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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A.Q. Khan.md Normal file
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---
category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs"
tags:
- Person
- Pakistan
- NuclearProliferation
- BCCI
- Kahuta
alias:
- Abdul Qadeer Khan
- A. Q. Khan
- A. Qadir Khan
summary: "Pakistani scientist associated with Pakistan's nuclear bomb program and its procurement network, and project director of the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute, which received BCCI grants."
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
relations:
- type: director_of
with: "[[Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute]]"
role: "project director"
fn: 4
---
Abdul Qadeer Khan was a [[Pakistan|Pakistani]] scientist "closely associated with Pakistan's efforts to build a nuclear bomb," in the words of the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate report]]. [[United States]] officials in the 1980s referred to the "Khan Laboratory's" gas centrifuge program and to a nuclear procurement network under his name, and tracked its purchases for the enrichment plant at [[Kahuta]]. They identified a [[Lahore]] firm, Multinational, as a procurement agent for his network, and in 1987 the arrest of its buyer [[Arshad Pervez]] in the United States exposed an attempt to obtain maraging steel and beryllium for Pakistan's program.[^1][^2][^3] Khan was project director of the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, to which, according to the Senate report, the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) gave 10 million dollars in grants in the late 1980s.[^3][^4]
### Kahuta and the Procurement Network
In 1979 the administration of [[Jimmy Carter]] suspended aid to Pakistan under the Symington amendment after discovering the Kahuta enrichment plan; in 1981 the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration obtained a five-year waiver from Congress because of Pakistan's role in channeling U.S. aid to the [[Mujahideen]] in [[Afghanistan]]. State Department telegrams of September and November 1985 show U.S. officials pressing [[West Germany]] over Pakistani agents seeking aluminum tubes for the Khan Laboratory's centrifuge program, and by fall 1986 the U.S. government regarded Multinational Inc. as a "procurement agent" for Khan's network. In May 1986 Representative [[Stephen Solarz]] told [[Zia ul-Haq]] that U.S. intelligence indicated Kahuta was enriching uranium to weapons grade, which Pakistani officials denied.[^2]
### The Pervez Case
Arshad Pervez, a native of Pakistan who had moved to [[Canada]] in 1967, ran an import-export business, A.P. Enterprises, in [[Toronto]]. In October 1986 he sought "maraging 350 steel," a high-strength steel used in gas centrifuge enrichment plants, from [[Carpenter Technology Corporation]] of Pennsylvania, whose staff alerted the [[Nuclear Regulatory Commission]] and the [[U.S. Customs|United States Customs Service]]. Pervez named his client as Inam Ul-Haq of Multinational Corporation of Lahore. He offered a series of end uses, among them a research project of [[Karachi]] University's engineering program, rocket motors and antitank weapons, and paid 1,000 dollars to an undercover Customs agent posing as a [[United States Department of Commerce|Commerce Department]] licensing officer. In 1987 he added a request for beryllium and proposed commingling it with the steel. When the undercover agent suggested that other metals were for "another application in the plant at Kahuta," Pervez answered, "Could be," and at the end of the meeting said that "the Kahuta client is ready." He was arrested in [[Philadelphia]] in July 1987 while arranging the first shipment.[^1]
A federal grand jury indicted Pervez and Inam Ul-Haq on July 28, 1987. Pervez was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States, attempting to export beryllium and making false statements to the Commerce Department, acquitted on the bribery counts after claiming entrapment, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment on the conspiracy count. On March 6, 1989, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit]] vacated the conspiracy and beryllium convictions and ordered a new trial on those counts under *Mathews v. United States*, which entitles a defendant who denies elements of the offense to an entrapment instruction whenever the evidence could support one, and remanded for a hearing on entrapment on the false statement counts.[^1] According to the [[National Security Archive]], Inam Ul-Haq, whom it called "a key figure in the A. Q. Khan nuclear procurement network," left the United States before he could be arrested.[^2]
A State Department intelligence memorandum of December 29, 1987, linked [[Khan Research Laboratories]] to the maraging steel and the [[Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission]] to the beryllium, and concluded that the network "could not exist without the umbrella of government approval, protection, and funding." An [[Arms Control and Disarmament Agency]] memorandum stated that "there is no plausible end-use for 25 tons of grade 350 maraging steel other than in the manufacture of centrifuges." President Reagan certified to Congress on December 17, 1987, that "Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device," and in January 1988 invoked and then waived the Solarz amendment.[^2]
### BCCI and the Pervez Claim
The Senate report stated that "arms trafficking involving BCCI included the financing of Pakistan's procurement of nuclear weapons through BCCI Canada, as documented in the Parvez case, involving a Pakistani who attempted to procure nuclear related materials financed by BCCI through the United States," and that in the late 1980s "other BCCI officials were assisting Pakistanis in purchasing nuclear technologies paid for by Pakistani-front companies through BCCI-Canada." Both statements rest on a single source, the testimony of [[Alan Kreczko]], Deputy Legal Adviser of the [[State Department]], in the Senate hearing record (S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, p. 599).[^3][^5] The Third Circuit's opinion in the Pervez case, which recounts the negotiations, payments and shipping arrangements, contains no reference to BCCI, to any bank, or to how the purchase was to be financed.[^1]
In a letter of November 22, 1991, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] told the Subcommittee that "the Agency did have some reporting [as of 1987] on BCCI being used by third world regimes to acquire weapons and transfer technology," but declined to elaborate in public.[^5] The report's executive summary stated that documents on BCCI's use "to assist the builders of a Pakistani nuclear bomb" had been "sealed in the United Kingdom by British intelligence," and listed "the extent of BCCI's involvement in Pakistan's nuclear program" among its unanswered questions.[^6]
### Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute
The Pakistani BCCI Foundation, created to shelter BCCI's Pakistani profits from tax, received tax-free status in 1981 while [[Ghulam Ishaq Khan]] was minister of finance; Ishaq Khan chaired the foundation through the 1980s and became president of Pakistan after Zia's death in 1988. The Senate report stated that BCCI "provided $10 million in grants in the late 1980's to finance an officially 'private' science and technology institute named for Pakistani President Ishaq Khan, whose director, A. Qadir Khan, has been closely associated with Pakistan's efforts to build a nuclear bomb," and that the institute "is believed by some experts to be the headquarters for Pakistan's efforts to build an Islamic bomb."[^3]
According to the [[Federation of American Scientists]], the institute was formed in December 1985, its parent body, the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Sciences and Technology in Pakistan (SOPREST), was registered in June 1988, and a group of scientists and engineers under Khan's leadership produced its feasibility study in 1989. Khan agreed to be project director, civil works began at the campus at [[Topi]], in the North-West Frontier Province at the foot of the [[Tarbela Dam]] reservoir, in early 1990, and the first students entered in October 1993. The FAS listed its main donors as the Infaq Foundation, Chiniot Anjuman-e-Islamia, the Dawood Group and the provincial government, which gave the land.[^4]
The institute's own history does not name Khan. It dates the project to December 1985, when "the Benevolent Community Care and Infaq Foundation donated Rs. 50 million," records that Ghulam Ishaq Khan, then president, was elected president of SOPREST for life, with H. U. Beg as honorary executive director and Samiullah Marwat as secretary, and attributes the planning of the institute to "a group of eminent scientists and engineers." It credits a further 750 million rupees to the Infaq Foundation.[^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: *United States v. Pervez*, 871 F.2d 310 (3d Cir. 1989), No. 88-1109, decided March 6, 1989, opinion of Scirica, J. https://static.case.law/f2d/871/cases/0310-01.json
[^2]: Burr, William, ed. "The Pervez Case and Reagan Administration Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy, 1987," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 446, November 22, 2013. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb446/
[^3]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 5, "BCCI's Relationship with Foreign Governments, Central Banks, and International Organizations," section "Pakistan" (citing S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, p. 599). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/05foreign.htm
[^4]: "Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI)," Federation of American Scientists, Special Weapons Guide: Pakistan, updated February 4, 2000. https://nuke.fas.org/guide/pakistan/agency/giki.htm
[^5]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality" (citing testimony of Alan Kreczko, Deputy Legal Adviser, Department of State, S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, p. 599, and S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, p. 601). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm
[^6]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 1, "Executive Summary." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/01exec.htm
[^7]: "About GIK Institute," Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. https://giki.edu.pk/institute/

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---
category: "BCCI Scandal"
tags:
- Person
- SavingsAndLoan
- KeatingFive
- BCCI
- Fraud
alias:
- Charles H. Keating Jr.
- Charles Humphrey Keating Jr.
- Charles Keating Jr.
summary: "Phoenix developer whose American Continental Corporation bought Lincoln Savings and Loan in 1984; its failure cost taxpayers billions, and the Senate BCCI inquiry flagged unresolved ties between BCCI figures and his companies."
born: 1923-12-04
died: 2014-03-31
location: "Phoenix, Arizona"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[American Continental Corporation]]"
role: "chairman"
start: 1978
fn: 1
- type: owned
with: "[[Lincoln Savings and Loan]]"
role: "through American Continental Corporation"
start: 1984
end: 1989
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[American Financial Corporation]]"
role: "outside counsel, then executive vice president"
start: 1972
fn: 1
- type: appointed
with: "[[Richard Nixon]]"
reverse: true
role: "member, federal commission on pornography"
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Alan Cranston]]"
role: "Keating Five"
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Dennis DeConcini]]"
role: "Keating Five"
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[John Glenn]]"
role: "Keating Five"
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[John McCain]]"
role: "Keating Five"
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Donald W. Riegle Jr.]]"
role: "Keating Five"
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[Citizens for Community Values]]"
fn: 1
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Charles Humphrey Keating Jr. was an American lawyer, homebuilder and financier whose company, [[American Continental Corporation]] of [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]], bought [[Lincoln Savings and Loan]] of [[Irvine, California]], in 1984. The [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]] put the cost of Lincoln's failure to taxpayers at 3.14 billion dollars; *[[The New York Times]]*, as cited by NBC News, at 3.4 billion. Five senators who intervened with regulators on its behalf became known as the Keating Five.[^1][^2][^3]
### Early Life and Cincinnati
Keating was born in [[Cincinnati]] on December 4, 1923, the first of two sons of Charles and Adele Keating. He started college at the [[University of Cincinnati]], served as a Navy fighter pilot in the Second World War, won a national collegiate swimming title, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1948.[^1]
With his brother William he practiced at the Cincinnati firm of [[Keating Muething & Keating]]. In 1959 he helped the businessman [[Carl Lindner]] create [[American Financial Corporation]], serving as its outside counsel and, from 1972, as executive vice president. A [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] lawsuit accused the two men of self-dealing; without admitting guilt, they signed consent orders promising not to violate securities laws. Keating founded the Cincinnati anti-pornography group later called [[Citizens for Community Values]], with Lindner as a principal backer, and served on a federal commission on pornography as an appointee of President [[Richard Nixon]].[^1][^2] His brother William served in the House of Representatives from 1971 to 1974 and became chairman and publisher of *[[The Cincinnati Enquirer]]*.[^1]
### American Continental and Lincoln
In 1978 Keating bought a Phoenix homebuilding affiliate of American Financial, American Continental, and became its chairman. By 1983 it was the seventh-largest homebuilder in the country, with annual revenue of about 300 million dollars, and it paid 51 million dollars for Lincoln Savings and Loan. "We felt that it was time to diversify," Keating told *American Banker*. He grew Lincoln tenfold by soliciting brokered deposits from Wall Street firms and put the money into high-yield bonds and real estate development, among them The Phoenician resort in [[Scottsdale]].[^1] The economist [[Alan Greenspan]], later chairman of the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]], wrote a report stating that Lincoln was sound and had "seasoned and expert" managers.[^2]
The [[San Francisco]] office of the [[Federal Home Loan Bank Board]] opened an investigation of Lincoln's growth in March 1986. Five senators, [[Alan Cranston]], [[Dennis DeConcini]], [[John Glenn]], [[Donald W. Riegle Jr.|Donald Riegle]] and [[John McCain]], met officials of the bank board on Lincoln's behalf; they had received a combined 1.3 million dollars in donations and gifts from Keating, his family and his companies. Asked whether his giving had caused politicians to take up his cause, Keating answered, "I certainly hope so." In May 1987 the San Francisco regulators recommended seizing Lincoln; the pursuit ended under the successor of the bank board's chairman [[Edwin Gray]], [[M. Danny Wall]], who said the proof was insufficient to justify a seizure. Lincoln was taken over in April 1989, after Keating put American Continental into bankruptcy. The [[Senate Ethics Committee]] investigated the five, and Cranston alone was formally reprimanded.[^1]
### Prosecution
Keating was indicted in California on state charges of misleading investors into buying high-risk bonds that were not federally insured; some investors lost their life savings when the bonds defaulted. He was convicted on 17 of 18 counts and sentenced by Judge [[Lance Ito]] to ten years, the maximum. A federal grand jury indicted him, his son Charles III and three others on 77 counts of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, and he was sentenced to twelve and a half years, concurrent with the state term. He was freed in October 1996 after an appeals court overturned the state conviction for faulty jury instructions; the federal conviction was later thrown out because jurors had discussed the state verdict. In 1999 he pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and was sentenced to the time he had served, four years and nine months, and the charges against his son were dropped.[^1][^2]
### BCCI
The Senate report of Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]] on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) listed among matters requiring further investigation "The financial dealings of BCCI directors with Charles Keating and several Keating affiliates and front-companies, including the possibility that BCCI related entities may have laundered funds for Keating to move them outside the United States. The Subcommittee found numerous connections among Keating and BCCI-related persons and entities, such as BCCI director Alfred Hartman; CenTrust chief David Paul and CenTrust itself; Capcom front-man Lawrence Romrell; BCCI shipping affiliate, the Gokal group and the Gokal family; and possibly Ghaith Pharaon. The ties between BCCI and Keating's financial empire require further investigation."[^4]
The persons and entities named were [[Alfred Hartman]], [[David L. Paul]] and [[CenTrust Savings Bank]], [[Larry Romrell]] of BCCI's commodities affiliate [[Capcom]], the [[Gulf Group]] of the [[Gokal brothers]], and [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]. The report's appendix, under BCCI's collusion in savings and loan fraud, cited CenTrust, Caprock Savings and Loan of Texas, and "the involvement of BCCI figures with Charles Keating and his business empire. In each case, BCCI's involvement cost the U. S. taxpayers money."[^4] The executive summary of the report listed the same dealings among the matters left for further investigation.[^5]
### Death
Keating died in a Phoenix hospital on March 31, 2014, at 90, after an illness of a few weeks. His lawyer, [[Stephen C. Neal]], chairman of [[Cooley LLP]], said that he had "faced adversity with great dignity, wit and courage."[^1][^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Charles Keating, Face of Savings and Loan Bust, Dies at 90." *American Banker,* April 2, 2014. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/charles-keating-face-of-savings-and-loan-bust-dies-at-90
[^2]: Burns, Frances. "Charles Keating Jr., who became face of savings and loan scandal, dies at 90." United Press International, April 2, 2014. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/04/02/Charles-Keating-Jr-who-became-face-of-savings-and-loan-scandal-dies-at-90/5631396444559/
[^3]: Arkin, Daniel. "Charles Keating, Center of Savings and Loan Scandal, Dies at 90." NBC News, April 2, 2014. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/charles-keating-center-savings-loan-scandal-dies-90-n69386
[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, Appendices, "Matters for Further Investigation," items 8 and 12. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/24appendic.htm
[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 1, "Executive Summary." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/01exec.htm

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---
category: "Business & Finance"
tags:
- Person
- FamilyOffice
- VentureCapital
- SiliconValley
- MarkZuckerberg
- DustinMoskovitz
summary: "Former Goldman Sachs broker who met Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, heads the investment adviser ICONIQ Capital, and sits as a director of Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna's Good Ventures Foundation."
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[ICONIQ Capital]]"
role: "principal"
start: 2011
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Goldman Sachs]]"
role: "broker"
start: 2004
fn: 2
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Divesh Makan is one of the principals of [[ICONIQ Capital]], LLC, an investment adviser registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] since December 1, 2011; its brochure of March 2026 names "Divesh Makan, [[Michael Anders]], [[Will Griffith]] and [[Matthew Jacobson]]" as its partners.[^1] In December 2014 *[[Forbes]]*, giving his age as 41, described the firm as "his otherwise run-of-the-mill registered investment advisory," turned into "an exclusive members-only [[Silicon Valley]] billionaires club that operates as a cross between a family office and a venture capital fund."[^2]
### Zuckerberg and the Client Roster
*Forbes* called [[Mark Zuckerberg]] Makan's "most famous client and the key to his success," and wrote that Makan met him "in 2004 when he was a broker at [[Goldman Sachs]]." Other clients it named were "[[Facebook]]'s [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and [[Sheryl Sandberg]], [[Twitter]]'s [[Jack Dorsey]] and [[LinkedIn]]'s [[Reid Hoffman]]." His board of directors, the magazine wrote, was "another power list, with nontech titans like [[Henry Kravis]] and [[David Bonderman]], [[Chase Coleman]] and steel tycoon [[Lakshmi Mittal]]'s son Aditya." Real-estate billionaires such as [[Sam Zell]] and [[Li Ka-shing]] had gained access through the firm to startups that "Makan & Co. advertise as being 'approved by Zuckerberg.'" In 2014 the firm had "full discretion over $1.4 billion in client funds" and advised "on another $7.6 billion," and its "$500 million Strategic Partners fund" was "Makan's flagship among 39 private investment vehicles."[^2]
By December 31, 2025, ICONIQ reported about 85.8 billion dollars of discretionary and 31.7 billion dollars of non-discretionary assets under management, and stated that it generally worked with managed-account clients "with net worths of $25,000,000 or more." An affiliate of [[Blue Owl Capital]] held a passive minority stake in the firm.[^1]
### Good Ventures
Makan is listed as a director of the [[Good Ventures|Good Ventures Foundation]], without pay, alongside its president and board chair [[Cari Tuna]] and her husband Moskovitz, its secretary and treasurer, on the foundation's returns filed from 2023 to 2026. The foundation reported total assets of 10,107,955,038 dollars on the return it filed on May 15, 2026.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: ICONIQ Capital, LLC. Form ADV Part 2A, Firm Brochure, March 26, 2026, CRD 159198, via the SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure system. https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1027115 ; firm record https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/159198
[^2]: Solomon, Brian. "The Spider Of Silicon Valley: Inside 'Zuck & Friends' Secret Billionaire Fund." *Forbes,* December 1, 2014, archived December 1, 2014. http://web.archive.org/web/20141201154053/http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2014/12/01/the-spider-of-silicon-valley-inside-zuck-friends-secret-billionaire-fund/
[^3]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Good Ventures Foundation," EIN 46-1008520, Form 990-PF data, returns filed May 16, 2023, to May 15, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/461008520

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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Dustin Moskovitz.md
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@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ relations:
with: "[[Future Forward]]"
start: 2020
role: "46.89 million dollars in 2019-2020, 3.3 million in 2021-2022, 50 million in 2023-2024"
fn: 22
fn: 24
- type: funded
with: "[[LCV Victory Fund]]"
start: 2016
@ -49,15 +49,15 @@ Moskovitz took part in Anthropic's first funding round of 124 million dollars in
Open Philanthropy set aside nearly 3 million dollars in 2022 for the first fellows of the [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]], which pays technology fellows placed in congressional offices, federal agencies and think tanks, among them the offices of Senators [[Martin Heinrich]], [[Mike Rounds]] and [[Todd Young]], whom [[Chuck Schumer]] had put in charge of AI legislation; *Politico* wrote that Open Philanthropy had "effectively created" Horizon.[^10] Matheny served in the Biden [[White House]] from March 2021 to June 2022. According to documents the *Washington Examiner* obtained under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], he hired [[Ben Buchanan]], director of CSET's CyberAI project, under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, with Georgetown continuing to pay Buchanan's salary and the government reimbursing it; the paper noted that CSET had received 97 million dollars from Open Philanthropy between 2019 and 2021, and that Buchanan became an architect of the Biden export controls on advanced chips that Anthropic later urged the Trump administration to keep. Buchanan said he "scrupulously complied with all legal and ethics rules." Senator [[Ted Cruz]], who named Moskovitz in a 2024 letter, wrote that "large AI technology companies are influencing the Biden administration's AI policy from the inside."[^16]
The lobbying arm of the Center for AI Safety stated that it secured 10 million dollars from Congress in 2024 to establish the [[U.S. AI Safety Institute]], where Christiano became head of AI safety.[^18] The 501(c)(4) [[Americans for Responsible Innovation]], founded in late 2023 by the former congressman [[Brad Carson]], lists Coefficient Giving among its funders with the [[Omidyar Network]], and reported in-house lobbying expenses of 1.51 million dollars in 2025. The [[Open Philanthropy Action Fund]] has paid outside lobbyists every year since 2021, the [[Kyle House Group]] since 2023.[^19]
The lobbying arm of the Center for AI Safety stated that it secured 10 million dollars from Congress in 2024 to establish the [[U.S. AI Safety Institute]], where Christiano became head of AI safety.[^18] The 501(c)(4) [[Americans for Responsible Innovation]], founded in late 2023 by the former congressman [[Brad Carson]], lists Coefficient Giving among its funders with the [[Omidyar Network]], and reported in-house lobbying expenses of 1.51 million dollars in 2025. The [[Open Philanthropy Action Fund]] has paid outside lobbyists every year since 2021, the [[Kyle House Group]] since 2023.[^19] Moskovitz has been a director of the Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) that files from the Palo Alto address of Good Ventures, on every return since 2017, alongside Tuna as president, Makan, and Open Philanthropy's chief executives, Holden Karnofsky and Alexander Berger; it reported about 270.4 million dollars in contributions from 2016 to 2023.[^20] On October 29, 2019, the Action Fund gave 750,000 dollars to the non-contribution account of [[Real Justice PAC]], which Tuna had funded with 1.9 million dollars in her own name.[^21] The Kyle House Group filings describe its work as "education and advocacy regarding U.S. foreign assistance policies and programs," on the State and Foreign Operations appropriations bills, and the three firms the fund has retained reported about 1.53 million dollars in income from it between 2021 and mid-2026.[^19]
### The Press
By 2025 Coefficient Giving supplied most of the funding of the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]], which pays journalists placed at *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]*, [[Bloomberg]], *[[The Verge]]* and other newsrooms and publishes the newsletter *Transformer*; Coefficient's director of communications, [[Naina Bajekal]], was a former executive editor of *Time*.[^20] In September 2026 the publication *Effort*, founded by [[Brian Chau]], wrote that "Coefficient pays the salaries of two dozen journalists at major news outlets," that Open Philanthropy had pursued a "placement" strategy "to put their hand-picked employees in US and UK government offices," and that Moskovitz was the third-largest Democratic donor in 2020 and the second-largest in 2024.[^21]
By 2025 Coefficient Giving supplied most of the funding of the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]], which pays journalists placed at *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]*, [[Bloomberg]], *[[The Verge]]* and other newsrooms and publishes the newsletter *Transformer*; Coefficient's director of communications, [[Naina Bajekal]], was a former executive editor of *Time*.[^22] In September 2026 the publication *Effort*, founded by [[Brian Chau]], wrote that "Coefficient pays the salaries of two dozen journalists at major news outlets," that Open Philanthropy had pursued a "placement" strategy "to put their hand-picked employees in US and UK government offices," and that Moskovitz was the third-largest Democratic donor in 2020 and the second-largest in 2024.[^23]
### Political Giving
On September 8, 2016, Moskovitz and Tuna announced 20 million dollars in contributions to defeat [[Donald Trump]] and elect [[Hillary Clinton]], calling Trump's promises to voters who felt left behind "quite possibly a deliberate con." They named 5 million dollars each to the [[LCV Victory Fund]] and [[For Our Future PAC]], and wrote that "we have reservations about anyone using large amounts of money to influence elections."[^5] [[Federal Election Commission]] records itemize contributions from Moskovitz of about 18.0 million dollars in the 2015-2016 cycle, led by 6 million to [[Priorities USA Action]], 4.5 million to the LCV Victory Fund, 2.5 million to For Our Future and 1.65 million to [[Color of Change PAC]]; 5.7 million in 2017-2018, including 3 million to [[MoveOn]] and 2 million to the [[Senate Majority PAC]]; 51.8 million in 2019-2020, including 46.89 million to the Democratic super PAC [[Future Forward]] and 830,600 dollars to the [[Biden Victory Fund]]; 5.9 million in 2021-2022, including 3.3 million to Future Forward and 1.9 million to its affiliate FFPA; and 50.9 million in 2023-2024, of which 50 million went to Future Forward in eight payments between August 28 and October 22, 2024, 30 million of it in October, and 929,600 dollars to the [[Harris Victory Fund]]. None had been itemized for the 2025-2026 cycle by September 2026.[^22] In March 2024 *[[Puck]]*'s [[Theodore Schleifer]] wrote that Moskovitz had spent "up to $100 million to defeat Donald Trump last cycle" and was "leaning into his power... and his checkbook" to beat back "the Andreessens and Musks of the world."[^23]
On September 8, 2016, Moskovitz and Tuna announced 20 million dollars in contributions to defeat [[Donald Trump]] and elect [[Hillary Clinton]], calling Trump's promises to voters who felt left behind "quite possibly a deliberate con." They named 5 million dollars each to the [[LCV Victory Fund]] and [[For Our Future PAC]], and wrote that "we have reservations about anyone using large amounts of money to influence elections."[^5] [[Federal Election Commission]] records itemize contributions from Moskovitz of about 18.0 million dollars in the 2015-2016 cycle, led by 6 million to [[Priorities USA Action]], 4.5 million to the LCV Victory Fund, 2.5 million to For Our Future and 1.65 million to [[Color of Change PAC]]; 5.7 million in 2017-2018, including 3 million to [[MoveOn]] and 2 million to the [[Senate Majority PAC]]; 51.8 million in 2019-2020, including 46.89 million to the Democratic super PAC [[Future Forward]] and 830,600 dollars to the [[Biden Victory Fund]]; 5.9 million in 2021-2022, including 3.3 million to Future Forward and 1.9 million to its affiliate FFPA; and 50.9 million in 2023-2024, of which 50 million went to Future Forward in eight payments between August 28 and October 22, 2024, 30 million of it in October, and 929,600 dollars to the [[Harris Victory Fund]]. None had been itemized for the 2025-2026 cycle by September 2026.[^24] In March 2024 *[[Puck]]*'s [[Theodore Schleifer]] wrote that Moskovitz had spent "up to $100 million to defeat Donald Trump last cycle" and was "leaning into his power... and his checkbook" to beat back "the Andreessens and Musks of the world."[^25]
### Footnotes
@ -80,7 +80,9 @@ On September 8, 2016, Moskovitz and Tuna announced 20 million dollars in contrib
[^17]: Coacci, Jessica. "Meet the millennial Meta cofounder and his wife who are giving away $20 billion." *Fortune,* November 10, 2025, via Yahoo Finance, archived December 26, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20251226183707/https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-millennial-meta-cofounder-wife-170849820.html
[^18]: Center for AI Safety Action Fund, "2024 Annual Impact Report." https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66438c042d15b14b53b83006/68012dcfec6880aba24f528a_CAIS-ActionFund-ImpactReport_05.pdf
[^19]: Americans for Responsible Innovation, "About Us," https://ari.us/about-us/ ; U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, filings for clients "Americans for Responsible Innovation" and "Open Philanthropy Action Fund," 2021 to 2026, retrieved September 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Americans+for+Responsible+Innovation
[^20]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026, https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards ; Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms
[^21]: Effort. "How Effective Altruism Bought the Media," September 2, 2026, https://www.effort.news/tarbell ; Effort. "Effective Altruism is Buying Political Staff," September 19, 2026. https://www.effort.news/aisi
[^22]: Federal Election Commission, itemized receipts (Schedule A, memo entries excluded) for contributor "Moskovitz, Dustin," two-year periods 2016 through 2026, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=Moskovitz%2C+Dustin
[^23]: Schleifer, Theodore. "DustinBucks." *Puck,* March 20, 2024, archived January 10, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250110050826/https://puck.news/dustinbucks/
[^20]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Coefficient Giving Action Fund" (formerly Open Philanthropy Action Fund), EIN 81-2644663, organization record, Form 990 data and Part VII officer listings for fiscal years 2016 to 2024, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/812644663
[^21]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipt from "Open Philanthropy Action Fund," 750,000 dollars, October 29, 2019, reported by Real Justice PAC (C00632554) on its 2019 year-end Form 3X, image 202007029244274196, retrieved September 23, 2026. http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202007029244274196
[^22]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026, https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards ; Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms
[^23]: Effort. "How Effective Altruism Bought the Media," September 2, 2026, https://www.effort.news/tarbell ; Effort. "Effective Altruism is Buying Political Staff," September 19, 2026. https://www.effort.news/aisi
[^24]: Federal Election Commission, itemized receipts (Schedule A, memo entries excluded) for contributor "Moskovitz, Dustin," two-year periods 2016 through 2026, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=Moskovitz%2C+Dustin
[^25]: Schleifer, Theodore. "DustinBucks." *Puck,* March 20, 2024, archived January 10, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250110050826/https://puck.news/dustinbucks/

84
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Holden Karnofsky.md
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@ -9,32 +9,81 @@ tags:
- Longtermism
alias:
- Holden Karnofsky
summary: "Holden Karnofsky is the cofounder of the charity evaluator GiveWell and of Open Philanthropy, the largest sustained funder of effective altruism and AI-safety work, an early backer of Anthropic who later moved into AI-safety strategy and joined Anthropic in 2025, and the husband of Anthropic president Daniela Amodei."
summary: "Cofounder of GiveWell and Open Philanthropy and its co-CEO until 2023, a Redwood Research director, an OpenAI director from 2017 to 2021, Anthropic staff from 2025, and husband of Anthropic president Daniela Amodei."
born: 1981
location: "San Francisco, California"
created: 2026-06-19
updated: 2026-06-19
updated: 2026-09-23
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[GiveWell]]"
role: "cofounder with Elie Hassenfeld"
start: 2007
fn: 3
- type: spouse_of
with: "[[Daniela Amodei]]"
fn: 18
- type: member_of
with: "[[OpenAI]]"
role: "director"
start: 2017
end: 2021
fn: 18
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]]"
role: "visiting scholar"
start: 2024-04-29
fn: 17
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Anthropic]]"
role: "member of technical staff, reporting to Jared Kaplan"
start: 2025-01
fn: 18
---
Holden Karnofsky (born 1981) is an American grantmaker who cofounded the charity evaluator [[GiveWell]] and the foundation [[Open Philanthropy]], the durable financial backbone of the [[Effective Altruism]] movement and of [[Longtermism|longtermist]] and AI-safety work. As Open Philanthropy's co-chief executive he directed the institutional patronage that sustained AI-existential-risk research, was an early backer of the AI company [[Anthropic]], and in 2025 left grantmaking to work at Anthropic directly. He is married to Anthropic cofounder and president [[Daniela Amodei]].[^1][^2]
Holden Karnofsky (born 1981) is an American grantmaker who cofounded the charity evaluator [[GiveWell]] and the foundation [[Open Philanthropy]], the durable financial backbone of the [[Effective Altruism]] movement and of [[Longtermism|longtermist]] and AI-safety work. As Open Philanthropy's co-chief executive he directed the institutional patronage that sustained AI-existential-risk research, was an early backer of the AI company [[Anthropic]], and left Open Philanthropy's staff in 2024 and joined Anthropic in 2025. He is married to Anthropic cofounder and president [[Daniela Amodei]].[^1][^2]
### GiveWell
Karnofsky and [[Elie Hassenfeld]] met as analysts at the hedge fund [[Bridgewater Associates]], where they were part of a group of eight finance-industry friends researching charitable giving in their spare time. In 2007 the two left their jobs, raised about 300,000 dollars from former coworkers, and founded GiveWell, an organization that rates charities by the measured cost-effectiveness of their interventions and recommends a short list of top picks. The model, evidence-based giving aimed at maximizing lives saved per dollar, became one of the two intellectual streams of effective altruism, alongside the Oxford moral philosophy of [[Toby Ord]] and [[William MacAskill]].[^3][^4]
Months after the launch, Karnofsky was caught promoting GiveWell anonymously: in December 2007 he posted a question soliciting charity recommendations on the community site Ask MetaFilter under a false identity, then answered it touting GiveWell without disclosing his role. The board removed him as executive director and board secretary effective January 3, 2008, cut 5,000 dollars from his salary, and required him to take a professional-development course; he was later restored to the leadership. GiveWell grew into a major channel for evidence-based giving, directing more than 1.45 billion dollars to its top charities between 2009 and 2024, with roughly half of that going to the [[Against Malaria Foundation]] at an estimated cost of about 5,500 dollars per life saved.[^7][^8]
Months after the launch, Karnofsky was caught promoting GiveWell anonymously: in December 2007 he posted a question soliciting charity recommendations on the community site Ask MetaFilter under a false identity, then answered it touting GiveWell without disclosing his role. The board removed him as executive director and board secretary effective January 3, 2008, cut 5,000 dollars from his salary, and required him to take a professional-development course; he was later restored to the leadership. GiveWell grew into a major channel for evidence-based giving, directing more than 1.45 billion dollars to its top charities between 2009 and 2024, with roughly half of that going to the [[Against Malaria Foundation]] at an estimated cost of about 5,500 dollars per life saved.[^5][^6]
### The Clear Fund
GiveWell's legal name is The Clear Fund, EIN 20-8625442, a 501(c)(3) with an [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] ruling date of July 1, 2007, filing from 1714 Franklin Street in [[Oakland]]. For 2023 it reported revenue of 219.6 million dollars and year-end assets of 208.6 million.[^7]
### Open Philanthropy
GiveWell's research into larger and riskier giving opportunities led to a partnership with Good Ventures, the foundation established in 2011 by [[Facebook]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife [[Cari Tuna]]. The two efforts joined as the Open Philanthropy Project in 2014 and began independent operations in 2017, with Karnofsky as co-chief executive. Funded chiefly by Moskovitz and Tuna, Open Philanthropy directed more than four billion dollars in grants by 2025 across global health and "longtermism," the latter covering AI risk, pandemic preparedness, and the far future. Its AI-risk money flowed to the research community around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]], the [[Future of Humanity Institute]], and the [[Rationalist Community]], making Open Philanthropy the principal patron of AI-safety work outside the technology companies. The organization renamed itself Coefficient Giving in 2025.[^1][^2]
GiveWell's research into larger and riskier giving opportunities led to a partnership with [[Good Ventures]], the foundation established in 2011 by [[Facebook]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife [[Cari Tuna]]. The two efforts joined as the Open Philanthropy Project in 2014 and began independent operations in 2017, with Karnofsky as chief executive. Funded chiefly by Moskovitz and Tuna, Open Philanthropy directed more than four billion dollars in grants by 2025 across global health and "longtermism," the latter covering AI risk, pandemic preparedness, and the far future. Its AI-risk money flowed to the research community around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]], the [[Future of Humanity Institute]], and the [[Rationalist Community]], making Open Philanthropy the principal patron of AI-safety work outside the technology companies. The organization renamed itself Coefficient Giving in 2025.[^1][^2]
The effort began inside GiveWell as "GiveWell Labs" before splitting off, with Karnofsky and [[Alexander Berger]] sharing the chief-executive role until Berger became sole chief executive on Karnofsky's 2023 departure. In March 2017 Karnofsky steered Open Philanthropy's 30-million-dollar grant to [[OpenAI]], a sum that bought a board seat he held until 2021, when he resigned it after his wife cofounded a competing lab. Between 2021 and 2023 Karnofsky wrote the "most important century" series on his blog Cold Takes, more than twenty essays arguing that the development of transformative AI could make the present century the most consequential in human history, a thesis that supplied the intellectual rationale for Open Philanthropy's concentration of money on AI risk.[^2][^9]
The effort began inside GiveWell as "GiveWell Labs" before splitting off. On June 16, 2021, Karnofsky announced that his fellow cofounder [[Alexander Berger]] had been "promoted to co-CEO," in "a dual-CEO structure, with both of us reporting directly to the board"; Karnofsky kept oversight of "biosecurity and pandemic preparedness and potential risks from advanced AI," and Berger took global health, scientific research, farm animal welfare and criminal justice reform.[^8] On July 27, 2023, writing "on behalf of Open Philanthropy's board," Karnofsky announced that Berger was sole chief executive and that his own title was changing "from co-CEO to Director of AI Strategy"; he stayed on the staff.[^9] In March 2017 Karnofsky steered Open Philanthropy's 30-million-dollar grant to [[OpenAI]], a sum that bought a board seat he held until 2021, when he resigned it after his wife cofounded a competing lab. Between 2021 and 2023 Karnofsky wrote the "most important century" series on his blog Cold Takes, more than twenty essays arguing that the development of transformative AI could make the present century the most consequential in human history, a thesis that supplied the intellectual rationale for Open Philanthropy's concentration of money on AI risk.[^2][^10]
### Anthropic and the Amodei Tie
Open Philanthropy was an early funder of Anthropic, the AI company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers from the effective-altruism milieu, and Karnofsky held a seat associated with that early backing. Karnofsky married Daniela Amodei in 2017; she cofounded Anthropic with her brother [[Dario Amodei]] and serves as its president. In 2022 [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] invested roughly 500 million dollars of [[FTX]]-derived capital in Anthropic through [[Alameda Research]], placing the company at the intersection of the movement's two largest funders during the period Karnofsky's foundation and his wife's company were both tied to it. Karnofsky took a leave from his co-chief-executive role in 2023 to focus on AI strategy and joined Anthropic in January 2025 to work on its responsible-scaling and safety policies.[^2][^5][^6]
Open Philanthropy was an early funder of Anthropic, the AI company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers from the effective-altruism milieu, and Karnofsky held a seat associated with that early backing. Karnofsky married Daniela Amodei in 2017; she cofounded Anthropic with her brother [[Dario Amodei]] and serves as its president. In 2022 [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] invested roughly 500 million dollars of [[FTX]]-derived capital in Anthropic through [[Alameda Research]], placing the company at the intersection of the movement's two largest funders during the period Karnofsky's foundation and his wife's company were both tied to it. Karnofsky took a leave from his co-chief-executive role in 2023 to focus on AI strategy, became Open Philanthropy's director of AI strategy in July 2023, left its staff for the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] in April 2024, and joined Anthropic in January 2025 to work on its responsible-scaling and safety policies.[^2][^11][^12]
The overlap drew the criticism that the largest funder of independent AI-safety research was led by a man married to the president of a frontier AI lab his foundation had financed. Karnofsky's OpenAI board seat from 2017 to 2021 had already placed him inside one leading lab before the marriage tie connected him to a second; commentators noted that the same small network of effective-altruism figures sat on the funding, governance, and research sides of the field at once. At Anthropic he took up work on the company's Responsible Scaling Policy, the framework of capability thresholds and safety commitments the company uses to govern the release of more powerful models.[^2][^6]
The overlap drew the criticism that the largest funder of independent AI-safety research was led by a man married to the president of a frontier AI lab his foundation had financed. Karnofsky's OpenAI board seat from 2017 to 2021 had already placed him inside one leading lab before the marriage tie connected him to a second; commentators noted that the same small network of effective-altruism figures sat on the funding, governance, and research sides of the field at once. At Anthropic he took up work on the company's Responsible Scaling Policy, the framework of capability thresholds and safety commitments the company uses to govern the release of more powerful models.[^2][^12]
### Redwood Research
When [[Nate Thomas]] announced [[Redwood Research]] on October 6, 2021, he wrote that "our board is Nate, [[Paul Christiano]] and Holden Karnofsky." Karnofsky, then co-chief executive of Open Philanthropy, was listed as Redwood's unpaid treasurer on its return for 2021 and as treasurer and CFO for 2022, with Christiano as secretary. Open Philanthropy recommended four grants totaling 9.42 million dollars to Redwood in November 2021, followed by 10.7 million dollars in August 2022 and 5.3 million in June 2023; the archived grant pages do not mention Karnofsky. Redwood's return for 2023 listed him as a director "thru 11/23," Christiano "thru 6/23," and Open Philanthropy's senior program officer for AI risk, [[Ajeya Cotra]], as a director.[^13][^14][^15]
### The Action Fund
Karnofsky was also an officer of the [[Open Philanthropy Action Fund]], the 501(c)(4) of Moskovitz and Tuna, which files from the [[Palo Alto]] address of the Good Ventures Foundation. Its returns list him as executive director for 2017, chief executive and director for 2018 to 2020, co-CEO and director for 2021 and 2022, "co-CEO thru 7/23/23" for 2023, and a director only for 2024. None of its officers was paid by it.[^16]
### Carnegie Endowment
On April 29, 2024, Karnofsky wrote: "Effective today, I've left Open Philanthropy and joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a Visiting Scholar. At Carnegie, I will analyze and write about topics relevant to AI risk reduction." He named as his first subjects "what AI capabilities might increase the risk of a global catastrophe," how to "catch early warning signs of these capabilities," and what protective measures would be needed. He gave his reason for leaving: "my work no longer involves significant involvement in grantmaking, and given that I've overseen grantmaking historically, it's a significant problem for there to be confusion on this point. Philanthropy comes with particular power dynamics that I'd like to move away from, and I also think Open Philanthropy would benefit from less ambiguity about my role in its funding decisions (especially given the fact that I'm married to the President of a major AI company)." He wrote that he would "continue to serve on its board of directors (at least for the time being)," and named Carnegie's president, [[Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar|Tino Cuéllar]], and its scholar [[Matt Sheehan]], who "specializes in China's AI ecosystem."[^17]
In the comments a reader posting as Adam_Scholl suggested Karnofsky might be among the people "who stands to personally lose the most money in the event of an AI pause." Karnofsky replied: "My spouse isn't currently planning to divest the full amount of her equity. Some factors here: (a) It's her decision, not mine. (b) The equity has important voting rights, such that divesting or donating it in full could have governance implications." He added: "The bottom line is that I have a significant conflict of interest that isn't going away, and I am trying to help reduce AI risk despite that. My new role will not have authority over grants or other significant resources besides my time and my ability to do analysis and make arguments."[^17]
The first comment on the same post, posted anonymously by a writer whose description of the couple's giving matches Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, read: "I'm grateful that Cari and I met Holden when we did (and grateful to Daniela for luring him to San Francisco for that first meeting). The last fourteen years of our giving would have looked very different without his work."[^17]
### Anthropic Staff
*[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]* reported in February 2025 that Anthropic described Karnofsky's title only as "a member of the technical staff" reporting to its chief science officer, [[Jared Kaplan]], and quoted a spokesperson: "He is working on the responsible scaling policy and other aspects around safety planning ahead of highly advanced AI systems." The magazine wrote that with his arrival "Anthropic now has three close family members holding influential roles at the company," and that he had served on OpenAI's board "between 2017 and 2021."[^18]
### Footnotes
@ -42,8 +91,17 @@ The overlap drew the criticism that the largest funder of independent AI-safety
[^2]: "Who Funds the AI Safety Watchdogs," Inside The Black Box, on Open Philanthropy's share of AI-safety funding, the Karnofsky-Amodei marriage, and Karnofsky's 2025 move to Anthropic. https://itbb.substack.com/p/who-funds-the-watchdogs
[^3]: "Our Story," GiveWell, on the 2007 founding by eight finance-industry friends and the 300,000-dollar startup raise. https://www.givewell.org/about/story
[^4]: "GiveWell Co-Founder Explains Effective Altruism Frameworks," *The Harvard Crimson,* December 4, 2015. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/12/4/givewell-founder-effective-altruism/
[^5]: "Effective Altruism After Sam Bankman-Fried," Seven Pillars Institute, 2023, on the 500 million dollar Anthropic investment via Alameda Research. https://www.sevenpillarsinstitute.org/effective-altruism-after-sam-bankman-fried/
[^6]: "The Making of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei," Alex Kantrowitz, on Open Philanthropy as an early Anthropic funder and the Karnofsky tie. https://kantrowitz.medium.com/the-making-of-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-449777529dd6
[^7]: "GiveWell in turmoil after 'horrible lapse of judgement' by founders," *Alliance,* 2008, on the MetaFilter astroturfing and the board sanctions. https://www.alliancemagazine.org/news/givewell-in-turmoil-after-horrible-lapse-of-judgement-by-founders/
[^8]: "GiveWell's Fundraising and Grantmaking in 2023" and "GiveWell's 2024 Metrics and Impact," The GiveWell Blog, on the cumulative 1.45-billion-dollar total and the Against Malaria Foundation cost per life saved. https://blog.givewell.org/2025/08/13/givewells-2024-metrics-and-impact/
[^9]: "OpenAI General Support," Good Ventures, on the March 2017 30-million-dollar grant and Karnofsky's board seat through 2021; Karnofsky, Holden, "The Most Important Century," Cold Takes, 2021. https://www.cold-takes.com/the-most-important-century-in-a-nutshell/
[^5]: "GiveWell in turmoil after 'horrible lapse of judgement' by founders," *Alliance,* 2008, on the MetaFilter astroturfing and the board sanctions. https://www.alliancemagazine.org/news/givewell-in-turmoil-after-horrible-lapse-of-judgement-by-founders/
[^6]: "GiveWell's Fundraising and Grantmaking in 2023" and "GiveWell's 2024 Metrics and Impact," The GiveWell Blog, on the cumulative 1.45-billion-dollar total and the Against Malaria Foundation cost per life saved. https://blog.givewell.org/2025/08/13/givewells-2024-metrics-and-impact/
[^7]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "The Clear Fund," EIN 20-8625442, organization record and Form 990 data, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208625442
[^8]: Karnofsky, Holden. "Open Philanthropy's New Co-CEO." Open Philanthropy blog, June 16, 2021, archived May 31, 2022. http://web.archive.org/web/20220531031049/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/open-philanthropys-new-co-ceo
[^9]: Karnofsky, Holden. "Alexander Berger is Now Sole CEO of Open Philanthropy." Open Philanthropy, July 27, 2023, archived March 17, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260317060608/https://coefficientgiving.org/research/alexander-berger-is-now-sole-ceo-of-open-philanthropy/
[^10]: "OpenAI General Support," Good Ventures, on the March 2017 30-million-dollar grant and Karnofsky's board seat through 2021; Karnofsky, Holden, "The Most Important Century," Cold Takes, 2021. https://www.cold-takes.com/the-most-important-century-in-a-nutshell/
[^11]: "Effective Altruism After Sam Bankman-Fried," Seven Pillars Institute, 2023, on the 500 million dollar Anthropic investment via Alameda Research. https://www.sevenpillarsinstitute.org/effective-altruism-after-sam-bankman-fried/
[^12]: "The Making of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei," Alex Kantrowitz, on Open Philanthropy as an early Anthropic funder and the Karnofsky tie. https://kantrowitz.medium.com/the-making-of-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-449777529dd6
[^13]: Thomas, Nate. "We're Redwood Research, we do applied alignment research, AMA." LessWrong, October 6, 2021. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qHvHvBR8L6oycnMXe/we-re-redwood-research-we-do-applied-alignment-research-ama
[^14]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Redwood Research Group Inc," EIN 87-1702255, Form 990 Part VII officer listings for fiscal years 2021 to 2024, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/871702255
[^15]: Open Philanthropy, "Redwood Research, General Support," November 2021, archived August 11, 2022, http://web.archive.org/web/20220811081927/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support/ ; "Redwood Research, General Support (2022)," archived November 6, 2022, http://web.archive.org/web/20221106183007/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support-2/ ; "Redwood Research, General Support (2023)," archived September 12, 2023, http://web.archive.org/web/20230912095528/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support-2023/ ; "Ajeya Cotra," team biography, archived November 11, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231111135945/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/ajeya-cotra/
[^16]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Coefficient Giving Action Fund" (formerly Open Philanthropy Action Fund), EIN 81-2644663, Form 990 Part VII officer listings for fiscal years 2016 to 2024, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/812644663
[^17]: Karnofsky, Holden. "Joining the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace." EA Forum, April 29, 2024, with comments. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7gzgwgwefwBku2cnL/joining-the-carnegie-endowment-for-international-peace
[^18]: Mathews, Jessica. "Anthropic hired president Daniela Amodei's husband to work on the company's AI safety strategy." *Fortune,* February 13, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/02/13/anthropic-hired-president-daniela-amodei-husband-ai-safety-responsible-scaling/

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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John Heimann.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
---
category: "BCCI Scandal"
tags:
- Person
- BCCI
- BankRegulator
- Comptroller
alias:
- John G. Heimann
summary: "New York banking superintendent who twice blocked BCCI's attempts to buy a New York bank through nominees, then as Comptroller of the Currency approved Ghaith Pharaon's 1978 purchase of the National Bank of Georgia."
born: 1929-04-01
died: 2024-01-31
location: "New York City"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Office of the Comptroller of the Currency]]"
role: "24th Comptroller of the Currency"
start: 1977-07-21
end: 1981-05-15
fn: 1
- type: appointed
with: "[[Jimmy Carter]]"
reverse: true
role: "Comptroller of the Currency"
start: 1977
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]"
role: "New York Banking Superintendent; held nominee applications for New York banks"
fn: 3
- type: investigated
with: "[[Bert Lance]]"
role: "Comptroller's review of Lance's banking practices"
start: 1977
fn: 4
- type: investigated
with: "[[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]"
role: "OCC inquiry whether Pharaon fronted for BCCI at the National Bank of Georgia"
start: 1978
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Warburg Pincus]]"
role: "founding partner, E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co."
start: 1967
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Merrill Lynch]]"
role: "vice chairman of capital markets"
end: 1999
fn: 2
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
John G. Heimann was an American investment banker and bank regulator who served as Superintendent of Banks for the State of [[New York]] and then, from July 21, 1977, to May 15, 1981, as the 24th Comptroller of the Currency, appointed by President [[Jimmy Carter]].[^1][^2] In both posts he dealt with the attempts of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) to enter the [[United States]].[^3]
### Early Life and Career
Heimann was born in [[New York City]] on April 1, 1929, to Sydney and Dorothy Baright Heimann. His mother died in 1934 and his father, a lawyer, ten years later, after which he and his younger brother Richard were made wards of the court and sent to the [[New York Military Academy]]. He received a BA in economics from [[Syracuse University]] in 1950, was drafted into the Army during the [[Korean War]], and began his career at [[Smith Barney]], where he created the firm's pension fund business. In 1967 [[Lionel Pincus]] asked him to join his new firm, E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co., as a founding partner.[^2]
In 1975, during New York City's fiscal crisis, he became Superintendent of Banks for New York State in the administration of Governor [[Hugh Carey]], who later made him Commissioner of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal.[^2] As Comptroller he was the first chairman of the [[Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council]] and acting chairman of the [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]].[^1]
### BCCI in New York
BCCI's first attempt to acquire an American bank was a bid for the [[Chelsea National Bank]] in New York through a member of the [[Gokal brothers|Gokal]] family as nominee. Heimann testified to the Senate subcommittee of Senator [[John Kerry]]: "My first supervisory contact with BCCI occurred when I was New York Banking Superintendent. New York law requires the Superintended to approve the change of control of a New York chartered bank. . . A young Pakistani national was the proposed purchaser. His uncertified financial statement showed total assets of $4.5 million, of which $3 million was in the form of a loan from his sister. His reported annual income for the prior year was, as I recall, approximately $34,000."[^3]
He found that BCCI had no central regulator and divided its operations between two auditors, so that it had no consolidated financial report, and put a hold on the application. BCCI then applied through a second nominee for a second New York bank, with the same result. [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] then met Heimann directly. Heimann testified: "In each instance, Mr. Abedi attempted to convince us of the secure nature and correct operations of BCCI, its financial strength, etc. On each of these occasions, I expressed my concern that BCCI did not have a primary regulator, and that, until it did, my office was reluctant to permit entry into the US." The Senate report concluded: "New York, the most important U.S. banking market for BCCI, would be closed to BCCI so long as Heimann was its chief regulator."[^3]
Before the subcommittee he stated: "Early on in my government service, I learned one very important and fundamental lesson; namely, that those so inclined to manipulate banks for their own benefit find it easiest to do so if they operate between different supervisory regimes."[^4]
### Bert Lance and the National Bank of Georgia
As Comptroller, Heimann was, in the Senate report's words, "the principal person in the Carter Administration who determined that Bert Lance's banking practices were serious enough to warrant criminal investigation, and to require that Lance not remain as director of the Office of Management and Budget."[^4] His family's notice described the investigation of [[Bert Lance]] as his first challenge as Comptroller.[^2]
In January 1978 Lance sold his shares in the [[National Bank of Georgia]] to [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]. In a memorandum to his files dated January 4, 1978, Heimann recorded that the bank's president, Guyton, "noted he was somewhat disturbed about the role played by the Pakistanis in this transaction," and that "He believes that Lance is presently on the BCCI payroll working with Addabi [sic] and Sami. As a matter of fact, Lance went to London last week and will be back today. The purpose of that trip, presumably, was to discuss further expansion of BCCI in the U.S." Within two weeks the OCC learned that Lance was receiving from BCCI "a tremendous salary," an airplane, office space and secretarial help.[^3][^4]
When BCCI's attempt, with Lance, to take over [[Financial General Bankshares]] became public, Heimann directed the OCC's enforcement staff to determine whether Pharaon, like Gokal before him, was a front for BCCI. [[Robert B. Serino]], director of enforcement and compliance, met Pharaon on March 30, 1978, and wrote to Heimann on April 3: "My conclusions from meeting with Pharaon are that he tells a convincing story; however, it appears that he is 'beholden' to or at least influenced by Abedi. I believe he could, in fact, be Abedi's alter ego in the United States." The Senate report found: "There is no evidence in OCC files to suggest that OCC sought to investigate further its suspicions about Pharaon acting as a front man for BCCI in the purchase of National Bank of Georgia."[^3]
The report described Heimann's position: "Heimann was faced with a difficult choice. Pharaon had agreed that Lance would have no further involvement with National Bank of Georgia if his application to buy it were approved." The OCC was preparing a fraud suit against Lance, and the bank had inadequate capital. "The OCC gave Pharaon permission to move forward and he concluded his tender offer to purchase a 60 percent interest in NBG on May 30, 1978." In the same period an OCC examiner in London, [[Joseph E. Vaez]], had found that BCCI used nominees in purchases of other banks; the report found that this information did not reach the examiners dealing with the Georgia bank, and that in 1981, when the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] was considering the purchase of Financial General Bankshares, the OCC failed, inadvertently, to pass on what it knew of BCCI's possible use of nominees.[^4]
### Later Career
Heimann returned to Wall Street in 1981 as deputy chairman of [[Warburg, Paribas, Becker]], and through its acquisition moved to [[Merrill Lynch]], where he was vice chairman of capital markets, chairman of the executive committee of Merrill Lynch Europe and Middle East, and chairman of its global financial institutions group. After leaving Merrill Lynch in 1999 he became founding chairman of the Financial Stability Institute at the [[Bank for International Settlements]]. He was a member of the [[Group of Thirty]] and chaired the 2020 Andean Commission of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]].[^2]
He died at his home in Manhattan in January 2024, at 94.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. "John G. Heimann, 24th Comptroller of the Currency." https://www.occ.gov/about/who-we-are/history/previous-comptrollers/bio-24-john-heimann.html
[^2]: "John G. Heimann" (paid death notice). *The New York Times,* February 4, 2024, via Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/john-heimann-obituary?id=54285685 (archived: http://web.archive.org/web/20260224062907/https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/john-heimann-obituary?id=54285685). The notice states that he died "on Wednesday," which fell on January 31, 2024.
[^3]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry and FGB and NBG Takeovers" (citing Heimann's testimony, S. Hrg. 102-379, pp. 76-77, and OCC memoranda of January 4 and April 3, 1978). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm

27
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Khalid bin Mahfouz.md
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@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
---
category: "BCCI Scandal"
created: 2026-05-01
updated: 2026-05-01
updated: 2026-09-23
tags:
- Person
- BCCI
@ -27,6 +27,15 @@ relations:
start: 1992-07-01
end: 1993-12-23
fn: 2
- type: owned
with: "[[Skyway Aircraft Leasing]]"
role: "owner, per a court document"
fn: 7
- type: funded
with: "[[James R. Bath]]"
role: "1.4 million dollar loan toward the Express Auto Park garage, Hobby Airport"
start: 1990
fn: 7
---
Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz was born December 26, 1949, in Jeddah, [[Saudi Arabia]]. His father, Salem bin Mahfouz, was a Yemeni-born money-changer who founded the [[National Commercial Bank]] (NCB), the first and largest private bank in Saudi Arabia. Khalid succeeded his father in management of NCB and by the 1990s personally held a 75% stake in the institution, with his wife Naela Kaaki holding the remaining 25%. In 1999, following the collapse of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], the Saudi government purchased a controlling 50% stake in NCB for at least $1 billion, partly used to retire Khalid's personal debts, after which the Mahfouz family retained a 34% stake but Khalid surrendered all management positions. Khalid bin Mahfouz died August 16, 2009, in Jeddah.[^1]
@ -46,9 +55,25 @@ A document dated May 14, 1985, on [[Department of Justice]] letterhead and signe
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.
### The 1986 Share Agreement
The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described bin Mahfouz as "head of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia and the most powerful banker in the Middle East," and wrote that the "forced sale" BCCI later considered for First American was "first considered, and attempted, by BCCI, in 1986 in connection with the purchases of BCCI and CCAH stock" by him. He had bought the shares "under a complex agreement that would permit him to purchase both banks, or to hold his interests temporarily with BCCI guaranteeing to buy them back at no risk to bin Mahfouz." According to the report, "After auditors for National Commercial Bank raised questions about bin Mahfouz's actions regarding BCCI, the transactions were fully unwound by 1989, leaving the First American problem for BCCI unsolved."[^5]
In September 1990 [[Price Waterhouse]] learned that BCCI "had concealed further lending of over $500 million to its major customs by 'parking' that lending with a Middle Eastern bank, namely, the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia controlled by Khalid bin Mahfouz." The practice had continued after the removal of [[Swaleh Naqvi]], "with the knowledge and approval of the Board representative of the controlling shareholders," the government of [[Abu Dhabi]].[^6]
### Houston
In June 1992 the *[[Houston Chronicle]]* reported that the [[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] were reviewing accusations that the Houston businessman [[James R. Bath]] had guided Saudi money into Houston, and that Bath had said in a sworn deposition that he was "the sole director of Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd., a company that a court document shows is owned by Khaled bin Mahfouz." The newspaper reported that in 1990 Bath bought the Express Auto Park garage at Houston's [[William P. Hobby Airport|Hobby Airport]] for 8.4 million dollars, "which included a $1.4 million loan provided by Mahfouz, according to transaction documents," and that after Sheikh [[Salem bin Laden|Salem M. Binladen]], for whom Bath had bought Houston Gulf Airport in 1977, died in 1988, "his interests in the airport were taken over by Mahfouz, according to court documents." Bath had invested 50,000 dollars in the Arbusto '79 and Arbusto '80 oil partnerships of [[George W. Bush]].[^7]
The journalist [[Lucy Komisar]] wrote in 2007 that in 1976, when [[George H.W. Bush]] headed the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], the agency sold some of the planes of its proprietary airline [[Air America]] to Skyway, "a company owned by Bath and Bin Mahfouz." She also described bin Mahfouz as the "chief banker" of the Saudi investor [[Abdullah Taha Bakhsh]], who held about 11 percent of [[Harken Energy]], the oil company of which George W. Bush was a director.[^8]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993.
[^2]: "Saudi to Pay $225 Million in BCCI Settlement." *The Washington Post*, December 24, 1993; "Top Saudi Banker Indicted in BCCI Fraud." United Press International, July 1, 1992.
[^3]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
[^4]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
[^5]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm
[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 10, "BCCI and Its Accountants." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/10accounta.htm
[^7]: Urban, Jerry. "Bush Said Friend's Arbusto Investment Was His Own, Not Saudi Money." *Houston Chronicle,* June 4, 1992. Reproduced at https://911timeline.s3.amazonaws.com/1990s/houstonchronicle060492.html
[^8]: Komisar, Lucy. "Questions Linger About Bushes and BCCI." Inter Press Service, April 4, 2007. https://www.ipsnews.net/2007/04/finance-questions-linger-about-bushes-and-bcci/

122
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Norman Lamont.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
---
category: "BCCI Scandal"
tags:
- Person
- BCCI
- UnitedKingdom
- ConservativeParty
- HMTreasury
- BankingSupervision
- 1990s
alias:
- Lord Lamont of Lerwick
- Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont
summary: "Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1990 to 1993 who answered for the government after BCCI's July 1991 closure and, with the Bank of England's Governor, commissioned the Bingham inquiry."
born: 1942-05-08
location: "London, United Kingdom"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[HM Treasury]]"
role: "Chancellor of the Exchequer"
start: 1990-11-28
end: 1993-05-27
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[HM Treasury]]"
role: "Chief Secretary to the Treasury"
start: 1989-07-24
end: 1990-11-28
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[HM Treasury]]"
role: "Financial Secretary"
start: 1986-05-21
end: 1989-07-23
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[House of Commons]]"
role: "Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Thames"
start: 1972-05-05
end: 1997-05-01
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[House of Lords]]"
role: "Lord Lamont of Lerwick"
start: 1998-07-24
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[Conservative Party]]"
start: 1972-05-05
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[N. M. Rothschild & Sons]]"
role: "merchant banker"
start: 1968
end: 1979
fn: 4
- type: director_of
with: "[[N. M. Rothschild & Sons]]"
role: "non-executive director"
start: 1993
end: 1995
fn: 4
- type: appointed
with: "[[Thomas Bingham]]"
role: "jointly with the Governor of the Bank of England, to inquire into the supervision of BCCI"
start: 1991
fn: 3
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Lord Lamont of Lerwick (born May 8, 1942), is a British [[Conservative Party]] politician who sat as Member of Parliament for [[Kingston upon Thames]] from 1972 to 1997 and was [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] from November 28, 1990, to May 27, 1993. As Chancellor he answered in the [[House of Commons]] for the government after the [[Bank of England]] closed the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) in July 1991, and with the Governor of the Bank, [[Robin Leigh-Pemberton]], he commissioned the inquiry of Lord Justice [[Thomas Bingham]] into the supervision of the bank.[^1][^2][^3]
### Early Life and Banking
Lamont was born in [[Lerwick]], in the [[Shetland Islands]], where his father, [[Daniel Lamont]], a surgeon, was stationed during the [[World War II|Second World War]]; his mother was Helen Irene Lamont. He attended [[Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge|Fitzwilliam College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], where he belonged to a group of young Conservatives known as the "Cambridge Mafia," among them [[Michael Howard]] and [[John Gummer]]. He was president of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and, in 1964, of the [[Cambridge Union]].[^4]
He was principal assistant to the Conservative member [[Duncan Sandys]] in 1965 and worked on the staff of the [[Conservative Research Department]] from 1966 to 1968. From 1968 to 1979 he was a merchant banker at [[N. M. Rothschild & Sons]]. He married Alice Rosemary White in 1971; they had two children, Hilaire and Sophie.[^4] He contested [[Kingston upon Hull East]] without success at the general election of June 18, 1970, and entered the Commons for Kingston upon Thames at a by-election in May 1972.[^1][^4]
### Parliamentary and Ministerial Career
In the Commons Lamont was parliamentary private secretary to [[Norman St John-Stevas]] in 1974, an opposition spokesman on prices and consumer affairs from 1975 to 1976 and on industry from 1976 to 1979.[^4] He sat on the Procedure Committee from November 1978 to June 1983 and on the [[Public Accounts Committee]] from June 1986 to July 1989.[^1]
His government posts, as recorded by Parliament, were:[^1]
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary, [[Department of Energy]], May 7, 1979, to September 5, 1981
- Minister of State, [[Department of Industry]], September 14, 1981, to June 12, 1983
- Minister of State, [[Department of Trade and Industry]], June 13, 1983, to September 2, 1985
- Minister of State for Defence Procurement, [[Ministry of Defence]], September 2, 1985, to May 20, 1986
- Financial Secretary, [[HM Treasury]], May 21, 1986, to July 23, 1989
- Chief Secretary to the Treasury, July 24, 1989, to November 28, 1990
- Chancellor of the Exchequer, November 28, 1990, to May 27, 1993
He contested [[Harrogate and Knaresborough]] at the general election of May 1, 1997, and left the Commons that day. He entered the [[House of Lords]] as Lord Lamont of Lerwick on July 24, 1998, and has served there on the [[European Union Committee]], the Economic Affairs Committee and, from January 2026, the International Relations and Defence Committee.[^1]
After leaving the Treasury he was a non-executive director of N. M. Rothschild & Sons from 1993 to 1995, and a director of RAB Capital, [[Balli PLC]] and several investment trusts; he was vice president of the [[Bruges Group]] from 1997, an adviser to the Romanian government in 1997 and 1998, and chairman of Conservatives Against a Federal Europe from 1998 to 1999. He wrote *Electoral Reform, No Reform* (1975), *Sovereign Britain* (1995) and *In Office* (1999), a memoir.[^4]
### Closure of BCCI, July 1991
On July 19, 1991, two weeks after the Bank of England closed BCCI, Lamont made a statement to the Commons. He told the House that "under the 1987 Banking Act the supervision of banks is unambiguously the duty of the Bank of England and not of the Government," that the [[Deposit Protection Board]] would write to depositors at once, and that "Our latest estimate is that the United Kingdom branches at the bank had some 50,000 sterling accounts, although some customers may have had more than one account." He had met [[Keith Vaz]] and a group of other members the day before.[^2]
He then announced the inquiry: "in the light of widespread public concern, the Governor and I have agreed that there should be an independent inquiry into the supervision, under the Banking Acts, of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, to establish the facts and to make such recommendations as arise from them. The report will be made public subject to such restrictions as may be needed to avoid prejudicing any criminal proceedings and subject to the provisions of the Banking Act." He added that the inquiry was "not to be taken as a criticism of the Bank of England. I have no reason to doubt that the Bank acted properly and promptly in the best interests of the depositors."[^2]
Replying to [[Gordon Brown]], Lamont said Brown's remarks "might have been more complete if he had referred to the massive, unprecedented fraud on a worldwide scale which is the real source of the problem facing us." Asked whether the [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh of Abu Dhabi]] should have been asked to put more money into the bank before its closure, he said the auditors' report "contained evidence ... of massive and widespread fraud," and that "it was the Bank's view that the bank should be closed down." On the timing he told the House: "I was informed in general terms that fraud had been uncovered on 26 June. I was given some details of the section 41 report on 28 June, and the Treasury sent a report to No. 10 on 28 June. The final decision was taken on 4 July."[^2]
In the debate of July 22, 1991, Vaz read a written ministerial answer given to him, that "the Chancellor had discussed a number of supervisory cases, including BCCI, with the Governors of the Bank of England on a number of occasions since becoming Chancellor, but was not aware until 26 June that fraud had been uncovered." Vaz set out a timeline: the final [[Price Waterhouse]] report "arrived on 25 June. By 26 June, the gist of the report had been given to a Treasury official, John Geeve. On 28 June, a special meeting was held at Downing street, which was attended by both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor." [[Michael Knowles]], member for Nottingham East, said of the auditors' 800-page report of June 26 that "It revealed not inefficiency or poor management but fraud on a massive scale. The phrase used was 'a bank within a bank.'"[^5] The Price Waterhouse report is described at [[Sandstorm Report]].
### The Bingham Report
Bingham's report was published on October 22, 1992, when Lamont presented it to the Commons; his statement is described at [[Bingham Report]]. In the full debate of November 6, 1992, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, [[Anthony Nelson]], spoke for the government. He called the report "the conclusion of an inquiry into the largest and most wide-ranging fraud in the history of banking" and said "The bank's guiding principle was divide and deceive." He gave the figures: BCCI had 25 branches in the United Kingdom with deposits of 1.85 billion pounds and "more than 53,000 sterling accounts"; the Deposit Protection Board had sent claim forms to some 42,000 depositors and had paid out more than 54 million pounds. He announced that the Bank had set up a special investigations unit under [[Ian Watt]] and a legal unit under [[Peter Peddie]], "a former partner in Freshfields," and closed with five rules for depositors, the last that "one should never confuse authorisation with a guarantee."[^3]
The Labour member [[Calum Macdonald]] quoted a letter Lamont had sent him: "my statements in July last year were about my willingness to reconsider the issue of compensation if evidence of negligence on the part of the supervisory authorities were to emerge. Lord Justice Bingham has found no such evidence." Macdonald wrote to Bingham, enclosing the letter, that "Mr. Lamont makes the bald statement that you found no evidence of negligence on the part of the Bank of England," and asked whether he agreed. He read Bingham's reply to the House: "Having been appointed to inquire and report by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England, and having delivered my report, I do not feel that it would be right for me to comment on the interpretation which either of them put on it ... I am afraid that the answer to your question must be found in the report."[^3]
[[Alistair Darling]], for Labour, said that "Alarm bells should also have rung in respect of the Tampa indictment," the 1988 charges brought in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] after [[Operation C-Chase]], and quoted Bingham's paragraph 2.162: "The likelihood of involvement in handling the proceeds of drug-trafficking could scarcely have eluded a competent and diligent banker contemplating such an investment, particularly if he had branches in Panama and agencies in Florida." [[Terence Higgins]], chairman of the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, recalled that the committee had written "We simply do not understand why BCCI should have been the only bank in the world to be given such preferential treatment," and that the Bank of England had replied that "The BCCI was a unique problem and the college a unique response to it."[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: UK Parliament, Members API, "Biography," Member ID 895 (Lord Lamont of Lerwick), accessed September 23, 2026. https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Members/895/Biography
[^2]: House of Commons, "Bank of Credit and Commerce International," *Hansard,* July 19, 1991, vol. 195, cc. 714-727. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1991/jul/19/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international
[^3]: House of Commons, "BCCI (Bingham Report)," *Hansard,* November 6, 1992, vol. 213, cc. 523-594. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/nov/06/bcci-bingham-report
[^4]: "Lamont, Norman 1942-," *Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series,* via Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/lamont-norman-1942
[^5]: House of Commons, "Bank of Credit and Commerce International," *Hansard,* July 22, 1991, vol. 195, cc. 903-924. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1991/jul/22/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international

61
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Paula Hawkins.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
---
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
- Person
- Politician
- USSenate
- BCCI
- DrugWar
alias:
- Paula Fickes Hawkins
summary: "Republican senator from Florida from 1981 to 1987 in whose Senate office BCCI's American manager met Justice Department officials in 1984 over her allegation that the bank laundered drug money."
born: 1927-01-24
died: 2009-12-04
location: "Winter Park, Florida"
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[United States Senate]]"
role: "Senator from Florida"
start: 1981
end: 1987
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[Republican National Committee]]"
role: "National Committeewoman for Florida"
start: 1968
end: 1986
fn: 2
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Paula Hawkins was a Republican [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] from [[Florida]], elected in 1980, who served a single term. She was the first woman elected to the Senate from Florida and the first woman elected to a full Senate term without having been preceded in politics by a husband or father.[^1]
### Early Life and Florida Politics
She was born Paula Fickes in [[Salt Lake City]] on January 24, 1927, to Paul Burt Fickes and Mary Leoan Staley, the oldest of four children. Her father was in the Navy, and the family lived in [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]], [[Hawaii]], [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]] and [[Atlanta]], where she met [[Walter Eugene Hawkins]] at Sunday school. They married in [[Logan, Utah]], while she was a student at [[Utah State University]], and moved to [[Winter Park, Florida|Winter Park]] in 1954. They were members of the [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].[^2]
Her political work began with a campaign for sewers in the town of Maitland. She was the Republican National Committeewoman for Florida from 1968 to 1986 and a delegate to five Republican National Conventions. In 1972 she was elected to the [[Florida Public Service Commission]], which regulated electricity, water, telephone and transportation monopolies, and in 1976 she became the first Republican reelected to office in the state.[^2]
### Senate
Hawkins was elected in the Reagan landslide of 1980. She described herself as "feminine" as distinct from "feminist," and her opposition to abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment drew pickets from the [[National Organization for Women]].[^1] Her family's notice credits her with legislation that established the [[National Center for Missing and Exploited Children]] and [[Radio Marti]], and with measures against the importation and trafficking of illegal drugs.[^2]
### BCCI
[[Abdur Sakhia]], the former regional manager of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) in the [[United States]], testified before the subcommittee of Senator [[John Kerry]] that in the autumn of 1984 he met [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] officials in Hawkins's Senate office to discuss allegations of BCCI's involvement in drug money laundering. According to Sakhia, BCCI's president, [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], told him to meet Hawkins after she told President [[Zia ul-Haq|Zia]] of [[Pakistan]], on a trip to that country, that she was concerned about drug money laundering by a Pakistani bank in the [[Cayman Islands]], which she later identified as BCCI. Sakhia testified that the Justice Department told him BCCI was not under investigation, and that he later learned that the [[State Department]] had given the same message to the Pakistani government.[^3]
The Senate report stated that the subcommittee "has been unable to determine the source for Senator Hawkin's [sic] information," and that as a Senate subcommittee chairman she "would have had access to classified material from both the DEA and the CIA." The report gave her post as chairman of the "Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations," the name of the subcommittee before which Sakhia testified.[^3]
Describing BCCI's cultivation of Florida politicians around the opening of its [[Miami]] office, Sakhia told the subcommittee: "Paula Hawkins came to the bank several times separately," in a passage that also named Governor [[Bob Graham]] and [[Jeb Bush]], who attended the opening, Representative [[Dante Fascell]], who came to Sakhia's house, and [[Reubin Askew]], who "came to the bank several times and had been to my house."[^4]
### Death
Hawkins died in [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]] on December 4, 2009, at 82, of complications of a fall after several years of health problems, including a stroke. She was buried in Palm Cemetery in Winter Park.[^1][^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Paula Hawkins, 82, Florida Ex-Senator, Dies." *The New York Times,* December 2009, excerpted by History News Network. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/paula-hawkins-82-florida-ex-senator-dies
[^2]: "Paula Hawkins" (family death notice). *Orlando Sentinel,* December 6, 2009, via Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/orlandosentinel/name/paula-hawkins-obituary?id=22184089 (archived: http://web.archive.org/web/20231005101124/https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/orlandosentinel/name/paula-hawkins-obituary?id=22184089)
[^3]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm
[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Part Two" (Sakhia's testimony). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm

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---
category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
tags:
- Person
- OpenAI
- EffectiveAltruism
- RAND
- Robotics
summary: "Robotics and geospatial entrepreneur, RAND adjunct and UK board member of Effective Ventures, who as an OpenAI director voted in November 2023 to remove Sam Altman and then left the board."
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[OpenAI]]"
role: "independent director of the nonprofit board"
end: 2023-11
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Rand Corporation]]"
role: "adjunct senior management scientist"
start: 2023
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Singularity University]]"
role: "director of an innovation lab"
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[Fellow Robots]]"
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[GeoSim Systems]]"
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[GeoSim Systems]]"
role: "chief executive officer"
end: 2022
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[Effective Ventures]]"
role: "U.K. board of the Effective Ventures Foundation"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[Center for the Governance of AI]]"
role: "advisory board"
fn: 1
- type: spouse_of
with: "[[Joseph Gordon-Levitt]]"
fn: 1
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Tasha McCauley became an adjunct senior management scientist at the [[Rand Corporation|RAND Corporation]] in 2023. She had earlier directed an innovation lab at [[Singularity University]], co-founded the robotics startup [[Fellow Robots]] with a colleague from there, and then co-founded [[GeoSim Systems]], a geospatial technology company, where she was chief executive until 2022.[^1]
With her husband, [[Joseph Gordon-Levitt]], she signed the [[Asilomar AI Principles]], 23 principles of AI governance published in 2017, which [[Sam Altman]], [[Ilya Sutskever]] and [[Elon Musk]] also signed. She sat on the advisory board of the [[Center for the Governance of AI]] with [[Helen Toner]], and on the U.K. board of the [[Effective Ventures|Effective Ventures Foundation]], the parent organization of the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]].[^1]
### OpenAI
McCauley was one of the independent directors of the nonprofit board of [[OpenAI]] which, on November 17, 2023, announced that Altman would leave as chief executive after "a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." The company listed its board that day as "OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO [[Adam D'Angelo]], technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology|Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology]]'s Helen Toner."[^2] OpenAI directors, according to the company's own description, held no equity and received no other compensation.[^1]
On November 29, 2023, Altman returned as chief executive with a new initial board of [[Bret Taylor]], [[Larry Summers]] and D'Angelo. He wrote that he was "grateful to Adam, Tasha, and Helen for working with us to come to this solution that best serves the mission," and "sincerely thankful to Helen and Tasha for investing a huge amount of effort in this process." McCauley, Toner and Sutskever left the board; D'Angelo stayed.[^3]
### The Cruz Letter
On September 13, 2024, Senator [[Ted Cruz]], ranking member of the [[Senate Commerce Committee]], wrote to RAND's president [[Jason Matheny]] about RAND's part in drafting the [[Executive Order 14110|AI executive order]] of 2023. "RAND has both personal and financial connections to incumbent AI companies like [[Anthropic]] and OpenAI," he wrote. "For instance, you are one of five members on Anthropic's '[[Long-Term Benefit Trust]],' which oversees the AI company." McCauley, he continued, was "an adjunct senior management scientist at RAND and effective altruism advocate" who had "just left OpenAI's board last November." He added: "RAND is also connected with [[Open Philanthropy]], the charitable arm of these AI companies. Last year, Open Philanthropy gave RAND $16 million to advance its 'work on potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence.'"[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Konrad, Alex, and Sarah Emerson. "These Are The People That Fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman." *Forbes,* November 17, 2023, archived November 18, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231118075941/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/17/these-are-the-people-that-fired-openai-ceo-sam-altman/
[^2]: OpenAI. "OpenAI announces leadership transition." November 17, 2023, archived November 17, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231117210540/https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition
[^3]: OpenAI. "Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board." November 29, 2023, archived November 30, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231130020514/https://openai.com/blog/sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-openai-has-a-new-initial-board
[^4]: Cruz, Ted. Letter to Jason Matheny, President and CEO, RAND Corporation, September 13, 2024, U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/AF082319-C877-47CC-95F6-8240EE6A105D

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---
category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
tags:
- Person
- Journalism
- EffectiveAltruism
- OpenPhilanthropy
- TarbellFellowship
summary: "Science and technology reporter placed at Time through the Tarbell Fellowship in 2023 and 2024 who joined Coefficient Giving, formerly Open Philanthropy, as a program officer for AI governance in July 2024."
location: "New York City"
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]]"
start: 2023
end: 2024
role: "fellow, placed at Time"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]"
start: 2024-07
role: "program officer, AI governance and policy, Coefficient Giving"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Bain & Company]]"
role: "associate consultant"
fn: 2
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Will Henshall is a science and technology reporter who was placed at *[[Time]]* from 2023 to 2024 through the fellowship of the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]], and who joined Coefficient Giving, the renamed [[Open Philanthropy]], as a program officer for AI governance and policy in July 2024.[^1][^2]
### Career
Tarbell's fellow page describes him as a science and technology reporter based in [[New York City]] who holds a master's degree in chemistry from the [[University of Oxford]] and a master's in public policy from [[Harvard University|Harvard]]'s [[John F. Kennedy School of Government]], and who had worked as a management consultant and policy researcher.[^1] Coefficient Giving's team page gives the same degrees, and records that before joining in July 2024 he had worked as an editorial fellow at *Time* and as an associate consultant at [[Bain & Company]].[^2]
Tarbell's ethics policy states that as of 2025 "the majority of our funding originates with a single funder, Coefficient Giving (formerly known as Open Philanthropy)." Open Philanthropy recommended 575,000 dollars in September 2023 for the Tarbell Fellowship, then run under the fiscal sponsor [[Training for Good]], and 816,000 dollars to the Tarbell Center in November 2024.[^3][^4][^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Will Henshall." https://www.tarbellcenter.org/fellows/will-henshall
[^2]: Coefficient Giving, "Will Henshall," team page, archived May 23, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260523181838id_/https://coefficientgiving.org/team/will-henshall/
[^3]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026. https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards
[^4]: Open Philanthropy, "Training for Good, Operating Costs and Tarbell Fellowship," September 2023, archived. http://web.archive.org/web/20240225122410id_/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/training-for-good-operating-costs-and-tarbell-fellowship/
[^5]: Open Philanthropy, "Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, General Support," November 2024, archived. http://web.archive.org/web/20251030212332id_/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/tarbell-center-for-ai-journalism-general-support/