Quote:
Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug
That photo with the old Statler Hotel brings back memories. We rented the Presidential Suite on the top floor in 1977. We also rented a Cadillac...I was the driver.
That was when my friend and I were trying to get into the international gem business. We hosted some Russian men from Moscow. They gave us a suitcase full of gemstones to be business partners with us. Long story short...nothing came of our endeavors because they wanted too much control...and we had to provide all of the funds.
After a week they flew back to Russia...[then it was USSR]. When I left the hotel I discovered they had taken all of the liquor we had stocked in the little bar in the room.  We got to keep the gemstones. |
That was the year before Stanley Mark Rifkin took the Security Pacific bank for $10 Million, which he used to buy uncut diamonds from the USSR. According to the trial transcript, the way he took delivery of the diamonds was that the Russkies put them in a briefcase, checked them on a Swissair flight, and gave him the ticket and claim check. Talk about trust. Those were the days, my friends, those were the days.
Cheers,
Earl