Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History (48 page)

231
  
an executive producer on the future film:
IMDb Pro, “Untitled J.J. Abrams Diamond Heist Project,” Full Credits, available online at
http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1399110/fullcredits
(accessed on June 30, 2009).

231
  
successfully argued . . . extradition to Belgium:
The Italian case refusing to extradite Finotto to Belgium, instead having him serve his sentence in Italy, was La Corte Suprema di Cassazione, Sezione Penale, Sentenza N. 465, February 12, 2008. This case was on appeal from the Corte Appello di Torino’s decision dated December 28, 2007. The Italian case refusing to extradite Tavano to Belgium, instead having him serve his sentence in Italy, was La Corte Suprema di Cassazione, Sezione Sezione Penale, Sentenza N. 464, February 12, 2008. This case was on appeal from the Corte Appello di Torino’s decision dated December 28, 2007.

232
  
On the afternoon . . . wife’s name:
Details about this stop and confiscation of the diamonds found come from interviews with a confidential source, a member of Italian law enforcement with knowledge of this case, via e-mails, July and August 2009.

232
  
a brand new . . . hatchback:
The sticker price in Italy was
30,900. Manfred Poschenrieder, Corporate Communications and Policy, BMW, via e-mail, July 20, 2009.

232
  
“We are, of course . . . theft in 2003”:
Agim De Bruycker, interview with author, via telephone, July 17, 2009.

233
  
“It’s too long . . . permission to come”:
Kris De Bot, interview with author, via telephone, September 22, 2009.

233
  
“Leo cannot be condemned . . . selling it”:
Agim De Bruycker, interview with author, via telephone, July 17, 2009.

233
  
“Maybe it’s the beginning . . . recover everything”:
Philip Claes, interview with author, via telephone, September 29, 2009.

234
  
“The feeling here . . . released so early”:
Ibid.

234
  
and a fortune in stolen diamonds
: Joshua Davis told a Belgian newspaper reporter that Notarbartolo claimed that there is no fortune to enjoy, that instead he and his associates had the “20 million euros” in loot (this being the figure that Notarbartolo told Davis) stolen from them by unnamed parties when they had it in an apartment in Milan. Douglas De Coninck, “Dader Kraak van de Eeuw Vrij,”
De Morgen
(Brussels, Belgium), March 13, 2009.

INDEX

ABC News,
193

Abrams.J.J.,
231
,
305
n231

ADA.
See
Antwerp Diamond Area (ADA)

Alarms.
See also
Light sensors
;
Motion detectors

D’Onorio as expert,
92–93
,
98–99
,
130

neutralizing, in Antwerp Diamond Center,
122

specialists,
20
,
86–87

Andimo Building,
17

Andre,
44–45

Anglo American Corporation of South Africa,
70

Angola,
64
,
71

Anti-Mafia Brigade,
202–203

Antwerp

architecture,
4
,
14–15

diamonds in,
2
,
6–7

Leonardo Notarbartolo leaving,
133

School of Turin moving to,
101–102

Antwerp Court of Appeal,
198
,
208

Antwerp Diamond Area (ADA),
11

closed-circuit television in,
12

police in,
59

security bubble,
12

Antwerp Diamond Center.
See also
Diamond Center vault
;
Garage doors

blueprints of,
41–42
,
250
n41

Boost as manager,
1–4
,
6
,
160–161
,
219

buildings,
15–17

complacent staff,
45–46

De Sousa discovering robbery,
135–136

diamonds traveling through,
2

D’Onorio visiting,
104–105
,
269–270n104

Finotto sizing up,
37

getting away from,
130–131

Grimberger as owner,
5

guards,
16–17

lawsuits,
219

Leonardo Notarbartolo filming,
39–40
,
95

Leonardo Notarbartolo casing,
1
,
60

Leonardo Notarbartolo’s late nights in,
80

location of,
2

neutralizing alarms,
122

panic in,
xiv

Room 526,
3–4

safe deposit boxes,
89–90
,
101
,
124–129

security in,
xii–xiv
,
4
,
6
,
37
,
161

tenants,
16–17

as unacceptable for insurance,
54

Antwerp Diamond Museum,
53

Antwerp Forensics Laboratory,
146

Antwerpsche Diamantkring

as bourse,
50–51

diamond heist 1994,
61–63

Antwerp World Diamond Centre,
136
,
147
,
159
,
193

Architecture,
198

Antwerp skyline,
4

Diamond Square Mile,
13–14

Turin,
21–22

Arthashastra,
67

Aviv, Amos,
62–63

Barnato, Barney,
69

Beurs voor Diamanthandel,
46
,
50–51
,
110
,
113

bin Laden, Osama,
64

Black diamonds,
65–66
,
147
,
159
,
172

Black market,
65
,
138
,
147
,
159
,
172
,
243

Blood diamonds,
64–65

Blueprints

of Antwerp Diamond Center,
41–42
,
45
,
95
,
250
n41

Boost and,
41–42

police finding,
150

Boon, Eric,
179

Boost, Julie,
8–9
,
54
,
79
,
136
,
150
,
220

Antwerp Diamond Center manager,
1–4
,
6
,
160–161, 219

blueprints and,
41–42

at crime scene,
138

giving vault tour,
4

knowing vault combination,
119

as nosy,
42–43
,
251
n42

as robbery victim,
126

safe doors and,
91

stalling Leonardo Notarbartolo,
163–165

Bourses,
50
,
212

Antwerpsche Diamantkring as,
50–51

robbery of,
61–63

security among,
51

Brabo, Silvius,
14

Brazil,
67

Brico,
112
,
148

Brilliance,
74

Brinks,
6
,
12
,
50

Burglars.
See also
School of Turin

Highland bandits of Central India,
113

Italian gangs,
114

professional British,
113–114

superstitions among,
113–114

Caesar, Julius,
23

Caine, Michael,
84

Capital Diamonds,
127

Capizzi, Benedetto,
203

Carats,
75–76
,
125–129
,
266
n74

Carlton Hotel diamond heist,
58

Cartier jewelry,
73
,
127

Cathedral of Our Lady,
14

di Cavour, Camillo Benso,
81

CBS-Brachfeld Building,
51

Central Operations Service (Rome),
154

Central Selling Organization (CSO),
70

Chiruzzi, Pancrazio (“the Soloist with the Kalashnikov”),
154
,
201

Claes, Philip,
147
,
159
,
193
,
210–212
,
228
,
234

Cleave cut,
74

“Clergy penitent privilege,”
255–256
n63

Clooney, George,
230

Closed-circuit phone network,
114

Closed-circuit television,
xiv
,
3–4

in ADA,
12

in Diamond Square Mile,
6–7

Leonardo Notarbartolo counting,
17–18

Cognacs,
127
,
275n127

Concierges,
5
,
42
,
117
.
See also
De Sousa, Jorge Dias
;
Plompteux, Jacques

cushy job of,
44–45

locking vault,
43–44
,
78–79

opening garage doors,
82–83

turning off vault lights,
95

vault combination and,
119–120

Conflict diamonds,
63–65
,
159
,
257
n64