Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

“The Eigg Files” by Stephen Breen. 17 February, 1996

This is quite a long article, where the journalist, Stephen Breen, travels to Stuttgart. He tracked down the absentee landlord, and scam artist, Maruma. The ‘story’ is almost like the “Third Man” by Graham Greene; Holly Martins, an American author, arrives in post-World War II Vienna, seeking to track down his childhood friend, Harry Lime. Harry turned out to be a black market racketeer in fake penicillin. Maruma’s crimes were perhaps not so bad; nevertheless, he impacted the lives of innocents on the Isle of Eigg. 

I can’t help but draw a parallel to another scam artist, the corrupt businessman and insurrectionist, ‘Donald Herbert Hoover Trump’. Trump’s migrant, non-English-speaking mother, Mary MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Lewis, a crow’s flight away from Eigg. Of course, Maruma was only a relatively ‘small time’ scammer. But both Maruma and Donald are/were too ‘smart’ for their own good. Donald Hoover was ‘smart’ in that he could scam the banks into loaning him money on the basis of criminal assessments of the value of his real estate; similarly, Maruma obtained a bank loan on the basis of false value assessments. So far so good.

But then both put themselves into the public spotlight, by getting elected president; and by buying a Scottish island that would receive media attention, respectively. Not so smart! Maruma is perhaps not being ‘investigated’ anymore regarding his Scottish dealings. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case concerning Donald Hoover’s investments in Scotland, and Donald’s other criminal activities, although I haven’t researched recent developments.