Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Rio Tinto executive Bennet Schwartz's fall

The spectacular downfall of a high-flying Rio Tinto executive who led a double life smuggling cocaine into Australia can be traced back to his impenetrable Blackberry, which had military-grade encryption. It was that phone which Bennet Schwartz used to continually monitor the DHL website to track parcels filled with cocaine worth millions.
It all ended with the 29-year-old being sentenced to eight years prison. Schwartz had led a privileged life and was motivated solely by greed. AFP officers observed Schwartz repeatedly tracking large cocaine shipments, which had a street value in the millions, from IP addresses at his home and Rio Tinto offices. The judge said the 25kg of cocaine linked to Schwartz was four-times the level which brings charges of commercial importation and carried the risk of a life sentence. He will be eligible for parole in March 2020.