The man who stole Portugal
Gott skick. Secker & Warburg, 1966, Inbunden, 318 sid. Namnteckning på försättsbladet. Nåogra revor på skyddsomslaget i övrigt i bra skick. All great crimes depend for their successful execution upon a combination of circumstances and originality. Arthur Virgilio Alves Reis had a great project: To gain control of the Bank of Portugal. He was in the right circumstances: He was a businessman. He knew how to prepare official documents and he had useful friends. And he had originality: It was a once-only crime - no one had tried it before and nobody was likely to get away with it again. For while common forgers make their own banknotes, Alves Reis had his made for him - by Britain's leading security printers, Waterlow and Sons. No one could fault the Waterlow notes, as they were printed from the same plates and on the same paper as were used for the Bank of Portugal orders. They could hardly be described as counterfeit: except for a tell-tale flaw in their numbering they might never have been identified. This is the dazzling but true story of the crime of the century. Alves Reis succeeded: Within two years he became the richest man in Portugal...
