Crazy Isreali's... [CNN]

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

>                   CHILD HEIRESS AT THE CENTER OF TWISTED PLOT
>                                        
>       Onassis November 7, 1997
>      Web posted at: 7:50 p.m. EST (0050 GMT)
>      
>      JERUSALEM (AP) -- As part of a battle over a young girl's $2.4
>      billion trust fund, former Israeli secret service agents tracked her
>      father's movements using paragliders and cameras hidden in trees.
>      
>      At least, that's the Israeli version of what happened to Athena
>      Roussel, the granddaughter of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle
>      Onassis.
>      
>      Swiss authorities, however, suspect the Israelis may have been
>      involved in a plot to kidnap the 12-year-old girl and want them
>      arrested.
>      
>      Much of the story, hushed up for months, remains shrouded inmystery,
>      though bits and pieces have emerged in the Israeli media.
>      
>      The daily newspaper Maariv ran a banner headline Friday about"An
>      operation to save the Onassis fortune." Next to it was apicture of
>      an angelic-looking Athena wearing a white dress and a garland of
>      white flowers in her honey-colored hair.
>      
>      Athena is the only child of Christina Onassis, the shipping
>      magnate's daughter, and her fourth husband, Thierry Roussel. The
>      couple divorced 1987 and Christina Onassis died a year later.
>      Roussel has remarried and has three children with his new wife.
>      Athena lives with her father and his new family in Switzerland and
>      France.
>      
>      Athena stands to inherit some $2.4 billion when she turns 18,and in
>      the meantime her father and the Greek executors of hermother's will
>      have been fighting over control of the money.
>      
>      Roussel receives $5 million a year for personal expenses, under his
>      ex-wife's will. Expenses for Athena are confidential.
>      
>      Roussel recently sued the charitable Alexander S. Onassis Public
>      Benefit Foundation, accusing it of having mismanaged and embezzled
>      millions of dollars. A Greek court acquitted the foundation earlier
>      this year.
>      
>      Israeli police said that at some point, Greek trustees turned to
>      Israeli private investigators and asked them to find evidence that
>      Athena's father was involved in "immoral acts."
>      
>      The seven Israelis -- among them former top agents in Israel's Shin
>      Bet security service -- began by preparing surveillance on the
>      Roussel mansion near Geneva, according to Maariv and the Yediot
>      Ahronot daily newspaper.
>      
>      This was a complicated task, the newspapers said, sinceintruders
>      could easily be spotted near the heavily guarded,isolated compound.
>      One solution the agents came up with, saidYediot, was to use
>      paragliders to fly over the Roussel home and take pictures from the
>      air.
>      
>      Another scheme to avoid drawing attention was to have
>      agentsmasquerade as environmentalists driving around in a
>      vanplastered with "green" stickers.
>      
>      The Israeli team also proposed to hide surveillance cameras in the
>      trees of the compound and use state-of-the-art laser technology to
>      wiretap Roussel's home and office, Maariv said.
>      
>      In a second stage, the surveillance team hired another Israeli
>      investigator to check out Roussel's Paris apartment, the newspaper
>      said. The agent learned, said Maariv, that Roussel was running a
>      modeling agency there, and at one point hired a British model to try
>      and infiltrate Roussel's business.
>      
>      The surveillance efforts came to light when an Israeli businessman
>      and a friend of the Paris agent found out about it and tried to sell
>      the information for profit. The businessman was questioned by Swiss
>      police who began an investigation.
>      
>      It was at this stage, said Maariv and Yediot, that the Greektrustees
>      ordered the Israeli team to drop its efforts.
>      
>      In a statement Friday, the Onassis Foundation accused Roussel of a
>      campaign to remove his daughter from the control of the trustees,
>      "even in matters of security."
>      
>      However, foundation officials refused comment on the record when
>      asked whether trustees had hired the Israelis.
>      
>      Last month, Swiss police officials came to Israel to questionseveral
>      of the Israeli investigators who had since returned home.
>      
>      Israeli police said they decided to close the case because they had
>      no evidence of wrongdoing. An Israeli police investigator said he
>      was convinced the Israeli agents had simply carried out surveillance
>      and were not involved in a kidnapping plot.
>      
>      But a Swiss judge investigating the kidnapping suspicions said he
>      doubted the Israeli version.
>      
>      "It's their way of seeing things and it's convenient forthem," said
>      Judge Jacques Delieutraz of Geneva. "They don't have all the facts
>      we have."