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Dumond took a drag and said, “Play it straight up. Tell him in his line of work his reputation is everything. We can either do this in a very private manner or a very public one.”
Rapp nodded and then closed the file. “All right…let’s call him.”
Dumond waved him behind the desk. “The screen on the left is a mirror image of the banker’s. That is exactly what he’s looking at right now.”
“Do you know if he opened your e-mail?”
“Yes.”
“Has he replied to it?”
“No.”
“Did he check the name Deckas against the bank records?”
“No.”
“Okay. Connect me to his direct line.”
Dumond went to work on his keyboard and donned a headset. Using a sophisticated telecommunications program he bounced the call around so it would be untraceable. When it started to ring he picked up the handset and gave it to Rapp. After the third ring a man answered in Greek.
“Yeea sas.”
“Mr. Kapodistras, I need your assistance in a very important matter.”
There was a long pause and then the banker asked, “Who am I speaking with, and how did you get this number?”
“Neither is important at the moment. What is important is that I am in a position to help you avoid a potentially embarrassing situation.”
“Are you an American?”
“Yes. Did you get the e-mail I sent you about a press conference the FBI is going to hold today?”
“I did.”
“Did the name Alexander Deckas mean anything to you?”
“No.” There was hesitation in the voice. “Should it?”
“That depends how involved you are with your clients.”
Dumond pointed to the monitor that was mirroring Kapodistras’s screen. The banker was searching his database looking for a match. After a few seconds the client profile for Deckas popped up on the screen.
“It is the stated policy of our bank to not discuss our clients under any circumstances.”
“Mr. Kapodistras, I see that you were a vice president at the bank back in two thousand and one. Do you remember what it was like in your business when it was discovered that Osama bin Laden had been using Cyprus banks to hide his al-Qaeda funds?”
Rapp had seen the official report. Greek regulators and U.S. federal agents had descended on the Mediterranean island, and the banking business had been thrown on its ear. Decades of the Cyprus banking industry marketing itself as the Switzerland of the Mediterranean was destroyed overnight by the actions of a militant few. People banked on Cyprus because it gave them the same thing the Swiss did: absolute privacy with exceptional service. And they did it in many cases for half the fee. The reduced fees were nice, but the privacy was paramount. Clients fled in droves. Clients who had nothing to do with terrorism, but nonetheless did not want any government knowing how much money they had, or worse, how they had obtained it.
“It was a difficult time to be in my business, but in difficult times comes great opportunity.”
Kapodistras sounded like a man who might be willing to deal. “Well, I have an opportunity for you today.”
“What kind of opportunity?”
“An opportunity to spare your bank.”
“From?”
