Scott Andrew Selby
Auteur van Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History
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But they were no match for a band of Italian thieves, a loosely aligned band of professionals who in toto were called “The School of Turin.” Two years before the heist, Leonardo Notarbartado rented an apartment in Antwerp and an office at what the thieves considered the least secure of the establishments in the Diamond District. Notarbartado scoped out all the security measures, and he and his band found work-arounds for all of them.
On February 15th (Valentine’s Day Weekend), 2003, the team of thieves broke into the vault, spent a night looting strong boxes and made off with an estimated half a billion dollars in diamonds, cash jewelry, bonds and other valuables.
When security entered the vault on Monday morning, the floor was covered with less valuable items such as smaller diamonds and even a gold bar which the thieves just couldn’t carry.
It would have been a perfect heist except for some bad luck when trash from the apartment was discarded in an out of the way forest with a very diligent forest-keeper. The trash led detectives to the thieves.
However – Belgian law has a maximum of a 5 year penalty for theft, no matter how large the theft is. A ringleader can be given ten years. So, while the trials were pretty much open and shut, incarceration was only five years for most of the men and ten years for Notarbartado. It is also a fact that convicts in Belgium usually serve only a third of their time. Very, very little of the loot was recovered. In effect, the thieves served two or three years in Belgian prisons for hundreds of million dollars each in payoff.
Hard to see a downside.
Fascinating look at the Antwerp diamond district, an almost Oceans 11 type theft and the Belgian justice system. Although there are several conflicting stories on how the theft was accomplished, the authors include a detailed bibliography of their research, giving this account an air of authenticity.… (meer)