Jim McCormick's claims about his range of detection devices were extraordinary. He said the Advanced Detecting Equipment (ADE) he developed at his Somerset farm could pick up the most minuscule traces of explosives, drugs, ivory and even money. They were so good they could spot target substances from as far away as 1,000 metres, deep underground and even through lead-lined rooms. If their plastic grips and waggling antennae bore a passing resemblance to a ￡15 novelty golf ball finder, that was no coincidence. The 57-year-old businessman had used the jokey product sourced from the US as a starting point for an enterprise that made him a multimillion-pound fortune but placed lives at risk around the world.
To make his devices seem more credible, McCormick claimed that his company, ATSC, had four laboratories in Romania and two in the UK, each working in isolation to protect the secret behind his amazing sensors. He boasted of a super-clever expert in the background, "like Q in James Bond", who turned his concepts into reality.
It was all nonsense, albeit potentially lethal for the people of Iraq, where 6,000 of the fraudulent gadgets formed a first line of defence against car bombs and suicide bombers at checkpoints. When the devices were opened, it emerged that cable sockets were unconnected and supposed data cards were linked to nothing. One scientist told the jury who on Tuesday convicted McCormick of three counts of fraud that the antenna intended to point to suspect substances was "no more a radio antenna than a nine-inch nail".
It is thought hundreds of lives could have been lost as a result of the failure of the devices, whose detection powers were no better than a random check. One truckload of rockets reportedly went through 23 checkpoints in Baghdad equipped with one of McCormick's devices without being spotted once.
Inspector general Aqil al-Turehi of the Iraqi interior ministry, who since 2009 has been in charge of an investigation into corruption around the deals, has told a BBC Newsnight investigation that for every bomb that was stopped at a Baghdad checkpoint, four got through and exploded.
It is now alleged that a key reason such a business could make tens of millions of pounds is the corruption of Iraqi officials. McCormick's success was fuelled by the payment of tens of millions of pounds in bribes to Iraqi officials and middlemen, it is claimed. Turehi told Newsnight that he is aware of at least eight senior Iraqis who took bribes, while a whistleblower who worked with McCormick says he saw accounts set up in false names to pay bribes to 15 Iraqis.
General Jihad al-Jabiri, who ran the Baghdad bomb squad, has been jailed for corruption as a result of the inquiry along with two others. Police sources said Jabiri was paid millions to purchase the ADE 651 and publicly defend it. More Iraqi officials are under investigation. A whistleblower who used to work with McCormick said they "don't care if people live or die"; the only thing they care about is "how much am I going to get back – cashback".
The whistleblower walked away from the operation when he grew suspicious about the device's effectiveness. When he challenged McCormick, he replied: "It does exactly what it's meant to." When the source asked what that meant, McCormick said: "It makes money."
The British government unwittingly gave McCormick a shield of respectability. His detectors were marketed at government-backed trade fairs. He used the logos of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and the Essex Chamber of Commerce, though he had no right to. He began to house the device in Pelican rigid cases of the type that are used to carry genuine military products and sourced official-looking stickers that warned users not to open up the detectors.
It took the government over a year to cotton on to the problems. In November 2008, a whistleblower wrote to Ian Pearson, a minister in the business department, urging him to shut down the trade in fake explosive detectors, but nothing was done. In January 2009, the whistleblower, who does not want to be named, sent a dossier detailing the scam that began with a hard-hitting title – "Dowsing rods endanger lives" – to James Arbuthnot, the chairman of the Commons defence select committee.
Arbuthnot promised to raise the matter with the minister for defence equipment and support but it was not until 12 months later that their export was banned on the basis that they were a danger to British and allied troops. By then, McCormick had made a fortune on the back of contracts with Iraqis, who paid $85m (￡55m) for the bogus devices.
McCormick is married with two children, and his family have the run of a farmhouse deep in the Somerset countryside, a ￡3.5m townhouse in Bath with a basement swimming pool that was previously owned by the Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage, and a holiday home in Cyprus. McCormick also bought his father a place in Florida, a ￡600,000 Sunseeker yacht called Aesthete, and three dressage horses for one of his daughters, who has ambitions of making the British equestrian team for the Olympics in Rio.
Police have identified ￡7m of McCormick's assets, which they intend to try to seize, but believe the fraudster has stashed at least that amount away from the eyes of the taxman and other authorities in Cyprus, Belize and Beirut.
McCormick had separate trading arrangements with other countries. In Lebanon, a UN agency and a luxury hotel were among purchasers. Devices were sold to Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime, Iran, China, Syria, Jordan, Georgia and Mexico. Some ended up in the US, Canada, Japan and Belgium. The broadcaster Stephen Fry saw Kenyan wildlife rangers using them while he was filming and told the BBC he thought it was "cynical, cruel and monstrous" that rangers – who were trying to track down poachers – had been told they could detect ivory at vast distances.
No comments:
Post a Comment