NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS- HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY. ........................................................................ PANORAMA THE SUPER DOLLAR RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 20:06:04 ........................................................................ DECLAN LAWN: For over a decade police forces across the world have been hunting a criminal cartel with a licence to print money. They've been distributing the highest quality counterfeit notes ever produced. The forgeries are so realistic that even the experts can't tell the difference. DCI MARK SMITH: They would go through banks, they could be cashed at travel exchanges, bureau de change, they were that good, that well made, that sophisticated. LAWN: They're known as superdollars. VOICE OF SILCOCK: This is made on the same paper, the same ink, the same little coloured flecks in the paper. There's that many of them in their economy, it's a joke. LAWN: For years superdollars have been passing unnoticed in banks throughout the UK. DET. SUPT. BILL BROWN: This was probably as sophisticated as you would experience in any criminal investigation. LAWN: It took a massive undercover police operation to discover how Britain and Ireland were being flooded with counterfeit cash. VOICE OF SILCOCK: I happen to know that they'll all be in Ireland by the end of next week. LAWN: Tonight, using exclusive surveillance footage, Panorama goes on the trail of the superdollar. We follow the tracks of a counterfeiting cartel around the world, from the rogue states of North Korea. KOREAN DEFECTOR: In North Korea this project is as important as the nuclear programme. LAWN: To the Russian capital, the hub of the operation where massive counterfeit deals take place on a regular basis. VLADIMIR USKOV: Perhaps they didn't think they would be watched by the Special Services here. LAWN: At the heart of the conspiracy is a top Irish Republican who has attracted the attention of American intelligence. BILL GERTZ: They have a good file on him and they've been tracking his activities over a number of years. LAWN: And we confront one of the men who police believe to be involved in forcing the American Government to redesign its currency. LAWN: [approaching Sean Garland in his car] Now's your chance to answer the allegations against you sir. SEAN GARLAND: [No response] LAWN: Birmingham, Friday October 30th 1998, DCI Mark Smith is on his way to work at the National Crime Squad offices. At the same time, 30 miles away in a bureau de change in Stafford, Alan Jones, a petty criminal from Birmingham is court on camera. The cashier doesn't know he's giving her over 1000 counterfeit dollars but not even an expert could have told the difference. The forgeries are only discovered because of a tip-off. When they're recovered from the banking system they're better than anything Britain's National Crime Squad has ever scene. DCI MARK SMITH: It required an expert to be able to look at it very carefully with at least a powerful magnifying glass. They would go through banks, they could be cashed at travel exchanges, bureau de change, they were that good, that well made, that sophisticated. The standard of the quality of these notes is particularly unusual. LAWN: Washington, headquarters of the United States Secret Service. The Secret Service has two jobs, protecting the American President and protecting the American currency. Agent Rich Stein is head of the counterfeiting division. AGENT RICH STEIN US Secret Service We have field officers located throughout the United States as well as 17 officers located internationally. All of them have a role in the suppression of counterfeiting. LAWN: The notes past by Alan Jones in Stafford are sent to Washington. At Secret Service headquarters analysts are amazed by the quality. STEIN: It was probably one of the best that they had seen. Yes, it was what we coined a 'highly deceptive note'. DCI MARK SMITH National Crime Squad The quality of them was extraordinary. The first time that we actually recovered one of these new, big head style, $100 notes, a Secret Service agent spent a long time looking at it and couldn't determine that it actually was counterfeit. LAWN: But it isn't the first time the Secret Service has encountered a note of this type. In fact, they've been aware of them for a decade. Officially they're referred to as "note family C 14342" privately agents call them superdollars. STEIN: The first appearance of one of these highly deceptive notes was in 1989 in the Philippines, it was actually found through the Asian banking system and subsequently forwarded it to us who determined it to be counterfeit. LAWN: The first superdollars turned up in diplomatic bags of North Korean officials. Since then the North Korean regime have been implicated time after time in the distribution of the superdollar. It's one of the reasons the country has become a pariah state. The superdollar, according to some experts in North Korea, is a weapon against America. BALBWA HWANG Policy Analyst, Asia North Korea has a state sponsored programme in which it is counterfeiting US dollars, and they do so with a dual purpose. The first is obviously the profits that that regime can earn immediately. But they also have a longer term strategy of attempting to destabilise the US economy. LAWN: In the late 1980s US intelligence discovered that the North Korean Government had acquitted a highly sophisticated printing press known as the Intaglio. HWANG: This is a printing press that is similar to the one used by the US Treasury and their printing and engraving offices, and this allows the state to have a very sophisticated level of producing these super notes or superdollars. LAWN: The counterfeit dollar recovered in Birmingham was so good it could only have come from this kind of machine. STEIN: It would take sophisticated printing equipment to include things such as Intaglio printing process and offset printing process. LAWN: So you'd really need an Intaglio press. STEIN: Yes. LAWN: North Korea, the country says allegations against it are just western propaganda but it's hard to know what really goes on behind these heavily fortified borders. What little information there is often comes from defectors, most of whom end up living in the South Korean capital of Seoul. We went there on the trail of a recent defector whose firsthand experience could corroborate what we'd been told. He was living in hiding and when we found him he told us that he'd spent his life making counterfeit US dollars. Former North Korean Counterfeiter DEFECTOR: When I defected I brought some of these counterfeit notes to South Korea and I show them to the experts in the South Korean Intelligence Agency. They said these are not fake notes, they are real. These are the people who are supposed to be professionals. I thought to myself, you have no idea. I'm the professional here, this is what I used to do. The counterfeiting was all done at government level. We had a special plant for doing it in Pyeongseong, one of the cities in the province Pyeongahnnamdo. LAWN: According to this defector, North Korea has been counterfeiting US dollars since the 1980s. DEFECTOR: We bought the best of everything, the best equipment and the best ink, but we also had the very best people, people who had real expertise and knowledge in the field. Then, when government officials or diplomats travelled to South East Asia, they distributed the counterfeit notes mixed in with the real ones at a ratio of about 50-50. Reconstruction LAWN: The diplomatic connection is confirmed by another defector who worked as a North Korean diplomat. He told Panorama that North Korean officials are often not told by their superiors that the money they're handing out is counterfeit and that he himself was caught. Former North Korean Diplomat DEFECTOR 2: I was at a local bank in Thailand changing dollars in the bureau de change. They told me that the money I was giving them was counterfeit. I had fake notes mixed in with the real ones. It was confiscated but luckily for me they decided not to take it any further, I was released. Reconstruction LAWN: But this defector says that it's the only way for the superdollar to get out of North Korea. DEFECTOR 2: Ordinary North Korean people can't go abroad. The only people who can deal in this money are diplomatic or business travellers. That's how the counterfeit is exchanged abroad. LAWN: Back in Birmingham a National Crime Squad detectives are baffled. Previously only North Korean officials have been caught with the superdollar, so why has it turned up here? DCI MARK SMITH National Crime Squad Well these dollars first started turning up with other criminals, lower level criminals, individuals trying to cash them certainly in places in Birmingham that didn't look right with them. DET. SUPT. BILL BROWN National Crime Squad At a fairly early stage we were briefed about the long-term investigation the Secret Service had conducted into this, and they identified to us areas that indicated that there was international organised crime involved in this. Reconstruction [Passport image] ALAN JONES DOB: 01.01.54 Status: UK Citizen Previous convictions: Various minor LAWN: November 1998, the National Crime Squad assigned two experienced undercover officers to the case. Their job is to get as close as they can to the Birmingham gang and infiltrate it. The surveillance targets Alan Jones, the man first captured on camera passing the superdollar. The undercover operation is code named "Operation Mali". During a car journey with undercover officers the talk turns to counterfeit dollars. Jones claims he has access to the best forgeries in the world. Reconstruction [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF ALAN JONES: The people who handle them all the time would take them for.. these ones for real ones. You know if you were a money handler you'd know a f----- moody note from a real one. This is made on the same paper and the same ink, the same little coloured flecks in the paper. The ink, if you rub the green side onto a blank piece of white paper, you get a very fine green sheen, like you do off the new notes, like the real notes. Had every test done on them you can think of. LAWN: Jones has an intimate knowledge of the superdollar. He makes the extraordinary claim that some of those involved in the distribution are former spies, now lining their own pockets. [Police Sound Recording] JONES: They're made exactly the same – it's from the Cold War. There's nothing to do now except earn a few quid for 'em, is there? There's nobody to kill. That's it. The FBI and that firm know about 'em, But they're called the superdollar. There's that many of them in their economy it's a f----- joke. It's been going on for 12 years. Everybody is sticking them into them. They take no notice of 'em now. LAWN: The surveillance shows that Jones is associating with another Birmingham criminal. His name is Terrence Silcock. With several convictions he's already well known to the police. [Passport image] TERENCE SILCOCK DOB: 29.05.45 Status: UK Citizen Previous convictions: Fraud, theft, offences against the person D.S. BILL BROWN: Terrence Silcock was a significant local criminal in the Birmingham area, a professional criminal, a lifelong criminal who would turn his hand to any type of criminality. LAWN: Silcock is placed under 24 hour surveillance. His movements are closely monitored. The surveillance shows that he's changing large amounts of money. [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF SILCOCK: We got 56 thousand something for that 40 sterling in the UK, it was handed to a guy at Heathrow who just went to a bank and changed it. LAWN: The police discover that Silcock has become a frequent traveller making regular visits to one country in particular, Ireland. On these trips Silcocks travel arrangements are designed to throw off unwanted attention. He regularly buys a return plane ticket to Dublin but instead he comes home on the ferry. DCI MARK SMITH: We were aware of 16 or 17 occasions that he went, whether he went on any other occasions I don’t know. But certainly he was a regular traveller there. We believe that some of those occasions, maybe not all but a significant number of those occasions he was actually physically taking counterfeit currency notes from Ireland into the UK. LAWN: In this CCTV footage Jones and Silcock arriving from Ireland disembark at Holyhead and in Wales. On this occasion, underneath their matching camel coats they're carrying a quarter of a million counterfeit dollars. DCI MARK SMITH: I think it was a two way journey in many ways, that from Ireland he would bring the counterfeit currency notes and he would actually take the proceeds of the sale of counterfeit currency notes back to Ireland. Reconstruction LAWN: The whole operation depends on couriers. Those willing to carry the counterfeit around the world are paid thousands. In a Birmingham city centre hotel Silcock goes to meet an Irishman who's a veteran smuggler of counterfeit. But the hotel room is bugged. The police are about to hear from the inside just how the couriers operate. [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF HUGH TODD: But he wants to change the moody dollars into different currencies. Now I have to change those back into f----- dollars. So f--- this, so I sent him a big f----- bundle of f----- marks over to Dublin. [Passport image] HUGH TODD DOB: 19.05.37 Status: Irish/South African Previous convictions: Distributor of counterfeit LAWN: The courier's name is Hugh Todd. He has a criminal record for counterfeiting. He makes a fortune delivering currency all over the world. [Police sound Recording] VOICE OF TODD: I was going to meet him in Frankfurt. I was going to South Africa to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Moscow. D.S. BILL BROWN: They were talking in specific terms about Moscow Russia, Ireland and other European cities. This was an international operation, criminal organisations interlinking with each other, crossing national and international boundaries. Reconstruction LAWN: Smuggling counterfeit currency around the world is a risky business. But for Hugh Todd it's a profession. The police hear that his regular route is from Moscow to Dublin. He's caught on tape as he boasts to Silcock about how he smuggles counterfeit cash out of Moscow under the noses of Customs officials. [Police sound Recording] VOICE OF TODD: I've got one hundred and eighty thousand f----- dollars, there's a big parcel like that, now I've go back out through those f----- customs and I'm watching, as you go, you know.. they're putting the bag through the scanner and there's a fella the far side and the odd one he stops and searches. I had the f----- things stuffed down here. Now I have 'em f----- stuffed down here, stuffed down everywhere. I have in my f----- pants, I can feel one slipping down the f----- inside of my f----- pants… put my bag through walked straight through, not searched, end of f----- story. I'm gone… I go into the f----- Irish bar I go out, I go into the toilet, take my bag, like that, take all my dollars out, grand, put them all into the bag, sweet, I'm through. LAWN: The police investigation is producing a detailed picture of an international counterfeiting cartel. The surveillance shows that it's all run by a tightly knit group of criminals. They're getting their hands on the superdollars in Moscow. The counterfeit cash is then smuggled to Dublin, from Ireland it's taken to Birmingham and distributed in the criminal underworld. Much of it is then bought in bulk by one man. [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF SILCOCK: Hello David, It's Terry. What's happening LAWN: David Levin buys the counterfeit dollars in massive quantities. He deals in millions at a time. He's a well connected Russian criminal living in Birmingham. [Passport image] DAVID LEVIN DOB: 10.08.68 Status: UK Citizen Previous convictions: None known D.S. BILL BROWN: David Levin was a senior player, a senior buyer or purchaser or orderer in this network. He had significant links and significant ability to redistribute or convert this currency into real money. His reputation is one of being a dangerous individual. He was a big player in his particular pond. Reconstruction LAWN: Levin has several aliases. Even some of those close to him don’t know his true identity. DCI MARK SMITH: Levin is a very interesting character to say the least, a very well connected criminal with a very interesting background and past. I believe he was a senior officer in the KGB and he certainly left Russia under very unusual circumstances. He's wanted for a double murder in Armenia and we believe he was a significant threat in his own right. Reconstruction LAWN: A surveillance revealed that Silcock and Levin are meeting frequently. At these meetings Silcock is giving the Russian criminal major consignments of counterfeit cash. Levin uses his contacts in the banking system to launder the money. Huge amounts of superdollars are entering the economy unnoticed. The network is complete. DCI MARK SMITH: These dollars were exchanging hands from criminal to criminal of up to 55%. Now that is a very, very high value to pay for counterfeit currency notes. But of course, it's not if you can exchange them for 100% value. Reconstruction LAWN: Terence Silcock, until recently just a small time fraudster, has stumbled on a licence to print money. But now he's getting out of his depth. He's certainly not used to the methods of Levin, his Russian contact. [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF SILCOCK: He turned up with these f----- five Russians – it just looks on top being with them. They've all got black leather jackets and dark skin, and they've got a guy in the back of the car that they've bagged and they wont let go. and they come to meet me like that! Reconstruction LAWN: By now the undercover officers have won Silcock's confidence and he begins to make astonishing revelations about the people at the heart of the conspiracy. [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF SILCOCK: I will level with you saying that you have a perfect one hundred percent understanding, then you can't ever come back to me. MAN: Yeah, that's why we're here today, isn't it. SILCOCK: They're printed by the IRA and the KGB. DET. SUPT. BILL BROWN National Crime Squad I felt that this was Terence Silcock playing at the top end of his league. He was into organised crime… international organised crime, and possibly playing in an environment that was a first time for him. DCI MARK SMITH National Crime Squad I think the whole thing about this investigation, this level of criminality, is just how unusual it is. It isn't normal for ordinary - and I use the word 'ordinary' – ordinary Birmingham criminals to have access to paramilitary groups, to sophisticated intelligence groups such as the KGB. It is unusual and certainly to see what I would call not the most highly connected of criminals involved in it with such as group C is very unusual. Reconstruction LAWN: The investigation reveals that the European end of the Operation is run by one man, and the undercover surveillance is producing vital clues about his identity. Hugh Todd, the Irish courier, refers to his boss as Sean. [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF HUGH TODD: I've made arrangements to go over to meet Sean on we'll say Wednesday or Tuesday whatever it f----- was. LAWN: The police hear that only Sean can negotiate the release of the superdollars through contacts in the Russian capital. Sean has to be present at every transaction, and if Sean isn't there, there's no deal. [Police Sound Recording] VOICE OF TODD: I am sitting in f----- Moscow. No one arrives. I'm in the Metropol. So I'm sitting there, I've no contact number for Sean, all I have for Sean is his fax number which I don’t want to f----- use. Now I'm in Moscow, I've genuine dollars with me and f----- no-one contacts me! I say to Sean that ain't f--- -- right. I do these things and I'm left f----- sitting. Anyway to cut a long story short, I'm there for another f- ---- two days. Sean arrives I said Sean this is not f---- on. D.S. BILL BROWN: They acted in a cellular manner so that the person controlling the delivery would have the full picture, but the couriers would only have a part of it, and it's only when the jigsaw puzzle was placed together that one, or a few people, would know exactly what's going on. Reconstruction LAWN: The couriers admit that the whole operation depends on Sean and his Russian contacts. [Police Sound Recording] MAN: But Sean's connections down there are good. TODD: Yeah, they're f----- good connections. RUSSIAN VOICE: Very good. TODD: Ah they're all mad, they're all ex KGB D.S. BILL BROWN: There were players and individuals in our investigation that carried the activity on as if they had been doing it for a number of years, and indicated to us that they were experienced in trying to defeat law enforcement, particularly in Northern Europe, particularly in countries that we would previously have known as 'iron curtain'. Reconstruction LAWN: It becomes clear that Sean, the man at the top of this network, has strong, political connections. [Police Sound Recording] SILCOCK: He's a communist, he has communist beliefs which is what the old IRA is. MAN: Good luck to him. Good luck to him. SILCOCK: But he's got double f----- standards because here he is – a communist, but he's capitalising on the paperwork. MAN: Good lad. SILCOCK: But what I do know is that when he capitalises on the paperwork it all goes back into the organisation. LAWN: More clues about Sean's identity are emerging. At a meeting in the local pub, Silcock gives the undercover officers their best piece of information to date. [Police Sound Recording] SILCOCK: He's old School… he's the Colonel-in-Chief of the IRA. MAN: Yeah? SILCOCK: He is. MAN: Is he? SILCOCK: Yes, but not… the IRA we've got now, we're talking about the old style IRA. MAN: The proper one. SILCOCK: Yes, the proper one. LAWN: So we looked at the organisation the Birmingham criminals referred to as "the old IRA". In 1970 the IRA split into two wings, the Provisional IRA and the official IRA. But with the next two decades the Marxist official IRA became less visible than Provisionals but it never gave up its guns. And the Colonel in Chief of the official IRA is this man, Sean Garland. An active Republican all of his life, he led attacks on police stations and army barracks in Northern Ireland. A revolutionary socialist. Sean Garland spent the 1980s forging links with Communist regimes around the world. Today he's President of the Workers' Party in Ireland, the political wing of the official IRA. DCI MARK SMITH: We always knew that this was a sophisticated team of criminals, but it became, I think, even more apparent as we went into it just how well connected they were. The type of people involved were cause for concern. LAWN: The profits of the conspiracy are being sent to Ireland on a regular basis. The Crime Squad decide that they have no choice but to close down the Birmingham cell. [Police Surveillance Video] MARK SMITH: We knew the large amount of money, about $100,000, was going to go to Dublin, and we took the decision that it would be appropriate then to make the arrests to stop that happening. [Police Surveillance Video] D.S. BILL BROWN: It would have been inappropriate of us to allow that to run into criminal hands and feather the pockets of the people involved in this case. LAWN: It's a year and a half since Silcock and his associates were first put under surveillance. Now as they drink in the White Swan Pub in Birmingham, the Crime Squad move in. Later the same day David Levin is also arrested. When the police raid his house, they find evidence of several different identities. [Passport image] David LEVIN aka David BATIKIAN D of B: 10/08/65 CRO No.92066 97D Speaks fluent Russian and speaks several other languages LAWN: A few days later and Alan Jones is also arrested. In searches police recover huge amounts of cash, the profits of the North Korean superdollar. Safe in Ireland, Sean Garland is never arrested or even questioned in relation to the investigation, and Panorama has learnt that for several years authorities in Washington have believed Sean Garland to be a major player in the superdollar network. BILL GERTZ Washington Times I first heard the name Sean Garland when it was referred to me in a classified intelligence report as certainly someone who had been involved in the production of a high quality counterfeit bill called "the supernote". This was in middle of May 1997. LAWN: Bill Gertz is the Washington Times national security correspondent. GERTZ: In my experience in talking with senior intelligence and defence officials, they have a good file on him and they've been tracking his activities over a number of years. LAWN: America's intelligence chiefs were given a briefing document about Sean Garland two years before the investigation in Birmingham had even begun. GERTZ: This was a top secret document, top secret code word, in the sense that its distribution was limited to only the most senior officials in US government, officials with a need to know, officials in the State Department, the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA and intelligence agencies. LAWN: The document says: "Sean Garland is suspected of being involved with counterfeiting US currency, specifically the supernote. Worcester Crown Court in the summer of 2002. The Birmingham counterfeiting gang is standing trial. Roger Smith QC describes an international conspiracy. Reconstruction ROGER SMITH: The dollars were bought from sellers in Russia, probably connected to the old KGB who could obtain the counterfeit from the source. From Ireland they were brought to this country to be exchanged in banks or bureau de change for genuine dollars or sterling, and presumably because there are many more such institutions in this country than in the Republic. The counterfeit currency was thus laundered. LAWN: The prosecution is clear, the Irish conspirators have escaped justice. SMITH: There are none of them in the dock, living as they do outside of the jurisdiction of the English courts. LAWN: Sean Garland is not in court but he's named as a key player in the international conspiracy. Reconstruction SMITH: Sean Garland lives in Dublin and is a high ranking officer in the official IRA. LAWN: The police know that the Birmingham cell were minor players in a worldwide conspiracy, and they failed to get the man at the top of the chain. DCI MARK SMITH: Criminality that occurs in Moscow, the notes that are carried across Europe, the connections in Dublin, the connections in the UK, connections in other countries where the dollars are actually sold back again. It makes it quite a difficult operation to actually bring to a successful conclusion. LAWN: Moscow, the city at the heart of the operation. Here the money was first passing into the hands of the criminal gangs. We went to the Russian capital to investigate the trail left by the Birmingham counterfeiting gang and the man who controlled them. On the 25th June, 1999, Terrence Silcock and his associates flew into Moscow to close another counterfeit deal. Panorama obtained these flight manifests which detail passenger lists into the city on that day. They show that on the same day Silcock arrived in Moscow, so too did Sean Garland. We also discovered that not only was Sean Garland in town, but he was being followed by an elite team of Russian police, General Vladimir Uskov was the head of that unit. Was Mr Garland under surveillance for his time in Moscow? GEN. VLADIMIR USKOV Russian Interior Police Yes, he was. Information we received showed that he was involved in he supply of counterfeit dollars. LAWN: General Uskov and his men followed Sean Garland as he visited the North Korean Embassy in Moscow. USKOV: We registered his contacts with the North Korean Embassy. He visited the Embassy several times. The fact he went to the North Korean Embassy our information was that people working there may have been involved in the transportation of counterfeit dollars. MAN (Secret filming): Sean's connections down there are good, yeah. LAWN: We discovered that Sean Garland has a longstanding relationship with the North Korean Embassy in Moscow. Panorama has obtained these faxes written by him to officials at the Embassy. The faxes discuss an apparently legitimate trade relationship between Sean Garland and officials there that has existed for several years. But the North Korean Embassy in Moscow isn't just involved in trade. The senior North Korean defector who spoke to Panorama confirms that the Embassy was a centre for the distribution of superdollars. Former North Korean Counterfeiter DEFECTOR: Of all the North Korean embassies around the world, the biggest was in Moscow. Almost all North Koreans travelling abroad return via Moscow. People would go to the Treasury Department of the Embassy. They would be given either real US dollars or counterfeit notes. Nobody knew what they were getting because you couldn't distinguish between the real money and the fake money. Only a very few people knew that the notes being given out were counterfeit. LAWN: As the Russian police followed Sean Garland around the streets of Moscow, Terence Silcock and his associates waited in their hotel for news about the deal. Was there any link between Sean Garland and Terence Silcock in Moscow? VLADIMIR: No. LAWN: Sean Garland and the Birmingham criminals may have done their best to avoid being seen together but Panorama can reveal that they did in fact make contact. We visited the hotel where the Birmingham criminals have stayed and we were given access to a room bill for the period. On it is a print out of telephone calls. One of the calls is to an Irish mobile number with an international roaming facility. This is Sean Garland's mobile telephone number. The Birmingham criminals were in Moscow and they were in direct contact with Sean Garland. But we found out that this wasn't the only time their paths had crossed in Moscow. Terence Silcock and his associates had been in town six months previously from the 14th to the 18th of January 1999. Once again we contacted various hotels in Moscow and found out that they'd stayed in the Sheraton. There was no record of Sean Garland having stayed there. But there was another possibility, on the undercover tapes we'd heard that Sean, the Irish boss, often negotiated his deals in the five star Metropol Hotel. TODD (Secret filming): I am sitting in f----- Moscow. No one arrives. I'm in the Metropol. Anyway to cut a long story short, I'm there for another two days. Sean arrives – I say Sean this is not f----- on. LAWN: So we made our way to the Metropol. It's one of the most exclusive hotels in town and it turns out that Sean Garland is a well known face here. Mr Garland is a fairly regular visitor at this hotel, isn't he? WOMAN: Yes. LAWN: When did he start coming here? WOMAN: He start coming here in 1995. LAWN: How many times has he been here? WOMAN: For six times. LAWN: Was he here at the start of 1999? WOMAN: Yes, he stayed there from 18th to…. sorry, from 14th to 18th of January 1999. LAWN: From 14th until 18th of January 1999. This is the luxurious $500 a night suite where the Workers Party President stayed during his Moscow visit. We obtained a hotel bill that confirms Sean Garland stayed here during these dates. Once again he was in Moscow at Exactly the same time as the Birmingham cell. They were close by in the Sheraton and we discovered that from this room the Birmingham criminals again called Sean Garland's mobile phone. Moscow was at the heart of the conspiracy and Panorama has uncovered new evidence about the operation run from Ireland by Sean Garland, an operation that's been funding his organisation for years. SILCOCK (Secret filming): He's a communist, he has communist beliefs which is what the old IRA is. But what I do know is that when he capitalises on the paperwork, it all goes back into the organisation. LAWN: We obtained signed statements from former official IRA members which detail how millions of superdollars have passed unnoticed throughout the UK and Ireland. They say that what began as a revolutionary conspiracy against capitalism has now turned into a licence to print money for a criminal elite. DCI MARK SMITH: Ultimately all these dollars, all the counterfeit dollars end up in one of the central banks in America. I believe there's excess of $30 million. But when you think about it, that it's actually selling for 100% value, and the result of that sale is funding criminality, that's 30 million dollars worth of criminality that's been funded. LAWN: The statements obtained by the BBC confirm that the conspiracy involved the North Korean Embassy in Moscow and ex KGB agents in Russia. They say that the operation was run by Sean Garland. None of this evidence discovered by Panorama was available to the courts. Back in Moscow and Operation Mali isn't quite over yet. The police get one more chance to crack the Moscow operation. They get specific intelligence that another dollar deal is due to take place here. At a pre arranged meeting place a British courier is due to pick up a consignment of counterfeit cash. Mark Smith pretends to be the courier for the gang, and he goes to the drop. Reconstruction MARK SMITH: Pushkin Square was the place nominated for myself to recover these dollars from. It was to stand by the statue of Pushkin and wait to be approached by what was described as a tall, beautiful Russian lady carrying a package. She would approach me and say a code word which I'd respond similarly to and would then be give these dollars. LAWN: Russian police positioned around the square are ready to move in as soon as the deal takes place. But the criminals are also watching the transaction. The woman gets a phone call at the last moment. She's told to stay away from Smith. It looks like the police operation has been compromised. But later that afternoon he's given a new location. MARK SMITH: Instructions then were to go to Kazansky Railway Station in Moscow and all sorts of different offices there which are actually left luggage offices, and it was go to a particular office and ask for a property number where I'd then be given a package. The package was handed over, recovered and was found to contain the $70,000. LAWN: The money is tested. It's another consignment of North Korean superdollars. But the police are no closer to catching the man behind it all. The Birmingham cell is dismantled. [Passport image] TERENCE SILCOCK Charge: Conspiracy Verdict: Guilty Sentence: 6 year LAWN: Terence Silcock goes to prison for six years. [Passport image] DAVID LEVIN Charge: Importation of Counterfeit, conspiracy Verdict: Guilty Sentence: 9 years LAWN: David Levin is convicted on two counts and sentenced to nine years with the possibility of extradition for a double murder in Armenia. [Passport image] HUGH TODD Charge: Conspiracy Verdict: Guilty Sentence: UK 18 months, France 1 year, USA 1 year LAWN: Hugh Todd is prosecuted separately by the US Secret Service. He goes on to serve prison sentences in the UK, France and the United States. [Passport image] ALAN JONES Charge: Conspiracy Status: Absconded LAWN: Alan Jones, who past the first notes in Stafford, isn't in court. Bailed after his arrest he went on the run and hasn't been seen since. We contacted Sean Garland several times to ask for an interview but he refused. So last year on behalf of BBC Northern Ireland we went to visit him at home. Mr Garland, can I talk to you about allegations….. SEAN GARLAND: Please leave. LAWN: Can I talk to you about allegations concerning counterfeit dollars Mr Garland? SEAN GARLAND: [No response] LAWN: Mr Garland, can I talk to you about those allegations? Mr Garland, do you know Terence Silcock and Hugh Todd? Mr Garland, what do you think about the fact that your name was raised in a court case last year and that the Russian case…. Is there anything you'd like to add? Anything at all? SEAN GARLAND: [remains silent] LAWN: Since this meeting Panorama has again repeated asked Sean Garland for an interview. He has refused our requests but he has denied any link to counterfeiting. The police say their investigations are ongoing. D.S. BILL BROWN: Those who have the confidence in their criminality will get involved again. It's not a closed book from a National Crime Squad perspective and if I had been one of the people who may have been involved in the criminal activity, I'd be waiting for the knock on the door. LAWN: Meanwhile the US Treasury is once again redesigning the hundred dollar bill to combat sophisticated counterfeiting. But forging US currency is a lucrative enterprise. As the Treasury modernises, the forgers adapt. The superdollar and those who distribute it haven't gone away. On Tuesday a Panorama special in a frank and sometimes angry interview, President Clinton talks to Panorama about the Monica Lewinsky affair, whether he'd have gone to war with Iraq, and Tony Blair and the special relationship. That's Tuesday, 10.35, BBC1. ________ www.bbc.co.uk/panorama CREDITS Reporter DECLAN LAWN Cameras BILL BROWN MAKR GARRETT Sound GABRIEL McPARLAND Film Editors DELORES SHIELDS GARY McCUTCHEON Graphic Design ANDREW DAVIDSON Dubbing Mixer DAVY LAMB Web Producer ADAM FLINTER Production Co-ordinators NORMA McEWEN GEORGE CORBETT Producer ANDREW MARTIN Executive Producer JEREMY ADAMS Deputy Editor ANDREW BELL Editor MIKE ROBINSON