‘I suppose he likes his wheeler-dealer image,’ said Rafi.
‘According to Mario the fourth member of the group was Maryam Talal, now Mrs Maryam Vynckt. She’s the younger sister of Basel and of course cousin to the sheikh,’ said John. ‘She read Law at Cambridge, followed by a two-year Master‘s in Law in London. Her masters dissertation was on: Cross border investment vehicles and cross border taxation. According to Mario, she an Eastern beauty and a fantastic linguist – she speaks most of the main European languages as if they were her native tongue.’
John looked at his notes. ‘Maryam worked for the international legal firm Tollemarsh Ruddock and Leveritt in the City where she specialised in corporate acquisitions. There she renewed her acquaintance with Mr Hubert Vynckt – he’d read Business Administration at the Judge Institute and had been in the same Cambridge University college as her. Hubert’s family investment business, CPR Investment Funds, became a big client of hers.’
‘John, you’re losing out on the food,’ commented Jeremy. ‘Let me do the next bit. Maryam, visited Hubert frequently and then Hubert made Maryam an offer she couldn’t refuse: to head up his private clients division and a wedding ring. They married and she moved to Luxembourg. Then, out of the blue, her division was bought by the Gulf Trade Bank. Maryam, is CEO, of the merged private clients departments and now works from the Bank’s headquarters in the Gulf and from its offices in Luxembourg, which are in the same building as Hubert’s CPR Investment Funds.’
Rafi sat bolt upright. ‘Oh yes! I really do bet Callum met her.’
‘OK, I’ll get that checked out,’ said Jeremy.
‘According to Mario,’ said John, ‘the Gulf Trade Bank is part of the sheikh’s business empire and that the bank’s acquisition of Hubert’s private clients division was the sheikh’s way of ensuring that Maryam was close by… Ah yes, I nearly forgot. Mario says that Maryam is the most driven of the clique.’
‘That leaves us with the last member: Miti Lakhani,’ said Jeremy. ‘He struggled to make ends meet whilst in London. It seems that the money was there but his father wanted his son to work and not play and so kept Miti on a tight financial rein. Unfortunately, after five years he went home to Mogadishu with an MPhil and not the expected PhD. It seems he drew the short straw, in that his supervisor was more interested in his consultancy work than tending to his academic flock… Miti’s family owns a thriving import/export business based in Sudan and Somalia. Mario reckons they also own a lot of land there.’
‘Now for the scary bit,’ said John looking at his notes. ‘To quote Mario, In a crazier world, the PhD dissertations of Tufayl, Talal and Furud, when put together, could be viewed as the instruction kit for building a financial atomic bomb…’
Kate, who up to this point had been listening quietly and intently, suddenly sat up and took notice. ‘Explain, please.’
‘Rafi knows more about these things than I do,’ said Jeremy. ‘If I read out the dissertation titles, perhaps Rafi can explain? Sheikh Tufayl started his on: Sovereign credit ratings and public sector debt, but amended it after his mid-stage viva to: The impact of energy shortages on the financial markets. Basel Talal’s thesis was on: The identification of business failure and contagion in finance, insurance and banking sectors. He looked mainly at the reasons why these businesses got into financial trouble and the ripple effects that this could cause.’
Jeremy looked at Rafi. ‘Does that make sense?’
Rafi nodded.
‘Jameel Furud’s thesis,’ Jeremy continued hesitantly, reading carefully from his notes, was on: The risks of financial products in destabilised markets. His thesis considered whether it was possible for a significant number of small items to go below the risk management radar screen, with the consequence that if the markets took a plunge one or more institutions might become insolvent.’
‘I agree with Mario,’ said Rafi, ‘If one puts the three theses together – energy shortages, with business failure and large losses in the derivative markets – it makes for a very volatile and potentially dangerous cocktail.’
Emma and Kate looked concerned. Emma was about to say something when John carried on. ‘Oh… I quite forgot. We spotted that two of the PhDs had dedications. The sheikh’s dissertation was dedicated to Yousif and Basel’s to Khalid. MI5 are trying to find out who they might be,’ said John.
Wisps of ideas were swirling around inside Rafi’s head. They did not paint a reassuring picture. The bombing was only a distraction. Jameel and his associates were after a far larger target.
Sensing Rafi was deep in thought, Kate stepped in. ‘Thank you both. That was an extremely useful synopsis! You did well to find Mario. We’re fortunate that he took such a keen interest in the group.’
‘All thanks to Jameel’s fling with his girlfriend!’ said Emma.
Kate ignored her comment. ‘I reckon you’ve found us our ringleaders. I’m uncertain where Miti fits in, though. Thank you both. Any questions?’
‘I’ve one,’ said Emma. ‘Where is the vice chancellor now?’
‘I have arranged for him to spend a few days enjoying the hospitality of MI5… As we couldn’t trust him to keep his mouth shut,’ added Jeremy. ‘His PA overheard John and I talking. We let her think that we’d charged him for molesting one of his daughter’s underage friends. You should have seen his face when the squad car arrived to take him away. Serves him right!’
‘I have a big problem,’ said Kate. ‘I worry that this is all too circumstantial. Are we going in the right direction, given the starting point of the Bishopsgate bombing? Shouldn’t we be looking at other scenarios? Though I’ll be damned if I know what they might be.’
John looked at her in a reassuring way. ‘Kate, by all means keep an open mind and if another scenario comes along, use my team downstairs to work on it. But for now, you must run with what you’ve got.’
‘Emma and Rafi, keep researching the companies,’ instructed Kate. ‘John, Jeremy and I will focus on the individuals involved. Let’s touch base in an hour’s time.’
Emma pushed her chair across to Rafi’s desk. ‘Can we go back a step? Is Prima Terra valuable?’
‘Yep,’ replied Rafi. ‘Something like?1.5 billion.’
‘And the ultimate owner of Prima Terra is the sheikh?’
‘Yes, I now believe so.’
‘So if the sheikh is willing to jeopardise Prima Terra and as a consequence lose an investment worth many hundreds of millions of pounds… He must be confident of making a great deal of money from whatever he is planning to do.’
‘And as I see it,’ said Rafi, ‘The two dodgy companies that Callum found plus the venture capital business are too small to make the sort of returns they’ll need.’
Emma frowned.
Rafi could almost see the cogs going round in her mind.
‘If one takes their PhD topics and then add in Jameel Furud and Maryam Vynckt’s expertise and financial clout… I’d put my money on the terrorists targeting the derivatives markets,’ said Emma.
‘I agree… If they could find a way to make the markets crash, they could then walk away with shed loads of money,’ added Rafi with a large yawn.
‘Precisely,’ continued Emma, ‘And there must be enough dishonest international bankers out there who – for a fee – would provide a front for dubious derivatives trading. And it would be practically impossible for the authorities to track down where the profits went – let alone get them back again!’