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---
tags: ["Person", "Arms Dealer", "Smuggler", "BCCI"]
---
Munther Ismael Bilheisi was an expatriate [[Jordan|Jordanian]] involved in coffee smuggling, arms dealing, customs violations, money laundering, and paying bribes and kickbacks.[^1] He maintained lavishly appointed residences in England, Spain, Jordan, and the United States.[^2] Bilheisi's activities were closely tied to the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], which facilitated his illicit operations.
### Business Operations
Bilheisi ran a formidable smuggling operation out of Boca Raton from 1982 to 1986, with BCCI acting as a full partner in the fraud. The bank financed his purchases and helped falsify documents to deceive [[U.S. Customs Service]] officials.[^3] His business was so valuable to BCCI that the bank opened a Boca Raton branch in 1983 specifically to service his account.[^4] BCCI provided $105 million in financing and letters of credit to support his operations.[^5]
He was involved in coffee smuggling, buying non-agreement coffee at cheap prices and selling it illegally to agreement countries like the United States, thereby pocketing a huge profit.[^6] BCCI provided services such as financing shipments and doctoring shipping documents for these operations.[^7]
Bilheisi also engaged in illegal arms dealing. In 1974, he brokered British-made Centurion tanks and Tigercat missiles from Jordan to South Africa, defying British national policy.[^8] Other deals included retrofitting Jordanian tanks, selling small arms to Honduras and El Salvador, and selling U.S.-built F-86Safra jet fighters from Yugoslavia to Honduras.[^9]
### Financial Manipulations and Legal Issues
Bilheisi used BCCI's services to move and hide his wealth. When his wife petitioned for divorce in 1984, BCCI officers helped him transfer funds to secret numbered accounts in [[Nassau]] and [[Panama]] to conceal them from his wife and her attorneys.[^10] He also used phony Panamanian coffee companies to evade U.S. income tax.[^11]
He made two false claims against [[Lloyd's of London]], one for alleged art theft and another for a coffee shipment. These claims led [[James Dougherty]] to investigate Bilheisi's business activities, uncovering his connections to BCCI and its illicit operations.[^12]
In August 1991, Bilheisi was indicted in the United States for failure to pay $840,000 in taxes, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.[^13] He was also charged with corruption in Guatemala, with a warrant issued for his extradition and arrest.[^14]
## Footnotes
[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 8.
[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 238.
[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 239.
[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 239.
[^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 239.
[^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 238.
[^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 245.
[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 238.
[^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 238.
[^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 246.
[^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 247.
[^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 240.
[^13]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 242.
[^14]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 242.
[^15]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 243.