Flawless inside the largest diamond heist in history pdf

Hardcover List Price: They did so without tripping an alarm or injuring a single guard in the process. Although the crime was perfect, the getaway was not. The police zeroed in on a band of professional thieves fronted by Leonardo Notarbartolo, a dapper Italian who had rented an office in the Diamond Center and clandestinely cased its vault for over two years. Enter Scott Andrew Selby, a Harvard Law grad and diamond expert, and Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds , who undertook a global goose chase to uncover the true story behind the daring heist.

Sure to appeal to armchair rogues and, like Blood Diamond , cinema-ready. DMCA and Copyright : The book is not hosted on our servers, to remove the file please contact the source url.

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Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to non fiction, crime lovers. Your Rating:. I read this book in the Audible format narrated well by Don Hagen.

Now, I am moving South to the tiny country of Luxembourg. View 2 comments. This was a decent account of a very interesting crime. I guess I expected the story to be somewhat similar to the movie of the same name, but it was totally different. In fact, the only thing similar besides the name is that it is a story of a diamond heist. Anyway, I don't think that prevents me from evaluating this book on its merits.

There's some good background here on the diamond industry, and the authors are pretty careful to make it clear in the text what they know for sure and what is con This was a decent account of a very interesting crime. There's some good background here on the diamond industry, and the authors are pretty careful to make it clear in the text what they know for sure and what is conjecture, or even when there are multiple valid ideas about what happened.

However, the story is told in a "he may have done this next" way that constantly reminds you that you are reading a fictionalized narrative. If the authors wanted to write a fictionalized narrative a good way to go , they should have made it more like The Great Train Robbery or Freedom: A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and just assumed full narrative control.

They could have included notes at the back to make clear what was fact and what was conjecture. The way it was written made it hard to get into, and it only gets better in a couple of places where they do slip into full narrative control, for example when the thieves are actually raiding the safe deposit boxes.

Mar 14, Whitney rated it really liked it. Being largest diamond heist in history- really, one of the largest heists ever, this book is inherently interesting. It answers the burning questions like, how did they do it? Did they get caught? Although we don't really know exactly how they did it nobody talked , the fast paced action of this book takes you through the process and gives you a taste of the excitement that the thieves must have been feeling as they went through it.

At ish pages, it is pretty fast paced. Lots of nonfiction l Being largest diamond heist in history- really, one of the largest heists ever, this book is inherently interesting. Lots of nonfiction like this can get slow, but I thought that really the only slow part is when the author describes the streets of the Diamond District- but even then, it's good to be able to visualize. This is like the real life version of Ocean's Eleven--sorry, can't escape the comparison, especially since it's a little ironic that that movie came out while the thieves were in the middle of planning the heist.

The straightforward writing complemented the action of the story. And kind of crazy-- I don't know if the authors were trying to do this--but I found myself cheering for the thieves a lot of the time!

May 23, Fred Hughes rated it really liked it. This is a fairly detailed account of the world's largest diamond heist. The thieves made a couple of minor mistakes and were caught and served their time. But the diamonds were never recovered Fun book This is a fairly detailed account of the world's largest diamond heist.

But the diamonds were never recovered Fun book Mar 02, Suzanne rated it it was amazing Shelves: geocaching-challenge , non-fiction , kindle. The fun of participating in reading challenges is discovering exciting new books.

I was challenged to read a book having to do with diamonds, so I selected a non-fiction work about a jewel heist. Author Scott Andrew Selby presents a work of narrative non-fiction, outlining the impressive details of the robbery and how law The fun of participating in reading challenges is discovering exciting new books. Author Scott Andrew Selby presents a work of narrative non-fiction, outlining the impressive details of the robbery and how law enforcement were able to track down the culprits.

The book is well-written, well-researched, and exciting. I found myself gripped by the narrative, curious as to what would happen next. In spite of the fact that the perpetrators were caught, the loot was never recovered.

I highly recommend this one! This was an interesting book to listen to. It goes into great detail about the heist and how it was perpetrated, and is very concise on which parts are factual and which are guesses.

I also found the background information about the diamond industry surprisingly interesting; I knew very little about it, so this part of the book was actually quite educational for me.

I'm a fan of capers and this is a good non-fiction one. Generally I prefer film capers, as there's often too much detail which slows the pace in writing. Here the backstory is fascinating enough--the biographies of the thieves, the story of the diamond industry, Antwerp, and the theft-to hold my interest.

There's not a sense of breathless anticipation as the theft details are revealed but a real sense of following an investigation with myriad facts, hypotheses, and characters. Well-researched an I'm a fan of capers and this is a good non-fiction one. Well-researched and laid out. I tried to remember where and what I was doing when all this hit the news in I don't remember any of it. Just think, if these guys, and others like them, put this same effort into something productive and law-abiding, the world would be less of a sesspool.

May 04, JRay rated it it was amazing Shelves: recommend. Fascinating true story about the largest diamond heist in history. An easy and enjoyable read! Jan 28, Ethan rated it liked it. Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History details the Antwerp diamond heist , the largest objective heist in history. Objective meaning the value of stolen goods is accurate. Stolen artwork's value is difficult to quantify. While the heist itself comprises most of the book, the authors discuss culture and industry information as needed.

The book is organized in rough chronological order. It begins with a detailed history of the Italian city Turin , where all of the thieves involv Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History details the Antwerp diamond heist , the largest objective heist in history.

It begins with a detailed history of the Italian city Turin , where all of the thieves involved in the heist hail from. The chapter is titled School of Turin , referencing the not-insignificant amount of career criminals that the city produces schools may be a better verb here. The authors describe the history and culture of the city, and how Notarbartolo, the mastermind behind the heist, fits in to the city.

The history and current standing of the diamond industry is provided throughout the book: culture, conflict see blood diamonds , and standard operating procedures, among other aspects. Readers will also learn how the giant De Beers unashamedly has had? Consider getting your significant other a moissanite stone or lab-grown diamond. Significantly less expensive and conflict-free! A majority of the book details the planning, preparation, and execution of the heist.

Notarbartolo spent over two years casing the building and its security before they executed. These two years were not spent waiting for the right moment - Notarbartolo was constantly taking notes and gaining information crucial to the heist type of vault door, patterns of security, etc.

He made regular trips back to Italy to consult with his partners and share his recent learnings. These two long years culminated on the evening of 15 February Once inside, the rest was easy. Using a specialized tool, the thieves were easily able to pry open a majority of the rather flimsy safety deposit boxes belonging to a variety of companies and individuals.

There was so much to steal that they had to leave a fair amount behind. Using a getaway car, they retreated to Notarbartolo's apartment to sift through their treasure, throwing out comparatively-worthless emeralds.

The following morning, each member left separately some in groups of two to head back to Italy while the crime was being discovered only a small distance away. One member was tasked with disposing of the trash, which included some compromising materials. He chose what turned out to be one of the unluckiest spots in all of Belgium: a forest owned by a nothing-better-to-do-than-patrol-his-land-for-litterers man.

Not to say littering is acceptable, but dumping garbage in forests is common in Belgium and not many seem to care according to the authors. This was the downfall of the team. The detectives were immediately dispatched to the rural plot of land and were able to begin piecing together who was behind this expensive crime.

After dividing their haul accordingly in the safety of Italy, Notarbartolo returned to Antwerp to tie up loose ends, unaware that he was the most-wanted man in the country. He was promptly detained along with his wife and friends, marking the beginning of his multi-year confinement consisting of detainment and actual imprisonment. The authors briefly describe the Belgian legal system and prisons in this section. While in prison, Notarbartolo attempted to sell the rights to his story emphasis discussed in next sentence to multiple sources.

The authors refute his account in the last section. The authors preface the book by describing their research method. Throughout the book, they are careful to denote hazy, non-established points, e. Notes are detailed and well-documented for further reading or referencing. I see a few things wrong with the team's operation. First is the poor disposal of the garbage. To put everything together is sheer idiocy. Throwing it away in an unknown location doubles up on the foolishness.

Too much of their heist was left up to blind luck that was decreased to an extent : avoiding building guards or police, not knowing about a hidden sensor, and so on. They had over two years to prepare for the simple garbage disposal, yet failed in the worst possible way. Second is Notarbartolo's failure to place goods in his safety deposit box then proceed to rob himself his box wasn't even opened!

He claimed that he took everything out beforehand, but even then that is suspicious. Instead, he should have placed a significant amount of material in there and simply pried open his, too. Third is their lack of Italian extradition laws. While these eventually changed under pressure from other European nations, resulting in the imprisonment of other members of the team, they would have all been safe for quite a long time had they just stayed in Italy.

I suspect it would have also been more difficult to gather a case against them. Fourth, they should not have taken specifically-dated surveillance tapes, but rather all of them. This shifts focus off of those specific days and obscures the suspect list. Their disposal of the tapes was also subpar: they simply pulled them apart.

Investigators were able to reconstruct them, furthering the evidence they had against the team. Surprisingly fundamental mistakes by a team intelligent enough to plan and execute a heist of this magnitude. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

It reads similar to an Ocean's film, except it actually happened.