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@ -21,13 +21,13 @@ Bin Mahfouz personally owned approximately 20% of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce
### Indictment and Settlement
On July 1, 1992, Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] presented a New York state grand jury indictment naming bin Mahfouz and his associate Haroon Kahlon on charges of defrauding BCCI depositors and investors of $300 million and abetting a conspiracy by top BCCI officers to conceal the bank's true ownership and financial condition from regulators. Bin Mahfouz resigned as NCB chairman on or around July 8, 1992, to contest the charges. The Federal Reserve simultaneously moved against NCB's New York branch on grounds that Mahfouz had misled American regulators.[^2]
On July 1, 1992, Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] presented a New York state grand jury indictment naming bin Mahfouz and his associate Haroon Kahlon on charges of defrauding BCCI depositors and investors of $300 million and abetting a conspiracy by top BCCI officers to conceal the bank's true ownership and financial condition from regulators. Bin Mahfouz resigned as NCB chairman on or around July 8, 1992, to contest the charges. The [[Federal Reserve]] simultaneously moved against NCB's New York branch on grounds that Mahfouz had misled American regulators.[^2]
On December 23, 1993, bin Mahfouz agreed to pay $225 million to resolve all federal and New York state charges. The distribution was: $35 million to the U.S. Treasury, $1 million to New York State, $1 million to New York City, and $188 million to the BCCI settlement fund, bringing total BCCI-related recoveries to approximately $880 million. In exchange, Morgenthau's office and the Federal Reserve Board dropped all civil and criminal charges. Bin Mahfouz admitted no criminal guilt.[^2]
### PROMIS Connection
A document dated May 14, 1985, on [[Department of Justice]] letterhead and signed by [[William Bradford Reynolds]], Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, set out a covert plan to distribute espionage-modified [[PROMIS]] software in the Middle East. The letter states: "As agreed, Messrs. [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Adnan Khashoggi]], and [[Richard Armitage]] will broker the transaction of the PROMISE software to Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz for resale and general distribution as gifts in his region." The letter specified that the software must be "equipped with the special retrieval unit" and that "no paper work, customs, or delay" was to accompany the transfer, with all payments to be routed through accounts at Credit Suisse and [[National Commercial Bank]]. Reynolds authenticated the letter in 2005 interviews with INSLAW investigators, stating he had signed it at the request of personnel in Deputy Attorney General [[Lowell Jensen]]'s office while [[Edwin Meese]] was recused from all PROMIS-related matters.[^3][^4]
A document dated May 14, 1985, on [[Department of Justice]] letterhead and signed by [[William Bradford Reynolds]], Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, set out a covert plan to distribute espionage-modified [[PROMIS]] software in the [[Middle East]]. The letter states: "As agreed, Messrs. [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Adnan Khashoggi]], and [[Richard Armitage]] will broker the transaction of the PROMISE software to Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz for resale and general distribution as gifts in his region." The letter specified that the software must be "equipped with the special retrieval unit" and that "no paper work, customs, or delay" was to accompany the transfer, with all payments to be routed through accounts at Credit Suisse and [[National Commercial Bank]]. Reynolds authenticated the letter in 2005 interviews with INSLAW investigators, stating he had signed it at the request of personnel in Deputy Attorney General [[Lowell Jensen]]'s office while [[Edwin Meese]] was recused from all PROMIS-related matters.[^3][^4]
The document placed bin Mahfouz alongside Ghorbanifar and Khashoggi -- both of whom were simultaneously central to the arms-for-hostages pipeline that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] -- in a network brokering intelligence-modified software to the Middle East.