you what you want to know. But this didn’t come from me ok?”
Nelson instinctively reached for his pocket to take out his notebook but stopped and let his hand rest on the table. The conversation was off the record, or at least seemed to be because Nelson still has his digital voice recorder in his pocket which was set on voice activation mode and would record the conversation well enough for future reference.
“In short, Emilio Fogliani is, or I should say was, pretty much retired. He was a nasty piece of work in his prime, but that was some time ago. Twenty years ago he and his brother had their hands in a lot of pies but they gave all that away apparently. There’s some anecdotal evidence that he’s still involved with the drug trade but we haven’t been able to turn anything up on it. These days his nephew Michael is the power and has steered the family into finance, although apparently he still uses Emilio to open a few doors occasionally.”
“What sort of doors?”
Sanchez smiled. “Well that’s where it gets a little complex. In simple terms, Michael Fogliani is the head of a company that specialises in investing and managing funds, and probably laundering money, dirty money. He used Emilio’s reputation and old school contacts in the organised crime world to gather investors. Our best estimate is that the Fogliani family’s personal fortune is in the vicinity of thirty-five million, but their company manages an investment portfolio of around one hundred and fifty million and it’s growing each year. It’s just like any normal financial deal in that Fogliani’s company skims a few percent in fees and charges off the top each year. It’s a sweet deal.”
“I’m impressed,” said Nelson genuinely, trying to get his head around the numbers. “That’s big money. So are you guys looking at Michael Fogliani for that then?”
“Not really.”
“Why not?” replied Nelson, a perplexed frown creasing his face.
Sanchez smiled broadly and shook his head like a genial father. “Because he’s not doing anything illegal! The money he manages might be dirty but his investment companies are legitimate, or at least appear to be.”
“What do you mean appear to be?”
“Well there are some questions about how he moves funds around the world, but if anything, that is related to the tax law, not criminal law. We’ve had meetings with the Tax Office about it. They say it comes close to skirting the Transfer Pricing rules.”
“Transfer what?”
“Pricing. Look, I’m no expert, but from what I understand it’s a technique where funds are moved between related companies in different parts of the world, sometimes using tax havens as a conduit. The idea behind it is to minimise profits in countries that have higher tax rates and take the profits to a country that has low tax rates. It’s not criminal activity. It’s a grey area of the tax law and it’s very difficult to substantiate any illegality. Michael Fogliani has a team of high priced accountants and lawyers and they’ve proven very effective at making the family business look entirely legitimate.”
“So he’s legitimately laundering dirty money,” said Nelson frowning.
“Pretty much.”
“So even though you think he’s dodgy you’re not going to do anything about it?”
“Look Nelson,” replied Raph becoming a little frustrated. ”You understand as well as I do that we’ve only got so many resources to go around and quite frankly there are a lot of other organised crime groups that have way more impact on the street than the Foglianis. The Italian underworld families that may have once ruled the roost in Sydney don’t hold much sway anymore. They barely register as a blip on our radar. These days it’s all about the Asian gangs down in Cabramatta, the Middle Eastern groups in the South and the Islanders who are all over the place. They’re afraid of no-one and they’re tearing up the streets and we’ve got our hands more than full with them. It’s all we can do to give the public the impression that we have some kind of control over them when the reality is that I’m not sure we do.”
“Yeah, but still…”
“But nothing Nelson. When we compare the problems we have with them to what the Fogliani family is up to, well, it doesn’t really rate very highly on our
“Maybe you just need to look harder,” said Nelson morosely.
“Maybe. But the Exec wants our strategies to focus on the more visible criminal activity that makes the dirty money in the first place cos’ once it gets into Fogliani’s investment company it’s as good as gone.”
Nelson nodded and smiled tightly. He understood only too well. Over the years he had watched first hand as resources had been cut time and time again from front line policing as the politicians tightened the purse strings and the Police exec placed an ever increasing emphasis on feel good, high visibility, preventative policing, like education and marketing. Despite all the tough talk, the police force was in no position to chase up every crime that was committed, but instead cherry picked what they calculated would give them the best bang for their budget buck. Any victim of a petty crime soon came to understand that chasing up their complaint was not a priority.
“So what about the restaurants they own then?”
“They’re legit too from what I understand. They’re just a small part of the empire. I’m sure they’re profitable enough because Michael Fogliani wouldn’t run them any other way, but I think they’re just a trendy place to woo clients and for the family and their friends to hang out. Anyway, what’s with all the questions about the Foglianis? I’ve heard that you’ve already got someone in custody over this?”
“News travels fast. Yeah, we do, but I’m just following up on a few things. Just trying to make sense of everything and get a complete picture.” Nelson said the words but they sounded hollow in his ears. Not much about this case made sense.
He stared into the remains of his cappuccino and pondered what Sanchez had told him.
“You look troubled,” said Raph. “What’s up?”
“Not sure. It’s just that this case looks simple enough but a lot of it doesn’t make sense. For example, if Fogliani is retired then why was Crighton so keen to bring this case into the Homicide Squad instead of just letting the LAC boys handle it? If the Gangs Squad wasn’t interested, then why was he?”
Raph laughed aloud in genuine amusement, attracting sidelong glances from the other patrons of the coffee shop. “Jesus you’re naive Nelson.”
“What do you mean?” replied Nelson blankly.
“What I mean is that you aren’t up to date with office politics. Look, I’m only speculating here, but I think Crighton grabbed the case
“Why would he be hoping that?”
Raph Sanchez rolled his eyes to the heavens. “Because his boss, David Chaplin, the head of State Crime Command is fifty-six, riddled with gout and expected to retire in January. So, maybe Crighton is trying to look good to the upper Exec and get one up on our Gangs Squad boss, Detective Super Chisholm, who’s probably his main rival for the job. The stupid thing is, is that this little episode shows you how out of touch Crighton is. He thinks Emilio Fogliani was still a player when he’s just an old man, a nobody. Crighton is still living in the fuckin eighties for god sake.”
“So you don’t think this is gang related then?”
“I doubt it. But you’ve already got the guy in custody so surely you can work that out for yourself can’t you?”
“He claims he’s been setup.”
“And you believe him?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Nelson replied guardedly.
Chapter 29
Nelson returned to the office to find Robards working away at his desk. As soon as he saw Nelson he effused a look of self-assured smugness on his face. Nelson reasoned that either Robards had got laid in the last hour or so or that the case, from his point of view, had taken a turn for the better. Nelson guessed it was the latter, but decided to deny Robards his joy and ignore him. It would be revenge for Robards making him wait for the news
