Posted on 12/10/2001 2:27:29 AM PST by Voronin
UK banker's link to arms plot
Financier is accused of collaborating with Russian mafia to supply Serb fighters
Tony Thompson, crime correspondent
Sunday December 9, 2001
The Observer
A director at one of Britain's most prestigious banking consultancies has been named as a key player in a Russian mafia plot to smuggle thousands of missiles and millions of rounds of ammunition during the Bosnian war. Mark Garber is a director of the asset management company Fleming Family and Partners. Until recently, he divided his time between the firm's offices in Russia and its headquarters in Mayfair.
But documents prepared by Italian investigators name Moscow-born Garber as one of 10 people accused of collaborating with the Russian and Ukrainian mafia, former KGB agents, politicians and a shadowy syndicate to supply arms to Serb fighters during the Balkan conflict.
Garber is the subject of an international arrest warrant and now unable to enter the EU for fear of being arrested and extradited to Italy. The documents list his current status as 'fugitive', although he continues to work in Fleming's Moscow office.
The allegations relate to a massive shipment of arms including 30,000 AK47 Kalashnikov rifles, 400 guided missiles, 10,000 anti-tank missiles and 32 million rounds of ammunition which were seized on a ship, the Jadran Express, in Venice in 1994. Others implicated in the deal include a Russian-born British citizen, a notorious Belgian criminal and the founder of the Ukrainian secret police. Five of those named are still at large.
Garber allegedly became involved in the early Nineties, before he joined Fleming, when he was one of four directors of the Moscow-based Sintez oil company along with a Ukrainian, Dimitri Streshinskji, and two other Russians, Leonid Lebedev and Alexander Zhukov.
At the beginning of 1992, Streshinskji formed a new company, Global Technologies International Inc, which was set up to trade in arms that Ukraine had inherited from the Soviet Army. Customers of Global Technologies were supposedly foreign governments but it was discovered that Streshinskji had been using forged certificates to smuggle arms to Bosnia despite a strict embargo.
Following the seizure of the arms on the Jadran Express, investigators discovered a key payment for the weapons had been made through the accounts of two Jersey-registered companies, Trade Concepts Ltd and Shellenford Ltd, both of which had been set up by Sintez. The directors of these were listed as Dimitri Streshinskji and Leonid Lebedev. In 1999 Streshinskji was arrested in Germany, in connection with the Jadran Express seizure and extradited to Italy. He confessed his involvement but named Garber and Zhukov as co-conspirators, claiming the pair had given permission for the accounts of Sintez's Jersey companies to be used for the arms transactions. Streshinskji also claimed the weapons were traded not for profit but in exchange for concessions allowing Sintez to operate in the Ukraine, thus further implicating Zhukov and Garber.
Zhukov was arrested this year while travelling to Sardinia. He spent six months in an Italian prison. Although Zhukov was released on bail last month, he is forbidden to leave Turin.
Last week he spoke exclusively to The Observer about the charges against him. 'I am completely innocent of any involvement in this business,' Zhukov said. He insists he had little to do with Sintez's other directors after moving to London. Despite this, he has endured harsh treatment.
'They said I was a dangerous criminal and put me in solitary confinement. It was terrible.'
Last month Italian prosecutors travelled to Jersey, where representatives of the companies provided proof that Zhukov had no power to enable the company accounts to be used. However, the prosecutors insist that, along with Garber and Lebedev, Zhukov was a 'business partner' in the arms smuggling.
Garber was not available for comment but a spokesperson said he denied any involvement in arms smuggling. Fleming Family and Partners did not respond to questions. Lebedev was not available for comment.
This also raises another interesting question: Why was such a huge quantity of arms needed to be smuggled to the Bosnian Serbs if the JNA had pulled out of Bosnia and were not supporting them (rhetorical)????
VRN
VRN
As I said, why go to the need of using such an elaborate arms smuggling plan if Milosevic was supposed to be running the RS? It just doesn't jive, Milosevic holding back weapons from the RS??? The Comedy Tribunal in the Hauge tells it like it's cut-and-dried, so someone is telling porkies...
VRN
Because Karadzic didn't like having to rely on Milosevic for his continued existence.
You will recall that in 1994 Milosevic started to coerce Karadzic into peace negotiations by constricting the flow of supplies over the Drina.
Good for them. Klintoon, Bin Laden, and islamic "charities" were arming the other side.
VRN
Ultimately, from Bosnian Serbs.
They got screwed by Karadzic, just like everybody else.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.