The Hidden Man - Charles Cumming [77]
‘Yes it is.’ Taploe’s eyes softened, as if he had been paid an unexpected compliment. ‘But now I have proof.’
‘Still,’ Quinn said, rubbing his scalp, ‘that’s just one side of a more complicated situation.’ He began removing rubber bands from the red folder and placing them at the edge of the coffee table. ‘Do you know what I mean by the term “double dip”?’
‘No idea,’ Mark said.
‘Well…’
Taploe cut him off in mid-sentence.
‘In the model double-dip operation an individual - or group of individuals - pretends to be depositing cash sums in a legitimate bank account while in reality he - or, of course, it could be she - is making payments into a separately located dummy account of exactly the same name.’
Mark, confused, instinctively looked to Quinn for confirmation of this.
‘That’s actually right,’ he said, deferring uneasily to the boss. ‘Now, London Libra is owned by a single asset offshore based in Cyprus?’
‘Right.’
‘Only when it came to your new venture in Moscow, Macklin devised what you might call a new strategy.’ Quinn moved forward heavily in his chair, to the point where Mark began to worry that it might actually topple over. ‘He seems to have convinced Roth not to own the club in his own name and not to be a signatory on any of the accounts.’
‘Why?’ Mark asked.
‘Simple. Same as what you were saying before. Because it would limit Roth’s liability for creditors if Moscow went tits up. At the same time he reduces his capital gains bill in Russia. Roth apparently agreed - makes sense, after all - so Macklin went ahead and set up a second separate holding company in Cyprus. Called it Pentagon Investments, just so no one would pay much attention. He then appointed a small number of nominee directors - under his own control - and got his hands on a couple of bent accountants to cookthe books.’
Mark was struggling to keep up. His brain was a mulch of facts and theories, a puzzle he could not solve. He thought backto all the days and nights he had spent with Macklin, the restaurants and nightclubs in Moscow and St Petersburg, all those endless plane journeys out of Heathrow with nothing to do but listen to Tom’s stories. When had it all started? Macklin had led a double life wildly more dangerous and clandestine than his own, right under the noses of men who trusted him like a brother. All of us are spies, his father had once told him: all of us inhabit a private world, a place of secrecies and evasion.
‘I’m not getting this,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Where does the double dip come in?’
Quinn scraped his trainers against the carpet and coughed, folding bulky arms across his chest.
‘Basically,’ he said, ‘like this. The main Libra holding company in Cyprus - the one you’ve all been told about - is still operational for London, Ibiza, T-shirts, compact discs.’ He pronounced ‘Ibiza’ as ‘Eye Beetha’, an affectation for which Mark had always lacked the courage. ‘Then there’s Pentagon Investments, which is used for Moscow. But Macklin has been playing both ends. Unknown to the Russians he’s also set up an identically named dummy Pentagon account in the Cayman Islands. Every now and again, when he thinks no one’s looking, Macklin has been redirecting some of the Russian cash into that account for his own personal enrichment.’
‘That’s the double dip,’ Taploe said, stating the obvious.
Quinn ignored him.
‘At a guess,’ he said, ‘there’s now something in the region of one point eight million buried away out there. Give or take.’
‘Holy fuck,’ Mark said, language Quinn seemed to enjoy. ‘And the Russians have got enough money they don’t notice that’s gone missing? How’s this all getting generated?’
‘Lot of ways.’ The room was now very warm and Quinn’s face looked cooked beside the bright yellow walls. He was flying. ‘Narcotics, prostitution, arms deals, precious metals, oil, timber, stolen cars, icon smuggling, you name it. He’s entrepreneurial, your average Russian mafioso, and he robs people for a living. About thirty per cent of the capital flight out of Russia these days is illegally earned. Thirty per cent.