From the Atavist Archives: Uncouth Gems

Welcome to our newsletter highlighting the magazine’s most recent issue and revisiting a story from our archives. This month, two tales of precious metals—and distinctly unprecious behavior.

“All That Glitters” (Issue no. 162)

Editor’s Note

“Miranda Green's investigation into the curious tale of Jona Rechnitz immediately became one my all-time favorite Atavist stories, based solely on the proportion of reading time I spent with my mouth hanging open. First in real estate and then as a diamond merchant, Rechnitz has been dogged by allegations of fraud, even pleading guilty to fraud conspiracy in a federal case—all while avoiding most legal repercussions. Sifting though court documents may not sound the makings of a great read, but Green coaxes the tale from the transcripts for a truly riveting story. The many celebrity cameos are somehow the least compelling part of ‘All That Glitters;’ by the time Green actually catches up to Rechnitz in person, you'll be wondering how she's managed to do what the justice system seemingly hasn't."

—Peter Rubin, Head of Publishing

Meet the Illustrator

Lily Qian is an award-winning illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. She has worked with a wide range of clients in editorial, publishing, advertising, children’s books, surface, fashion, and beauty. She is passionate about traditional analog techniques and digital integration, and takes inspiration from experimenting and exploring accidents when mixing different materials and textured backgrounds. Lily is an adjunct Illustration & Interactive Media Department instructor at The Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work has been recognized by American Illustration and the Society of Illustrators. When she's not working on assignments with her lazy cat assistant, Walnut, Lily is learning to play the piano, shoot arrows, and organize an illustration ping-pong club. Follow her on Instagram at @lilyqian_.

“The Gilded Age” (Issue no. 111)

Excerpt

“Gold was always part of the picture. According to government documents, Ferrari set up a series of empresas fachada (front companies), including at least one focused on metal trading, and used them ‘for laundering money derived from narcotrafficking.’ Gold is a venerable, fungible medium for cleansing illicit financial gains. Buy it with dirty money, sell it for clean—once it’s melted down, gold seeps into the economy, every atom untraceably the same. Sometimes the gold doesn’t even need to be real. Escobar’s cartel famously used fake gold transactions in Los Angeles to launder more than a billion dollars.

In 1999, Peruvian law enforcement went after Ferrari for a scam that was tax fraud and money laundering rolled into one. A recent decree by Alberto Fujimori, then the country’s dictator, gave mineral exporters tax rebates on ore sold overseas. Ferrari exploited this by selling hunks of nickel and lead ‘bathed’ in gold to complicit partners in Europe and the United States. Exporting his fool’s gold, Ferrari pocketed Fujimori’s rebates. Meanwhile, through his front companies, Ferrari was selling actual gold, almost all of it informally mined, to refiners overseas. If that wasn’t enough, Ferrari was allegedly buying gold from Metalor—the refinery the Loftus brothers would use before they acquired their own—with narco-dollars. The courier who traveled to the United States and transported gold on his person back to Lima was José ‘Pepe’ Morales, one of Ferrari’s most loyal henchmen.

Gold in, gold out—the snake was eating its tail.”

Praise from Readers

“This substantial piece from The Atavist is a gripping synecdoche of new world resource exploitation, ending in misfortune and tragedy for all but a few looming but faceless beneficiaries.”

—D.U. Bayou

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