The Power of Seventy

By Gerard Colenbrander

When 3 old friends enjoy a rare re-union, they find that one of them was involved in the discovery of a large amount of precious stones and metal in a war torn Central African country decades ago. At the time it had proven wise to hide the goods in the jungle. Because of the chronic and current financial predicament of 2 of them, they plan the recovery of these spoils of war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9780620589703

Book preview

As dusk settled into darkness, one could hear the clink of ice in jugs of water, with glasses, chairs and other paraphernalia being set around a table by a man of senior years, as he prepared for a meeting with old friends.

They did not meet often, living in different countries – Ralph in Australia, Jaco all over the place, and Rusty in South Africa. With their history going back 50 years or so, and all natural borne South Africans, when they did meet there was a huge amount of territory to be covered, and always a limited amount of time in which to do it.

Each had a rich history of adventure and adversity woven into their fascinating lives.

Rusty finished off the table setting, looking forward to their arrival, and sharing what was always an interesting catch up since their last meeting some years back.

Ralph and Jaco were due in a few minutes, and Rusty chuckled as he opened the driveway gate with the remote, remembering how paranoid Jaco was about punctuality.

He had a sound argument, suggesting that a meeting with one person affected the lives of many people who arranged their schedules around one individual`s meeting time. If you were not punctual, you upset the arrangements of many people, and in Jaco`s view this was an act of thoughtlessness and selfishness that could make him very angry – and you did not need to experience a Jaco lecture. He reasoned that if you could not keep a small agreement, you would fail with any other agreement, and he ran his very successful businesses on this philosophy.

Sure enough, Rusty heard the crunch of tyres on the gravel driveway, closed the gate with the remote, and strolled down from the patio to meet them.

After greetings all round, Rusty suggested they put their luggage and belongings into their respective rooms, make themselves comfortable, then join him on the patio for sundowners.

This they did, and very soon the slight awkwardness that accompanies prolonged absences between good friends dissolved, and the stories and questions began. Rusty was not concerned with the initial enthusiastic clamour to voice themselves, knowing from experience they would soon settle down, enjoy themselves, and besides, they had a couple of days in which to do this. When they got hungry, he would get the barbecue going.

Ralph was tall, thin and in good shape, his face reflecting the hellish things life had thrown at him, all of which broke up with his easy smile. Jaco, on the other hand, was shorter, handsome, exuding confidence, charm and money. Women loved him. Suave bastard, who could charm the knickers off a nun any time, thought Rusty. His lovely wife and three children now meant everything to him. Rusty, tall, bald, with a band of greying red hair extending from ear to ear, was also in good condition. One factor they shared was that they had all recently entered their 70th year.

The party continued, getting noisier and more raucous, until just going on midnight, they decided to call it a day.

Aperfect winter’s day in Durban – blue skies, a gentle breeze and none of the heat and unbearable, clinging humidity of summer. Not too far away the Indian Ocean rumbled and crashed steadily. For most of the day the three friends had gone their separate ways, seeing family, business contacts and so on, and generally catching up on the transformation of Durban since the political changes in the 90s.

Settling around the evening table, enjoying a much quieter round of drinks, they exchanged their experiences of the day. The state of Africa – and the history of the countries to the north of SA – very quickly became a hot topic and led to much debate.

Sensing this might become political, Rusty changed the topic, Enough of all this political crap, the three of us can’t change anything now. Jaco, how are you doing? You still cutting diamonds, making millions and ruling the world?

Jaco smiled and replied, I’ve been very fortunate. As you guys know we started with a small diamond cutting business in Holland. This little business grew, which cost plenty in running costs, and we struggled to keep up and out of the way of the monopolies. We survived until six of our main retailers – who we had been supplying for years – got into financial trouble in Europe`s difficult times. However it happened, we don`t know, but as they could not or would not pay, I had no option but to use other tactics. I approached them with a deal, which was, thank heavens, squeaky clean, and arranged that we take over the management of their businesses until the debt was paid off. Something very strange had been going on, we don`t know what it was, but to cut a long story short, we took over these stores, were tremendously lucky with staff, and have never looked back.

So, said Ralph, as I understand it, what you do is source and pay for rough diamonds from wherever, clean and cut them, make a whole bunch of loot from this, then send them to your own shops, who then mark them up again, and sell them on to the unsuspecting public.

Jaco laughed. Not quite Ralph. When all the hanky-panky was going on, I travelled to a couple of African countries, paid heavily for mining exploration licences, and started mining in a small way.

OK, said Ralph, then I have it all wrong. What you’re actually doing is this. You mine a rough diamond and sell it to another company, this company which is under your control, sells it on to you again, as another company, which cleans and cuts it, and then sells it on the retailer, also your company. Let`s say a rough diamond costs you 500, you sell it to your receiving house for 1,000, which sells it on to the cutting house for 2,000, which sell it to the retailer for 4,000, which sells it to the end user for 8,000. In other words, you’re buying for 500 and selling for 8,000.

Jaco laughed again. Yes, you have the idea more or less correct, but the pricing is wrong. Basically, though, that is what the mining, cutting and so on side does.

That is obscene, retorted Ralph, and what alarms me even more is that you said this is what the mining side does. What other side is there?

Jaco was enjoying himself. You might remember my wife`s family owned a fishing business in Marseilles. Well, her father passed away some years ago, leaving it all to her. She didn’t want to deal with the complex business of a deceased estate, and didn’t want to get rid of the fishing business, so asked me to sort it out. Short story – six trawlers, a small factory ship, and receiving factory in Marseilles.

Very impressive, said Rusty, who had been listening attentively. So where do you live to handle such a broad portfolio?

We have to spend time near the cutting house business, and we have to spend time near the fish factory, so we have one home in Frankfurt, one in the south of France, and one outside London.

Both friends knew these homes would be mansions on expansive estates.

I think I`m going to throw up, said Ralph.

Enough of me, chirped Jaco, what of you Ralph? You had a thriving distribution business with your own outlets?

That`s what makes me want to throw up. It was thriving. But gradually as things got tighter we had to close some of the outlets. Slowly but surely our support from local industry was eroded by Chinese imports. To counteract this I went to China and struck a handsome deal with an honourable gentleman. As the exchange rate worsened, our sales dropped, and now everyone is buying from the multitude of China Towns that have sprung up all over the place. I don’t know how they get this rubbish into the country, but you can buy anything we sell from these dealers at half the price, and no one gives a stuff that the quality is very poor. In short, we’ll have to close our doors soon. I’m here to see what’s on offer.

Doesn`t sound so good, said Rusty, how is your wife holding up?

Don`t ask. I don`t want to have to lie. What’s your next question?

A period of silence and reflection followed.

And what’s your story, Rusty? inquired Jaco.

"As you know, we started small and grew swiftly with all the usual growing pains and dynamics. Four to five years ago I arranged to add in an agency for this province. It became very successful, and following a few good years I was approached by a well-known national corporate to buy us out – which we accepted. Unbeknown to us at the time, we had encroached on the territory of one of their major subsidiaries, and they needed to remove us as a threat. To cut a boring story short, they closed the new company down after nine months, but retained all our assets.

Did you have your guy check out the deal? asked Jaco.

No, we made the fatal mistake of trusting the people involved, replied Rusty.

"It took me a month or so before I started scratching my head, and at the end of the three-month period of ‘due discretion’, it was obvious to me that everything was not in order. This concern was also shared by some of the other members who were involved in the transaction.

This new amalgamation was closed down nine months after inception. No money changed hands, and all the assets were now owned by the defunct company. If you wanted your assets back, you had to purchase them. Instead of early retirement, the members were left penniless, and as far as the monopoly was concerned, the main opposition, which happened to be our company, had been surgically removed. It became clear that the opposition were, in fact, a partner in the buy-out. All done legally, with absolutely no recourse.

Used to be called asset stripping, said Jaco.

White collar fraud, replied Rusty. "Anyway, there was some frightful infighting and backstabbing stuff going on, but that’s now dead and buried. There was one interesting aside though. As the infighting stuff continued, raw material of value remained on my floor. The new company had divided itself into two camps, and both sides squabbled over this and neither could present me with an adequate possession order, so I declined their demands, as both tried every means to possess it. Meanwhile, I had received a very good cash offer for the raw material, which I accepted. Not knowing what to do with the cash as I couldn’t deposit it into a personal account – as this would have been contrived as theft – I decided to deposit it into our attorney’s trust account. The arrangement was that when the dust had settled, we could transfer it to whoever proved to be the owner. After three months I visited this attorney`s offices, and discovered he had fled the country with all the trust monies under his care – and has not been heard of since.

Since then I’ve fiddled with this and that, and am now involved in a small business related to the hospitality industry, and we`re doing OK. However, I would do anything to get out of it. The business really needs young minds to run it. Folk of my age should be removed to frolic in the park, rather than growling and scowling at your fellows, said Rusty.

Remarkable, and both of you are still alive and well in countries that are undergoing the throes of economic woes, and that, as we all know, has never been easy to survive. So while it might look very grim at the moment, with worse to come, congrats to you both for weathering the storm so far. Now let`s see what we can do about it? I know you’re both very innovative, and that three heads can find a way where one may not, said Jaco.

Before we start looking at alternatives, Jaco continued, the bottom line is that I can arrange good jobs for both of you if push came to shove. We know each other well enough to ensure that pride, etc will not enter the equation. You also know that, however rough your hardships, by assisting you I may well be removing some of your responsibility to yourselves. We’ve discussed this several times over the past many years.

So Ralph, what is your plan B, C, whatever, and Rusty, what are your thoughts on your current status?

I received a summons from my soon-to-be ex-wife today, making demands that would frighten the pants off the devil. I also received confirmation that my almost non-existent bond, paid off over many extremely painful years by me, has been re-opened, so I now have recourse to funds that my soon-to-be ex-wife will attempt to deplete at a rate that would astonish a rocket scientist. So my answer, Jaco, is that right now, I would consider myself to be the rabbit in the beam of many headlights. I would favour a lethal automatic weapon that I could turn on my wife, the bank, and anyone who disagrees with me, and maybe one of God`s minions, if he deigned to turn up for a meeting to explain what the hell I have done to deserve all this crap, ranted Ralph.

Wow, said Jaco, we`ll have to work on this. Being that bitter will make you ill.

Ralph, we go back a long way, said Rusty, "I had no idea you were taking so much strain. We`ve all been there, but never at this stage of our lives.

However, gents, let me get something that might jolt a few ideas out of our collective heads. And with that Rusty departed saying, Be back in a moment with something that might prove interesting.

OK, said Jaco, now let`s put any and all possibilities that we collectively have on the table. Ralph?

I have developed the most amazing graph set-up that can accurately indicate the tendency towards number predictions, and I’m applying it to the SA National Lotto facility. There’s no doubt in my mind I’ll collect shortly.

Anything else Ralph, said Jaco chuckling quietly, but in the real world?

No, replied Ralph.

OK, said Jaco, we’ll explore as we go along.

Rusty had in the meantime returned and tossed a marble sized, dirty pebble on to the table. Jaco was immediately interested.

Where the hell did you get that? asked Jaco.

What is it, asked Ralph.

I know what I think it is, said Rusty, but I`m sure this is more up Jaco`s alley than mine. Have a look. What do you think?

Jaco left the room with the pebble and returned a few minutes later. Just gave it a scrub to clean off what appears to be mud. How old is this thing?

At least 50 years, answered Rusty. Meanwhile, Jaco had huffed on the pebble, was screwing up his eyes trying to look at it or through it, then went over to a window pane, did something in one corner, then returned to the others.

There are many tests that can be done to be sure it is genuine, but that is not an expedient thing to do until we know what you want to do with it. At this stage though, I’m confident it is simply a rough, uncut diamond that should not be in your possession, as it is actually from a mine, Rusty. The value of it is a different matter that will depend on many factors, and these can only be determined once the stone is cut and so on. As a rule though, you can work on a simple rate of USD 375 per carat for uncut stones, and this one weighs about one gram, which makes it worth about USD 1,800 as is. Obviously, once cut into many stones, the value will increase, with the cost of cutting, polishing, and so on, and a lot of waste, to be deducted from the final price. What do you want to do with this one? Is it the only one? asked Jaco.

Rusty had lived with his diamond experience for dozens of years, and had never known how to handle it, or what to do about it. He was wondering now about the wisdom of tabling the stone, and started feeling very uncomfortable.

Jaco sensed this. Rusty, old chap, you have always been the quiet, deep one. But I suspect on this occasion it might be a good time to get off your chest whatever is bothering you about this stone. Why don’t you tell us a little of its history?

OK, said Rusty. The story goes back a long time, and I might struggle to recall all the details. Please stop me if it gets boring, and feel free to ask questions as we go along. Remember, it was the question of what options Ralph and I have right now to address our rather dire straits, and the three minds working together, that prompted me to recall an experience that happened more than 50 years ago. I’m not embarrassed to tell this story, but I am very uncomfortable with the content of it. It also goes without saying that this will remain between the three of us. More importantly, I might well be wasting your time, as we should be concentrating on solving pertinent issues right now, and I cannot see how this little story will help.

Go right ahead chum, you’ve always said a couple of heads will turn a good idea upside down and produce a mind blowing, surprising result, so I`m listening. But before you start, what about answering Jaco`s question. Are there any more of these stones? asked Ralph.

Rusty had always wanted to know the answer to this question himself. The answer is yes, but I don`t know how many. You saw how much mud was on it, and I guess that would apply to all of them. The only guide I can give you – and you will soon see that I was in no position to count and measure – was that when I picked up the sack, which was very damp, I remember thinking that it felt almost as heavy as a bag of cement.

Good Lord, cried Jaco, "cut that in 10 and you have a serious cargo on