[Cont'd from Part 1 ]But the stage for such massive flight capital wasalready set before the 1991 break-up of the SovietUnion. The Thomas and Dillon book describes therole played by Robert Maxwell in cahoots with KGBbosses and mafia kingpins in arranging such lootingschemes originating in the Eastern Bloc before 1991,during the 1980s under Gorbachevs perestroika andYuri Andropovs leadership.For example, the authors describe Maxwells deal withBulgarian President Todor Zhivkov in the Neva Project,created by Andrei Lukanov, a former member ofBulgarias Central Committee (and future Prime Minister).The deal was made between Maxwell and KGB bossVladimir Kryuchkov. They brought Zhivkov on side witha bribe. Then Kryuchkov appointed Lukanov as the KGBspoint man for both the project and as Maxwells handler.To raise Lukanovs authority to a higher level moreappropriate for such an important project, Kryuchkovappointed Lukanov as an officer in the high rankingInvestigation Unit of Soviet Intelligence.Neva was designed to be the single largestprogramme for the mass-scale theft of US technologyoperated by Darzhavna Sigurnost (Bulgarian intelligenceservice) and brought to Bulgaria under diplomatic coverwhere the technology would be re-engineered byMaxwells companies and then resold to Eastern Bloccountries including Russia and Ukraine. Profits wouldbe split among Maxwell, Lukanov and Ognian Doinov(the vice-president of Bulgarias State EconomicCouncil). The funds would be money laundered to theWest through Maxwells Bulgarian Co-operative Bank.To implement Neva, Maxwell created a bunch ofcompanies, such as Multiart (for producing stolentechnology for the metal industry), Balkan Films (forproviding stolen technology from Hollywood to theBulgarian film industry), Stanke Dimitrov (for softwareto the pharmaceutical industry), Sophia Insurance(computers for the office management sector), andso on. The many companies provided cover for theMossad operatives to infiltrate the Eastern Bloc. Thecompanies eventually would be grouped underMaxwells Multi-Group (Multigroup) and embraced bythe Russian and Bulgarian mafia.According to the authors, Maxwell had some 400private businesses, such as Degem Computers (usedas a cover by the Mossad), which sold software in theEastern Bloc, Central and South America. Maxwellowned Tel Aviv-based Citex Corporation (whose Israelihead was the son of Yitzhak Shamir). He had 30percent of the Maariv newspaper in Israel and a pieceof Moscow News in Russia. (Gorbachev sent Maxwellan icon as a gift when he found out that Maxwell hadbought a stake in Moscow News). The Mossad usedMaxwells publications such as the Daily Mirror toprovide cover for both Mossad operatives posingas journalists and to publish some disinformationstories (e.g. about Mordecai Vanunu, who convertedfrom the Jewish to the Christian faith, and blew thewhistle as a technician at the Israeli Dimona nuclearcentre on Israels secret nuclear program of weaponsof mass destruction).The authors claim of Maxwell being an Israeli spyis not new. Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour M. Hershwrote the same a decade ago in The SampsonOption: Israel, America and the Bomb triggeringa scandal in 1991 when two British members ofparliament read excerpts in the House of Commonsunder parliamentary privilege. Hersh was sued forlinking Maxwell to the Mossad, but won his case(see Washington Post; "Hersh Wins Apology fromBritish Papers").The same claims about Maxwell being linked to Mossadwere made by the two "rogue" Mossad agents: VictorOstrovsky in The Other Side of Deception: A RogueAgent Exposes The Mossads Secret Agenda (1994;ISBN 0-06-017635-0), and Ari Ben-Menashe in hisProfits of War: The Sensational Story of the World-Wide Arms Conspiracy (1992; ISBN 1-86373-379-5).The authors Thomas and Dillon interviewed both theseformer Mossad agents as sources for their book. TheMaxwell book goes further than Hersh though andalleges that Maxwell was assassinated by the Mossadon board his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, for reasonsdescribed in the book. This is a controversial, minorityview. (BTW, Maxwell bought the famous Lady Ghislaineyacht from the brother of Adnan Khashoggi, the well-known international arms dealer last reported by Sy Hershas meeting with "The Prince of Darkness", Straussianneo-con Richard Perle).And the authors claim that Robert Maxwell was lootingBulgaria in cahoots with the Bulgarian secret service isnot new either. Patrick Brogan reported in the GlasgowHerald (Maxwell 'smuggled cash from Bulgaria ;20Jan92) on a New York Times article about Maxwellsembezzlement and smuggling scheme in 1987 withthe Bulgarian president, Todor Zhivkov, and Maxwellsprivate company called Bimex. He writes:-------------------------------------------------- . . . that the Bulgarian secret service was heavilyinvolved in schemes to plunder the treasury and laundermoney through foreign companies and banks. That iswhere Robert Maxwell was allegedly involved.The secret service was also engaged in illegal armssales, drug trafficking, and terrorism. A presidentialcommission is investigating the allegations and asenior officer in the secret service who was about tobe interrogated committed suicide last month.He was implicated in the murder in London in 1978of leading Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who wasjabbed with a poisoned umbrella.[ . . . ]Mr Lilov claims that hundreds of foreign companiesfrom Austria to Singapore were managed by theBulgarian secret service.---------------------------------------------------Media reports praised Robert Maxwell for buying theNew York Daily News. However, George Garneaureported in the Editor & Publisher (Maxwell's moneylaundry; 19Mar94) that in a court of law, the U.S.bankruptcy judge, Tina Brozman, found that Maxwellsreason for the purchase was for money launderingpurposes. Garneau quoted the judges ruling:-----------------"The evidence here compels the conclusion thatMaxwell's interest, both in purchasing and operatingthe Daily News, was to keep the newspaper aliveso that Maxwell Newspapers could function as amoney-laundering device," Brozman said in ascathing 23-page decision riddled with referencesto fraud, misappropriation of funds, deceit andself-interest.[ . . . ]In one instance, she said, Maxwell used the DailyNews to secure a $78 million loan from BankersTrust but gave the tabloid only $8.45 million.Another time, he negotiated to borrow $86 millionfrom Bankers Trust for MGN and "sent the fundsoff on a great circular ride" through the Daily Newsand back to Bankers Trust to repay another loan,the decision said.--------------------There are many other information sources for the bookincluding interviews the authors had with the following:Maxwells widow Betty and daughter Isabel; John P.ONeill (FBIs executive agent-in-charge); Yitzhak Rabin(former Prime Minister of Israel); Ehud Barak (formerhead of Israeli Military Intelligence and former PrimeMinister of Israel); William Casey and William Colby(former CIA directors); Rafi Eitan (former Mossaddirector of operations); David Kimche (former Mossadassistant deputy director-general); Uri Saguy (formerhead of Aman, Israeli military intelligence); and RichardTomlinson (former MI6 officer). Vladimir Kryuchkov(former KGB chairman) was listed as one of thesecondary sources.According to the authors, Maxwells Mossad handlerwas Rafi Eitan, the same Mossad official who recruitedJonathan Pollard to spy on the USA for Israel. ThePollard recruitment was carried out through AviemSella (the famous Israeli pilot who led the air attackdestroying Iraqs nuclear reactor) and Yosef Yagur,the science attache at the Israeli consulate in NewYork.It was KGB boss Vladimir Kryuchkov who played asignificant role in the looting plan hatched before thebreakup of the USSR. He wanted to establish hundredsof business enterprises in the West that would providecover for the KGB and Communist Party members totransfer their assets abroad with the assistance oforganized crime, in a similar secret fashion to whatMaxwell was providing to Mossad katsas. In the lattercase, the authors say Maxwell met and colluded withRussian Mafia bosses such as Simeon YukovichMogilevich from the Rising Sun (aka Solntsevo) crimesyndicate. Other Maxwell contacts included AndreiLukanov and Ivo Janchev in Bulgaria where Maxwellbought the Bulgarian Cooperative Bank and which hadallegedly laundered over $1 billion for the Solntsevo toSwitzerland, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein.The KGB-led plan for looting the USSR and EasternEurope has been corroborated by others beyond theMaxwell book, such as Richard L. Palmer, President ofCachet International, a former U.S. army intelligenceofficer, a former CIA operative specializing in moneylaundering, and a former CIA Station Chief in the formerSoviet Union specializing in the investigation of Russianorganized crime. Palmer described the plan in histestimony before the U.S. Congressional Committeeon Banking and Financial Services dealing with theinfiltration of the Western financial system by the RussianMafia. Palmer is also recognized by the U.S. FederalCourt as an expert witness on organized crime, officialcorruption and the banking system in Russia. Palmerdescribed the earlier looting steps by the KGB and highCommunist Party officials that were formulated andimplemented (before the breakup of the USSR in1991) in the second half of the1980s under MikhailGorbachevs perestroika. His testimony is availableat the following URL:[ http://financialservices.house.gov/banking/92199pal.htm ]Robert Maxwell and Semion Mogilevich were but twoplayers in such looting schemes. Other authors havedescribed similar players such as Grigori LuckyLoutchanno Loutchansky and his Austrian-basedcompany, Nordex, and commodity trader Marc Richbased in Switzerland. Author Paul Klebnikov wrotethat oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Godfather of theKremlin, learned from Marc Rich. Marc Rich waspardoned by Bill Clinton for his crimes in USA, andlike Maxwell, also had links to the Mossad. ManyIsraeli officials, some linked to the Mossad, sentletters to Clinton supporting Marc Richs pardon.The London Daily Telegraph reported that RobertMaxwells son, Kevin Maxwell, worked for GrigoriLoutchanskys Nordex as a consultant for severalyears, trading in finance and construction in Russiaand its satellites. Grigori Loutchansky has beenbanned from Britain by successive Home Secretaries.In the article, Russian Mafia Strikes Back in Bulgaria,[ http://www.tol.cz/week.html#bul ](Transitions Online; 11-17Sep00), Polia Tchakarova,points out how Loutchansky/Pordeks, was fundingpolitical parties in Bulgaria, and that Mikhail Chernoywas expelled from Bulgaria. And RFE TurkmenService reported on the alleged bribe of $100 millionmade by Loutchansky to Akezhan Kazhegeldin, theprime minister of Kazakhstan.[ http://www.rferl.org/bd/tu/reports/2001/04/0-080401.html ]In his article about Loutchansky titled, Sinned Againstor Sinning (Jerusalem Post; 28Dec95), Tom Sawickireported that two Nordex employees were killed inmafia-style street shootings in Moscow and Kyiv (a thirdwas wounded), and that the Ukraine-based company,Ukraintechservice, with which Nordex works closely,is currently under investigation over several allegedlyshady deals. Sawicki also wrote about Loutchanskysties to the Russian Mafia, money laundering for theKGB, involvement in the illicit trade in nuclear materialsand technology, and the Nordex plane that was stoppedin Kyiv while refueling and loaded with Scud missilewarheads en route from North Korea to Iraq. He alsosays:By 1994, Nordex's turnover had reached some $3 billionand it had 40 subsidiaries and joint-venture firms in theWest, and some 100 such affiliates in the former Sovietempire. It employs close to 8,000 people. Among the bignames associated with Nordex are Robert Maxwell's sonsKevin and Ian in London, the daughter and son-in-law ofPresident Nursultan Nasarbayev of Kazakhstan, anduntil recently former Israeli finance minister YitzhakModa'i.========================================[Cont'd in Part 3 ]