Over recent months my brother Kieran has been living with us, and sadly, while battling unsuccessfully against a very aggressive form of cancer. And while going through his personal papers, we came across this:
[Chinese characters]
"e-MAIL: ruk9980@live.co.uk
June 03, 2013
"Kieran McCloskey
[etc., etc.]
"Dear Kieran McCloskey,
"My name is Zaithyn Ruk, I am a contacting you in relations to late Charles McCloskey. I worked for him as his private investment manager, and in the few years prior to his death invested substantially in various opportunities.
"After a few years of profit making, he instructed that all the money be collected together into a single bank account, and I arranged with a specialist bank here in China to secure the money in a single account, shortly after he died, I assumed his relatives has since made claims, only to get a phone call from the bank a few weeks ago that Charles funds remains unclaimed, and the money would go to the Government if nobody claims it.
"The bank used international people finders to locate any relatives of Charles but they failed to locate any, hence I have taken the initiative to make enquires myself, in the process I have been provided your details, I propose that we don't allow this money go to the Government and work together to legally secure this money in full compliance with the laws of China.
"Kindly write back to me on the estate of late Mr. McCloskey, kindly keep this communication confidential due to its sensitivity as we do not want this inheritance to fall in the wrong hands.
Zaithyn Ruk "
__________
Now anyone with half a brain, (and for a variety of reasons,) would recognize in this letter, a fraudster at work. And I am happy, on Kieran's account, to let you know that he was not taken in; for on the back of the letter he asks the question: "How's this for a scam?!" But the sad truth is, that a reasonably well educated person, took the time and trouble to compose it, (and goodness knows how many others besides,) in an attempt to deceive and defraud: and with a grain of truth. The grain of truth, is in the reference to "Charles", who, in real life, was James Charles. So who was James Charles McCloskey?
In the letter, the writer takes the credit for finding Kieran, something that the investment bank's own team of "international people finders" had failed to do, an achievement that is as astonishing as it is ridiculous, for James Charles McCloskey left behind, not 1, but 11 children: Kevin, Anna, Liam, Cormac, Deirdre, Brendan, Colum, Bronagh, Kieran, Orla and Fionnuala.
Now for those of you who don't know, in 2011, I published a book of "Autobiographical and Other Poems", under the provocative title, "Who Would Be A Girl When You Can Be A Boy?" : the title of a poem in the collection, in which, girls, surprise! surprise! come out on top! So in the context of "Charles" and his investments in China, allow me to share the details with you.
In the poem "Time", I present a series of character sketches of previous generations of my family, all deceased, and in it I have this to say of "Charles":
"Charlie, for a long time a bulwark against the laws of nature
succumbed, jaundiced to the rigours of tobacco and alcohol.
His widow, penniless, but with eleven children,
helped him to go peacefully
supported by family intercession and extreme unction."
And in a much longer poem, "The Vigil", I recall the boyhood experience of sitting with him through the night as he drank himself into oblivion: A small section of the poem will suffice, the point at which I am painting a picture of ever increasing squalor as the night wore on:
"And how as the evening passed and the hearth was soiled
with dredged bottles, spittle, and spent matches;
and the air ran pungent with the smell of Stout,
you lapsed again and again into unconsciousness;
while I, vigilant, saved all of us
as your cigarette, silent, slipped to the carpet.
But how like a phoenix you rose defiant
and vitriol spewed out."
Now it would be a mistake to think that these poems are a diatribe against my father, or mother for that matter, or that my view of my parents is to be found in any single poem. Here, for example in the poem "Daddy", you get a more rounded picture:
"A cultured man, a refined man, who,
from the pages of legend, gave me my name.
A silent man, a violent man, who,
in his addictions, stifled hope and love.
An inadequate man, a moral man, who,
in his floundering - squandered pity."
__________
As for the letter, it gives no clue as to when "Charles" was considered deceased. So here are some clues of my own, a chronology of sorts, of events in China.
MAO was at the height of his power, and the Cultural Revolution had not yet been conceived, but a belief was gaining ground, that, "Half of China May Well Have to Die."
So the truth is, that the nearest my father got to the "Global Village", was to live to see the advent of horse racing on television, and then, only in black and white.
As for the letter, it may be the work of a novice, but fraudsters have to begin somewhere, and live in the hope of future "rich pickings": fraud on a vast scale.
So let me end with a quote from "Mc Mafia," a study of the global mafia by Misha Glenny, the "Mc" being a metaphor for the mafia, as a global corporate entity on a par with legitimate multi-national corporations, and in some instances, with nation states In the context of the subject of criminality as he covers it, this is at the margins, but it is a sobering thought none the less:
""If I can get one credit card from you and I do a 25-buck transaction, will you notice? Will you report it? Will they do anything with it? $25 - no police force in the world is going to chase $25."" So from the point of view of the writer of the letter to Kieran, and whoever else besides, the possibilities are endless.
__________
© Cormac E McCloskey
McMafia
Crime Without Frontiers
by Misha Glenny
Publisher: The Bodley Head 2008
ISBN:-13 : 9781847920072 (TPB)
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