Customer Reviews

Hole

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If you read what Peter said when he returned, he changed his story depending on who he talked to in the press. Very odd. But there is much more.

My first exposure to Peter Shaw's name in Tbilisi was when my attorney, who knew a thing or two about corruption, said around spring of 2001 that Peter Shaw was "the most corrupt man in all of Georgia." Later, my bodyguard told me that when he (the guard) had been still working for Eduard Shevardnadze as his personal guard, he was sent to a banker named Peter Shaw at Agro Bank of Georgia for a loan to start a business. It was a political favor from Eduard to his favored man. He said Peter required payment of $1.1 million to himself out of the loan amount as a kickback in return for writing the loan. On a plane to London some months later, I met an English chap who was familiar with Peter. This man got red in the face furious when I mentioned Peter's name. Rare to see that.

Then I heard that Peter had been kidnapped, and read the article that described the scene. I was curious at that time because I know that Georgian police and criminals, who have been through two civil wars, are pretty good shots. A kidnap in which a gunbattle occurred where nobody got hit was quite odd. I had made quiet inquiries into the Agro Bank to my staff and others. I got dark closed faces until one person told me that this bank was the transit point for arms deals to Chechnya, mostly Arab financed, and drug payments bound from Europe. I took a look at the other characters in this bank, and they were, shall we say, not just boys from prep school. The hotel where the Chechen arms dealers stayed in Tbilisi was pointed out to me. I have the map to it still.

After Peter's release, some months later, when I brought up the kidnap while out around town, my bodyguard laughed and said, "I am friends with the men who staged it! Peter paid for this!" He could not have told me prior to Peter's release. I asked him why would Peter do such a thing? I was told that Peter had done a last transaction on his own, and did not want to pay Shevardnadze's fee for krisha. (Shevardnadze got a cut from every deal, it was a major source of income. Eduard also used those deals as a tool of foriegn policy, but that's not important to Peter.) The idea was that if he got kidnapped, then he'd be off the radar of the enforcers for Eduard, and when he showed up he would get spirited out of the country by his embassy instantly. And that's what happened. Clever.

I was also told that Peter was concerned that because of what he knew, if he let Shevardnadze's people get wind that he wanted to leave, he would never get out of Georgia alive. I suspect he was right about that. Why should they?

According to my sources in Tbilisi, Peter embezzled upwards of $17 million, much of it sent to banks in China, other moneys elsewhere. I was also told that Peter had a buddy in Bosnia who was up to the same thing. Both of them came ostensibly as NGO contract personnel.

I can supply signed affidavits to all of this if law enforcements wants them. Law enforcement can also request my contact information from Amazon.

People who do this sort of thing are a plague out in the developing world. They cause serious harm.