Missing Man (10 page)

I'm attaching a document I received literally in the mail which asks that I travel on my own dime to appear as a witness in Leonid Venjik's trial in Graz, Austria. I don't know if I'm being subpoenaed by the judge, the prosecution or the defense, but it really doesn't matter as I had travelled there in December 2004, giving a statement to the investigating magistrate about my investigation of the criminal networks involved in the case.

I'm going to ask your advice and assistance as I'm planning to go and appear as asked but since the case involves literally a dangerous mix of Latin American, Serbian and Russian organized crime networks actively trafficking in both counterfeit cigarettes (my interest, for Philip Morris) and cocaine, I am concerned about the possible security implications of my travel. It has become public in all of the documents that I was investigating all of these groups, using Venjik as my source, and my walking to the courthouse, in my opinion is going to be quite risky.

What I was hoping is that you or someone there in the task force might have some contact with … the Austrian National Police's Organized Crime Division, known as EDOK, or its local equivalent there in the town of Graz, with whom I could coordinate my arrival in town, my stay in the local hotel and my departure out of the city. I would just like to be in contact with someone so that if I do, in fact, spot someone either following me or attempting to do something, I could call someone.

In early December, Bob walked into the lobby of a courthouse in Graz, a city in southern Austria about two hours from Vienna. A DEA agent, Philip Scott Forbes, spotted him and introduced himself. Forbes was the DEA agent who had gone undercover to set the trap that snared Venjik, and he had concluded Bob was clueless about his informant's crimes. Instead, he thought of him as an old, tired agent who was paying the price for having taken his eye off the ball. But Forbes was having a hard time convincing Austrian authorities to share that view. He knew the case's magistrate wanted to question Bob with an eye toward possibly indicting him, and he guessed the former FBI agent's chances of walking out of court a free man were no better than fifty-fifty. Bob appeared nervous, and when he took the witness stand he insisted that he had trusted Venjik and hadn't known anything about his dealing drugs. After he was done, the case's magistrate remained skeptical and asked Forbes to stand and affirm Bob's testimony. Forbes noticed Bob turn in his seat and look at him. “I believe that Mr. Levinson has been truthful,” the DEA agent said. With that, the magistrate told Bob he was free to leave.

Bob sent Chris a note from Graz. It wasn't about his close call but about their youngest son, Douglas, who had turned thirteen while he was away. Bob and Chris did their best to treat their kids evenly, and somehow they managed to pull it off; all of their children felt special and sibling rivalries rarely existed. He told Chris he felt bad about missing Doug's first day as a teenager.

This is a short message from the Diaper Husband. You remember him: He's tall, dark (er, make that grey) and handsome. Sorry I woke you up. Make sure that Dudless knows we are celebrating his birthday once again when I get back.

Love.

The Bum Hus

Bob and Forbes bumped into each other again at the Vienna airport. Bob was his usual gregarious self and he urged Forbes to give him a shout if he ever needed his help or was looking for work after his DEA career. He said he was headed to the Middle East on behalf of a corporate client. A few hours later, when Bob landed in Istanbul, the charade that he was a CIA consultant gathering information for the agency while traveling abroad for corporate clients had ended. He had come to Istanbul for one reason alone: to spy for the CIA.

Boris Birshtein and Ali Magamidi Riza, the Moscow-based arms trader, were already at the Istanbul Hilton when Bob arrived. Another Iranian businessman, Ahmad Rowshandel, was due to check in the next day. Boris, who was still waiting for Bob to make good on his promise to get his name off a U.S. watch list, filled him in about what Riza had said about Rowshandel. According to Riza, the U.S. Treasury Department after 9/11 had frozen several bank accounts that Rowshandel had in South Africa, which contained a total of $17 million. American officials were still blocking Rowshandel's access to the money, and Riza asked Boris if he knew anyone in the United States who could help get the funds released.

The following day, after Rowshandel's arrival, the four men gathered in the hotel's lobby. Boris introduced Bob as a business associate. Rowshandel handed out business cards with the names of several companies he owned in Iran and Germany. One of them, called Oberlausitzer Feinpaplerfrabik, produced high-quality paper and was located in the German spa town of Bad Muskau, not far from the Polish border.

In the reports he sent later to the Illicit Finance Group, Bob described the two Iranians as though he was booking them.

Ali Magamidi Riza was described as follows:

Race
: White

Sex
: Male

Age
: Approximately 42 years

Nationality
: Iranian

Height
: Approximately 5'10"

Weight
: Approximately 180 pounds

Hair
: Black

Affects moustache and goatee

(“Van Dyke” beard)

Eyes
: Brown

Remarks
: Speaks fluent Russian

Ahmed Rowshandel was described as follows:

Race
: White

Sex
: Male

Age
: Approximately 60–65 years

Nationality
: Iranian

Height
: Approximately 5'10"

Weight
: Approximately 180 pounds

Hair
: Gray, balding with fringe

Affects moustache and goatee

(“Van Dyke” beard)

Eyes
: Brown

Remarks
: Has distinctive wide-set eyes

Speaks Farsi, English, Arabic and German languages

Riza and Rowshandel got down to business. With the U.N. poised to adopt new U.S.-supported trade sanctions against Iran, they said their government was looking for foreign businessmen willing to go around those embargoes and supply their country with needed commodities. As an incentive, Tehran was prepared to reward cooperative companies by selling them oil at a sharp discount, which the businesses could then resell at market prices, pocketing the profit. It was the same strategy Saddam Hussein had used to convince companies to go around the U.S.-led embargo against Iraq. In his report to the Illicit Finance Group, Bob wrote:

Ahmad Rowshandel said privately that he has what he termed “direct access to Iranian President Mahmud [
sic
] Ahmadinejad” and, further, that he held an unidentified position in the Iranian government.

Rowshandel stated that he had the ability to arrange travel into Iran for international businessmen interested in doing business with that country's government.

Rowshandel talked about the need for the Iranian government to have the assistance of international businessmen, particularly those based in Europe, as opposed to the United States and Canada, and it was looking for opportunities to develop the metals and urea businesses.

Rowshandel said that he also had the ability to “reward” cooperative international businessmen with lucrative contracts from the Iranian government for quantities of oil at discounts of approximately seven dollars ($7.00) (US) per barrel.

During the meeting, Riza said Iran was particularly looking to buy large quantities of bauxite, an ore used in the production of aluminum. He explained that his country bought bauxite at one time through Marc Rich, an American-born commodities trader who had fled the United States for Switzerland in the 1980s amid tax evasion charges. More recently, Iranian officials had tried to negotiate a deal with the Russian government to get bauxite. Those talks had fallen apart, Riza said, because Russia was concerned the arrangement could limit supplies of the ore needed by its biggest producer of aluminum, United Company RUSAL, or RUSAL, as it was often called.

Bob was still buzzing with excitement when he returned home to Florida and finalized his reports about the Istanbul meeting. He sent them to Anne, who was coming back from a trip to Los Angeles, telling her he was certain Tim Sampson and others would be pleased.

This has got to be the REAL “welcome back” message.

There's a Fedex which should arrive later this morning which contains a personal note to you and a memo for Mr. B and Mr. T …

Hope we can talk later in the week, once you're back to work and back up to speed (hope THAT doesn't take too long.)

Glad you enjoyed L.A.—was stationed there in the mid-70s and literally had a blast running around in Hollywood and Beverly Hills chasing mobsters.

Bob also wanted to do something for Boris. The Christmas holiday season was approaching and the businessman planned to take his wife to Florida. He was driving there and his route would take him into the United States over the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York. Bob didn't want Boris to get hassled and sent a note to an FBI agent in New York City, asking him to make sure Boris's border crossing went smoothly. The note contained the date and time of his anticipated arrival at the bridge and the license plate number of his Mercedes: “Our friend, together with his wife, plans to spend a few days down here in my neck of the woods for the holiday season. He did us, meaning the U.S., a real biggie when we were overseas together.”

Bob's note did the trick. Boris and his wife were soon enjoying the sun in Fort Lauderdale, about to board a relaxing five-day luxury cruise.

 

6

Christmas

Christmas was the best time of the year for the Levinson family. Everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered together, usually in Coral Springs. In 2006, only Dan, Bob's oldest son, was missing because he was in Japan teaching English while he waited to hear from law schools. A new addition to the Levinson clan was attracting much of the attention: Stephanie's infant son, Ryan.

One family tradition was to pile into cars and head over to a nearby mall, Sawgrass Mills, for a shopping spree. On Christmas Eve, Chris and a few of the kids went to church. The holidays gave Bob a chance to catch up with Sarah, his third-oldest daughter. She was living in New York, working for Goldman Sachs writing business proposals about potential new investments the firm could make. Sarah saw her father less often than her siblings did and she was struck by the changes in him. He was only fifty-eight, but he was starting to look old and even a little frail. He kept promising his children, including Sarah, that he would take care of himself by eating better and getting more exercise. To prove he was serious, he would open his wallet and pull out a gym membership card. Sarah worried that her father might not stay healthy enough to celebrate many more holidays.

Since returning from Istanbul, Bob had tallied the amount spent in recent months on projects for the Illicit Finance Group and discovered that he had drawn down all the money available under his contract, including the extra $20,000 he had gotten. By his accounting, the CIA now owed him $12,000 in unpaid time and expenses. If more money wasn't added to his account, he would be dead in the water until May 2007, the time when his contract was scheduled to renew. He couldn't imagine Anne and Tim letting him sit on his hands for the next six months; the material he was providing them was too good. If anything, he sensed an opportunity. He wanted a bigger role at the CIA, and this seemed like the right moment to make his pitch.

He drafted a memo, recommending amendments to his contract. Currently, the agreement limited the amount of time he could charge to the Illicit Finance Group to 80 hours per month. He proposed raising that monthly cap to 135 hours, a 70 percent increase that would boost his contract's value to about $130,000, and suggested a proportional rise in his expense allowance. In a lengthy note to Anne, he cited the number of analytical reports he had provided since joining the agency in June, highlighting his contributions to CIA efforts in areas such as counternarcotics (CNC), counterterrorism (CTC), and counterintelligence (CI).

Sorry to have inundated your front yard with FEDEX packages!

Attached is a memorandum which requests that Brian and Tim consider augmenting the budget on the contract since, in effect, as of 31 December, my funding runs out.

I know that when things were drawn up last spring, no one anticipated exactly how much would be needed or, in fact, how successful I might be at producing reports for the shop.

It's six months later and, as I put it in my memo, I think I have written approximately 111 reports on a variety of subjects, all hopefully of interest to your shop, CNC, CTC, or the CI people.

Most recently, while you were away, I went over to Istanbul and, using Boris B., was able to meet with and fully identify two (2) people who appear to be covert Iranian government agents involved in recruiting European and Western businessmen for the cause—and identify the system the Iranians are utilizing to reward those who cooperate with them.

 … I hope that at least some, if not most, of this stuff, has been both new and of interest to the guys and gals.

I have a number of opportunities to keep up the flow of reports but need to know that if I spend this amount of time on your work, I'll be 1) compensated (at the same rate, mind you—not looking for more money) and 2) have the ability to be reimbursed for those out-of-pocket expenditures I'm making on a regular basis, both for travel and for other things.

I do not want to be a pain in the butt and want to assure you that I am loving every minute of it—I just want to be able to continue …

If Brian or Tim need more information, either via documentation, by phone, or from me IN PERSON, for example, just whistle, and I'll be on a plane to DC to meet.