' Steve leaned forward.
'These companies help avoid taxation in the US. They don't use nominee directors, so they reveal who the real owners are.'
'Oh, so they don't use a stand-in director. They can't hide, like the old offshore companies?'
'They have registered directors, but they can hide by creating a chain of shell companies,' Lloyd explained.
'Wow. The perfect way to avoid any corporation tax and move money?' Steve smiled and shook his head.
'Yes, South Mounthill LLC another US Shell company own Columbus Properties NYC,. A Singa
pore Offshore business called Schrader Investments PTE Limited own South Mounthill LLC.'
'So, there's a trail of money flow from Malaysia, via Singapore, on to the US and back to Singapore. And they pick up a ton of US real estate along the way. Perfect.' Steve was aghast.
Lloyd coughed, 'The Schrader Investments PTE Limited directors are ………Prem Jothi, Cliff Lin..'
Steve interrupted,' Cliff Lin? Did you say Cliff Lin?'
Lloyd confirmed, 'Yes, Cliff Lin and the son-in-law of the Malaysian Prime Minister, Ariff Samahon, who works for the government.’
A bug-eyed Steve's mouth gaped. 'Oh my God. No wonder they're trying to shut us up! Cliff Lin.' Steve turned away in an attempt to hide his shock, but his eyes glistened with the pain of the betrayal. 'Prem Jothi and Cliff Lin. Oh fuck. I’m floored by that Lloyd. What do we do next?'
'I'll email the evidence to your new email address. Just let me know if I can help further,' Lloyd said.
'Thanks, Lloyd. Thanks for finding the info. Can you keep this to yourself?'
'No problem, talk soon.'
Adam fell back slumped in the chair. 'Wow. What now?'
Mai looked forlorn, the mention of Glen evoking grief.
Steve stood up, walked over to the window and gazed out. 'Cliff Lin and Prem Jothi hmm. Now I understand.' He turned around. 'Small company with exactly the right solution and commission structure that could be hidden from the rest of Q7. It must have been a dream find for them. We need to put him off our scent.'
'How will we do that?' Adam said.
'I will call Cliff using Skype and tell him we are in Hong Kong. To put them off the scent? What do you think?' Steve tried to think of the best option.
'They need to believe you have left the country. Yes, Hong Kong. Who is Cliff Lin?' Adam asked.
'He's a Chinese Malay, living in Kuala Lumpur and a shareholder in Seguro. We met him two years ago when we were working with the UK Trade and Industry department in the UK. They hooked us up with the embassies in Singapore and Malaysia. They helped us find partners in Asia. That's when we met Cliff Lin. He invested in us.'
'I have not heard Prem mention him.' Adam shook his head.
‘I do not know his name.’ Mai shook her head too.
'Now it figures why Q7 awarded us for the payments' solution contract. Cliff Lin knows us well. We must have been the obvious choice. Cliff must have informed Sergeant TetLeong and Superintendent Anwar Tempawan. They fabricated the Interpol alert. Bloody Hell!!' It all makes sense now.
Adam sighed. 'What are we going to do? I trust no one anymore.'
'OK, let's look at options,’ Steve said, ‘We could change the Seguro system to pay as many of the sellers' money into Prem Jothi’s account. Do you have the details of Prem's bank account?'
'I can get the details,' Adam said.
'The Mafia groups go crazy, throw a wobbler and go after Prem or Farid or Anil or who knows.'
'What if Prem just leaves the country, with the money?' Adam said.
'Good point. Could we alert a journalist to expose this? We could even use social media to get the story out there.'
Adam leaned forward. 'I have a friend, Eileen Yeong, she is a reporter at The Malaysian Daily. Based in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, west of Kuala Lumpur. I am sure she will agree to visit us.'
'Can we trust her? Does she know your brother? Sorry to be paranoid.'
'I think we can.'
‘OK, don't say too much. If you get her to come up to Penang, we can fill her in on the details. Try to get her to come quickly. It’s urgent.’
Adam nodded.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Saturday 23rd May
STEVE HAD SPENT THE previous day and night aligning the right timezone combinations to catch up with Beth and the kids. The CBD oil was helping him enormously. The stomach ache and cold sweats had subsided. Although concerned about taking cannabis, he was consoled by the fact that the consensus seemed to conclude that it was not addictive.
He had made further headway going over all the forensic data but needed more computing resources and time to get down to the level of detail required to unlock the data sources.
Adam answered his mobile phone. 'Hello Eileen. Thank you, I will be right down.' He slipped his shoes on. 'Eileen has arrived, I will go and fetch her.'
'Excellent.' Steve smiled.
Eileen followed Adam into the apartment and shook hands with Mai and Steve. 'Steve, it's good to meet you. I recognise you from your LinkedIn profile.'
Eileen Yeong, a confident, slender and well-dressed woman, was sub-editor and head of politics at The Malaysian Daily. She had been in the role for over four years, having begun her career covering Southeast Asia politics for a local publisher more than a decade ago.
They sat down.
'OK, what have you got for me?' Eileen asked.
'We have uncovered something big. How can we be sure we can trust you?' Steve said.
'Trust me with what Steve? I'm a reporter. I will report the truth.'
'We don't trust the Malaysian police, and we suspect important government officials of illegal actions.'
'The Malaysian Daily is one of the few press organisations who are not government controlled in this industry. We will report on Malaysian culture even if it involves the police and the government.'
'We are in danger. Will you keep our anonymity and not disclose our location?' Steve enquired further.
'Yes, if that's what you need,’ Eileen said.
'OK, where do we start? Malaysian government officials and businessmen are making money by illegal means, and syphoning it off through Singapore, to the US. They are sending millions of ringgit through shell companies in the US who are then buying real estate, in New York.'
'Who are these people? How are they making money?'
'The businessmen are Prem Jothi, Farid Razak and Cliff Lin. They are from Kuala Lumpur and they are involved with the son-in-law of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.'
'Well, that's big. What proof do you have?' Eileen asked.
Steve explained the background to Seguro's contract with Q7, and the role played by Farid Razak, Prem Jothi and Cliff Lin. 'They set us up to win the contract. We installed our secure payment system, and they now use it for hiding criminal transactions.’ He explained the dark net and the syphoning of money to an offshore company in Singapore.
'How did you find the information?' Eileen was writing notes.
'Let me show you.' Steve turned on the large monitor, 'OK, I am on a connection in Penang. I use a piece of software to hop between thousands of servers. We change our connection, and our location, every couple of minutes. This is so they can’t track us. Q7 have created an online criminal community using an onion router as a dark net. They use bitcoins, in the main, for online anonymous currencies. The huge scale of the operation suggests it's the hub of an international dark market.'
'So, you are on the Q7 dark net?' Eileen made more shorthand notes on a small pad. Steve could not make out the words. She listened to him, moving closer to the edge of her seat as he progressed his explanation.
Steve showed how he had gained access via the Seguro payment’s system and then the Q7 dark net, making sure he was not spotted on their system when they run their security checks. He ran through a transaction flow showing how the bad guys hopped onto a hosted dark net site and paid their fees. He explained the money trail and US shell companies. Eileen made copious notes.
'Schrader Investments’ directors are Prem Jothi, Cliff Lin and the son-in-law of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.' Darkness crossed Steve's eyes.
'Have you reported this?'
'We reported our initial concerns to Q7's CEO, Farid Razak. He introduced us to Prem Jothi. Our Chief Technical Officer, David Morris found the first evidence of the dark net. Prem Jothi murdered David,' Steve said.
'Murder! Did you go to the police?' Eileen was shocked.
Steve told her about his arrest at the airport when he had arrived b
ack from the UK and how they had taken him to the police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to be interviewed by a corrupt superintendent. He also explained Mark's arrest.
'And are you and Mark together?' Eileen looked at Adam.
‘Yes, we are partners.'
Eileen sighed. 'Crazy outdated laws here.'
‘Prem Jothi killed my Glen.’ Mai said, ‘He poison him. He died at Gleneagles Hospital.’ Mai’s eyes watered.
‘Oh my God, that is awful!’ Eileen gasped.
‘They murdered Glen. Tragic! A great guy and a big loss to all of us and especially Mai,’ Steve said.
‘I’m so sorry Mai,’ Eileen said.
Steve was determined to get the story out, ‘My guess is Q7 needed us for our secure payment system, and this was set-up by Cliff Lin, one of our investors. However, once David found what looked like suspicious transactions on the system, they tried to silence us…’
Eileen made more notes.
Steve continued, ’One of the Malaysian policemen tried to kill me. Adam saved my life, and I escaped to the British Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. The UK police keep saying there's not enough evidence to arrest Prem Jothi for David’s death. They're not interested in drug crimes and money laundering in Malaysia. However, as they are investigating David’s murder, which happened in the UK, I need to show them evidence to connect his death to the dodgy business dealings he found, to show why he was killed.’
'Why have you not left the country? You'd be safer,’ Eileen said.
'We're not sure if the bad guys have alerted border control, and we can’t risk getting arrested as we try to leave,’ Steve said, And anyway, we owe it to David and Glen to find enough evidence to convict their killers and get them justice.'
'I can help.' Eileen smiled.
'Can you publish this story and create enough bad press to stop this?'
'I hope so. It’s a big story.'
'Great. At last! Someone is on our side!’ Steve exclaimed.
