‘He is an agent of destruction.’ ibid. Barings big-wig
Leeson was now on a merry-go-round he couldn’t get off. ibid.
His loses were catastrophic. On one day alone he lost £50 million. But he kept going. To do so he needed vast margin payments from London. ibid.
In recent years a series of extraordinary finds have been made in the Holy Lands. These astonishing discoveries are linked to some of the most famous events in the Bible. They appear to be new evidence of the burial of Jesus. And for the legendary Temple of Solomon. Or is there another darker story behind these mysterious objects? The Solomon Treasures, 2008
And it was here more than twenty-five years ago in Jerusalem’s Antiquities Market that one of the most remarkable artefacts in the Holy Land’s history first came to light. It was a tiny object, just four centimetres long, badly damaged, and no-one knew where it came from. But it would be hailed as a unique piece of history. It became known as the Ivory Pomegranate. It was thought to be the ornamental tip of a priest’s ceremonial staff. But what amazed the experts was the inscription … Holy to the Priests of the House of God. It suggested that this exquisite little ornament was used by priests in the first temple of Jerusalem, which according to the Bible, was built by King Solomon. ibid.
Before it came to light, there was no independent evidence, apart from the Bible, that Solomon’s temple had actually existed. ibid.
According to Biblical history the Temple was destroyed by fire in 586 B.C. by invaders from Babylon. The Western Wall where Jewish pilgrims now come to pray is all that’s left of a second temple built on the same site as King Solomon’s Temple by King Herod the Great 500 years later. ibid.
So the Pomegranate was an extraordinary find. The tiny artefact with a large chip on one side was the first physical link to the lost Temple of Solomon. But was the Pomegranate authentic? ibid.
When the Museum tried to track down the owner, it ran into a wall: the Pomegranate had already changed hands. There wasn’t a dealer in Israel who seemed to know where it was. ibid.
Then several years later in 1987 out of the blue the museum received a mysterious phone call. The Pomegranate was now available but at a price … The cash paid by an anonymous donor was paid into an anonymous Swiss bank account. The Pomegranate was returned to Jerusalem and there in the Israel Museum along with such priceless national treasures as the Dead Sea Scrolls it was given pride of place. An authentic link to King Solomon’s Temple. ibid.
Then, in uncannily similar circumstances, another extraordinary artefact became headline news … The man with the briefcase claimed to be acting on behalf of a client. He couldn’t reveal his client’s identity … ‘a gorgeous piece of black stone’. ibid.
The inscription on the shiny black stone described repairs made to the Temple of Solomon by a king called Jehoash in the 8th century B.C. If it was genuine, it was priceless. Like the Ivory Pomegranate it appeared to confirm that Solomon’s Temple actually existed. Better still, it provided unique confirmation of events in the Old Testament. The Professors wanted to know who the owner was and where the object had come from. All the stranger would reveal was it was found near the Temple Mount. ibid.
Analysis of the tablet by the scientists had revealed more: they found the surface contained tiny flecks of charcoal – which proved to be over two thousand years old. And they found tiny specks of gold – just what might be expected if it had survived a fire when the gold-encrusted Temple of Solomon was destroyed. ibid.
The years of detective work lead … to the home of a businessman. One of Israel’s leading antiquities collectors – Oded Golan. Golan has been collecting ancient artefacts since he was a boy. He admitted he had been helping to sell the missing stone tablet but denied he had ever been its owner. But the authorities were not convinced by the story. And what made them highly suspicious was that the same collector, Oded Golan, had recently been involved with another sensational discovery that suddenly appeared. ibid.
There are hundreds of stone boxes all dating to the time of Jesus … They are ossuaries, receptacles for storing the bones of the dead. ibid.
In 2002 one of these ancient bone boxes became the centre of world-wide media attention ... The inscription translates as: James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus … The ancient bone-box was hailed as the final resting place for St James, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth. And the first archaeological evidence linked to Jesus himself. It caused a sensation and was viewed by nearly 100,000 people at the Royal Ontario museum in Toronto. Another extraordinary Biblical artefact. And its owner was Oded Golan. He claimed he had owned the ossuary for years. ibid.
With allegations of fakery flying around, the authorities decided to crack down. Police and Antiquities Authority agents raided Oded Golan’s home. They found an incriminating photograph of the collector clutching the missing Jehoash tablet, which he had always denied owning. They made him hand it over then confiscated the ossuary too. The artefacts and their collector were about to be subjected to intensive scrutiny. The Israeli Antiquities Authority set up a task force to decide on the authenticity of both objects. In charge of the scientific investigation was Professor Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University. He began with the stone tablet ... But when Goren examined the patina he found it was different on the front to the back of the stone. The patina on the front did indeed appear to come from Jerusalem but instead of being bonded to the stone, it lifted off quite easily. ibid.
He [Goren] concluded that someone had taken an old stone from somewhere else and carved an inscription on the front which had then been concealed under a new artificial patina. He could even see evidence that the carving was recent. And what of the ancient charcoal and traces of gold which had convinced earlier scientists? Goren concluded they had simply been added to the artificial patina applied to the front of the stone. Then he turned to the Brother of Jesus Ossuary. The bone-box itself appears to be genuine. The stone was covered by a chalky patina. Just what he’d expect if it had spent many years in an underground tomb. But the patina in the grooves of the inscription was different. Like the Jehoash Tablet it was not firmly bonded to the surface. It looked as if the engraver had cut through the original patina then filled in the grooves with a new material to make it look ancient. On June 18th 2003 the Israel Antiquities Authority goes public. Both objects are declared fake. It hits the headlines worldwide. Experts who authenticated the artefacts have their names dragged through the mud. But more damning evidence comes to light when police and authority inspectors raid Oded Golan’s premises again. They find engraving tools, chemicals and soil samples taken from sites all over Israel together with scores of artefacts; many look freshly minted or half finished. ibid.
A sophisticated fraud is beginning to unravel. The scandal has provoked anxiety about every artefact supposedly from Biblical times that has come from sources or dealers unknown. Could they all be forgeries? Yuval Goren has checked scores of items that museums and collectors have acquired on the market. He has concluded that almost all of them are fake. ibid.
So it was inevitable that attention would return to that priceless object in the Israel Museum, the Ivory Pomegranate … Experts have discovered it wasn’t actually made of elephant ivory, but came from a quite different beast … ‘the tooth of a hippopotamus’. ibid.
Then he [Goren] turned his attention to the inscription ... He noticed that the grooves cut by the engraver appeared to stop short of the break … ibid.
Payments company Wirecard was Germany’s answer to Silicon Valley. Over 20 years it grew to become bigger than Deutsche Bank. Leaks by anonymous whistleblowers were the beginning to the company’s demise. Wirecard: A Billion Dollar Lie, captions, Sky Documentaries 2021
Wirecard enjoyed a meteoric rise as a player in today’s financial world. ibid.
Wirecard shares plummet as auditors warn 1.9 billion Euros is missing. ibid. Financial Times headline
Money was missing from the till. No money was coming in. My gut told me, this is a fraud. ibid. dude
Money laundering, bogus acquisitions, inflated sales, you name it. ibid. Matthew Earl, short seller
Wirecard filed for insolvency on June 25th 2020. It leaves behind 23 billion Euros in damages. Thousands of small investors lost their life savings. ibid. captions
Skimming devices on cash machines … ATM skimming is on the rise in the UK. Oxford Street Revealed s2e2, BBC 2014
This crime is still popular today – it’s called a long-firm fraud. The Underworld: Getting Away With Murder, 1994
North of the river resentment was brewing: the Krays’ long-firm frauds were much less successful. ibid.
The main architect of the frauds was Jack Duval. He built a pyramid of shady companies. ibid.
In 2008 a Texan tycoon landed his helicopter on the hallowed turf of Lord’s, the spiritual home of cricket. He came with a proposition – a showdown between England and his own Caribbean team at his personal ground in Antigua. He was offering one of the greatest cash prizes ever for a team sport. $20 million. But nobody knew where Sir Allen Stanford’s money really came from. The Man Who Bought Cricket I: Lord’s, captions, Sky Documentaries 2022
In 2008, the biggest and most lucrative tournament in the world was the Indian Premier League, or IPL. ibid.
Just as Sir Allen was flaunting his wealth at Lord’s, US authorities were starting to question how he’d made his billions. ibid.
Cricket was starting to fail in the Caribbean. Financially bereft. And the soul had gone from West Indies’ cricket. ibid. Jonathan Agnew