- 7 hours ago
- #realityrealmus
The Essex Murders - Who Killed Goldfinger
#RealityRealmUS
Reality Realm US
🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: />👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
#RealityRealmUS
Reality Realm US
🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: />👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00My name is Giovanni Di Stefano. I'm an international lawyer. I defended John Goldfinger-Palmer,
00:13but I've also defended a number of other high-profile cases worldwide, including the Iraqi regime,
00:19Milosevic, Gaddafi, Mugabe, Ian Brady. My latest client is President Bashar Assad,
00:27and it all kicked off, thanks to John Goldfinger-Palmer's case.
00:33John Palmer was and remained to the last day, in my view, a legitimate business entrepreneur.
00:41He was dyslexic, he had a problematic childhood, and he still made a success of his life.
00:48He was richer than the Queen, he sailed close to the wind, sometimes he went over the edge,
00:53and he paid a terrible price for it. But, you know, he was no gangster.
00:59I've never come across a more evil person than John Palmer. So we decided that we would show him up for what he was.
01:07Roger Cook, I'd like to talk to you about money laundering.
01:10About what?
01:11Money laundering.
01:11He was the biggest criminal in Britain at the time. You know, he seriously enjoyed hurting people, or having them hurt.
01:19We've got it all on film. You're going to look amazingly stupid.
01:23He had my address, he knew my movements, and he took out a contract on my life.
01:31John Palmer was not dangerous at all. He wasn't a gangster. That's what I do to Roger Cook.
01:36One of Britain's most notorious gangsters, shot at close range.
01:44But who ordered John Palmer's murder, and why?
01:47You can run on for a long time. Run on for a long time. Run on for a long time.
01:57Soon or later, gotta cut you down. Soon or later, gotta cut you down.
02:06In the beginning of my career, in the 1980s and into the 1990s, I knew John Palmer. I had written a lot about John Palmer.
02:24He was a big fish in the criminal underworld.
02:28John Palmer was internationally famous as Goldfinger he made a fortune out of fencing
02:40the Brinks Matt gold I'm completely innocent of this so-called Matt Brink bullion ride I know
02:49nothing of it as the jury foreman spoke the words not guilty John Palmer looked to the jury nodded
02:58and then blew them a kiss as he left the dock dodging jail of Palmer a free man with millions
03:06in the bank he headed straight back to Tenerife where he spotted a golden opportunity to put
03:12his fortune to work and this propelled him into the stratosphere of criminality oh I've got him
03:20there but big money leads to big enemies in Tenerife John Palmer was swimming in very dangerous waters
03:31and for him there was going to be no escape
03:36right John Palmer what I want us to do today is review the facts around the day that he was
04:04murdered the day died my own personal experience of Mickey McAvoy is that he's an extremely dangerous
04:19individual
04:22so
04:56When John Palmer first arrived on the island, it was nothing like it is today.
05:02People dreamed of owning property in the sun.
05:05The land here was cheap, so it was massive investment.
05:08And Palmer saw an opportunity and took advantage.
05:12He invested heavily in timeshare.
05:15So I want to go down to the centre of the main town.
05:20I want to go down and have a look, get a feel and understanding of what was going on at that time.
05:26I want to go down and have a look, get a feel and understanding of what was going on at that time.
05:32I'm coming up now to Harley's and the Flamingo Beach Bar,
05:52which was one of John Palmer's original restaurants, clubs.
05:58And this is where he operated from.
06:00This was the centre of John Palmer's power back in the day.
06:06Classic cars outside on the front.
06:08Then going down to Flamingo Beach Bar.
06:10And this was the investment.
06:11This was the power base.
06:13This is where the wealth was open and you could see it.
06:26After his acquittal, his plan was to go straight back to Tenerife and make something of himself.
06:34Being in Tenerife at the right time enabled him to build his empire.
06:44John has always been seeing opportunities and going for them,
06:49making the most of everything he possibly could to get as much money as he can.
06:56Because that's what turns him on.
07:07I'm going to meet someone who was investigating John Palmer
07:10at the time that John was building his criminal empire on the island.
07:14I'm going to meet him on the island of the island of the island of the island of the island.
07:44I'm going to meet him on the island of the island of the island of the island.
07:49When Palmer arrived in the Tenerife, this is not...
07:57This is clear.
07:58Clear, clear. All clear.
08:01Wow.
08:03It's huge.
08:05So why is this important to John Palmer's story?
08:07Es importante la historia de John Palmer
08:09porque es el primer complejo que compra
08:11o que adquiere una vez que llega a la isla de Tenerife.
08:14and after this apartment complex, he discovered that it was a business that left a lot of money
08:21and went to buy another series of complex to dedicate them to time sharing.
08:31He came with money and he realized that in the island there was no mafia,
08:38no there was no organized delinquency.
08:39His business was mainly dedicated to his companions, to the Britannians.
08:46He brought people outside of Tenerife, he brought a lot of young Britannians.
08:53In 1991 I had hair, I was a lot slimmer and a lot fitter, loved having fun and loved earning money.
09:00I was 17 years old, I'd never been away from home before. It was my first job, I was so naive.
09:07It was living in the fast lane, Tenerife. You know, bars opened all night, nightclubs opened all night.
09:14There was a lot of drugs, there was a lot of alcohol. The strip, Veronica's, was a very popular place to go.
09:21You know, you had the best DJs. It was just wild and it was like a whole new way of life.
09:28When I first got to Tenerife, I realized that it was dominated by John Palmer and his timeshare industry.
09:35It was totally dominated by him out there.
09:37Well, his timeshare business, he built basically chalets, he built rooms, hotel rooms, luxurious ones.
09:44And people would be able to choose the weeks that they would go and stay on holiday.
09:49So, you know, you had the best DJs. It was just wild and it was like a whole new way of life.
09:54When I first got to Tenerife, I realized that it was dominated by John Palmer and his timeshare industry.
09:59He built rooms, hotel rooms, luxurious ones, and people would be able to choose the weeks that they would go and stay on holiday.
10:07And that was their home and their property for that period of time there.
10:11Now, in theory, timeshare isn't a bad idea. What happens is that for a lump sum, you buy the right to use an apartment or villa for particular weeks of the year.
10:20On top of that, you have to pay maintenance, but you do get the chance to swap your weeks for time in another apartment somewhere else in the world.
10:27Fine, if that's what you want.
10:30If I was a person who wanted to buy a timeshare, I would have a look around a resort, choose a timeshare that I would like,
10:36and then I'd buy one or two weeks out of the year for that apartment for the rest of your life, just by paying one fixed fee.
10:44I started for a studio at three and a half grand. For one bed, it was about five or six grand.
10:48Two bed, ten to twelve grand. By 52 weeks of the year, times 200 apartments on each resort. It's a lot of money.
10:55Big money. It's massive money. In essence, what you're doing is you're selling the same damn thing 52 times. There's always going to be some trouble in there.
11:06Ah, well, can I just say one thing off the record? I'm not here to invite you anywhere, by the way. There you go, pal.
11:11John Palmer's employees were schooled to use absolutely maximum high-pressure sales techniques.
11:17It was a bit like double glazing on speed, badgering tourists all day long on the seafronts at the various resorts in Tenerife.
11:25So, an OPC is an outside personal contact.
11:30But the locals would call us overpaid cunts.
11:33We were the people on the streets who would give scratch cards to tourists.
11:40Basically, I would approach a couple on the street.
11:44You give the winning ticket to the woman and you give the losing ticket to the man.
11:48That's what I used to do.
11:49We could make up whatever we wanted.
11:51They could either go to the airport and collect their prize.
11:54We're about to the airport.
11:55You'll see, as you walk in, there's a big sign.
11:57It says, scratch your mouth. It's a huge, great, aluminum sign. You can't miss it.
12:00I used to say that there's a festival on the beachfront.
12:03You can get some free car hire.
12:05You can get a meal for four in Harley's restaurant.
12:08It was all a story.
12:09It was a story to get them stopped,
12:11to think that they would get a free prize, a free bottle of wine, a free drink.
12:15Oh, look, you've done it!
12:19The priority was to get the couple in a taxi, no matter what,
12:23and when you get them to the resort,
12:25if they agreed to look around the resort for 90 minutes,
12:29I would get £50.
12:32In a south person, they would take them around the resort.
12:35And then they got the hard sell.
12:37A lot of the south people would say to them that, you know,
12:40don't worry if you change your mind, you can cancel when you get home in England,
12:44but you couldn't.
12:45The money is gone?
12:46The money's gone, yeah.
12:47Is it Palmer's pocket?
12:48That's right.
12:49Stories were emerging in Britain of people investing in the John Palmer
12:56type share scheme, finding they were seriously ripped off.
13:00It's on arrival at the complex that holidaymakers say they're confronting the trouble.
13:05Many of them have found that unless they pay management costs in cash upfront,
13:10which they've already paid to a firm in London,
13:13then they're not given their keys to their apartments.
13:17I got to realise that, in fact, this is a scam.
13:20So that's when I started to go back and say that we wanted out of the arrangement.
13:24They grabbed him and they hustled him out of the building
13:27and they then sort of kicked him and got him down on the ground
13:30and they bounced his head on the pavement and on the road.
13:34The story that was emerging was that this was a business run by thugs and gangsters,
13:44that money was being almost extorted from ordinary working people.
13:48And that was saying to us that Palmer must have a lot of influence there
13:52because he didn't seem to be in fear of justice, in fear of law enforcement.
13:58I was in the apartment when I turned around and a man came through the door,
14:07took three paces towards me and commenced hitting me around the head with a baseball bat.
14:18Palmer moved in Tenerife from being a fraudster
14:21to becoming a real organised crime character.
14:25A real mafia don, if you like, in the Canary Islands.
14:30He surrounded himself with people who would go out and commit acts of violence
14:36without any questions asked on his behalf.
14:41The first time I realised that John Palmer had a lot of power
14:44was when he had a party one night.
14:46Lots of people showed up, lots of his friends were there.
14:49One of his friends got attacked by somebody drunk
14:52and John Palmer got the ump about that.
14:54And he put out a contract on him.
14:56The fella left the island that night
14:59and then paid 50 grand to come back.
15:01And then when he came back, he disappeared.
15:04A year later, his car was still parked outside the party venue
15:07and it was covered in dust and dirt and everything.
15:09You heard about that?
15:11I heard about that numerous times, yeah.
15:13I did hear about people being murdered and...
15:22but I just turned a blind eye to it all
15:26because it wasn't something that I was wanting to know about,
15:31to be honest.
15:33So, yeah, not gonna speak any more about that, I'm afraid.
15:39Even now?
15:40No.
15:41Palmer era visto como el mafioso número uno por dos cosas.
15:54Tenía dinero, tenía mucha gente a su servicio
15:57y dos, era un hombre al que no le temblaba la mano
16:00para ordenar una quema de un coche, una paliza,
16:05y dar un escarmiento a aquella persona
16:08que no cumplía con lo que...
16:10con lo que él creía que tenía que cumplir.
16:14Eso hace que la gente tenga miedo.
16:18Llegó a ver, eh...
16:20llegó a controlar la isla.
16:22Él era el amo realmente del sur de Tenerife.
16:26I know I'd go from rags to riches...
16:41As his empire expanded,
16:43John Palmer's wealth went through the roof.
16:45He was earning so much, virtually a million pounds a week,
16:48that he couldn't invest it quick enough,
16:50back into hotels, into port facilities, marinas, into villas.
16:55This was a top gangster at the top of his form.
16:58My clothes may still be torn and tattered
17:07Him and I never actually talked about what money he had
17:10or what money he didn't have.
17:12Just we didn't do it.
17:15I wasn't living over there.
17:18So Tenerife was totally separate from me.
17:21We had holidays on Concord.
17:25We were doing everything that we wanted to do
17:27and we had the boat.
17:29He had the private jets
17:31because he was coming backwards and forwards to home anyway.
17:36Apart from everything, his business side of it.
17:40I mean, and it was leased.
17:42I mean, loads of people do that.
17:45From our perspective,
17:46John Palmer's lifestyle on Tenerife
17:48was that of a rock star.
17:50You know, he looked to be unstoppable.
17:53But when he appeared in the Sunday Times rich list
17:56up there with the same amount of money as the Queen,
17:59it started to make the yard think
18:01that there had to be something in this that was criminal.
18:04We need to look even more closely at this man.
18:07How did he get to be this rich?
18:10My fate is up to you
18:19and
18:22Let's see it.
18:25The Old Destinations
18:26Driving a buggy through the grounds of his Essex home,
18:29one of Britain's most notorious gangsters,
18:31John Goldfinger Palmer.
18:34and watching him in the garden, a contract killer, who would later shoot him dead.
18:41I heard John Palmer was dead in a news bullet, and very shortly afterwards,
18:45people who knew I had an interest rung me to tell me that he had been assassinated.
18:51I did not feel sorry at all for his departure.
18:54I thought the world was rid of a really nasty piece of work.
18:59Well, I've had an interest in John Palmer for a very long time.
19:02The man was evil, pure evil, I think.
19:06So we decided that we would show him up for what he was.
19:14The Cook Report was a very, very popular investigative programme.
19:21It tackled all sorts of subjects.
19:25We're in Red Square and on our way to a secret meeting
19:28to buy plutonium to make a nuclear bomb.
19:32We had a very wide variety of subjects,
19:35like buying weapons-grade plutonium from the Russian Mafia.
19:38That was the hairiest one we ever did.
19:41Once we had the evidence, we would then organise to confront the malefactor.
19:46Hello, my name's Roger Cook from Central Television.
19:49And some of them, of course, turned violent.
19:50Leave him alone.
19:51Leave the f*** in your ass!
19:53During the course of it, I used to think it was like lion taming.
19:56If you showed fear, you'd had it.
20:04On Tenerife, John Palmer was a very powerful man.
20:09Some people thought the most powerful.
20:11He used to boast he had the judiciary and the police force in his pocket,
20:14and he could do anything he liked.
20:17If he didn't get his way by fair means, which he very rarely did, he'd do it by foul.
20:23Well, we had an editorial meeting in the Cook Report offices in Birmingham,
20:27and one of the subject letters we wanted to investigate was money laundering.
20:30We spoke to a lot of people, lots of senior police officers,
20:34and the one name that kept coming up was John Palmer.
20:39Palmer very quickly got into money laundering because timeshare is an ideal way of doing it.
20:45He had a legitimate business, and he manipulated it
20:49so that he was able to have millions of pounds going through the companies that he set up.
20:55He began to launder money for the Colombian cartels
20:59because he had a big cocaine habit himself,
21:01and it made him lots and lots of money.
21:04Actually, in the end, it made him more than timeshares.
21:07Our research showed that huge amounts of money,
21:10as much as 400 million, were being sifted through his many accounts.
21:18He was able to conceal the true origins of this money
21:21by laundering it through a vast web of international companies
21:25in a number of different offshore tax havens,
21:29almost impossible, in fact, impossible to trace.
21:34We did a deal with the Metropolitan Police
21:37to investigate his money laundering activities
21:40while they concentrated on timeshare.
21:43It is unusual for the police to work in that way with a journalist,
21:48but, you know, you have to remember that Roger Cook at the time
21:51had a tremendous reputation.
21:53He had, like, 12 million viewers.
21:56His journalism was regarded as, you know, really being integrity-based,
22:00and we were very happy that what he was going to do
22:02was a legitimate operation.
22:04We wanted to find a way of showing John Palmer
22:06as the unprincipled man he was,
22:09and we thought the best way to do that
22:10would be to get him to offer to launder money from drugs.
22:13The only way we could do that
22:15was find some realistic people to do the deal with him.
22:21General Kun Saar cuts open raw opium,
22:24which will be refined into heroin.
22:26Kun Saar was a warlord in Burma,
22:29who was the biggest heroin producer in the world at that time.
22:32As he produces 80% of the world's heroin,
22:35the potential profits for a money launderer would be staggering.
22:39So, as a result of a programme we had made earlier,
22:42when we wanted to get a couple of drug barons,
22:45we sent a message to him on a cleft stick,
22:48and he said, of course you can,
22:49and sent out two of his men, who were the real article,
22:52and John Palmer couldn't fault them
22:54because they were the real article.
22:56So, we thought he'd go for something that big.
23:01First, the Burmese wanted happy snaps to take home.
23:05This is for the special hook.
23:06Astonishingly, Palmer came himself,
23:12sitting cross-legged on the floor with the Burmese,
23:15eating a Thai meal.
23:17That was when we knew we had him hooked completely.
23:21He told Saar and Pawn that he kept at least one bank account,
23:25especially for the purpose of money laundering.
23:28Balanced $10 million.
23:29It's difficult for him to check, man.
23:31Yeah.
23:31Our business is in Spain.
23:33Our banks are in offshore England.
23:35Yeah.
23:3790% is in the G's.
23:37Yeah, I think.
23:38I watched the secret recordings, more or less, as live,
23:42and I just couldn't stop grinning.
23:44He was digging a big, big hole,
23:47which is exactly what we wanted him to do.
23:48In the house we'd rented for Kun Saar's men,
23:51Palmer put a price on his services.
23:53I think it'd probably be something like 25%.
23:5625%?
23:58Because I have to do it properly.
24:00This is a meeting in the muse house that we rented.
24:04I'm not cheap, but I'm good.
24:06Oh, yeah.
24:07He soon began to relax and realize that he was going to do some serious business in Southeast Asia.
24:14If you give me a million dollars, I'll take a million from my bank.
24:18Yeah.
24:19This is clean room.
24:20Yeah.
24:20I need minimum six weeks.
24:23I can handle 50 million every six months.
24:26He was offering to launder vast quantities of drugs money,
24:30and to top it all, he asked these drugs barons
24:33whether they could provide him with unidentifiable soldiers
24:37to act as enforcers for him.
24:39So if I want something done, somebody making problems with me,
24:44big problems, you can give me some soldier from here, some men?
24:48Yeah.
24:48Yeah?
24:48No problem.
24:49No problem.
24:50No problem.
24:51The confrontation was meticulously planned.
24:53I mean, we thought of every possible variation,
24:55and we made it very convincing.
24:57So Palmer actually turned up on his own.
25:00Mr. Palmer, Roger Cook, I'd like to talk to you about money laundering.
25:08About what?
25:09Money laundering.
25:09We've been listening to every conversation you've had with George...
25:11He was so shocked, you could tell on his face,
25:14as it dawned on him that he'd been conned by the Cook report.
25:19I don't know what you're talking about.
25:21I've recorded every one of the conversations you've had with the representative of Kunsa.
25:24We've just heard you offering to launder money.
25:27We'd heard you offering to launder at least three million.
25:29We have.
25:30We have the tape of it.
25:31Everything you said has been recorded.
25:34Everything, including...
25:35Including requests for, uh...
25:38I don't understand.
25:39Including requests for enforcers.
25:41He denied all knowledge of any of these nefarious activities,
25:45and then got into a taxi, which he'd hailed,
25:47and looking ridiculously smug.
25:49Which you knew it was.
25:50I wish I had it.
25:51You had.
25:52The taxi starts to move away, but as luck would have it, the lights turned red.
25:59Roger went in again and opened the door and started talking to him.
26:02Just extraordinary.
26:03So, tell us more about the laundering.
26:08You were laundering money.
26:09You were offering to launder 60 million dollars a year from what you knew was drugs money.
26:17The people you've been talking with come from Kunsa.
26:19I've never heard of it.
26:20I don't know who to do that.
26:21We've got it all on film.
26:23You're going to look amazingly stupid.
26:24As soon as Roger Cook had confronted him,
26:29we were raiding all of Palmer's premises,
26:32looking for evidence to support what we believe was the timeshare fraud
26:36against British subjects, and therefore something that we could prosecute.
26:41The taxi driver phoned us the next day and said,
26:43we'd gone about two streets up the road,
26:46and he started phoning all his offices around the country,
26:49only to find that the police had raided them at the very moment
26:52that we were doorstepping him at the Ritz Hotel.
26:56So he got so angry, he flung his phone out of the open window.
26:59It was just amazing.
27:02What did John say about Roger Cook?
27:09Well, as usual, he said he was tricked into it.
27:15Made him look a bit silly, really.
27:17What Roger Cook did and the way that we worked together with him
27:24was the key to opening up the timeshare empire
27:28and ultimately Palmer's downfall.
27:31Scotland Yard initially investigated John Palmer
27:46on suspicion of money laundering,
27:48but senior detectives eventually decided
27:51they had a better chance of convicting him on the timeshare fraud.
27:55This was what I call payback for being acquitted in Brinks-Math.
27:59The state were out to get John Palmer.
28:03One way or to the other, by hook or by crook,
28:05they were going to get him.
28:10John Palmer turned up at the Old Bailey
28:12wearing a bulletproof vest, saying that he was a target.
28:15And he wore it throughout the trial.
28:18The threat against John Palmer was huge.
28:21You know, he was facing a trial
28:22which could have earned him 14 years in prison.
28:25And I think a lot of criminals on the outside
28:29would have been thinking that he would do anything
28:30to mitigate that position.
28:32And I think he was extremely vulnerable at that point.
28:36Palmer was charged with Connick's 16,500 timeshare customers
28:42out of £30 million.
28:44The difference with John Palmer's trial
28:47was he decided to defend himself.
28:50I'd been a police officer for 27 years.
28:52I'd never been cross-examined by a defendant
28:55acting on their own behalf.
28:58He thought he knew best, as John Palmer always did.
29:03John Palmer asked me, you know,
29:04why were we following him?
29:06Why were we spending all this money on him, as it were?
29:10And I told him that it was because we believed
29:12he was a serious and organised criminal.
29:14Which outraged Palmer,
29:16who kept turning to the jury and saying,
29:18I'm not a gangster, I'm not a gangster.
29:20Well, I spoke to Palmer and asked him
29:22how he got on in court there,
29:24and he actually did tell me that he regretted
29:26that he didn't have counsel.
29:28Jesus, he could easily have afforded it.
29:30He was one of the richest people in the UK.
29:33A massive mistake.
29:34During a long trial,
29:36he told the jury there had been a fraud,
29:38but that was done by others
29:40who were running the company for him.
29:42Palmer claimed that he was let down
29:43by people he worked with.
29:45That's complete rubbish.
29:45He controlled the whole thing.
29:47Nothing happened in his organisation
29:49without his direct involvement.
29:52He orchestrated absolutely everything.
29:55And if you didn't do it his way,
29:56you got seriously hurt.
29:58A wealthy businessman has been found guilty
30:01of swindling £30 million
30:03from holidaymakers in a timeshare fraud.
30:0651-year-old John Palmer
30:07has been convicted of defrauding
30:0917,000 tourists on the island of Tenerife.
30:13He still had a chauffeur and minders too,
30:22but the transport had changed rather
30:24as Britain's wealthiest villain
30:26was driven off to prison.
30:28I think the reality of John Palmer's life
30:30following the conviction
30:31was very different.
30:34He was going to prison for quite a long time.
30:37He was not in financial control
30:40of his businesses in Tenerife.
30:41He was in a very difficult
30:43and vulnerable position.
30:45When he was in prison,
30:46he clearly lost a lot of his cachet,
30:49a lot of his reputation.
30:51People didn't want to be associated
30:52with a man who was so publicly humiliated
30:56and was such a public target.
30:59If you've had the kind of life
31:01that John Palmer has had,
31:04he's got to look over his shoulder
31:06because things were falling apart for him.
31:10How come you and John never got divorced?
31:13I did try,
31:15but he just,
31:18he would just not sign the papers.
31:22So,
31:23and of course,
31:25he was in prison quite a bit.
31:27So,
31:29when John died,
31:31we were still husband and wife.
31:36As John said to me
31:37a long time after,
31:39when I said to him,
31:40what's happened to us?
31:41And he said,
31:42it was all that Brink's map
31:44because it changed everything about us,
31:47about how we were.
31:49Do you miss those days?
31:56Yes,
31:56I do.
31:58He was,
31:59he was,
31:59a special person to me.
32:04So,
32:05yeah,
32:05do.
32:19So,
32:24what happened to Palmer's empire
32:26when he was in prison?
32:28Well,
32:28well,
32:28the empire of John Palmer,
32:30without John Palmer,
32:31he was present in Tenerife,
32:33he doesn't work.
32:33He doesn't work.
32:34He leaves his companies
32:37to his men of paja,
32:39his testaferro,
32:40who do not know how to manage
32:41the business
32:43as he was taking.
32:44And the business,
32:45evidently,
32:46he doesn't have the same.
32:47Aparte,
32:47there was more competition,
32:48there was the man,
32:50who was his right hand,
32:52who also wants a part
32:53of this tata,
32:54Mohammed Erbaugh,
32:55and there are a lot of Russians
32:56with money.
32:58You have to take into account
32:59that John Palmer
33:01left a lot of enemy
33:02behind,
33:03a lot of enemy
33:04and very powerful.
33:18So I'm going to meet
33:25a really important man
33:26here in Tenerife,
33:27John Palmer's enforcer,
33:28Mohammed Erba.
33:30At one stage,
33:32he was Palmer's right-hand man.
33:33Then they became bitter enemies
33:35in a power struggle
33:35on the island.
33:38He seems to have taken over here
33:39when Palmer was jailed.
33:41This is a man
33:43alleged to have been involved
33:45with intimidation,
33:46violence,
33:47never been prosecuted
33:49and convicted.
33:50So we're on our way now
33:52to meet him
33:52at his business premises.
33:54And I want to see
33:56whether or not
33:56he knows
33:57or has got any ideas
33:58as to who really
33:59killed John Palmer
34:00and what the motive was.
34:11Hello, Mr Durban,
34:12David.
34:13You all right?
34:13You OK?
34:15Good to see you.
34:15Come in.
34:16Thank you so much
34:17for meeting with me.
34:19Any help you need,
34:20I mean.
34:21That's brilliant.
34:21Because you're not doing
34:22the wrong thing,
34:22you're doing the right things.
34:24Brilliant.
34:24And people,
34:25if they understand that,
34:26they're supposed to do
34:26it to help you.
34:27What I want to do
34:28is ask you some questions
34:29about John's life
34:30and potentially,
34:33you know,
34:33what led to John's death.
34:36Yeah, it's no problem.
34:37It's, you know,
34:37it's whatever I can have
34:39about John's life
34:40because, you know,
34:41and everybody know
34:42how I am close to John
34:43from the beginning
34:44and even before he died.
34:59Oh, what was that?
35:19Blimey.
35:19That was not what I expected.
35:22I mean, I've made notes
35:25but Moe is without doubt
35:29the most powerful man
35:31on the island,
35:32no doubt about it.
35:33He told me the whole history
35:35of John and him
35:36but what was important
35:37was that Moe and John
35:41were best mates
35:43at the end
35:44and Moe was looking
35:46after John.
35:47John had lost his power
35:48on this island
35:49and Moe was looking
35:51after him
35:51and Moe is looking
35:52after the family as well
35:53but it was incredible.
35:57I mean,
35:57he spoke about
35:58John's wealth
35:59and how John lost
36:00that wealth,
36:02what happened
36:04throughout the period
36:06when John was in prison
36:08and how he looked
36:09after him in prison
36:10but he said
36:11that John had got greedy
36:13and that's what had happened
36:15towards the end.
36:16John had got greedy
36:17when he was buying up properties
36:18but he was also
36:19borrowing money
36:21and so he was having
36:22to pay interest
36:23back on that money
36:24and he said
36:25that John
36:25towards the end
36:26of his life
36:27his exact words
36:29John just wanted peace
36:30and he just wanted
36:32to get on with his life.
36:33He wanted to go fishing
36:34he just wanted
36:34an easy life.
36:35The money had gone
36:36and he just wanted
36:37to get on with his life.
36:39The one thing
36:40that was quite clear
36:41is he says
36:42that if John
36:44had stayed in Tenerife
36:45he would have been safe.
36:46He went back
36:47for that gallbladder operation
36:49and that's what
36:51got him killed.
36:52If he'd have stayed
36:53in Tenerife
36:54he would have had
36:55the protection
36:55of Mo
36:57and his people
36:58whereas John went back
37:00and that ultimately
37:01led to his death.
37:02So it was a
37:03mind-blowing interview
37:05and I'm going to have
37:06to sit down
37:07and seriously
37:08put all this together.
37:10because it was
37:12it was
37:13it was so much
37:14there was so much there
37:15and then I need to
37:16follow through
37:17on the leads
37:18that he's given me
37:18to establish
37:19whether or not
37:20there's any
37:20corroboration
37:21for those leads.
37:21mobile trade
37:42Parma
37:43as charismatic
37:44but volatile
37:45capable of both
37:46generosity
37:46and extreme
37:47violence.
37:47he recalled
37:49various
37:50violent episodes
37:51and criminal
37:52entanglements
37:53involving
37:53numerous people
37:55major crime
37:56families
37:57and organised
37:58crime from across
37:59the world
37:59including the Italian
38:01Gomorrah
38:01and also
38:02links to Russians
38:05also
38:06vast scale
38:07money laundering
38:07all around the
38:08timeshare
38:09but they were
38:09making
38:108 to 10
38:10million pounds
38:11a month
38:12making
38:13he said
38:14that the
38:15cash flow
38:15issues presented
38:16by Parma's
38:18arrest
38:18led to
38:19Parma's
38:20downfall
38:20the biggest
38:21opportunity
38:22that came out
38:23of his
38:23he spoke
38:24about a man
38:25who he
38:26described
38:27as a British
38:28accountant
38:28that clearly
38:30Mo Durba
38:30didn't like
38:31he called him
38:31a grass
38:32and so
38:33I need
38:35to now
38:35track that
38:36person
38:36down
38:36Back in the
38:5490s
38:55after serving
38:56time in prison
38:56for fraud
38:57I decided
38:58to have a
38:59fresh start
39:00in Tenerife
39:00away from the
39:01British police
39:02and set up
39:03a company
39:04dealing with
39:05high net worth
39:06individuals
39:07advising them
39:08how to
39:08minimise
39:09their tax
39:10I had clients
39:14from all
39:15over Europe
39:16including
39:17John Palmer's
39:18former right-hand
39:19man
39:19Mohamed Durba
39:21and at that
39:23time
39:24I realised
39:25that some
39:25of my clients
39:26were in fact
39:27mafia members
39:28or just
39:29gangsters
39:30so I
39:34became
39:34an informant
39:35on behalf
39:35of the
39:35Spanish
39:36Secret
39:36Services
39:37so I
39:40gathered
39:40lots of
39:40information
39:41on all
39:41these
39:42individuals
39:42so I've
39:47got a
39:48mountain
39:48of evidence
39:49tape
39:52recordings
39:53documents
39:56everything
39:58and because
40:00of that
40:01information
40:01and intel
40:02I know
40:03who killed
40:04John Palmer
40:05her
40:06hello Paul
40:29how are you
40:31I'm David
40:32pleased to
40:34meet you
40:34and you
40:35good to
40:35meet you
40:36Paul I've
40:38come up to
40:39see you
40:39yes
40:40about the
40:41murder of
40:41John Palmer
40:42so what's
40:43your involvement
40:43in all this
40:44how did you
40:44get involved
40:45in it all
40:45I'm an
40:46offshore
40:47financial
40:47consultant
40:48right
40:48I was
40:49working in
40:50Spain
40:50what part
40:52of John's
40:52life was
40:52this
40:53this was
40:53late 2000s
40:54so that was
40:55when he was
40:56out of prison
40:56yes
40:57right
40:58and I had
40:59a client
41:00who was
41:00worth
41:0025
41:01billion
41:02pounds
41:02million or
41:03billion
41:03billion
41:04billion
41:05billion
41:05and he was
41:07involved in
41:07a property
41:08deal in
41:09Moscow called
41:09Project
41:10Moscow
41:10right
41:11which my
41:13client
41:13had invested
41:15in
41:16Project
41:19Moscow was
41:19a development
41:21of a shopping
41:21complex
41:22in
41:23Moscow
41:23and from
41:26looking at
41:27all the
41:27accounting
41:27records
41:28to do
41:28with that
41:29I came
41:29across
41:30a Russian
41:30oligarch
41:31called
41:31Boris
41:32Boris
41:33Borisovsky
41:34correct
41:34right
41:35so where
41:36does John
41:36Palmer
41:37fit into
41:37all of
41:37this
41:38John
41:39Palmer
41:39had some
41:40links
41:40to Boris
41:41because he
41:41was
41:41dealing
41:42with
41:43Boris
41:43do you
41:45know what
41:46sort of
41:46business
41:46property
41:47in
41:48Tenerife
41:48so he
41:51was
41:51he was
41:51investing
41:52in property
41:52in Tenerife
41:54he was
41:54yes
41:54right
41:55back in
41:56the 90s
41:57before
41:58prison
41:58John
41:59Palmer
41:59decided to
42:00open an
42:01office
42:01in Moscow
42:02selling
42:03timeshare
42:04and that
42:04was very
42:05very
42:05successful
42:06but to
42:07do business
42:08in Russia
42:08at that
42:08time
42:09was you
42:09had to
42:10be in
42:10with the
42:10mafia
42:11otherwise
42:11you didn't
42:12operate
42:13and once
42:14he's in
42:15business
42:15with them
42:16he's got
42:17access to
42:17funds
42:18borrowed
42:19funds
42:20from them
42:20so now
42:21he's
42:21borrowing
42:22monies
42:22as well
42:23wow
42:24and this
42:24is a
42:25lot
42:25of
42:25money
42:26borrowed
42:28from a
42:29lot of
42:30highly
42:31dangerous
42:32people
42:32in Russia
42:33okay
42:34so how
42:35do you
42:35back up
42:36you know
42:36what you've
42:37said to
42:37us
42:37today
42:37I have
42:38tape
42:39recordings
42:39right
42:40and this
42:40is a
42:41recording
42:41of a
42:42colleague
42:42of mine
42:43interviewing
42:43Mohamed
42:44Dover
42:44this
42:45recording
42:46for me
42:46demonstrates
42:48just why
42:49John Palmer
42:50got killed
42:51right
42:51okay
42:51go on
42:52someone
42:55said that
42:56Palmer's
42:58jet was
42:58often seen
43:00at Moscow
43:00airport
43:01well at that
43:03time
43:03all the time
43:04the jet
43:04there went
43:05to pick up
43:05the money
43:05cash
43:06you said
43:10that
43:10um
43:10it was
43:121 million
43:12pound
43:13a week
43:13coming in
43:14from Russia
43:14the Russian
43:16mafia
43:17and the
43:17Russian
43:17people
43:17they said
43:18okay
43:18give money
43:19make investment
43:20to take
43:20the money
43:20out
43:21and they
43:22give
43:23an apartment
43:23in
43:24Lagomere
43:25and now
43:31the problem
43:31is
43:31Lagomere
43:32does not
43:32exist
43:33land
43:34has already
43:34sold
43:35half
43:35no
43:36building
43:37so
43:39he was
43:39taking
43:40money
43:40from
43:40the
43:40Russian
43:41mafia
43:41to
43:42exist
43:43in
43:43timeshare
43:43and
43:44not
43:44delivering
43:44he
43:45no
43:45had
43:46ever
43:46delivering
43:46anything
43:46in the
43:57secret
43:58filming
43:58that we
43:59did
43:59at the
44:00time
44:00we had
44:01no prior
44:01knowledge
44:02about
44:03John
44:03Palmer's
44:03Russian
44:04connections
44:04until he
44:05started
44:05talking
44:06about
44:06it
44:06this
44:09is a
44:09full
44:10transcript
44:10of one
44:11of our
44:11meetings
44:11with
44:12John
44:12Palmer
44:12a lunch
44:12meeting
44:13and he
44:14was
44:14very
44:15open
44:16about
44:16his
44:17business
44:18in
44:18Russia
44:18doing
44:19business
44:19with
44:19the
44:20communists
44:20and
44:21ex-KGB
44:22agents
44:23including
44:24the
44:24Russian
44:25mafia
44:25we
44:27then
44:27started
44:27tracking
44:28his
44:28plane
44:29from
44:29Tenerife
44:30via
44:30Geneva
44:31where
44:31he
44:31had
44:31bank
44:32accounts
44:32before
44:33he
44:33flew
44:33on
44:33to
44:33Russia
44:34he
44:35told
44:36us
44:36during
44:36our
44:36secret
44:36filming
44:37that
44:37he
44:38had
44:38opened
44:39offices
44:39in
44:40Moscow
44:40in
44:41St
44:41Petersburg
44:41where
44:43at
44:43that
44:43time
44:44Vladimir
44:45Putin
44:45was
44:46the
44:46deputy
44:46mayor
44:46of
44:47St
44:47Petersburg
44:47and
44:48in
44:48charge
44:48of
44:48the
44:48external
44:49investment
44:49committee
44:50there
44:53was a
44:53story
44:53about
44:54him
44:54inviting
44:55Gorbachev
44:56to
44:56Tenerife
44:57in
44:58two weeks
44:58time
44:59he says
44:59here
44:59to talk
45:00about
45:01timeshare
45:01you know
45:03it sounds
45:03as if
45:04he's
45:04exaggerated
45:04but this
45:05actually
45:05happened
45:06Gorbachev
45:07did
45:07go to
45:07the
45:07Canary
45:08Islands
45:08it's
45:09extraordinary
45:10really
45:11John
45:19Palmer
45:19was doing
45:20really
45:20well
45:20in
45:20Russia
45:21and
45:21then
45:21he
45:22got
45:22arrested
45:22for
45:23the
45:23timeshare
45:24fraud
45:24he
45:25can't
45:26touch
45:26his
45:26assets
45:26he
45:27can't
45:27touch
45:27his
45:27money
45:28and
45:28now
45:28Palmer
45:29is
45:29absolutely
45:31in debt
45:32up to
45:32his
45:32eyeballs
45:33he's
45:33out
45:34of
45:34his
45:34league
45:34this
45:34is
45:34not
45:35gangsterism
45:36in
45:37Tenerife
45:37you're
45:38at
45:38a
45:39different
45:39level
45:40do
45:41you
45:41know
45:41how
45:41much
45:41debt
45:42Palmer
45:42was
45:42in
45:43he's
45:43heavily
45:43in debt
45:44to the
45:45tune
45:45of a
45:45million
45:45pounds
45:46a
45:46week
45:46interest
45:47is
45:47that's
45:48just
45:48interest
45:49just
45:49interest
45:50a
45:50million
45:50pounds
45:51a
45:51week
45:51but now
45:52if we
45:52fast
45:52forward
45:53John
45:54Palmer
45:54is
45:54out
45:54of
45:54prison
45:55he
45:55can't
45:55pay
45:56his
45:56debt
45:56that
45:57is
45:57when
45:57you
45:57become
45:57a
45:58liability
45:58exactly
46:00what
46:01happened
46:01to
46:02people
46:02who
46:02were
46:02involved
46:03in
46:03Project
46:04Moscow
46:04the
46:06Russian
46:07have killed
46:08several
46:08people
46:09on
46:09British
46:09soil
46:10all
46:10associated
46:11with
46:11Project
46:12Moscow
46:12inside
46:15his
46:16multi
46:16million
46:16pound
46:17mansion
46:17Varazovsky
46:18was found
46:19dead
46:19in his
46:20bath
46:20by his
46:20bodyguard
46:21he
46:22was
46:23murdered
46:23and it
46:23was made
46:24to look
46:24as if
46:25it
46:25was
46:25a
46:25suicide
46:26Scott
46:27Young's
46:27body
46:27was
46:28found
46:28in
46:28Montague
46:28Square
46:29on
46:29Monday
46:29evening
46:30did
46:31he
46:31fall
46:31onto
46:31these
46:32railings
46:32in
46:32London
46:33from
46:33the
46:33building
46:33above
46:34or
46:35was
46:35he
46:35pushed
46:35Scott
46:36Yell
46:36they killed
46:38him
46:38also
46:38all
46:39on
46:39the
46:39orders
46:39of
46:40the
46:40Russian
46:40Mafia
46:41suddenly
46:42you're
46:42putting
46:42all the
46:43pieces
46:43of
46:43the
46:43jigsaw
46:43together
46:44you've
46:45got
46:45the
46:45Russian
46:46Mafia
46:46you've
46:47got
46:47Project
46:47Moscow
46:47you know
46:48a series
46:49of
46:49deaths
46:49in
46:50the
46:50UK
46:51you've
46:52got
46:52John
46:53Palmer
46:53vast
46:54deaths
46:55and
46:55they're
46:55all
46:56interconnected
46:56everything's
46:57connected
46:57one way
46:58or another
46:59wow
46:59tell
47:01me
47:02what
47:02you
47:03think
47:03happened
47:04how
47:05John
47:05was
47:05murdered
47:06my
47:07trusted
47:07client
47:08told me
47:09the
47:10Russian
47:10Mafia
47:10they put
47:11out
47:12the
47:12hit
47:12on
47:13John
47:13Palmer
47:13and
47:14assassins
47:14carried
47:15out
47:15the
47:15hit
47:16so
47:18do
47:18you
47:18think
47:19that
47:19you're
47:20putting
47:20two
47:20and
47:20two
47:21together
47:21or
47:22is
47:22that
47:22something
47:23that
47:23you
47:23specifically
47:24were
47:24told
47:24this
47:25is
47:25what
47:25they've
47:25actually
47:25been
47:26told
47:26right
47:26yeah
47:27it's an
47:33extraordinary
47:34theory
47:35but it's
47:35very
47:36difficult
47:36for me
47:37to back
47:37up
47:37if
47:39Paul
47:39is
47:39right
47:39and
47:40John
47:40ripped
47:40off
47:40the
47:40Russian
47:41Mafia
47:41in a
47:41big
47:41way
47:42their
47:42desire
47:42to
47:43kill
47:43him
47:43is
47:43plausible
47:44but
47:44it
47:45doesn't
47:45prove
47:45anything
47:46but
47:48it
47:48does
47:48open
47:49up
47:49the
47:49possibility
47:49of
47:50a
47:50line
47:50of
47:50inquiry
47:51Russian
47:52OCGs
47:53are
47:53clearly
47:53capable
47:54of
47:55killing
47:55people
47:55on
47:56British
47:56soil
47:56but
47:57they
47:57don't
47:58get
47:58their
47:58hands
47:58dirty
47:59they
48:00employ
48:00professional
48:01hitmen
48:01to carry
48:02out
48:02the
48:02murders
48:03for
48:03them
48:03it's
48:04happened
48:04in
48:05other
48:05cases
48:05and
48:05we've
48:06seen
48:06it
48:06hitmen
48:07and
48:07assassins
48:07coming
48:08into
48:08the
48:08country
48:09and
48:09then
48:09escaping
48:09so
48:11if
48:11I
48:11can
48:11identify
48:12who
48:13pulled
48:13the
48:13trigger
48:14I
48:14maybe
48:14have
48:15to
48:15establish
48:15who
48:16ordered
48:16the
48:17hit
48:17on
48:17John
48:17Palmer
48:18they've
48:26been
48:26described
48:26as
48:27a
48:27murderous
48:27drug
48:28dealing
48:28cartel
48:29what
48:31was he
48:31burning
48:32was
48:33that
48:33the
48:34motive
48:34for
48:34John
48:34Palmer's
48:35murder
48:35they
48:36found
48:37all
48:37sorts
48:38of
48:39weird
48:39stuff
48:40he
48:41was
48:41here
48:41to
48:42kill
48:42you've
48:43got
48:43a
48:44professional
48:44assassin
48:44coming
48:45into
48:45the
48:46UK
48:46into
48:46Essex
48:47two
48:47weeks
48:47before
48:48the
48:48murder
48:49of
48:49John
48:49Palmer
48:49this
48:51is
48:51dynamite
49:12you
Be the first to comment