The Crime Book

114

F

or John Goddard, a 58-year-

old messenger for money

broker Sheppards, based

in London’s financial district, the

working day on 2 May 1990 began

just like any other. He left the Bank

of England with a briefcase full of

bearer bonds and headed towards

a nearby finance house to deliver

them. At 9:30am, while walking

along a quiet side street, he was

approached by a man in his late

20s, who held a knife against his

throat, grabbed his briefcase and

wallet, and ran off.

An audacious heist

The mugger fled on foot and quickly

disappeared into a busy subway

tunnel. He had escaped with 301

bearer bonds – 170 Treasury bills

and 131 certificates of deposit from

banks and building societies –

mostly worth £1 million each. The

mugger’s total haul was worth

an eye-watering £292 million.

The Bank of England issued a

global alert, notifying financial

institutions of the bonds’ serial

numbers. The following day, the

press reported the robbery as the

work of an amateur opportunist

thief who, without connections,

would be unable to cash the bonds.

But City of London detectives soon

discovered that the perpetrators

were in fact an international fraud

and money-laundering ring with

links to organized crime in the US.

Police dispatched a 40-officer

team to locate the mugger and, in

a joint operation, worked with

FBI agents who went undercover

to infiltrate the crime ring. Both

parties worked with urgency

following the Bank of England’s

warning that the gang might be

able to turn the bonds into cash.

Two months after the robbery,

on 31 July, there was a major

breakthrough. Mark Lee Osborne,

a Texas businessman, had tried

to peddle £10 million of the stolen

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

London, UK

THEME

Bond theft

BEFORE

1983 An armed gang steal

£6 million in cash from a

Security Express depot in

London. Brothers Ronnie and

John Knight are later convicted

of masterminding the robbery.

AFTER

2006 Seven masked men

brandishing guns burst into

Securitas Cash Management

Ltd’s building in Kent, UK,

tie up 14 members of staff,

and in just over an hour steal

£53 million in Britain’s biggest

cash robbery.

2007 Guards at a private

bank in Baghdad, Iraq, steal

$282 million (about £187

million today) in US dollars

from its vaults.

Life as an undercover cop:

You’re always one slip away

from death or a breakdown.

UK police source

THE WORLD’S

BIGGEST

MUGGING

THE CITY OF LONDON BONDS THEFT, 2 MAY 1990

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115

After the mugging, in order to

prevent similar crimes, the Bank of

England (above) quickly developed a

service to enable the electronic transfer

of sterling securities.

See also: The Great Train Robbery 30–35 ■ D.B. Cooper 38–43 ■ The Antwerp Diamond Heist 54–55

WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

bonds to a narcotics dealer in

New York. Unfortunately for him,

the potential buyer was undercover

FBI Agent David Maniquis.

Following the money

Osborne cooperated with the FBI

and turned on his co-conspirators,

including British con man Keith

Cheeseman, who was cornered

by agents in a sting operation

codenamed “Operation Soft Dollar”.

He pleaded guilty to laundering

some of the bonds and was jailed.

However, when Osborne

became an informant, he also

became a target for organized

crime operatives, who do not take

kindly to snitches. In August 1990,

despite being placed under FBI

protection, Osborne was fatally shot

twice in the head.

The stolen bonds were fenced

worldwide. City of London police

recovered a bag stuffed with

undeclared bonds at Heathrow

airport, and more were seized in

Cyprus. During the summer of

1990, police traced all but two of

the bonds. They made 25 arrests,

but Cheeseman was the only

successful prosecution. The

mugger is believed to have been

28-year-old Patrick Thomas, a petty

criminal from London who shot

himself in December that year.

As for the messenger John

Goddard, he only learned of the

true value of his briefcase after

the event. At that time, money-

market securities worth billions

were sent around the City of

London by couriers who were

not told what they were carrying.

This risky delivery method was

later discontinued. ■

Undercover police work

In order to gather evidence and

intelligence about the ongoing

and future illegal activities of

groups and individuals, police

forces use specially trained

undercover operatives.

Their assignments include

short-term stings that can last

for just a matter of a few hours,

to deep-cover, long-term

investigations that mean months

or years in the field. The personal

risks can be huge, but the payoff

• putting criminals behind bars –
  can outweigh them.

One man who understood that

very well was undercover FBI

agent Joe D. Pistone (1939–). In

1976, he infiltrated one of New

York’s five organized crime

syndicates, the Bonanno family,

as jewel thief Donnie Brasco. He

lived and worked with them for

six years, while collecting

evidence that would convict

more than 100 mobsters. The

Mafia later put out a contract on

his life, and he now lives under

a secret identity. He wrote a

book about his undercover work,

which was the basis for the 1997

movie Donnie Brasco.

Pistone’s cover was so convincing

that before the operation ended, he

was close to being proposed for

membership of the Bonanno family.

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