Missing Man (33 page)

Prologue

“This is a serious message”
: Email from [email protected] to Ira Silverman, November 13, 2010.

“For my beau— my beautiful”
: Transcript of videotape attached to email from [email protected] to Ira Silverman, November 13, 2010.

1. The House on Ninety-Second Street

“If you do this right”
: “Managing Danger,”
Florida Trend
magazine, September 1, 1999.

his own one-man shop
: R. A. Levinson & Associates was formed on April 23, 2001. State of Florida corporate records.

another large investigations firm, SafirRosetti, hired him
: SafirRosetti press release, March 26, 2004.

teach seminars for young agents
: The presentation that Bob gave to FBI agents about identifying and developing informants was titled “Source Development and Penetration of Targeted Organizations.”

The DEA agent, who did undercover buys
: David Samuels, a former undercover agent for the DEA and a friend of Bob's, told me this story.

The House on 92nd Street: This film, which was released in 1945, starred William Eythe and Lloyd Nolan. It might have inspired a very young Bob Levinson, but I would not recommend it.

City College of New York
: Bob attended Yeshiva University in New York on a scholarship for two years before transferring to CCNY, according to Dan Levinson.

TGI Friday's
: Chris Levinson described her chance encounter with her future husband at this iconic Manhattan singles bar.

Raymond Donovan
: My description of the long-running controversy involving the onetime labor secretary was drawn from accounts in
The Washington Post
,
The New York Times
, and
Newsday
.

Michael Orlando
: The FBI investigation for which Michael Orlando served as an informant was called “Operation Tumcon” and named after its initial target, Angelo Tuminaro, the suspected head of a major heroin trafficking ring.

“This kid Mike”
: William Masselli's allusion to Orlando's role as a Mafia contract killer proved accurate. FBI records show he later acknowledged carrying out at least one gangland murder.

A subsequent internal FBI review
: The results of the internal bureau inquiry into the handling of Michael Orlando by Bob and Larry Sweeney are contained in an FBI report dated February 16, 1981.

too much bad blood
: Larry Sweeney told me about the decision by supervisors in the FBI's New York office to take Bob off the organized crime task force.

Baruch Vega
: Baruch Vega's career as a photographer and career as an informant with the CIA, FBI, and DEA are described in reports in the
St. Petersburg Times
and other publications.

“Bob Roberts”
: Baruch Vega told me about the scheme developed by Bob and him that involved a fictional FBI agent. Vega used a similar stratagem when he later became a DEA informant and was subsequently arrested and charged with taking bribes from cartel members. During a DEA investigation, Bob Levinson and other former FBI agents confirmed the “Bob Roberts” scheme. As a result, charges against Vega were dropped.

Alexander Volkov
: His role in Summit International and its description as a Ponzi scheme is contained in Robert I. Friedman's book
Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America
(Boston: Little, Brown, 2000).

Vyacheslav Ivankov
: The description of the FBI's sting operation against him is drawn from court filings and newspaper accounts.

at a conference in New Mexico
: Anne Jablonski described her meeting with Bob.

“Toots”
: In nearly all his emails to Anne, Bob addressed her as “Toots” and signed them as “Buck.”

The informant said his sources had spotted an executive
: The claim that a mole within Philip Morris was selling its technology to product counterfeiters is contained in a SafirRosetti report dated July 8, 2004.

James Giffen
: Bribery charges against James Giffen were dropped after a judge allowed him to mount the defense that federal officials knew of his actions in Kazakhstan and that they had benefited U.S. policy.

the Kazakh president was willing to help the U.S. government
: Bob detailed the president of Kazakhstan's offer of help to the United States on terrorism-related issues in a “briefing paper” dated October 23, 2004.

The DEA already knew
: Interview with Philip Scott Forbes, who described the arrest of Leonid Venjik in Austria on drug and contraband trafficking charges.

gave Austrian authorities a sworn affidavit
: Bob swore out a statement attesting to the honesty of Leonid Venjik on December 20, 2004.

“I'm going to get eaten alive”
: Letter from Bob to Dave McGee, April 26, 2005.

Bob sent a letter to Joseph Cooley
: Bob sent his letter to Cooley on April 26, 2005.

Explaining to Philip Morris
: Officials of the cigarette company did not respond to inquiries about its decision to stop using SafirRosetti, but Philip Scott Forbes, the DEA agent, said the cigarette company was aware of the Venjik case.

a “success fee”
: A private investigator, Jim Mintz, provided me with an explanation of how this form of payment works.

Every month, Anne told him about a hang-up
: The hang-ups involved in getting Bob's contract approved by the CIA's bureaucracy are detailed in several emails written by Anne to Bob.

2. Toots

“Meow … And welcome”
: Anne's account of her experiment that restored her cat, Duke, to health was recounted in a post on her website
CatNutrition.org
.

“Anne-ski”
: Anne told me that her colleagues called her this.

Robert Otto
: Emails show that Otto asked Bob for information about Russian politicians or businessmen in which he, apparently as a State Department official, had an interest.

Anne met her at Union Station
: Sarah Levinson described to me her day in Washington with Anne.

Jonathan Winer
: Winer acknowledged to me several years ago that he was a consultant with the Illicit Finance Group. He declined to be interviewed for this book.

“Ugh … Pay NO attention to Bonnie”
: Email from Anne to Bob, August 29, 2005.

Olga Vega
: The role of Baruch Vega's sister as a possible source of information about the three Defense Department contractors held hostage in Colombia is outlined in an email sent by Baruch Vega to Bob, October 11, 2005.

“I'll pass it along
”: Email from Anne to Bob, October 12, 2005.

“I'll try and get a debrief”
: Email from Anne to Bob, October 22, 2005.

“I am sure you're weary”
: Email from Anne to Bob, May 2, 2006.

Brian O'Toole
: He is described in Bob's contract as its administrator.

The contract's language was vague
: The effective date of Bob's CIA consulting contract was June 15, 2006.

Peter F. Paul
: Bob visited Paul in August 2006 at a federal prison and sent several reports to Anne about information Paul provided.

“And for heaven's sake”
: Email from Anne to Bob, August 11, 2006.

“We teeter on the edge”
: Email from Anne to Bob, August 15, 2006.

The solution presented to Bob was simple
: The directions given to Bob about how he should prepare future reports for the Illicit Finance Group and send them to Anne at her home are contained in a note titled “Instructions pursuant to meeting of 22 August 2006.” The same memo contains a list of “Principal Interests,” such as Iran and Hugo Chávez.

“Iran is the flavor of the day”
: Interview with Ira Silverman.

3. The Fugitive

“In the past, I was Teddy”
: The documentary in which Dawud speaks these words is called
American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan
, by Jean-Daniel Lafond, a Canadian filmmaker. Dawud also used the name Hassan Abdulrahman.

Dawud drove to Tabatabai's home
: The account of Dawud's assassination of Ali Akbar Tabatabei is drawn from accounts in
The Washington Post
and
The New York Times
.

“Who am I, who grew up privileged and white”
: The writer who made these comments was Christopher de Bellaigue, a journalist living in Iran. He painted a sympathetic portrait of Dawud in the memoir
In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs
(New York: HarperCollins, 2006).

Grady had never met the detective
: Interview with James Grady.

“This country, this regime”
: Dawud made these comments in a tape-recorded conversation with Carl Shoffler.

“I believe that I am in a position”
: While Dawud drafted this letter to Janet Reno, the then attorney general of the United States, it is not clear that he sent it.

“I don't need a notch”
: Shoffler made these comments in a tape-recorded conversation with Dawud.

Joseph Trento
: The freelance writer included an account of Dawud's recruitment as an assassin for the Iranian Revolution as a chapter in his book
Prelude to Terror: The Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network
(New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005).

Ira wrote a eulogy
: His tribute to Carl Shoffler, “Capital Cop,” appeared in
The New Yorker
, July 29, 1996.

his relationship with Brian Ross
: Interview with Brian Ross and others who worked with Ira and Ross at NBC News.

a critically acclaimed Iranian film
, Kandahar: Dawud's acting in this extraordinary film seems wooden, but the scene in which he examines its female protagonist from behind a curtain is memorable.

a piece about Russian organized crime
: The
Fifth Estate
segment in which Bob appeared, “Power Play,” examined the involvement of Russian organized crime in professional ice hockey.

a twilight war
: I borrowed this phrase from
The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran
, by David Crist (New York: Penguin, 2012). Crist's book is an arresting and authoritative account of the decades-long war between the United States and Iran fought through proxies.

“The Iranians of my immediate association”
: Dawud's comments are drawn from Ira Silverman's profile “An American Terrorist,” which appeared in
The New Yorker
, August 5, 2002.

“The link below”
: Email from Ira to Bob, July 11, 2006.

“It turns out that our friend”
: Email from Bob to Ira, August 3, 2006.

4. Boris

Bouzari was among Tehran's best and brightest
: The description of Houshang Bouzari's career and harrowing experiences in Evin Prison is based on court filings in Canada and the article “Escape from Iran” in
The Atlantic
, March 20, 2012. Bouzari was awarded damages in his lawsuit against Mehdi Rafsanjani, but a higher court determined that Canada was not the proper venue for the action. Separately, an Iranian court in 2015 upheld Mehdi Rafsanjani's conviction on corruption charges, and he was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

Bob learned about him because of a lawsuit
: Bob first contacted Bouzari by email on August 18, 2006—of interest because it was the same time a memo following a CIA meeting described Iran as a key target for the Illicit Finance Group.

He said the family owned condominiums
: Houshang Bouzari described in an interview the assets the Rafsanjani family was suspected of controlling in Canada.

“Just so you know”
: Email from Bob to Ira, August 26, 2006.

“Have an op going”
: Email from Bob to Gazman Xhudo, State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security, August 26, 2006.

“Please tell our friend”
: Email from Bob to Ira, August 28, 2006.

tying Mogilevich to the firm
: The focus of Global Witness's interest in Semion Mogilevich is described in a series of emails and memos.

“You need to leave right now”
: Interview with a former FBI official based in Moscow who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Mogilevich had met with federal prosecutors
: Mogilevich's allegations against Boris Birshtein and others were made during meetings in October 1997 with federal prosecutors. Anne Jablonski said she believed Bob attended them. In 2006, he sent her several analytical reports about what Mogilevich said. In the memos, Birshtein's name is spelled phonetically as “Birshteyn.”

“I'd take whatever bullshit they give you”
: Email from Bob to Boris, September 8, 2006.

Sisoev described Riza
: Analytical report from Bob to Anne, August 25, 2006.

“definitely” interested in the subject
: Email from Bob to Anne, August 25, 2006.

“Wow!!!!!!”
: Email from Anne to Bob, August 25, 2006.

5. A Gold Mine

“This guy is a damn GOLD MINE!”
: Email from Anne to Bob, September 28, 2006.

“Toots, say no more”
: Email from Bob to Anne, September 29, 2006.

Robert Seldon Lady
: The friend of Bob's and former CIA Milan station chief declined to be interviewed for this book.