The Litvinenko Inquiry

Part 4 | Chapters 1 to 6 | Why would anyone wish to kill Alexander Litvinenko?
4.118 As we shall see, this would not be the last occasion on which Mr Lugovoy would
provide Mr Litvinenko with substandard material when purportedly assisting him in
making enquiries into Russian targets.
4.119 Mr Quirke’s evidence was that he had one further formal meeting with Mr Litvinenko
and Mr Lugovoy. That meeting took place on 17 October 2006. 115 Also present on that
occasion was Mr Kovtun. I shall return to that meeting in due course.
Erinys/Titon
4.120 The other two London private security companies with which Mr Litvinenko became
involved in the last year of his life were linked to each other. The two companies
shared a director and also a suite of offices in Mayfair – offices that were to play an
important part in the events that led to Mr Litvinenko’s death.
4.121 Mr John Holmes, who gave oral evidence to the Inquiry, was a director of a large
multinational security company named Erinys International. He operated its UK
subsidiary, Erinys UK. He was assisted in doing so by Mr Tim Reilly, who was employed
by Erinys UK as a consultant. The major business of both Erinys companies was the
provision of physical security services to the oil industry. 116
4.122 Mr Holmes was also a co-director of an investigative due diligence business called
Titon International Limited. The other director, who managed the day to day work of
the company, was called Mr Dean Attew.
4.123 Both companies were based in offices at 25 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair.
4.124 Mr Attew’s evidence was that he first met Mr Litvinenko in 2004; thereafter the two men
became close personal friends and, latterly, business associates. 117 Mr Attew stated
that he saw Mr Litvinenko from time to time after they first met, and they became
friends, but that they did not start to work together until about six months before
Mr Litvinenko died – that is, about May 2006. It is clear that during those six months
the two men became even closer – Mr Attew said that Mr Litvinenko would often pop
into the Mayfair offices for a short chat – something that he sometimes did several
times a week. 118
4.125 Mr Attew described how another investigator for whom he sometimes worked needed
some enquiries conducted on Russian targets, and that he asked Mr Litvinenko to
undertake the work. He said that he probably requested the first of these reports from
Mr Litvinenko in August 2006. Mr Attew’s evidence was that Mr Litvinenko produced
a total of four due diligence reports. 119 It was apparent from the evidence of Mr Attew
and others that, as with the work that he did for Mr Quirke relating to Mr Gordeyev,
Mr Litvinenko obtained assistance from others in preparing these reports. For the first
draft of one of the reports, Mr Litvinenko sought assistance from Mr Lugovoy. For the
second draft of that report, and for all the others, Mr Litvinenko was assisted by Yuri
Shvets. 120
115
Quirke 11/86-87
116
Holmes 7/50-53
117
Attew 13/15-17
118
Attew 13/17-22
119
Attew 13/25-26; 13/28-32. (There was a small degree of inconsistency between the evidence of Mr Attew
and that of Mr Shvets as to the subjects of the reports, but I did not consider this inconsistency to be material.)
120
Attew 13/28-30
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