Bank may make $5M profit on theft

Press, 9 November 1978, Page 8

Bank may make $5M profit on theft

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles A California bank, robbed of SUSIO million in an electronic-age swindle, may end up making SUSS million profit on the theft. The police said that the man accused of the robbery. a computer consultant, Stanley Rifkin, bought SUSS million worth of Russian diamonds which Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said would fetch SUSI 3 million on the United States market. The officials said the diamonds would probably be turned over to the bank when the case was

t completed. The remaining SUS2 million were found earlier, they added. , Rifkin, who is 32, was i arrested in Carlsbad, a small Californian town : 40km north of the Mexican border, and charged with carrying stolen property across state borders. He is being held in prison. Bail was set at SUS 6 I million by a magistrate in i the nearby city of San Diego. The money was stolen from a Los Angeles s branch of the Security Pacific National Bank, the s tentb-biggest bank in the i country, 12 days ago when

the company’s electronic communications system was used illegally to switch the money to a New York bank account. Officials refused to give details to protect bank security. An F. 8.1. official said SUSB million was later moved from the New York bank to a bank account in Zurich, Switzerland, and from there to a Russian trading concern, Russalmaz, which exports diamonds from Switzerland. Diamonds bought with the money were then smuggled into California and seized by the F. 8.1.,

the official said. The stones, watched over by the police, were displayed at an F. 8.1. press conference. The official emphasised that Russalmaz was not involved in the smuggling and had made a legal sale. “It does appear as though the entire scheme was conceived and perpetrated by Rifkin himself,” said Roger Young, an E'.8.1. agent in San Diego. The F. 8.1. agent said that Rifkin used a phony passport to go to Switzerland to pick up the diamonds.

When Rifkin was arrested on Sunday in Carlsbad, Mr Young said he had SUSI2,OOO in cash and diamonds with a retail value of SUSI 3 million. Rifkin’s attorney, Howard Frank, said his client had returned from the east coast to give himself up after learning he was being sought, but was arrested before he had a chance to surrender Mr Frank said Rifkin held a masters degree in computer science and was working tor a doctorate at the University of California at Los Angeles. Rifkin

had no previous police record, authorities said. Security Pacific officials said Rifkin learned the bank’s procedures while working for a computer firm that did u> husiness with the bank. “That’s how he got in in the first place.” said Paul Smith, executive vice-pres-ident and treasurer for Security Pacific. “He was familiar with car lay-out and with the people. He was well knovn to our people and they assumed that he was there on the same business he was there tor seveial monthsr earlier.”