FedEx to Fresh Aire: Part Four

     Waiting around for Artur to finally call me, I had already been at the embassy with copies of my faxes and I had called someone that probably would be interested in what I had taken from Artur's "trade communications center". Artur didn't need to know that I saw an embassy "recruitment" opportunity for myself from the strategic materials and military related faxes that he was getting. I knew that intelligence guys from the US, Israel, and Germany were already in Poland sniffing out and sourcing real sellers of this stuff. So I thought I could open that door for myself by giving the CIA Desk a head's up on what I had found.
     (Jane at the USIA, my former boss, was leaving soon. In fact, I would no longer be doing English teaching gigs for her as the functions of the USIA were being absorbed into the State Department.  English Language Fellows recruited out of US colleges and universities would now hold the fort down as far as American language and culture propaganda goes. No longer did I have the luxury of a sympathetic insider to screen the CIA jobs and give me tips on what I should or shouldn't do with my enigmatic employers of sort.)
     One concern I had about using the material I had found at Artur's was that, if accepted in the role of materials tracker, the CIA would begin monitoring Artur's phone lines (if they weren't already). It was an unsavory thought that I might be causing a good friend to be watched, but, then again, if any of the stuff I saw was real, it was an opportunity for me to insert myself into the "Track a Terrorist" game in Eastern Europe and Russia. In the end, I convinced my contacts at the US Embassy to allow me to do strategic materials tracking.

*   *   *   

     The call was to my old friend in Krakow, Dennis, at Teledyne...the guy selling the Water Pik. Dennis could always give me a reality check on a lot of the items described in the faxes. While I always disliked his telling me to stay away from things I don't know or understand, he'd usually relent and tell me things I needed to know. He helped me get my geiger counter and some other devices he "happened to have lying around".  He also had the first fiber optic connection for communications and internet in Krakow.  I wonder how that happened?  His telecoms and computer room looked like a major NOC at Lockheed Martin in 2003...ten years later. He told me that he and his wife had sex in the computer room almost daily because of the amount of hours they had to spend in there relaying data around the world. I won't deny that Ms. Jakoboska was an attractive woman. Dennis always counted on me affirming that fact but I got a funny feeling he would kill me if I made too much eye contact with her when she was in the room.

Water Pik...Newer Version

     I knew he'd call or see the same people I was in contact with at the embassy and give them a report on me. That was free press to the people that I needed continuing confirmation of my worthiness to keep my job.  And what about Teledyne? The big strategic materials buyer and broker in the US was not in Poland selling Water Piks to make money. Believe me, it was a front for gaining access to some of the same materials I saw on those faxes. And you can be assured of another thing. Teledyne was working with my Embassy folks at a much greater level of cooperation than I was granted. I got orders to do things and got paid for it if I did them. Teledyne, on the other hand, was working hand in hand with the same folks with a complete game plan and strategy. The company was one of the subject area experts for the CIA in it's efforts to monitor bad stuff that might be coming out of Eastern Europe and Siberia. They were also "buyers" that could take ownership of nuclear industry related materials and could, in so doing, take such things out of the hands of opportunistic sellers (criminals that had illegally acquired bad stuff in Russia) and stop the potential outflow to terrorists or other "unfriendly" players intending to use it for terrorism or to sell to terrorists.

*   *   *

  The rules of the Track a Terrorist game were pretty simple. My instructions were always either to Follow People or Follow Stuff.  Stuff that people had didn't always stay with them so it was important to know who or what I was tracking.  Stuff was the general term for material being tracked. Bad Stuff  was usually poisonous or could hurt you in some way during transit and Hot stuff was the term for radioactive Stuff that was...obviously...also Bad Stuff.  I was also instructed if and when I could touch or take stuff - like removing something from a train that has reached the end of its scheduled service and no one was there to receive it. Also, bad guys often (but not always) transported bad stuff. I was therefore always to assume that it was very bad for me to be found out or suspected of tracking them. Instructions always read, "If you think they smell anything, abort the tail and disappear." I was never stiffed money because of an abort if I had gotten pictures and recorded data of the stuff and/or the bad guys.  Details in my reports were important. Exact times and places, locations of material to the ones transporting it or to other unsuspecting passengers. If it was bad stuff, exactly how long it had been near other passengers.

     Difficult situations might arise if I knew that the bad stuff was really dangerous to be around and there were innocent passengers unknowingly being exposed to it. If on a train or bus (or stations along a route), where I was almost always assigned, I could consider suggesting other seats to passengers for some reason but I had to be careful or sneaky to do this without drawing attention to myself. One such time, I purposely spilled my coffee in a seat that was directly under some hot stuff. I didn't know if there was lead or other shielding around the stuff in the brown paper bagged parcel but I took the opportunity to make the seat the worst place to sit on the whole train. Another risky thing that was "extra credit" work was getting information from the bad guys. Mics that could be planted were the least risky and usually yielded the most results. The most risky was striking up a conversation with an obviously nervous or volatile bad guy that was paranoid about everyone around him. Making it look as natural a thing as possible was critical. If a conversation went sour or there was a bad vibe, that was a recommended abort signal. Desperate people in the middle of such dangerous and illegal operations can be pretty nervous and suspicious of people around them. Fear of life in prison if caught vs becoming rich from one successful delivery can make people do crazy things.

*   *   *

These were pre-Axis of Evil days, but we're talking about many of the same characters:  North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan/Pakistan and some pre-Al Qaeda Muslim groups in Africa and the Middle East. It should also be mentioned that the Israelis and the German military had their own watchlists. Post Soviet-era military generals and other rogue officers were seen as particularly vulnerable to being enticed to steal a nuclear device and sell to whomever they could. The fall of the Soviet-Bloc and the halting of their military machine resulted in millions of soldiers and former military installation workers going hungry. The high level of resentment to Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika was evident everywhere. And, as Soviet State assets were being sold off to privateers - some are now the Oligarchs we are hearing about in the current FBI investigation - the former military saw its chance to sell off assets of the Fatherland that had just caved in to capitalism.  This incredibly dangerous time in former Soviet Bloc countries was, for me, the scariest time of all during my days there.

FedEx to Fresh Aire: Part Three

     Three fax machines, top of the line for 1992, running non-stop. Each printed document, communique, or product image cut and falling into a neat bin at the base of the table. Each fax sliding onto the top of the 12 inch stack below then disappearing as the next fax followed it, signaled by a squeal and then a high pitched tone that another million dollar deal was being delivered to Fresh Aire's international trade division just off of Nowy Swiat Street in Warsaw, Poland.  I watched this fax production facility for a few minutes as I could hear Artur and Toby screaming behind the bedroom door.

     The first document I pulled out of the bin was a formal sales offer in English...good for 72 hours... emblazoned across the top of the cover page. It was for two 40 ft containers of raw Robusta coffee beans from Kenya...FOB Lagos, Nigeria. Price:  $25,000. Payment by Letter of Credit to a bank in Switzerland or by cash at the port where the containers were located. Quality Inspection allowed only after Letter of Credit received or cash in hand...hmmm.  Interesting...Artur into coffee from Africa. That fits. Nowy Swiat had the best cafes in Poland. He could sell it right from the flat. Cultural guy doing some business in markets that Poland has lagged behind in since all the changes began in the 80's.  "Bet he's into wine, too."  I thought.

     Next fax:  From Russia...some kind of raw material...AU...Gold!...Shit!  20 tons of it! Looked like something about UAE also in the deal. Delivery from UAE to any European port. This fax was in very bad condition. I would say that the fax had been faxed from a fax from a fax from a fax. The "tail of intermediaries" in this deal looked like it was long. But then again...20 tons of gold might cover the tail.

   Next fax:   Ten Russian MIG fighter pilot helmets that had the latest eye sensor targeting material in the face plate. Unheard of, at least by me at the time, it apparently allowed the pilot to target bombs and other weaponry using eye movements to activate the release of missiles or whatever. The English in the fax was marginal but the fax looked very fresh with Russian seals and old Soviet stamps with the hammer and sickle.  Price:  $10,000 per helmet...negotiable.

Heat seeking missiles...10 truckloads of Lithuanian rough cut lumber...10 containers of men's bikini underwear from China...162 BMW 320i's...Rare Earth metals from Siberian research institutes...ten different requests for Portland cement from Turkey and from the Ukraine...Steel from China...Night Vision Goggles from Russia...1000 AK 47's...High Purity titanium...and, for those looking for various inputs to the nuclear industry, military, terrorism, and possibly dirty bomb making, there were offers and requests for plutonium in varying quantities...zirconium tubes for Russian style nuclear reactors...heavy water...U235...U238...depleted uranium in various forms and, the most disturbing, a short fax in Russian that could be translated as follows:

******

Available in any quantity:  

Russian and former Soviet weapons of ANY type (including nuclear). Price and delivery NEGOTIABLE.

******

     While Toby and Artur's argument raged, I took about 30 of the most interesting/disturbing offers and request for offers and put them in my FedEx courier pouch. Sensing that this round of fighting was going to go on unabated for a while, I scribbled out a note to Artur:

"Artur, we need to talk about some stuff...possible cooperation in the future. 

My FedEx gig is probably ending soon. I've got some ideas. 

Oh...and I took a few of your more interesting faxes. By the way, there some stuff there that you need to be careful with.  Will call tomorrow...Billy"

FedEx to Fresh Aire: Part Two

     My contacts with the existing 100-150 multinationals already in Poland were quite good. Unfortunately, though, since most of them needed express international delivery service, many of these firms had experienced our start-up hiccups and had suffered from FEDEX corporate lack of commitment to Eastern Europe.  Delivering on the FEDEX promises with no support from Memphis was a tall order...and one that saw my reputation suffer as I fought for FEDEX credibility in Poland. Hence, I was somewhat suspect as a candidate for a senior corporate expat role for US or British companies in Poland. Everyone knew everyone at that level and my FEDEX failures and woes were known by many of the AMCHAM - BRITCHAM members I schmoozed with in Warsaw.

     Perhaps the FEDEX experience and resulting loss of personal credibility had put a bad taste in my mouth for pursuing another corporate gig.  Seeing smaller companies operating successfully in Poland, doing international trade, often signing cooperation agreements with large firms overseas, caught my attention. It was for several such firms that I would often personally deliver packages and documents to customers in Warsaw, handing out souvenirs and other FEDEX trinkets as sales incentives to my clients.  One such firm, Fresh Aire, run by Artur Liebhart, was of special interest.  Documents from Russia, Africa, the US, and Canada made their way to the small home-based office just off of ul. Nowy Swiat (New World Street), an exclusive shopping district of Warsaw.

     Artur, and his young American friends were always filled with excitement over the projects and deals they were either making or wanted to make with people and firms all over the world. I was first introduced to Artur as the co-author of a guidebook of Warsaw and I knew that the team of Americans he was surrounded by were in the middle of assembling other guidebooks to cities throughout Eastern Europe and Russia. During my first visit to their mostly unfurnished condo office, my attention was immediately arrested from the chaos and noise of the men all talking at the same time with each other to the three beeping and squealing fax machines running non-stop...24 hours a day...both sending and receiving. "What, pray tell, could these three young men be into that the world was calling with all it wanted and had to offer them?" I thought to myself.  Contracts, request for quotes, request for offers, quotes, offers, specification sheets, product quality reports, material descriptions, letters of credit, confirmations of all kinds, shipping instructions, photos of products, and a dozen other types of trade and contract documents for what seemed to be every type of product, animal, precious metal, strategic material, vehicle, military weapon, and food possible on the planet.

     During that first meeting, I showed up in my FEDEX courier outfit to catch the Fresh Aire team off guard a bit.  They all knew I was the big boss and assumed I was above anything like delivering packages in delivery boy outfits. Artur, Toby, and their latest sidekick, the very New York and very Jewish friend, Nick, bust out loud laughing when they saw me and did so again when I started giving them their FEDEX model planes, T-Shirts, hats, courier bags, and pens. Bribery...large and small...was everything...even with young Americans and Poles in Poland.

     The laughter was short-lived though as all three returned to a heated argument about the tour guidebook business.  All three were talking at the same time again telling each other how the upcoming St. Petersburg book should be done and who was going to do it. After about 20 minutes of this verbal free-for-all, Artur put his hands up and shushed the other two Americans and said, "Jesus Christ!  Billy the FEDEX Man is here! Can we stop for a minute and have a cup of coffee with him?" Nick was the first to be the funny guy and said, "So this Billy can't go over to Nowy Swiat and get a cup o joe on his own? He's gotta interrupt our doin business?" Nick smiled and said he'd make the coffee and Toby left the room. Artur's lovely girlfriend, Agnieszka, went with Nick to make the coffee and I talked about FEDEX, Fresh Aire, and guidebooks with Artur.

     Toby, dark long hair, nearly two meters tall, and rock star guitarist sort of handsome, was the serious, "do it right and do it according to the plan" guy. That conflicted with his apparent weakness for beautiful women in the middle of big deals which, according to Nick, was the reason he wasn't a 25 year old billionaire.  Nick was the hyper intelligent, think out of the box, and "take no prisoners" guy. He also was constantly saying that "they shouldn't pay anyone so stupid as to trust us." Which I thought sounded kind of ominous for me if I was going to be working with them.  Nick's stocky frame, close cropped curly light brown hair, and constant laugh...usually at times when others were mortified, made him a bit of a scary character.  Artur, a slim, stylishly dressed, scarf wielding, long brown haired handsome man with an unusually long chin that reminds me now of how Jay Leno may have looked in his younger days saw art, opportunity, money, and stardom all wrapped up in Fresh Aire's wide ranging scope of activity.  His English was quite good and he could wind poetry into anything he was talking about or describing.  Toby and Artur, in business together for about a year, seemed on the outs. Toby was convinced that it was Russia where they needed to be and Nick, the outsider, agreed with him. Nick, working for a famous ad agency in New York, had been seconded to Poland with sound equipment to do some events for high value clients. He had borrowed money to buy the equipment and was now looking for a way to get the insurance money for it...but also keep the equipment. Maybe that's why Nick agreed with Toby that Poland was going stale and they needed a change. Toby imagined himself in the lobbies of Moscow's prostitute "rich" hotels doing business with the most beautiful women in the world. Nick would use the insurance money to get them set up in Moscow.

     After 10 minutes with Artur, Toby came back in and signaled that it was time to start round three of the argument. Artur grudgingly excused himself and followed Toby to another room and the yelling started again. With a better understanding of how Fresh Aire had started from advertising and gone to book publishing with a few side trips into the world of black market deals and now more legitimate trading overseas, I thought I could offer some guidance for selecting a deal or several deals to get involved in and work to make them happen...hopefully getting us filthy rich along the way. Artur suggested I look through their files or piles of paper and see if I saw anything interesting. Alone in the FAX ROOM, I started looking.

   



   

FedEx to Fresh Aire: Part One

     Running the FEDEX operation in Poland was not the typical FEDEX job. I doubt that many of the US-based employees of Fred Smith's Malcolm Baldridge Award winning organization would have believed that a Country Director for FEDEX spent time arranging overseas study and travel visas for contractors (and their children) as bribes for customs clearance assistance.  None of this was out of the normal scheme of doing business for our agent in Poland, PZL, the Polish State Aviation Agency. This was the company we had selected to carry out all deliveries and pickups in the country.

     PZL was suffering terribly financially from the fall of communism and viewed the Soviet demise as the biggest threat to their existence as a company. From day one, when I met Ryszard Leja, the Managing Director of PZL in Poland, he made it clear that our relationship would get better every day as long as we took care of each other first...and then FEDEX and PZL. And, as was customary in the old Soviet-style, we were obligated to bribe officials into holding up our competition's customs clearance processes. In the end, if everyone was bribing everyone else, I'm not too sure if ANY of the express delivery companies were getting faster customs clearance.  Corporations operating in Poland went from using DHL then switching to FEDEX or TNT or UPS all the time. In the end, DHL seemed to have the upper hand on everyone as far as delivery guarantees went. DHL was the first in the market and had employed a lot of former customs officials and their family.

     By 1992, it became clear that FEDEX's losses in Western Europe were going to bring the whole operation down throughout the rest of Europe. Keeping with the US model of financing air line hauls between all the major hubs, FEDEX was losing about $60M per year in keeping the operation going in Western Europe.  Most line hauls were less than 30% full of packages that would have been necessary to break even.

     Eastern Europe and Russia were operating much differently on bare bones budgets where the agents were carrying all the liability and costs.  FEDEX brought shipments in on commercial airlines and only paid agents for their successful pickups and deliveries. The agents had to figure out how to do it within the service agreements that they had signed. Not long after I took over the reigns in Poland, we were already operating in the black but the signs were clear that it was just a matter of time before pink slips would be sent to Eastern European agents and country directors (the only FEDEX employees in each country).

     My work at the US Embassy was steady enough (teaching for the USIA and doing my little jobs for the CIA Desk), but I began looking for ways to slide into another official role...preferably a corporate ex-pat job bringing another American or British firm into the region. I wasn't averse to doing some kind of trading in goods (and knew there was a lot of money to be made) but I really had no experience...other than the banknotes I had smuggled out of Poland and sold at auction in Los Angeles eight years earlier. Also, I was afraid of losing the small nest egg I was accumulating at my Deutsche Bank account in Berlin. It was my intent to buy a nice flat in Krakow and I did not want to put that money at risk.  It was clear to me, though, that the entrepreneurial activity abuzz in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Bloc was making a lot of millionaires and I was not among that crowd. It bugged the hell out of me that I was delivering their contracts to their front doors but not invited ever to share in the wealth that was being made...and I wasn't sure how to transition myself to being a player in that game.