Nearly twice the amount stolen by the Brink’s-Mat robbers, totaling £26 million, has been confiscated from a company associated with the heist over 40 years later.
The offshore entity belonged to British ex-solicitor’s clerk Geoffrey Greenlees, wanted in connection with the 1983 gold bullion raid at Heathrow airport. A previous investigation by the Daily Mirror unveiled that Greenlees was accused of depositing £4.1 million from the crime in Dubai and had fled to Manila, where he was involved with the Philippine Lawn Bowls Association before passing away at the age of 84.
Greenlees was identified as the beneficial owner of MCL Netherlands, according to Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad. He concealed his association through a complex network of offshore shell companies spanning Curaçao, Australia, and the Cayman Islands.
MCL, established in 1981, invested in various Australian companies, primarily in the food sector. ING, the house bank where MCL held over £60 million, raised inquiries about Greenlees’s background in 2015. Subsequently, in early 2017, Dutch authorities froze the accounts over suspected money laundering, leading to a £60 million penalty against MCL in 2024.
The majority of the penalty, exceeding £40 million, was given to the Australian tax authorities, with the remainder transferred to the Dutch Treasury. Prosecutors indicated that although the Brink’s-Mat robbery was initially part of their probe, no evidence tied the confiscated funds to the heist, citing “money laundering without an underlying offense” as the basis for the seizure.
Greenlees’s involvement in shell companies was also revealed in the leaked Panama Papers in 2016, connecting him to the Brink’s-Mat gang through Jean Savage, the common-law wife of robber John “Little Legs” Lloyd. Despite efforts to locate Greenlees, including by ex-Brink’s-Mat detective Tony Curtis, he remained elusive, residing in Manila until his demise.
The gold from the heist was divided among the robbers, with a portion linked to Greenlees allegedly laundered with the help of a criminal associated with the murder of Muriel McKay. Adam Hosein, involved in laundering for drug lord Pablo Escobar, facilitated legal introductions for a British intermediary involved in concealing the proceeds of the gold raid.
Hosein’s brothers were convicted in McKay’s murder case, while he fled to Trinidad and eventually settled in Florida, assisting Escobar’s operations. The Panama Papers disclosed the laundering of funds from the heist through a company set up in Panama. The remaining gold from the robbery was managed by Noye and Brian Reader, with legal repercussions and deaths unfolding among the involved parties over the years.