Details of Missing Cruiser After 6 Years

The FBI agents based in New York who are assigned to the Russian organised crime task force have joined the federal investigation into the disappearance of George Smith IV. The young Connecticut resident was on a honeymoon cruise at the time of his disappearance July 5, 2005. The news was revealed by the family’s lawyer Michael Jones.

Smith’s family believes now that the 26-year-old fell victim to foul play after being escorted from the disco on the Royal Caribbean ship to his cabin. The group included a college student from California and three Russian-Americans with ties in Brooklyn. Jones says the family believes his disappearance was a robbery-gone-bad. This is contrary to their initial suspicions that Jennifer Hagel, the bride, had played a part in the disappearance.

Jones also revealed that details of the internal investigation by the cruise line were previously undisclosed. One of these details was that Josh Askin, the 20-year-old college student at the time, failed a polygraph test by FBI agents when asked about his contact with Smith and the three Russian-Americans on the night in question. Askin also repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination when Jones questioned him in a deposition about if he had killed Smith or knew who had.

Jones noted that Hagel and Lloyd Botha, the manager of the casino on the ship, both passed polygraph tests from the FBI. The pair had been accused by Askin of getting cozy in the disco on the night of Smith’s disappearance.

Askin’s lawyer, Kieth Greer, says that his client has testified to a federal grand jury in Connecticut that he and three Russian-Americans were in the room with Smith before his disappearance. The morning of the discovery, Askin answered a public-address summons from the Brilliance of the Seas crew, who were interviewing Hagel already. Jones says that, after overhearing her being asked where Smith could be, Askin randomly questioned if blood was found outside his cabin. This was asked before it was even known that a smear of blood was on an awning under the cabin balcony. However, Greer denies his client asked the question.

Jones also said that Askin was overheard on an elevator just hours before the disappearance telling his girlfriend that Smith had $50,000 in his cabin and that Hagel had been playing $200 hands of blackjack. Greer denies his client was involved in the disappearance or knows what happened to him. He also says Askin pleaded the Fifth on his advice after being threatened by federal agents that he would be prosecuted if he deviated from the grand-jury testimony.

The three Russian-Americans involved in the investigation are Rostislav “Rusty” Kofman and cousins Greg and Zachary Rozenberg. Zachary Rozenberg’s lawyer, Arthur Gershfeld, says Smith’s disappearance didn’t have anything to with his client or the other two boys. The authorities will, at one point, realise that there was no criminal act or wrongdoing involved in the disappearance, he added.