Mike Bloomberg told a Manhattan jury yesterday how he played out his own James Bond adventure, joining federal agents for a trans-Atlantic undercover operation to nab a Russian-speaking computer hacker who allegedly threatened his media company.
“I was there working with the FBI and Scotland Yard to put him [the hacker] in jail,” the crimefighter-turned-mayor recounted.
Wearing a black trench coat and leather gloves, Bloomberg joked outside court, “There’s a lot of similarities between Sean Connery and myself.”
But the mayor revealed, during 110 minutes of somber testimony, that it wasn’t all high jinks and shaken martinis playing the role of undercover agent.
Bloomberg’s arch enemy was computer whiz Oleg Zezev, of Kazakhstan, who allegedly broke into the state-of-the-art computer system at his media company, Bloomberg LP, in March 2000, government prosecutors say.
Initially using the e-mail address, bloomberg_mike@hotmail.com, Zezev, 29, told Bloomberg in his first e-mail he wanted to be paid for telling him how to fix the security flaws of his computer system, prosecutors say.
The mayor, who rarely looked at Zezev throughout his testimony, said he thought the e-mail was an extortion attempt – as blatant as a common thief breaking into his home and demanding cash.
“When it looks like somebody has broken into your house and left a letter to get money, you call the police – that’s what I did,” he said, under questioning from prosecutor Paul Radvany.
Bloomberg said he spent five months “collaborating” with the FBI and responding to e-mails sent by Zezev in a bid to help track him down.
With a promise to pay $200,000, Bloomberg eventually lured his alleged enemy in August 2000, to a room at the Hilton Hotel Park Lane in London, where Scotland Yard detectives posing as Bloomberg LP employees arrested Zezev and his lawyer, Igor Yarimaka.
But like the final climatic scene in a Bond flick, Bloomberg’s relief turned to shock two days after the arrests when he received two more threatening e-mails, demanding to know what happened to Zezev and Yarimaka.
“You should give the information on my people. If it do not happen, I begin severe measures against you!!!” one of the e-mails said.
Prosecutors believe the e-mails were sent from somebody working with Zezev, but no one has been arrested.
TALE OF THE TAPE
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
Age: 60
Height: 5-foot-10, or so he claims
Hair: Silver-gray and receding
Education: MBA from Harvard
Worth: $4 billion
Claims to fame: Self-made billionaire; Mayor of New York City
Women in his life: current squeeze Diana Taylor, Susan Brown (ex-wife), Diana Ross, Marisa Berenson, Barbara Walters.
Why chicks dig him: Money, power, that impish smile.
Current kharma: No smoking!
Notable quotes: On whether he smoked dope: “You bet I did. And I enjoyed it.”
SEAN CONNERY
Age: 72
Height: 6-foot-2
Hair: Bald and doesn’t care who knows it.
Education: High school dropout
Worth: $110 million
Claims to fame: the original Agent 007; Oscar-winning actor
Women in his life: wed to painter Micheline Roquebrune; Diane Cilento (ex-wife)
Why chicks dig him: Bond, James Bond.
Current kharma: Still smokin’ hot!
Notable quote: “Being asked to play Bond was like asking a boy who was crazy about cars if he would like a Jaguar for a present.”