by Terry Morgan
CHAPTER 83
Mid morning in England and Cole Harding's phone call to Jonathan provided another lead.
"Freeways Freight Forwarding, Jonathan."
"Yes, did you speak to Sierra Leone?"
"Not just Sierra Leone. I also spoke to Schools Aid Africa, an English charity that renovates old laptop computers and sends them to Africa. In Sierra Leone their contact is an organisation called Daisy Children's Charity, but things get stolen and taken to Liberia and Nigeria. The shipper that Schools Aid are told to use is Freeways Freight Forwarding, Milan. So I'm faxing you a copy of shipping documents for you to check details.
Jonathan scanned the fax, emailed it to Jim and Jan and then went straight to his car.
His next appointment was with the Financial Investigation Bureau. The FIB, a specialised office within the International Chamber of Commerce Crime Service, conducts enquiries and investigations into matters associated with money laundering, fraud and suspect documents. Walton Associates, at Jim's suggestion, had become a member. Membership meant joining a club of International banks, financial institutions, National Financial Intelligence Units, Regulatory bodies and, most importantly, law enforcement agencies.
As Jim had said weeks before, the FIB had status. It listened. And the FIB talked to the UK Government, the Home Office and could call on bodies like Interpol. And being a commercial body, it especially liked listening to suggestions of fraud and corruption within government circles.
That meeting over and Jonathan immediately phoned Jim from his car with an update.
"They listened, Jim, and I've still not mentioned names. It was just me providing evidence of tampering with bids, throwing in a few examples and saying I can't divulge much more due to the risks posed for a whistleblower. Cole Harding had given me permission to mention his involvement with us and that went down very well as Cole was known to them from past fraud cases. At the end I said I needed guarantees of total confidentiality before going further and they want to meet again. But the dots are starting to join up, Jim. Do you want to tell Scott Evora or shall I?"
"You do it, Jonathan. And, while you're at it, tell him to hurry up dealing with the list of names I gave him."