Countermine, Green Libya, BLU-97s and the smell of rats

[Andy Smith]

That title caught your eye, eh? This is by way of being a cautionary tale to anyone who is approached to work in Libya right now.

 

Some of you may know a little about the Swedish company Countermine Technologies AB (CMT) – with its heavyweight mechanical Oracle demining system that is supposed to leave safe farmland behind it. It doesn’t work of course, and the original Swedish company went bankrupt having misled investors to draw in funds of over 40 million Euros.

 

Countermine had Oracle in Libya in the old days – failing to perform quite dramatically. I was harassed by their Lars Nylin at the time – who did not like my undiplomatic laughter. I was also quizzed by some of their investors, who had begun to see the cracks. What could I say? Promises of high returns were just absurd to anyone with any real knowledge of demining. Meanwhile, Nylin claimed to have started Humanitarian Demining in the ‘80s and to know everything about HMA – including the “fact” that a single pass of his machine was clearance to IMAS standards. His IMAS claims were part of the justification I made for the recent revision of the mechanical IMAS – removing the kind of ambiguity he was relying on.

 

So, starting in 2005, Lars Nylin deceived some reputable institutional investors (such as: Lansdowne, RAB Capital, Fidelity) in London and managed to recruit an impressive Board of non-executives including distinguished former military men such as 3 star Swedish General Johan Kihl and the UK Air Marshal Sir John Walker. Nylin claimed to be the inventor of Oracle, he claimed to hold patents, claimed he had been a senior military man in the Swedish armed forces and had two degrees from reputable Swedish universities including a masters in engineering, and so on. All claims were later exposed as either gross exaggerations or direct lies. None so big a lie as the claim that the Oracle machine needed no follow up and could take out dense AT and AP mine-lines cleanly. Investors like Sir John are understandably annoyed to have lost both money and credibility and are actively seeking redress. 

 

Having tangled with him, it was no surprise to me when on 26 August 2009, Countermine Technologies AB issued a press release stating that Lars Nylin had been dismissed for misleading the Board and for serious financial irregularities. It was a surprise to hear that, on 26 October 2009, Lars Nylin sent a letter to the major CMT investors and CMT’s advisers, including their auditors, lawyers and bankers. Nylin’s letter claimed that CMT had secured contracts in Libya by bribing people in the Libyan government. He had, but this was a surprise because he does not seem to have realised that he was confessing to having given the bribes himself - and that his letter would lead to him being investigated for corruption by the Swedish police. Darwin award coming!

 

...except that it worked in so far as his letter was part of the revelations that led to the collapse of the Countermine Technologies company.

 

Allegations of bribery are not the only legal case rising from the dust. Last year, a well publicised case against CMT executives was brought by wealthy Swedish investor Erik Penser who felt he had been “swindled” by false claims about Oracle and lucrative demining contracts that Nylin had reported to the Board but which did not exist. This attracted a lot of publicity in the Swedish press (Di.se, E24, SVD, Dagens Nyheter, Affarsvalden etc), including a 3 part TV news story. Because I had dealt with them in Libya (at arm’s length) I was contacted by the journalist involved at that time – the TV programme is on the web in Swedish (if anyone wants to watch it, ask me for the URL – it includes nice pictures of Oracle failing its Libyan army test with dramatic tiller damage).

 

Apparently, a hundred small shareholders have lodged a complaint with ‘Ekobrottsmyndigheten’ (The Swedish Economic Crime Authority). I am also told that the British SFO and also Crown Prosecution Service have files on CMT and are aware of the activities of Nylin. He was arrested in August 2010 by the Metropolitan Police in London for “hacking” into Sir John’s emails (see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038682/Hackers-steal-secrets-500m-deal-clear-WW2-landmines-intelligence-chief.html) and for theft from CMT’s London HSBC bank account.

 

So, with lots of people squealing, Nylin got booted out - and Countermine as we knew it died. But Nylin secured the backing of another wealthy Swedish man, Tord Cederlund, and bought CMT from the liquidator. You have to hand it to Nylin, he’s a great con-man! Then Nylin returned to Libya and tried to get a truly absurd US$180 million contract approved through LMAC while I was there. That failed, thankfully. And now, Cederlund may have belatedly recognised his mistake...  after Nylin crossed from Libya to Turkey and left both TDI and Turkish investors demanding redress from Cederlund. The demonic-duo are currently back in Libya... which is why I have an interest. Their original right hand man Nezar Saleh Abulail (an Egyptian who makes Nylin look straight) is part of the current scene too.

 

As usual, it can be hard to keep up with the name changes of dodgy companies that die and are reborn. Is there now a Countermine Libya Ltd and if so, where registered? Probably in London, sigh. Anyway, Nylin is involved in an NGO he has called The Conservatives Association for Environment Protection (CAEP) www.caeplibya.org. And with three companies, named TERRA Management Ltd, DPS Process System Integrators & Seismic Analysis Ltd and Apollo Separation Technology Ltd. Of greatest relevance here is a Libyan front company called Green Libya (also known as Green Sands) that is trying to attract investors. Nylin and his old Countermine sidekick Russ Bedford are on the website www.greenlibya.ly  I hear that this group has suckered a retired American Admiral into making a big investment – but don’t have a name to confirm that yet.

 

While I cannot check the veracity of all information, I have been told that Croats, Swedes, Brits and Libyans are currently (December 2012) keen to put Nylin on trial. I can say with certainty that this week the Swedish police have interviewed me about his corruption in Libya.

 

Coincidentally, I was also contacted by Green Libya’s front man – Sabri Ebdewi – this week and we skyped at length. He told me that under the Green Libya umbrella, Nylin and Bedford as Countermine Libya Ltd have apparently “won” a contract for BAC far in the East of the country, in an area that has rather poor security. Afraid to go there themselves, they have asked him to check around on Linkedin, Facebook, Skype, etc for any ex-pat with a visa who will go there for them to lead their (yet to be trained) BAC team - starting on 15th December. He asked me to go there to do it – and seemed untroubled by the fact that I am not an EOD tech. Sad really, but I guess he is desperate. 

 

The job is in two parts. The first part is 69k long and 20m wide = 1380,000 sqm – following a utility pipeline (sewage). The second part is another area of 180,000 sqm. Altogether, 1560,000 sqm and all must be completed within 45 days of starting. Off the top of your head now... Okay, this is surface visual BAC. Presuming there is little contamination but the land has no undergrowth or rubble to be searched – at least 50 men working every day for 45 days might do it (not counting supervisors and support staff). So at least 60 people who know what they are doing on a six-week contract with no breaks and at short notice... for a price of LD200k all in, including all vehicles, equipment, insurance etc, etc. No, not possible.

 

Of course, if you do the pipeline by driving along it in a pickup and “spotting” ordnance – and if you “clear” any munitions by simply moving them outside your area – you can speed all this up and cover the whole job with a handful of men and vehicles. Sounds crazy? Well its what the oil companies have accepted as clearance on their seismic lines in Libya for years. If that’s what the oilies want, that’s fine for them, but its not “clearance” as defined in the IMAS. I cannot be alone when I say that it should never be accepted in HMA – especially if you know the client is going to dig and build there.

 

Since his last (failed) attempt to get a demining contract in Libya involved detecting minimum metal mines over large areas using a seismic tomography array that would not detect anything smaller than an oilfield – it may be that this bid is another scam using demining to conceal oil survey work (which some of his other pseudo “companies” are involved in). Really, the man’s labyrinth of “interests” can only be calculated to bemuse anyone following a single thread.

 

I am telling you all this because I believe that there is good reason to think that anyone taking a job with Nylin would be expected to do the work without the time or resources to be professional. When you fail, it will be your fault, naturally, and I predict that both Nylin and the money will have evaporated. Since he is reliably reported to be “close” with the Swedish attaché in Benghazi - he must know that the net is closing.

 

So my advice is - approach any work offer from this lot with the same caution as you would approach an armed BLU-97 (and deal with it similarly). I do know that some of you have already smelt a rat – and just want to be sure that everyone knows the smell is genuine.

 

Regards

Andy

 

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