Crash lawyer 'in fear of Russian spies'

Crash lawyer 'in fear of Russian spies'
By Nigel Rosser And Adrian Gatton
Evening Standard
30th April, 2004
A millionaire British lawyer who died in a mystery helicopter crash was being targeted by the Russian secret service...read

Russian tycoon's British lawyer 'was a police informant'

Russian tycoon's British lawyer 'was a police informant'
By Adrian Gatton
The Independent on Sunday
25 April 2004

The secretive British lawyer behind the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky became a police informant only days before he died in a mysterious helicopter accident, it was claimed last night.

Channel 4 News: Mystery Crash

Crash Death Investigation
Channel 4 News
24 April 2004

EXCLUSIVE

What was the British lawyer who died in this crash telling British intelligence here about the struggle between the Kremlin and a Russian oil empire?

When the closest confidant of Russia's wealthiest man died in a helicopter crash in Dorset last month, suspicions were raised.

While air accident investigators are still trying to find what caused the crash, local police say they have no plans to investigate.

But the National Criminal Intelligence Service is apparently taking an interest in the case.

Channel Four News has learned that shortly before he died, Stephen Curtis contacted officers to offer his services as an informant. And friends told us the millionaire lawyer was afraid for his life in the weeks before the crash.

Watch the Channel 4 News report here.

Reporter: Sarah Smith
Producer: Adrian Gatton
Director: Rob Lemkin

On the Conviction Trail

On the Conviction Trail
By Adrian Gatton
Press Gazette
15 April 2004

Uncovering Rhino's secret was all too easy because of the ready availability of US prison records.

In 1999 US strip-club Spearmint Rhino stormed into London, hitting headlines almost every day as some celebrity was 'caught' in flagrante with a lap-dancer.

Amid all the excitement, nobody cared much about the club's origins. Nor did they ask questions about the Los Angeles strip-club tycoon John Gray, who had shorn lap-dancing of its mafia-tainted image, and brought clean, 'upscale', all-look-and-no-touching nude clubs to the British. The club's billboards became ubiquitous - even appearing in EastEnders and the film 28 Days - and ready to cash in, the credible Mr Gray issued a slick video for investors to help him open 100 clubs across the UK and float on the stock market.

Until Channel 4 News took an interest, that is. The steroid-pumped Spearmint Rhino stumbled in its tracks after a report revealed that Gray - billed as the Ray Kroc (McDonald's founder) of the no-sex sex business - had been jailed by the FBI and had six criminal convictions. Things he didn't mention to potential investors on that neat video ...

Bacardi and choke: US ruling challenged in feud over rival rum from Cuba

Bacardi and choke: US ruling challenged in feud over rival rum from Cuba
Adrian Gatton reports on the latest twist in the decade-long fight for the rights to the Havana Club label
The Independent on Sunday
11 April 2004

Bacardi, the rum giant privately owned by the eponymous and ultra-secretive family, has appealed against a decision by the US Patent Office dismissing its earlier bid to cancel the US trademark of its rival, the Cuban-made Havana Club rum.