Simexco and Simex

was responsible for creating Simexco after the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company was seized during the occupation of Belgium In the autumn of 1940, the Simexco firm was established by GRU officer Anatoly Gurevich and Belgian businessman Nazarin Drailly, who was the firm's main shareholder. The firm was officially registered by March 1941, when it opened in two offices at 192 Rue Royale in Brussels. Simexco located at 192 rue Royale in Brussels was established as a genuine business with an absolutely firm legal status that was recognised as conservative in its approach by German service departments. On the recommendation of the administrative staff at the Abwehr IIIF. Ast. military command, it was granted long distance, telegram communication, telephone and fax facilities by the German authorities that provided a regular and privileged way for Trepper and Gurevich to communicate. Gurevich became a director of the business. According to the article of incorporation, the main investor was Nazarine Drailly, a Belgian communist and informer, who invested 218,500 Belgian Francs in the firm. Drailly was fully aware of the companies true purpose and actively took part in operations. Margarete (or Marguerite) Barcza, the daughter of a Czech millionaire, who lived with Gurevich, helped to find additional shareholders among her bridge club. These shareholders were Florida nightclub owner, Robert Christen, travelling salesman Jean Passelecq, the publisher Henri de Ryck, who was a friend of Gurevich and Henri Seghers, the owner of a cigarette factory. ==Simex==

In autumn 1940, Simex opened its office, in two rooms above the Le Lido next to 78 Champs-Élysées in Paris, and opposite the offices of Organisation Todt, the German military engineering organisation, who would become its best customer. It took almost a year of work, starting in the autumn of 1940 for Léon Grossvogel and Hillel Katz to register the business with the Paris Commercial Court on 26 September 1940. Its name was a metonym for S for Societe, IM for Import, EX for Export. Trepper who used the alias Monsieur Gilbert in his dealings with the firm and several members of staff used the company to obtain special permits that allowed them to cross demarcation lines to observe the progress of construction. Although Trepper became one of the main directors and general manager of the firm, using the alias Monsieur Jean Gilbert when dealing with any of the employees, he was not a shareholder. and Robert Breyer, a friend of Grossvogel who was the other shareholder. In the day-to-day operations of the business, both Trepper in the role of Monsieur Gilbert and Grossvogel, an industrialist who does business always on the go, are ignored by office staff. The most important of the permanent staff was Suzanne Cointe, who was considered by Trepper to be our man at Simex. Trepper kept accurate note of spending, that had to be accounted for by Soviet intelligence. Corbin, an experienced businessman, had been recruited by Katz. In February 1942, the company moved to 3rd floor offices at 89 Boulevard Haussmann at the insistence of Alfred Corbin, who believed their current location was rife with thieves. ==Expenses==

Both the Simex and Simexco companies flourished and made substantial profits in return. In 1941, the net profits of both Simex and Simexco reached 1,616,000 Francs and in 1942, 1,614,000, after the costs of running the network were deducted. Trepper kept strict accounts as he had to submit them to Moscow for audit. His group were paid in dollars, the traditional currency used by Moscow for their agents. In 1939, Trepper received 350 dollars a month, but this was cut to 275 dollars a month, when his wife and children were in Russia. His agents, Makarov, Gurevich and Grossvogel each initially received 175 dollars a month, before it also upped to 275 dollars. Trepper also had to account for monies spent in each location where a group operated. From 1 June to 31 December, Trepper spent 5650 dollars in Brussels and 9421 dollars in Paris. These were only for daily expenses. Trepper used the money earned from Simex and Simexco to spend lavishly. This spend included bribes and money for the upkeep of the Château de Billeron and large daily expenses to maintain the veneer of a successful businessman. Trepper kept the accounts locked in a large clock in house at Verviers. To insure against financial ruin, he kept a special reserve of monies in the form of 1000 gold dollars in jars at a house of a trusted agent. ==Discovery and arrest==

On 13 December 1941, the German radio counterintelligence organisation, Funkabwehr, discovered the safehouse apartment at 101 Rue des Atrébates in Brussels, that led to the arrest and among others of Gurevich's radio operator, Red Army Lieutenant Anton Danilov. Gurevich himself hid in the house of Nazarin Drailly to evade the Gestapo, while he made arrangements to transfer ownership of the organisation to Drailly, On the 19 November 1942, the offices of Simexco was raided by the Gestapo after several months of surveillance. The Simex office in Paris was raided in the same day. When the Gestapo entered the Simexco office they found only one person, a clerk, but managed to discover all the names and addresses of Simexco employees and shareholders from company records. The prisoners in St. Gilles were sent to Berlin by train, ==Notes==