Anchored to Hope: My Time My Story

By Fred Isaac Nassif

This book had me from the very first page. I remember the emotional roller coaster I had to overcome before I had the courage to fight back. There was betrayal at the highest level by the people I less expected. Dropping the ball in life doesnt mean that your old colleagues and friends would stand side by side with you, especially when life decides to bring a little adversity and drama your way. The next thing you know, you wake up one morning and everything is suddenly gone. You ask yourself, Is this reality or just a horrible dream?

Growing up, I thought I was untouchable, surrounded by a circle of friends who were talented, inspiring, and successful. On the other end were a new group of people slowly inviting themselves into my life, each one of them I had not met, but somehow, someone had put them there in their positions. I found myself losing control as my journey continued to come crashing in on me. One thing I can say is, I never forgot my roots and values. As each chapter unfolds, you will see how this book intensifies. Forget your favorite TV programs because this book has it all. My business partner and I will take you far beyond the norm. Who is this person that I put my trust in? How far will he go to achieve whatever it was he had planned? Is this man narcissistic, or is he just pure evil? How much can one person take before he finally explodes? Watch and see how this person lures me into countries that are known for their dangerous shoresfrom naval bases to South African embassies, from courtrooms to dungeons, inclusive of two separate trials. See how the media uninvitingly make their presence felt. See the corruption surrounding the police with evidence being falsified. One lesson that I learned about myself after continuously being exposed to things beyond my control was that in life, whatever doesnt kill you will definitely make you stronger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: May 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543409109

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Fred Isaac Nassif.

ISBN:                  Softcover                     978-1-5434-0911-6

                            eBook                           978-1-5434-0910-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/28/2018

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1     Why Me?

Chapter 2     The Meeting

Chapter 3     The Business Deal

Chapter 4     Sydney Bound

Chapter 5     Incarcerated

Chapter 6     Out of the Picture

Chapter 7     Released

Chapter 8     The Trap

Chapter 9     The Lie

Chapter 10   Joburg

Chapter 11   Nerves

Chapter 12   Prettoria

Chapter 13   Dubai

Chapter 14   Airport Free Zone

Chapter 15   The Deposit

Chapter 16   South African Embassy Abu Dhabi

Chapter 17   Reason

Chapter 18   The Officials Wife

Chapter 19   Panicked

Chapter 20   Fed Up

Chapter 21   Relocated

Chapter 22   Lebanon

Chapter 23   Heading Back

Chapter 24   Jumeirah

Chapter 25   Unconcious Behaviour

Chapter 26   The Dungeon

Chapter 27   Trials

Chapter 28   Trial No 1

Chapter 29   Mixed Emotions

Chapter 30   The Appeal

Chapter 31   Homecoming

Chapter 32   Federal Police

Chapter 33   Media and Other Victims

Chapter 34   Gang Stalkers

Chapter 35   The Golden Sun

CHAPTER 1

Why Me?

I remember my mum telling me to hurry up and answer the door. My mate Tony had been standing there for a while. After apologising, I rushed down my hallway and into his waiting arms. He seemed stressed and quite serious. I asked him what was wrong, and he screamed the name of a very good business friend of ours: Johnny.

Now Johnny was the guy who could make things happen at any hour on any given day of the week, especially when it came to mixing with the big boys: the corporate. I mean Johnny was a very experienced and licenced debt collector mediator.

Tony had just finished explaining that Johnny had been standing him up and not returning his calls, and when he did, he continually postponed their meetings. This was why I had a surprise visit at home. Johnny had once trained me in his line of work. I was unlicenced but passionate and had wanted a career in this field. The fact that I had had a chequered past with the authorities made it difficult for me to obtain my own licences. But a gentleman and ex-police officer from Melbourne, named David, had met me through our line of work and sponsored me under his business as a subcontractor and mediator. So I had a provisional way of working in this field. As long as David overlooked all of this and signed off on the jobs I agreed to and I was capable of, he would allow me to start the procedure.

This brings me back to my visitor, Tony. I asked my mum to put the coffee on and decided to listen to this job that Tony needed Johnny for. Tony began to tell me about his mate Christopher Stone, who was a family guy and a clever businessman. He explained about Christopher’s contracted work in various M2 tunnels around Sydney, the Central Business District, and so on. He had met a team of guys up north years earlier and invested some money into a business deal which had gone pear shaped. I remember Tony saying, Freddy, you can do this, but I told him that Johnny was a better choice. Tony had had enough of Johnny’s availabilities and decided that I was his guy. So I began to explain to Tony what David had taught me about the game and how Johnny had trained me. I explained that he would have to set up a meeting with the client, we would need expenses to travel up north, and a percentage would be required upon the job’s successful completion.

I also made a quite unusual move, which was to invite Tony to partner up with me to oversee the job that was not part of the training but was important to me as I didn’t want to screw this up.

All this David had agreed upon, as he was the licence person.

CHAPTER 2

The Meeting

It was raining this Tuesday morning, and all I can remember is Tony’s wife and kids beeping at me in the car to hurry up. I could hear Tony yelling, We’ve got an early flight to the sunshine coast! That was the only good thing I could hear.

Tony’s wife had been nice enough to put her hand up to rush us out to the airport and make her way back into the suburbs to get the older kids to school. We were all excited as the confidence in the car was pretty high. I remember the kids asking their dad what they wanted, and I remember my own son telling me, Daddy, don’t come back without something.

That was enough for me. I loved whenever my son called from his mum’s and gave me my ultimatum. He was everything to me, even though I was a bit of a screw-up. I still always wanted to please him and his mother and make her days a little easier. My ex-wife really was a great mother.

The traffic was doing its normal thing. We were on schedule, and now I was starting to revisit my training and my notes. The job was being played out in my mind as how I would approach this man, Ted Lewis. He was in his mid-fifties, apparently, well spoken, very astute, and clever, so I was hoping firstly we had the right address and information and everything would fall into place. Like the job Tony heard Sean and I had landed in Melbourne just weeks earlier for a good mate of mine who worked in a very big Sydney firm. He had put me to test. I nailed it but had help from David, the ex-policeman from Melbourne, who would become my sponsor as he had retired from the police force years earlier and had become, like many police officers, a private investigator.

I had been given his number in Melbourne to help me through my contacts and with David’s information five minutes before my meeting in Melbourne allowed me the golden road into their office and made this feel like the best and easiest job.

Anyway, enough of my previous victory, job, and intro of David. It was back to my notes, and before too long, the kisses were going on. We had arrived at the Sydney airport. Tony was giving his final orders to his kids regarding the behaviour he expected whilst he was away.

We had been put on the morning flight into Brisbane with a short stopover and then connecting flight into the Sunshine Coast. Things were fantastic for both Tony and me as we had partnered up. I, being the more experienced, shared all my ideas regarding how I would like to approach. Ronan added some pointers. We spoke tactics before agreeing on just knocking on the door. The hire car had just found the street, and now we were staring at this humble three-bedroom home with a double garage. We parked the car adjacent to the house and sat calmly for a few minutes. Then I asked Tony to walk across the road and check the letter box. He came back and nodded. He had found the letters of the name Ted inside and gave me the all-clear. I was wearing my Hugo Boss suit, and Tony had on his best bit of clothing. Together, we decided it would be best for me to approach as I was the mouthpiece. It was almost that easy, as though he had been tipped off. This guy, Ted Lewis, answered the door pleasantly and swiftly. I gave our intro with company name and protocol followed.

Now Ted was the person described by notes. He was polite and well-spoken and seemed unsurprised but a little nervous—until I heard someone scream out in an old lady’s voice, Who’s there?

I stepped back and asked who that was. He said he lived with his elderly mother and his autistic sister. In my training, I was taught that families should be left alone, so I quickly asked him for an alternative meeting spot. He suggested a coffee shop in town. Ronan and I agreed. It would take ten minutes for him to make the trek down the road to it.

CHAPTER 3

The Business Deal

Ted was there on time. He was off to a great start. He came down and brought some papers with him. I began to run through the money owed. He agreed it was his debt plus the debt of former business owners who had forged his signature. He agreed he would meet the bill owed but needed time.

He began to tell me about alternative ways that could not only pay my clients but also put extra dollars into my and Tony’s pockets plus the pockets of any other investors who would be interested. Years earlier, I had been involved in investing money with close ties to the growing Sydney construction game. Some of my old footy and school buddies had some thriving development companies around Newtown, Mascot, and Erskenville. They had enjoyed what Sydney had been doing over the last five to ten years (from 2008 to 2014). It was doubling with many overseas students starting to make their way into Sydney. And infrastructures being approved meant Sydney was really the place to have kids so families relocated. Ted began to tell me about his close ties with Africa and his partnership with his long-time lawyer buddy from Ghana, Zachary Watts, who was a solicitor and mining guru in the gold there. Now this was starting to get bigger. I remember pausing Ted and having a short discussion with Tony about allowing Ted a visit to Sydney and deliver a presentation with a few buddies of mine. We agreed, and that meant this simple debt recovery had now been relocated to a view of Ted’s business deal and proposal.

CHAPTER 4

Sydney Bound

Early on Saturday morning, Tony, my cousin Adam, my buddy Gargs, and I had been discussing Ted’s arrival. Now these were the guys I’d arranged to meet Ted. I organized the Brighton Hotel foyer as the setting for Ted’s business proposal. Ted began to tell us about his time in Africa, including how he had formed alliances with the different tribes and village chiefs. He was able to do all this because of this long-time business partner, Zachary Watts, who had been a lawyer there for years and had the contacts throughout South Africa and other parts of Africa. Ted made it clear that if I was able to assist and get on board, he would expect someone to travel with him. No secrets.

He would make sure he would show the nominated person everything from the lawyer’s contracts in Ghana to the travel itinerary throughout Africa. Ted’s basic proposal was gold bought from the village chiefs at each mine and gold to the refineries in Ghana basically Ted had asked for 80k for 1 week with the return of 150k at the same time he would pay the debt of 250k to my client which I originally travelled up north to the Sunshine Coast, I told Ted I would discuss this over lunch with the guys and would have my decision some time soon after we made appropriate searches and had David the boss check him out besides a few minor things about him in the media one of the guys my cousin Adam had decided to take on the investment 80k for 70k return. We then discussed who would travel now myself being separated from my ex wife I was living with my beautiful mother and I thought I would be best suited. It was starting to become the job that had no training for investing with a guy who already owed money but seemed extremely confident and couldn’t wait to show himself off abroad so there it was myself and Ted, the Gay gentleman from the Sunshine coast in Queensland with a profile that had his company registered in Australia and Africa. I have a history of a little impulsion and a little bit of a punter hence once being a holder of a black card in the exclusive city casino in Sydney and Queensland.

My late father whom I adored Isaac was a quite busy punter in between being a hard worker with the Sydney state