Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History (48 page)
Read Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History Online
Authors: SCOTT ANDREW SELBY
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Murder, #History, #Non-Fiction, #Art, #Business & Economics, #True Crime, #Case studies, #Industries, #Robbery, #Diamond industry and trade, #Antwerp, #Jewelry theft, #Retailing, #Diamond industry and trade - Belgium - Antwerp, #Jewelry theft - Belgium - Antwerp, #Belgium, #Robbery - Belgium - Antwerp
231
an executive producer on the future film:
IMDb Pro, “Untitled J.J. Abrams Diamond Heist Project,” Full Credits, available online at
http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1399110/fullcredits
(accessed on June 30, 2009).
231
successfully argued . . . extradition to Belgium:
The Italian case refusing to extradite Finotto to Belgium, instead having him serve his sentence in Italy, was La Corte Suprema di Cassazione, Sezione Penale, Sentenza N. 465, February 12, 2008. This case was on appeal from the Corte Appello di Torino’s decision dated December 28, 2007. The Italian case refusing to extradite Tavano to Belgium, instead having him serve his sentence in Italy, was La Corte Suprema di Cassazione, Sezione Sezione Penale, Sentenza N. 464, February 12, 2008. This case was on appeal from the Corte Appello di Torino’s decision dated December 28, 2007.
232
On the afternoon . . . wife’s name:
Details about this stop and confiscation of the diamonds found come from interviews with a confidential source, a member of Italian law enforcement with knowledge of this case, via e-mails, July and August 2009.
232
a brand new . . . hatchback:
The sticker price in Italy was
30,900. Manfred Poschenrieder, Corporate Communications and Policy, BMW, via e-mail, July 20, 2009.
232
“We are, of course . . . theft in 2003”:
Agim De Bruycker, interview with author, via telephone, July 17, 2009.
233
“It’s too long . . . permission to come”:
Kris De Bot, interview with author, via telephone, September 22, 2009.
233
“Leo cannot be condemned . . . selling it”:
Agim De Bruycker, interview with author, via telephone, July 17, 2009.
233
“Maybe it’s the beginning . . . recover everything”:
Philip Claes, interview with author, via telephone, September 29, 2009.
234
“The feeling here . . . released so early”:
Ibid.
234
and a fortune in stolen diamonds
: Joshua Davis told a Belgian newspaper reporter that Notarbartolo claimed that there is no fortune to enjoy, that instead he and his associates had the “20 million euros” in loot (this being the figure that Notarbartolo told Davis) stolen from them by unnamed parties when they had it in an apartment in Milan. Douglas De Coninck, “Dader Kraak van de Eeuw Vrij,”
De Morgen
(Brussels, Belgium), March 13, 2009.
INDEX
ABC News,
193
ADA.
See
Antwerp Diamond Area (ADA)
Alarms.
See also
Light sensors
;
Motion detectors
D’Onorio as expert,
92–93
,
98–99
,
130
neutralizing, in Antwerp Diamond Center,
122
specialists,
20
,
86–87
Andimo Building,
17
Andre,
44–45
Anglo American Corporation of South Africa,
70
Anti-Mafia Brigade,
202–203
Antwerp
architecture,
4
,
14–15
diamonds in,
2
,
6–7
Leonardo Notarbartolo leaving,
133
School of Turin moving to,
101–102
Antwerp Court of Appeal,
198
,
208
Antwerp Diamond Area (ADA),
11
closed-circuit television in,
12
police in,
59
security bubble,
12
Antwerp Diamond Center.
See also
Diamond Center vault
;
Garage doors
blueprints of,
41–42
,
250
n41
Boost as manager,
1–4
,
6
,
160–161
,
219
buildings,
15–17
complacent staff,
45–46
De Sousa discovering robbery,
135–136
diamonds traveling through,
2
D’Onorio visiting,
104–105
,
269–270n104
Finotto sizing up,
37
getting away from,
130–131
Grimberger as owner,
5
guards,
16–17
lawsuits,
219
Leonardo Notarbartolo filming,
39–40
,
95
Leonardo Notarbartolo casing,
1
,
60
Leonardo Notarbartolo’s late nights in,
80
location of,
2
neutralizing alarms,
122
panic in,
xiv
Room 526,
3–4
safe deposit boxes,
89–90
,
101
,
124–129
security in,
xii–xiv
,
4
,
6
,
37
,
161
tenants,
16–17
as unacceptable for insurance,
54
Antwerp Diamond Museum,
53
Antwerp Forensics Laboratory,
146
Antwerpsche Diamantkring
as bourse,
50–51
diamond heist 1994,
61–63
Antwerp World Diamond Centre,
136
,
147
,
159
,
193
Architecture,
198
Antwerp skyline,
4
Diamond Square Mile,
13–14
Turin,
21–22
Arthashastra,
67
Aviv, Amos,
62–63
Barnato, Barney,
69
Beurs voor Diamanthandel,
46
,
50–51
,
110
,
113
bin Laden, Osama,
64
Black diamonds,
65–66
,
147
,
159
,
172
Black market,
65
,
138
,
147
,
159
,
172
,
243
Blood diamonds,
64–65
Blueprints
of Antwerp Diamond Center,
41–42
,
45
,
95
,
250
n41
Boost and,
41–42
police finding,
150
Boon, Eric,
179
Boost, Julie,
8–9
,
54
,
79
,
136
,
150
,
220
Antwerp Diamond Center manager,
1–4
,
6
,
160–161, 219
blueprints and,
41–42
at crime scene,
138
giving vault tour,
4
knowing vault combination,
119
as nosy,
42–43
,
251
n42
as robbery victim,
126
safe doors and,
91
stalling Leonardo Notarbartolo,
163–165
Antwerpsche Diamantkring as,
50–51
robbery of,
61–63
security among,
51
Brabo, Silvius,
14
Brazil,
67
Brilliance,
74
Burglars.
See also
School of Turin
Highland bandits of Central India,
113
Italian gangs,
114
professional British,
113–114
superstitions among,
113–114
Caesar, Julius,
23
Caine, Michael,
84
Capital Diamonds,
127
Capizzi, Benedetto,
203
Carlton Hotel diamond heist,
58
Cathedral of Our Lady,
14
di Cavour, Camillo Benso,
81
CBS-Brachfeld Building,
51
Central Operations Service (Rome),
154
Central Selling Organization (CSO),
70
Chiruzzi, Pancrazio (“the Soloist with the Kalashnikov”),
154
,
201
Claes, Philip,
147
,
159
,
193
,
210–212
,
228
,
234
Cleave cut,
74
“Clergy penitent privilege,”
255–256
n63
Clooney, George,
230
Closed-circuit phone network,
114
Closed-circuit television,
xiv
,
3–4
in ADA,
12
in Diamond Square Mile,
6–7
Leonardo Notarbartolo counting,
17–18
Concierges,
5
,
42
,
117
.
See also
De Sousa, Jorge Dias
;
Plompteux, Jacques
cushy job of,
44–45
locking vault,
43–44
,
78–79
opening garage doors,
82–83
turning off vault lights,
95
vault combination and,
119–120