It was a warm summer's evening during the month of November 1996. The phone rang at the residence of D & K's Managing director, Kyle Condon. On the other end was the extremely excited voice of a male who sounded like he could be Continental and probably about middle aged. The man, whom we shall call Costa was repeatedly saying that he needed help as he was going to be murdered! After calming Costa down Kyle requested to meet with him at the Hyatt Hotel in Sandton, later that night. At the meeting Costa explained that during the day his partner and best friend (whom we shall call Nick) informed Costa that he had been told by a certain friend at the race course that two pretty unsavoury characters had been hired to assassinate Costa. Nick went on to explain to Costa that he had even been shown a photograph of Costa's wife and child and had been told that if they cannot get to Costa then his wife or child would do.
Nick also explained that fortunately these hitmen had been instructed not to carry the contract out if an amount of R50 000-00 in cash was paid over into a bank account in Madeira, Portugal.
Now although Costa was an extremely successful businessman and well known throughout the Portuguese community he could not even begin to think who would be after him and nor could he recall owing anybody any amount of money.
After listening to Costa's story carefully, Kyle agreed to investigate the case. Two VIP Protection Officers were assigned to protect the client and his family in the interim.
After four days of intense investigative work, including surveillance, telephone monitoring, the checking of offshore bank accounts, etc, a meeting was called with Costa. At this meeting Kyle and his team informed Costa who was behind this blackmail attempt. It was none other than Nick himself. It turned out that Nick had landed himself with R30 000-00 worth of gambling debts and that certain people were not too happy about thisSome weird and wonderful stories about double dealing, espionage and other goings- on that D & K Management Consultants have uncovered. Can you believe what people get up to? outstanding amount. Nick had devised the whole scheme, planning to blackmail his best friend and business partner so he could clear his gambling debts!
A sting operation was planned and carried out perfectly. Nick was arrested and handed over to the police, who charged him under the Blackmail & Extortion section of the Law. He was found guilty and sentenced to four years imprisonment and is currently still doing time.
Costa and his family have resumed their lives and have managed to put the incident behind them!! |