The woman was older, close to seventy, I think-white-haired, thin, soft-featured, in fact grandmotherly in appearance, dress, and manners. But as I mentioned, nothing in the CIA is as it appears- she probably stuck firecrackers up puppies’ butts for fun and frolic.
The two of them sat in the row in front of us. The man spun around and said, “I’m Jack MacGruder. And this is Phyllis Carney. I’m in charge of Operation Trojan Horse. Phyllis is my boss.”
It suddenly struck me that my suspicion about Grand Vistas being a foreign intelligence front of some sort had to be correct, that this guy and this lady were somehow onto the gambit also, and now it was time for us all to play a little truth or consequences.
But before I could say a word about that, the man who called himself Jack MacGruder said to the thing masquerading as a rear projection booth, “Dim the lights and start.”
The CIA is really into mind games, and the idea here was to create psychic shock, and build on the momentum.
Well, the lights cooperatively dimmed and there were a few bright flickers on the screen, then a slide that said, “Operation Trojan Horse, TOP SECRET, L-5 Compartmentalized.”
Without further preamble, Mr. MacGruder began speaking. “In 1995, President Clinton signed a Top Secret finding ordering the Central Intelligence Agency to form a task force for the purpose of tracking illegal funds worldwide. His order grew out of a general frustration with the drug lords in Latin America. A number of methods were employed to stamp out their business, influence, and power. All failed. By 1995, Colombia had been turned into a charnel house by cocaine barons who were literally stronger than the state. We were warning the President that the balkanization of Colombia threatened to spill over to other Latin states, to destabilize newly democratic governments that lacked both the police power and wealth to resist cocaine money.”
A new slide appeared-your basic map of the world with hundreds of little boxes filled with tiny initials in a number of countries. I should mention that nobody makes slides like the U. S. government. I even have this quirky theory that we won the cold war because their slidemakers couldn’t cram as much shit onto an eight-by-eleven page as ours. But let’s save the full explanation for another occasion.
Anyway, the guy known as Jack MacGruder continued, “But we in the CIA were also concerned with other rising international groups, like the Mafiya who had seized control of much of Russia’s economy, and terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, led by a fanatic millionaire who was receiving millions in illegal donations and investing his own wealth to subsidize his growing organization. What you see here is a country-by-country listing of criminal and terrorist organizations we regard as threats to American interests.”
Well, this was a very long list, but you expect that from the CIA. Not that anybody was padding the rolls of bad guys or anything, but I noticed one group called GSA. I guess I just ate my last Girl Scout cookie. I love my country.
Phyllis interrupted at this point, saying, “You can see we have a large and diverse problem. You would be surprised at how much illegal money washes around the world every year. We estimate it’s over a trillion dollars. And that’s a conservative figure. It could be two, possibly three times as much. Chinese triads, Japanese Yakuza, Burmese generals, Balkan warlords, African rulers who loot their national treasuries… The list is endless.”
“You see our problem?” MacGruder asked.
“Money?” I answered.
“ Illegal money,” Mr. MacGruder corrected. “In around two hundred different currencies, shuttling through banks, moving electronically, so invisibly that it’s become impossible to segregate and track. Every time we find a new way, the crooks get a little smarter, and invent a new scam. The world’s best bankers in Geneva and New York work with them. They employ MBAs from Harvard and Penn. They’re sophisticated and, believe me, they’re ingenious.”
“And,” Phyllis added, “they use it to buy bombs, guns, nuclear materials, political influence, and, ultimately, death. Shakespeare had it right-money truly is the root of all evil. Every year a hundred thousand Americans die from drugs. Entire nations-Mexico, Russia, much of Central America and Africa, and of course, Colombia, as Jack mentioned-are virtually run by criminal cartels. A recent Russian poll suggests that ordinary Russians pay half as much in bribes as they pay in taxes. Criminal power has grown exponentially in the past forty years. Capitalism may be the best conceivable economic engine, but the greedy and wicked thrive in it.”
MacGruder stood up and walked up to the stage to be near the screen. A new slide appeared; another map of the world, but certain countries had cute little red stars. He tapped a pointer at the screen, and informed us, “These are the countries and territories with banking and financial regulations that virtually encourage criminal elements and illegal groups-like terrorists-to use their financial institutions. There’s a lot of money havens, aren’t there?”
Janet and I nodded to acknowledge that indeed there were. So what?
“The so what,” Phyllis Carney said, somehow reading our minds, “was, how were we to accomplish this mission the President gave us? So many strategies and techniques had been tried and failed. Intriguing question, don’t you think?”
“How?” Janet asked.
MacGruder said, “Money is their lifeblood. So we started by hunting their money. The dilemma with making dirty money is you have to get it cleaned before it has real value. Laundered, in the vernacular, and then safely invested. And the more you have, the more difficult this is to accomplish. You expect your money to lose fifty percent of its value in the process, sometimes as much as eighty percent. The middlemen and the launderers take great risks and demand prolific rewards.”
Phyllis spun and asked us, “Any questions at this point?”
I thought she was joking. We obviously had questions, starting with, Why are we here? But they’d get to that in their own good time, so I traded a glance with Janet, and we both shook our heads.
She continued, “It was Jack’s brainchild, actually. We decided to pick one of these hidden money laundering organizations. And about four years ago, our DEA found one for us. It was well established in Europe, and was making impressive inroads into the drug trade in Latin America. We made a cursory examination of the organization. An impressive group-smart people, good systems, a very sophisticated understanding of banking, commerce, and… goodness, I hope this isn’t too boring for you.”
“Not at all,” I replied.
She nodded at MacGruder, who continued, “It was just what we were looking for. We cooked up a plan. We would protect this syndicate from the DEA, from the Treasury Department, and from the prying eyes of our counterparts in Europe and Asia. We would, in effect, invisibly nurture it, help it grow and succeed. We would try to put other money launderers out of business, creating market forces that drove the customers toward this syndicate. We would try to turn this syndicate into a powerhouse, the Microsoft or GE of money laundering.”
“Grand Vistas?” I asked.
“That’s the name it uses in its partnership with Morris Networks. Grand Vistas is a subsidiary, if you will. It has many other subsidiaries that go by many other names. The syndicate really does own diamond mines and shipping companies and equipment leasing companies. Also banks and steel mills, and it even has significant ownership of a foreign car manufacturer that’s very popular with modern yuppies. It’s a remarkable money machine.”
The lights suddenly flicked back on. MacGruder said, “Do you see why we can’t let you expose Grand Vistas and its relationship with Morris?”
I looked over at Janet, who appeared horrified. She said, “You nurtured the organization that murdered my sister?”