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A thief has evaded one of the world's most expensive high-tech security systems and made off with €21 million ($40 milion) worth of diamonds - thanks to a secret weapon rarely used on bank staff: personal charm.
In what may be the biggest robbery committed by one person, the conman burgled safety-deposit boxes at an ABN Amro bank in Antwerp's diamond quarter, stealing gems weighing 120,000 carats.
Posing as a successful businessman, the thief visited the bank frequently, befriending staff and gradually winning their confidence. He even brought them chocolates.
Now, embarrassed bank staff in Belgium's second city are wondering how they had been hoodwinked into giving a man with a false Argentine passport access to their vaults.
The suspect had been a regular customer at the bank for the past year, giving his name as Carlos Hector Flomenbaum from Argentina.
The authorities, who have offered a €2 million reward for information leading to an arrest, now know that a passport in that name was stolen in Israel a few years ago.
Although not familiar to the local diamond dealers, the conman became one of several trusted traders given an electronic card to access the bank vault. The heist, believed to have been more than a year in the planning, has astounded diamond dealers.
Philip Claes, spokesman for the Diamond High Council in Antwerp, said the area had been fitted with a security system costing more than €1 million. The lesson, he said, was that "when a human error is made nothing can help".
- INDEPENDENT
