Next morning Tommy, Tatiana, Joe Tellez, a Mexican trouble shooter named Esteban Torres, and Jerry Birko boarded the NetJets Falcon at a private terminal at McCarran International airport and departed for MacArthur on Long Island at 8:05 a.m. local time. It would be well into the afternoon when they got there.
When Marco and Patricia arrived at the villa they opened the small envelope that had a 64GB memory card in it. A note said simply, “Patricia has the password.” Marco popped the card into the slot in his laptop and promptly the tile for the drive appeared on the action bar of the screen. He double-clicked it and several icons appeared. The first and largest was a .mov file – obviously a video of some kind. He clicked on that and a request for a password appeared. Patricia thought for a few seconds and typed in “Bone-Fish2015.” Nothing happened and the request appeared again. This time she typed “Tarpon2016.” Bingo! The screen showed the traditional black square and an arrow triangle indicating readiness. Marco made it full screen and hit the arrow. The amused face of Salvatore di Dio Carducci appeared, looking straight at them.
When Tommy Lee and his people arrived at MacArthur there were two SUVs waiting at the airport. He sent Tatiana with Joe to a hotel in Glen Cove and told Jerry Birko and Esteban to come with him in the other. They would meet in a couple of hours at the hotel. The SUV headed west and then north. The conversation in the car was short and to the point.
“I’m meeting with some possible associates from around here. The meeting is on a boat and I want you guys to stay close to the stern and pay attention to what’s going on,” Tommy told his men. It was standard procedure for a capo and his bodyguards. Neither of them thought twice about it. The orders were clear enough.
Marco and Patricia were watching for only a few seconds when they were advised that Francisco Lujan had just landed at Beef Island. They closed down the laptop and went to pick him up in the SUV in the company of Luigi and José who, since the Sarasota incident, seemed to work well together. Within half an hour they had Francisco in the car sitting next to Patricia, who could not hide the joy of being with her father. It was the first time they were together since Sal’s funeral. They talked in Spanish for a few minutes before Francisco apologized to Marco.
“I’m sorry, Marco; it’s been so long that I forgot my manners. Patricia was just asking me about some of the staff in Lima whom she has known all her life and I was inquiring about her, but it’s obvious that she is her usual self.” Francisco directed himself to Marco but still held his daughter in a warm embrace.
“How are you? I know how close you were to Sal and now the loss of your dear friend José Strasso; I can’t imagine how difficult this must be. Now I guess that you are up to date with everything?”
Marco could hardly believe that he was feeling jealous of Patricia’s father; he wanted to be the one holding her.
“Not everything. Patricia and I were about to look at a video that Sal left us in a safety deposit box here. We will all see it when we get to the villa. By the way, accommodations are available at the villa for your people. Patricia tells me they are coming from Lima via Puerto Rico. When they arrive Luigi and José will pick them up.”
“That’s fine. It’s only my personal assistant and a security person who has been with me for many years.”
When they got to the villa Patricia escorted her father to his room and suggested he take a rest. “Descanza un poco y si quieres tomate un baño antes de seguir.” But by the time he was ready it was time for lunch. A grand buffet of Caribbean delectable was served under a large awning in the patio next to the pool. Lobsters split in half, steamed then grilled and sprinkled with paprika and butter, cold peeled shrimp, conch salad, Russian salad, fried bone-fish, curry rice and a couple of coconut pies filled the table. Large belly bottles of ice tea and lemonade together with a bucket full of iced Heineken and another with a good New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc completed the fare. Not a crumb would be wasted.
After lunch they sat at the table where Marco’s laptop waited. He had taken the memory card with him so he put it back in the computer and went through the protocol until again there was the smiling face of Salvatore Carducci. He clicked the mouse and the figure came to life.
“Hello Marco, I believe you are with Patricia or you would not be seeing this.” His head turned slightly as if looking for her and said, “My love, if I’m still anywhere in the universe, I’m missing you, of that you can be sure. But now is a different time and you must continue with your wonderful life, with the magic of being you.”
Patricia looked away for a moment, her eyes softly closed.
The image of Sal shifted his eyes back to the center of the screen and said:
“Marco, there are many things that you have learned about me in the last few days and there are many more that you will learn now and in the days to come. You must realize that in the last ten years I have evolved slowly and almost imperceptibly into a somewhat different person. Part of that is Patricia’s doing, but most of all it has to do with how Francisco Lujan and I came across businesses that we didn’t even know existed and organizations that control the lives of almost everyone on earth and rarely for the betterment of humanity. The first culprits are not the most obvious. The world in general despises those that govern them in democracy or dictatorship; civil, military or religious are equally loathed. Then there are the transnational powers, basically circumscribed to multinational corporations and religions. There are billions of people in each religion. Christianity dominates the Western World, Islam the Middle East and great parts of Asia and Africa, Buddhism and Hinduism a big chunk of Asia. Then of course there is Judaism, which has a finger hold everywhere in the world. Among these is where we found the footprints of those who truly have power and comprehended the mechanics of the machinery that controls the world.”
Sal stopped to drink some water and then continued his narrative. Marco and Patricia were eager to get on, but Francisco just sat there relaxed, feeling the presence of his partner even from beyond the grave.
“Since ancient Rome we see men dominating nations with powers far greater than of those elected to govern. The Fabian and the Cato ruled throughout the Republic and far into the Empire, bending the will of emperors and generals, priests and popes, and even though their names diluted and changed they were there, profiting from every war and every conquest and extending their power throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. The descendants of William the Conqueror dominated Europe for centuries, and Peter the Great’s half-brother left a brood of powerful men and women that permeated even the Soviet Union of Stalin. While at the time the difficulties of travel and communication curtailed the power of men, now when such obstacles have been overcome, a single individual or a dedicated group of individuals can control the destinies of billions.
“Money, Marco, is a powerful engine but belief is so much more so. Repeat something enough times and, no matter how absurd, it will become the accepted truth. Millions of lives have been sacrificed to propaganda spewed through the mindless mouth of elected officials whose election was just another fraud. Believe me when I tell you that it’s not the ignorant masses that are mesmerized by the spin doctors. An example at a smaller scale was the Madoff case. He fooled brilliant people who had made fortunes. Top executives of employee funds and charities that invested billions bought his story, and yet looking back one can hardly understand how a puerile scheme like that fooled government regulators as well as investors. He didn’t generate a penny…ever. All he did was tell everyone just how brilliant he was and they believed him and handed over their money. On a grander scale Adolf Hitler convinced a downtrodden people still reeling from defeat that they were the dominant race that was owed fealty by the rest of the world. He needed the money the Jews had, and even though he had Jewish blood in him, he convinced a nation to exterminate them like rats. Don’t be fooled into thinking that there was an adult German that didn’t know what was being done to the Jews; they were drummed into believing that it w
as the right thing to do by one of the greatest flaks of his day, Joseph Goebbels. Then a nation of disciplined, hardworking individuals such as the Japanese were led to believe that a timid little man with thick glasses was God on earth and they committed suicide in his name, yet he was nothing but the hostage of a military class that had dominated Japan for centuries. This control is being exercised today at a more subtle but much greater scale by a few people. And, by the way, that includes us.
“I’m tired and will take a rest. Patricia and I are going to the opera tonight and I need a nap. I’ll continue this tomorrow.”
When Marco looked at Patricia tears were flowing freely from her eyes.
“I remember that night so clearly,” she said quietly. “Sal had been in his study for hours and that night we went to see Mozart’s Magic Flute and then to dinner at Le Cirque. It was a wonderful evening.”
Marco had the impulse to hug her but didn’t; Francisco felt the same and did.
The video continued. Sal appeared again in different attire and the background was now Sal’s Sarasota home studio next to the bedroom.
“Well, it’s been a few days but let’s continue. I was saying that the world is being manipulated by a few people, and I do mean few. Francisco and I found traces of huge transactions that affected the monetary value of some currencies or created financial crisis of unimaginable dimensions. The 2008 world crisis is the latest example of incredibly brash manipulation by which the middle classes of the world were stripped of their wealth and then were taxed to “salvage” the same institutions that had ripped them off.
“To illustrate what happened I’m going to use a story that economists use to explain how money works: A man arrives at a small town and goes to the local B&B. He pays the owner $100 for a room under the condition that if he doesn’t like it he will get his money back. As soon as the man goes to his room, the owner of the B&B runs to the butcher to pay his outstanding bill. The butcher then goes to the bar to pay $100 toward his tab, the barman pays the local hooker the $100 for commissions owed to her and she runs to the B&B and pays $100 for a room she had used. The man comes back to the owner and says he doesn’t like the room and gets his $100 back. In other words, money functions while it circulates. If the B&B owner had put the $100 in a drawer he would still have given it back to the traveler but none of the debts would have been paid.
“In 2007 the banks simply said they didn’t have money using a simple formula. They didn’t circulate the cash they had and using an accepted accounting practice they declared illiquidity and forced governments (a.k.a. the people) to bail them out – talk about having your cake and eating it too! If there is no liquidity (cash) the value of everything takes a dive – real estate, stocks, real property of all types, everything. Simply the law of offer and demand collapses the value of all goods, because there is no demand and no demand because there is no credit, no credit because the banks, etc. Then it takes only a tiny spark to blow the whole thing to smithereens. In 2007 it was the French bank Paribas that refused credits of some hedge funds. Had it not been that, it would have been something else because those who were manipulating the crisis had a plethora of options.”
Sal paused a few seconds, drank some water, and then continued. Francisco smiled; this was his dear friend preparing to share his wisdom – insight hard-fought for on streets and halls of power.
“Anyway, I think you know this better than I do, but I’m not a wizard in these things and I have to tell this story at my own pace. On the other hand by now you see that I’m not an ignorant goon – that’s just for show. When Francisco and I found ourselves with a very good cash position we saw the opportunities for great earnings, but so did others…those who had created the situation in the first place. Discreet purchases of huge tracts of land were being made all over the world, particularly land with freshwater access. We were looking at some of these and noticed that we were being thwarted by fathom interests that appeared and vanished with amazing speed. They bought, split, sold, bought again and so forth. All traces of a deliberate monopolization of undervalued land diluted beyond recognition…except for some guarantees and positions that were worded in such manner that our computers found a common denominator. It led back to three origins, one in Luxembourg, one in Jersey, and one in Rome.”
Obviously Sal had no way of knowing that Francisco would be present when Marco and Patricia saw the video, so he referred to him occasionally and then Francisco just nodded knowingly and let the narrative go on.
Sal continued. “None of these were depository banks but held huge investment portfolios for others that were, as well as those of insurance companies and employee funds from all over. The only thing that they had in common was an unusually high number of exchanges through the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), better known as the Vatican Bank. Here we were faced with a very difficult problem. The Vatican Bank is the most secretive, impenetrable and slippery financial institution in the world. Every regulator like FAFT and MONEYVAL has been trying for years to pin it to money laundering, illegal arbitrage and tax evasion, to no avail. Part of the problem is how the Vatican Bank works. It is run by a president that theoretically comes from outside church interests, but under him are five cardinals, two of whom hold very close to the seat of St. Peter. Three of these cardinals rotate faster than the regulators can catch up and with them disappear all traces of wrongdoing. They are protected under the laws of Italy and many other countries and never are brought to render testimony.”
Sal took a pause to bring a beer from the fridge and continued with his story. His three viewers each smiled, seeing the Sal they each loved in their own way, enjoying a beer again, albeit seemingly from the grave.
“By then we had joined a group of people that we met through, believe it or not, the wine business. Wine is a cult among the very rich and very powerful and over time we had entered in several business transactions at which both Francisco and I were most adept. Between the two of us we distributed and laundered the proceeds of Colombian and Peruvian cocaine for ourselves and others using third parties to do the physical work – the Mexican cartels are particularly useful. But the real asset, as you might have guessed, is our ability to launder money. Everybody that we met along the way needed to “legitimize” substantial amounts of money, either for themselves or entities to which they belonged. And in so doing and with the aid of technology, we came across the faint traces left behind by the mega money launderers. From Wall Street to Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro to Johannesburg and deep into the country residences of peers of the realm in the UK we found that a few players held the reins to this lucrative business. Men and women whose financial strength exceeded the concepts of value held by the regular individual; they governed unimaginable wealth and wielded silent power that is by far superior to that of known world leaders who, in reality, are only their puppets and messengers.
“Here you can see the absurdity of the system. They who are supposed to regulate and control the sanity of money are controlled by those that “sanitize” it by use of loopholes and wormholes intentionally built into the laws for the safeguard of those who make them. In short, Francisco, I and several other people who you will shortly meet dedicated our wits and worth to becoming major players in the worldwide conversion of questionable money into unquestionable assets. This small group of people we call The Board is now one of the strongest players in this rarefied environment where the rules are different, money is secondary to power and the significance of these two are subject to no moral standard. This video you are seeing is your induction – welcome to The Board.”
Sal drained the last of his beer.
“By now you are aware of the account in the Tortola Bank. At present it’s about £100 million or just under $150 million USD. Well, don’t be impressed by that. In another section of this card there are the numbers and access codes of several more which constitute the gross of my money, which is now yours. The Carducci family net worth as you knew it before i
s a pittance. You will have to find someone to help Ian Carlo in the position you have held until now, because if you join The Board it will take most of your time and all of your ability.”
Sal brought his hands together, crossing his fingers. He bowed his head over as if in prayer and then looked up and said:
“This is a very serious and challenging endeavor…and a dangerous one. As a matter of fact I might be dead because of it, but that I don’t know. As I said before, hopefully I died fishing or making love. Anyway what I want to convey to you is that you now have so much money, several billion dollars, which it doesn’t really matter.”
Marco sat in shock, unable to move or even blink. The numbers mentioned blew his mind but more significant was the sheer brutality with which his uncle dropped all this on him. He continued to watch and listen.
“While I said that there is no moral restraint to the actions of The Board, Francisco and I have committed enough sins and broken enough laws to render us poor judges of the actions of others. But the fostering of war for no other reason than monetary profit and the methodical destruction of the middle classes sacrificed on an altar of sheer greed does revolt us and the others on The Board. Both of these acts seem to be the mainstay of our competitors or if you wish…opponents. While war has been a business since man was man, it still had some vestiges of altruism and philanthropy where a great number of people benefited in liberty. Now this has been abandoned and wars like Iraq and Afghanistan leave nothing but corpses, devastation, misery, and a few pockets lined with unimaginable profits.
The Carducci Convergence Page 10