Palazzolo buys N$4m City home

THE CONTROVERSIAL Vito Palazzolo, alleged Mafia boss, has bought himself and his Israeli wife Tirtza a luxurious house for nearly N$4 million in Windhoek’s sought-after Luxury Hill area in a deal which sources said included “everything down to bedding and cutlery”.

Deeds Office records (Deed of Transfer T1441/2007) show that Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko (Vito Palazzolo), married to Tirtza von Palace Kolbatschenko (formerly Gruenfeldt) had purchased 16 Kasteel Street from a local businessman on March 9 of this year for the sum of N$3,95 million. The deal was said to have included all furniture, fittings and household goods for the newly built, Cape-styled house, situated on a property (Remainder of Erf 3366) measuring 1 204 square metres.Final transfer of the property was done on April 27, according to same Deeds Office records.The previous owner (name withheld) could not be reached for comment on the sale of the house.Palazzolo also previously partly owned the farms Omburo-Sued outside Omaruru, as well as Klein Omaramba and Ezeru outside Okahandja.All three farms have subsequently been transferred to other people closely associated with Palazzolo’s business dealings.Palazzolo came to local media attention in mid-March after it emerged that his son Peter had been appointed a director in Avilla Investments, which held a licence to buy rough diamonds for polishing by another related company, Marbella Investments.Zackey Nefungo Nujoma, youngest son of former President Sam Nujoma, served as local director of both these companies before the controlling shareholding was transferred to Ocean Diamond Mining Ltd in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.Palazzolo controls a number of other companies that are also registered in the BVI, some of which reportedly also have interests in Namibia’s booming uranium industry.Nujoma Jr has denied any knowledge of his partners’ alleged Mafia criminal connections or any wrong-doing under Namibia’s Diamond Act, which forbids the transfer of shares to other parties without the written approval of the Minister of Mines and Energy.No such approval was ever given, according to Namibian Diamond Commissioner Kennedy Hamutenya.Hamutenya subsequently confirmed that both licences were suspended, and the matter handed over to the Nampol Diamond Branch for further investigation.Officials from the Organised Crime Unit in the Office of the Prosecutor General have also expressed interest in the matter, but said before the long-awaited Organised Crime and Money Laundering Bill was not brought before parliament by Justice Minister (and Attorney General) Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, they could not fully prosecute the matter.Palazzolo had assumed the name ‘Von Palace-Kolbatschenko’ back in 1987 when he was helped by former South African National Party functionaries to settle in the former black homeland Ciskei after fleeing from jail in Lugano, Switzerland, on December 26 1986, where he was awaiting trail for charges related to money laundering.Palazzolo, who will be turning 60 on July 31, was subsequently convicted and sentenced to five years in jail by the Lugano court.Arrested in late 1988 by Swiss investigators, he then served about half that sentence before somehow managing to gain entry back into South Africa in 1992, from where the authorities have since failed to have him expelled.In July last year, the Palermo Tribunal in Italy – a specialised court dealing with organised crime – sentenced Palazzolo in absentia to nine years in jail in terms of Article 416 of the Italian penal code.Palazzolo’s Cape Town-based lawyer Norman Schnitzer at the time was quoted in the Cape Argus as saying that his client “rejected the verdict” and that it amounted only to a transgression of “some obscure laws” in Italy.But the original Order of Preventive Detention issued by Judge for Preliminary Investigations Dr Alfredo Montalto of the Court of Palermo on November 26 1998 painted a different picture.A copy of this legally translated and authenticated document (in possession of The Namibian) shows that Palazzolo is considered to be the main money launderer of the Cosa Nostra.”The present request concerns one of the most important (and obscure) members of the ‘Cosa Nostra’ criminal organization: Palazzolo Vito Salvatore, born in Terrasini (PA), who has been a member of Mafia organisations for more than 20 years,” Judge Montalto’s order read.”He played a prominent role by liaising between the business world and the above-mentioned criminal organisation, with the main objective of letting Cosa Nostra manage and re-invest capitals which were obtained through illegal activities in Italy and overseas,” Judge Montalto wrote.The Italian Judge then goes on to detail Palazzolo’s role in laundering the proceeds from the so-called ‘Pizza Connection’, which netted the Cosa Nostra an estimated US$750 million from the importing and distribution of heroin in the United States during the early 1980s.A copy of Criminal Docket for Case#: 1:84-cr-00236-DC-39, filed with US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Foley Square) against New York mobster Ganci et al showed that Palazzolo is still wanted for trial there.Palazzolo specifically is charged with nine counts of conspiracy to distribute and posses heroin, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to violate the currency laws, false statements, false claims and statements, failure to file currency reports and racketeering and conspiracy, according to a copy of this record obtained by The Namibian.Lucius Murorua, local lawyer for the Palazzolo family, has specifically denied all these and other charges against his clients and demanded that a retraction of the original article in The Namibian be published.He also said international diamond dealer Rappaport Diamonds has blacklisted Avilla and Marbella, as well as their Cape Town-based Von Palace Cutting Works, leading to severe financial losses for his clients.When The Namibian refused to apologise, Palazzolo and his two sons, Christopher and Peter, filed several lawsuits for alleged defamation, claiming damages amounting R7 million.Palazzolo is also claiming N$2 million from this reporter in his personal capacity for the same article published in the South African Mail & Guardian, but has not issued any summons against that newspaper.All claims are being opposed.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist: 081 240 1587The deal was said to have included all furniture, fittings and household goods for the newly built, Cape-styled house, situated on a property (Remainder of Erf 3366) measuring 1 204 square metres.Final transfer of the property was done on April 27, according to same Deeds Office records. The previous owner (name withheld) could not be reached for comment on the sale of the house.Palazzolo also previously partly owned the farms Omburo-Sued outside Omaruru, as well as Klein Omaramba and Ezeru outside Okahandja.All three farms have subsequently been transferred to other people closely associated with Palazzolo’s business dealings.Palazzolo came to local media attention in mid-March after it emerged that his son Peter had been appointed a director in Avilla Investments, which held a licence to buy rough diamonds for polishing by another related company, Marbella Investments.Zackey Nefungo Nujoma, youngest son of former President Sam Nujoma, served as local director of both these companies before the controlling shareholding was transferred to Ocean Diamond Mining Ltd in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.Palazzolo controls a number of other companies that are also registered in the BVI, some of which reportedly also have interests in Namibia’s booming uranium industry.Nujoma Jr has denied any knowledge of his partners’ alleged Mafia criminal connections or any wrong-doing under Namibia’s Diamond Act, which forbids the transfer of shares to other parties without the written approval of the Minister of Mines and Energy.No such approval was ever given, according to Namibian Diamond Commissioner Kennedy Hamutenya.Hamutenya subsequently confirmed that both licences were suspended, and the matter handed over to the Nampol Diamond Branch for further investigation.Officials from the Organised Crime Unit in the Office of the Prosecutor General have also expressed interest in the matter, but said before the long-awaited Organised Crime and Money Laundering Bill was not brought before parliament by Justice Minister (and Attorney General) Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, they could not fully prosecute the matter.Palazzolo had assumed the name ‘Von Palace-Kolbatschenko’ back in 1987 when he was helped by former South African National Party functionaries to settle in the former black homeland Ciskei after fleeing from jail in Lugano, Switzerland, on December 26 1986, where he was awaiting trail for charges related to money laundering.Palazzolo, who will be turning 60 on July 31, was subsequently convicted and sentenced to five years in jail by the Lugano court.Arrested in late 1988 by Swiss investigators, he then served about half that sentence before somehow managing to gain entry back into South Africa in 1992, from where the authorities have since failed to have him expelled.In July last year, the Palermo Tribunal in Italy – a specialised court dealing with organised crime – sentenced Palazzolo in absentia to nine years in jail in terms of Article 416 of the Italian penal code.Palazzolo’s Cape Town-based lawyer Norman Schnitzer at the time was quoted in the Cape Argus as saying that his client “rejected the verdict” and that it amounted only to a transgression of “some obscure laws” in Italy.But the original Order of Preventive Detention issued by Judge for Preliminary Investigations Dr Alfredo Montalto of the Court of Palermo on November 26 1998 painted a different picture.A copy of this legally translated and authenticated document (in possession of The Namibian) shows that Palazzolo is considered to be the main money launderer of the Cosa Nostra.”The present request concerns one of the most important (and obscure) members of the ‘Cosa Nostra’ criminal organization: Palazzolo Vito Salvatore, born in Terrasini (PA), who has been a member of Mafia organisations for more than 20 years,” Judge Montalto’s order read.”He played a prominent role by liaising between the business world and the above-mentioned criminal organisation, with the main objective of letting Cosa Nostra manage and re-invest capitals which were obtained through illegal activities in Italy and overseas,” Judge Montalto wrote.The Italian Judge then goes on to detail Palazzolo’s role in laundering the proceeds from the so-called ‘Pizza Connection’, which netted the Cosa Nostra an estimated US$750 million from the importing and distribution of heroin in the United States during the early 1980s.A copy of Criminal Docket for Case#: 1:84-cr-00236-DC-39, filed with US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Foley Square) against New York mobster Ganci et al showed that Palazzolo is still wanted for trial there.Palazzolo specifically is charged with nine counts of conspiracy to distribute and posses heroin, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to violate the currency laws, false statements, false claims and statements, failure to file currency reports and racketeering and conspiracy, according to a copy of this record obtained by The Namibian.Lucius Murorua, local lawyer for the Palazzolo family, has specifically denied all these and other charges against his clients and demanded that a retraction of the original article in The Namibian be published.He also said international diamond dealer Rappaport Diamonds has blacklisted Avilla and Marbella, as well as their Cape Town-based Von Palace Cutting Works, leading to severe financial losses for his clients.When The Namibian refused to apologise, Palazzolo and his two sons, Christopher and Peter, filed several lawsuits for alleged defamation, claiming damages amounting R7 million.Palazzolo is also claiming N$2 million from this reporter in his personal capacity for the same article published in the South African Mail & Guardian, but has not issued any summons against that newspaper.All claims are being opposed.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist: 081 240 1587