Chapter Fourteen
Clarity and Hari parked the MG in the entrance of the small hostal south of Cane Garden Bay, and slept until eleven in the morning the next day. The brunch served was not bad and Hari ate all of it. A beep on his smartphone alerted him of an incoming message.
"I've got credit," said Hari, "two thousand dollars available from a new credit card called the Privilege card."
Hari scrolled down the rest of the message. "They granted the card after I bought the Mauboussin ring for seventy thousand dollars."
"Guligher is going to send all of BVI police after us," said Hari. Clarity sliced a mango in two and began chopping a few pieces into her plate.
"Make an agreement with him," said Clarity.
"An agreement?"
"Tell them you are going to find the real money launderers. Ask them for three or four days, that will give us time to find a way to leave this place or find evidence that you did not authorize the two million dollars that went through your account."
Hari did some calisthenics for ten minutes before he gathered the courage to call the police superintendent. Guligher listened to Hari explain that he was not the one who had authorized payment of the two million dollars associated with money laundering. He added that all of what was happening was a disgrace, and that he was going to tell Vanity Gloss about the indecent procedures of the police in BVI, which had not let him get a decent lawyer. The mention of Vanity Gloss and possible reputation damage to BVI as offshore center and to himself, cooled down the initial impulse of Guligher to find the Sheik and bring him back to jail.
"This man you are looking for, the Shawab, is out to buy a liquor company, a very expensive liquor company, we will find him for you."
Guligher began to listen more closely. Why not let someone else find dirty evidence on the person who was bringing headaches to all police authorities in the Caribbean? He looked at his agenda, noticing it was free for the next few days.
"We'll leave you three days to find additional information on the Shawab, then I will send off my constables and we will bring you back to jail. Obviously, you cannot leave the island of Tortola, we will stop you at the airport if you decide to leave."
Hari ended the call, not quite believing that he had carried out one of the most difficult calls of his life.
"We have three days, three days to find the Shawab or evidence against him," said Hari.
Clarity gave Hari a slice of mango.
"I knew police would be tempted to use us to find this guy, they always go the easy way when it is there."
"How do we find him? This guy, the Shawab, is not even on file with a photograph, nobody has seen him. And nobody knows the name of his yacht, or where it is."
"We don't find him, we've got time, let's try to get your money back and find a way to buy the champagne companies you want. Then, we see how to find Hakeem, he might lead us to the Shawab. I'm sure your retainer wants you out of the way to negotiate some deal with the alcohol smugglers."
The Sheik used the credit of his new credit card to pay for the lodging and the food. They left the convertible MG in the backyard of the hostal and rented a car which was less conspicuous to move around the island. Clarity stopped inside a photocopying and documents shop and requested a few changes to the diagram she had printed from the Consortium of Journalists computer, depicting the ownership structure of SRA-199. She wanted only a single line to link the company and the owner, which she wanted as Hari, instead of several ones, which showed shared or multiple ownership. With that out of the way, Clarity showed the shop employee at the counter the Board certificate of SRA-199 which had been leaked by Augiers Urbina. Again, Clarity made a few changes, telling the requests to the shop worker. The bill added to ten dollars and twenty five cents, and Clarity used the money she had received as salary to pay for the work.
Clarity and Hari stopped a few seconds in front of the Morgan & Kingsway Trust company building on Pasea Estate in San Francis Drake Highway. The building of MKT displayed a classical triangular pediment painted whitish grey imitating Roman style, supported by two columns, with the name of the Trust written on the entablature. The staff of the company included attorneys, financiers and accountants. Clarity donned her cap and rang the entrance bell. A woman named Fanny Williams in charge of all fiduciary services welcomed them into her office. Clarity introduced herself with her real name, as a businesswoman looking for buying opportunities in the privately owned company sector, and she introduced Hari as her assistant Larry Birkens.
Using a pad and a pen, she illustrated the value and the assets of Veuve Ponsard and Laurent Varignon, describing how she wanted to buy the two champagne producing companies. Williams took a closer look at the diagram drawn by Clarity, which had a square of eight million dollars that her assistant Larry would provide, and a larger square of ninety five million dollars that she wanted Morgan to provide. Williams immediately asked for guarantees that would backup the ninety two percent of the money investors interested in financing the purchase would bring.
"We've got a plane," said Hari, "a Boeing 767 used by Sheik Al-Najib. It is worth over one hundred million dollars, and it is available as guarantee." Williams was not following the news every day, she did not recognize the Sheik without his shabby clothes, nor the name of Clarity from the newspapers. The arrest of Hari had not leaked to the news because the superintendent wanted to keep a low profile on any scandal that could possibly damage the reputation of the British Virgin Island as a reputable offshore center.
Hari took out the printout taken by Clarity from the Consortium of Journalists, showing the name of Hari Al-Najib, as single owner of Sheik Royal Assets 199. The other names, including the power of attorney of Hakeem, the ownership share of Hari's father, and the share of Hari, had been deleted at the photocopy shop. A new label indicating Hari as single owner of the company, appeared instead. Hari showed Williams the page corresponding to the annual report of SRA-199, which showed that Heir Force One, the plane, was part of the balance sheet of the company. Book value, the accounting value of the plane showing in the report, was listed as one hundred ten million dollars, enough to cover the purchase.
"Where is the plane?" Asked Williams.
"At the airport." Hari used his smartphone to connect it to the camera in the plane.
"This is the entourage of the Sheik you are seeing," he said, "you can see the throne right here."
Clarity looked over the shoulder of Hari into the screen of the smartphone. She could see Hakeem sitting with Merhab, examining a chart of the world, talking with the pilot and copilot, about where the plane should be headed when permission to leave was granted. She noticed Plum walking towards the living room area sofa, asking the retainer of Hari about the special permit granted to leave the plane, to attend a party which was going to take place.
"Any problems?" Asked Williams. "Looks like the plane cannot leave the airport according to what these people are saying."
"No, just waiting for a new tire and refuelling," said Hari, "the plane is in good condition. The Sheik is spending some time in the British Virgin Islands, he will leave shortly, probably in a few days."
Williams made a few phone calls, confirming that Heir Force One was at the airport and that nothing out of the ordinary had happened to it during its stay. The airport hostess taking the call was not informed of the investigation on Hari and simply said that the plane would be in the ground another week, but that regular air traffic was continuing as usual and the plane would probably leave after that. Williams printed the complete annual report of SRA-199, and made copies of the two documents presented by Clarity.
"Ok, so Miss Nice is the representative of this company through this board resolution certificate, which actually shows that SRA-199 is a BVI company. If I understand correctly, the private purchase of two sparkling wine companies is going to be made on behalf of Mr. Al-Najib, for a total of one hundred and three million dollars, with eight million dollars cash, and the rest
, ninety five million, as leveraged financing, with the plane of Mr. Al-Najib as guarantee."
"Yes," said Clarity.
"You'll have to wait in the waiting room for a few hours, I've got to make some calls to find investors willing to put the ninety five million dollars."
Two hours later, before the clock hit one in the afternoon, Williams came into the room, with a smile on her face.
"We've got investors," said Williams.
Clarity returned the smile, feeling less nervous. She never thought she'd have balls that big. With the bulk of the money to buy the champagne companies in place, now they had to find the owner of Veuve Ponsard and Laurent Varignon and bring him to the Caribbean. Clarity thanked Fanny Williams and told her they would be back with an agreement from the owners of the two champagne companies to sell their companies to Hari.
"We'd like to open an account as well, in the name of my client, Mr. Al-Najib, in order to put the eight million and the monies of the investors there."
"Sure, you don't want to open the account in your name?"
Clarity shook her head. "No, I like discretion, my assistant acts as front man for me, and I do the same for Mr. Al-Najib. At some point though, it is his company." Williams nodded, doing as Clarity suggested. They exited the offices of MKT BVI, heading for their rented car. An idea came to Clarity as the Caribbean midday sun caressed her face.
"Can you access the agenda of Hakeem from here?" Asked Clarity.
"No, I can check my own agenda and the official agenda of Heir Force One."
"Show me the official agenda of your plane," said Clarity.
Hari opened his app and gave the phone to Clarity. She clicked on the weekly view of the official agenda of the Sheik and found the event she was looking for, a lavish party invitation to the Nanny Cay marina in Tortola from a Rumanian millionaire, Nelson Mondialu, a man who dressed as Hare Krishna at times, and owned a large mansion in Florida. The teleoperator opened the list of guests, which was available, and noticed several owners of expensive liquor companies. The owner of Veuve Ponsard and Laurent Varignon champagne brands, Richard Carliss, was not on the list.
"Mondialu, no, I don't know this guy, Hakeem found him apparently, because my cook is providing all the food for the party, and he is attending. I'm not sure why these people owning all of these expensive liquor companies are listed, I wouldn't mind talking to them."
"Invite Carliss to the party, tell him other providers of expensive liquor will be there. That it will be a chance for him to add distribution avenues for his champagne."
Hari nodded, and found the phone of Richard Carliss, the owner of Veuve Ponsard and Laurent Varignon, listed on the web. After a brief call from Hari which lasted ten minutes during which Hari commended the marvellous, exquisite taste of both luxury champagne bottles, Carliss agreed to attend the party. He was particularly interested in meeting the owners of top whisky names Royal Salute, Macallan 64, and Dalmore 62, whose whisky spent sixty two years in a cask before being bottled and sold for more than two hundred thousand dollars a bottle. There was a chance that singer Jay Zee, the owner of gold champagne bottle Armand de Brignac Midas, fetching two hundred thousand dollars, would show up as well.
"He is in," said Hari, "but he said he is not interested in selling his companies."
Clarity looked at the date listed on the party invitation planned for the following day, and began to figure out the next step. A few clothes for her and plenty of alcohol for all the guests, including Carliss, except for them. If regular alcohol got rid of inhibitions, expensive alcohol would get rid of any reluctance to sell one or two unique champagne companies.