From 71d15483ec1001e5361bc6119343e0bb3e206bed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "disinfo.zone" Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:47:02 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] vault backup: 2026-09-23 16:47:02 --- 00 - META/CHANGELOG.md | 200 +++++++++--------- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abbas Gokal.md | 70 ++++-- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdur Sakhia.md | 47 ++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdus Sami.md | 46 ++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Agha Hasan Abedi.md | 37 +++- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Al Goldstein.md | 42 ++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alistair Cooke.md | 37 ++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amjad Awan.md | 17 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md | 14 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Art Carduner.md | 36 ++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Asaf Ali.md | 5 + 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Birch.md | 48 +++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Joseph Giroir.md | 54 +++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Clark Clifford.md | 78 ++++++- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eddie George.md | 10 + 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Elizabeth F. 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Joseph Giroir.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Elizabeth F. Abrams.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Faisal Saud al-Fulaij.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Garzone.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hank Brown.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James D'Amelio.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Joanne Epps.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/K.N. Curnow.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kerry Burke.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kevin Bethel.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leo Goldstein.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Louis Garzone.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nazir Chinoy.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Raymond Evers.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Eugene Metzger.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John B. Hannum.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Joseph L. McGlynn Jr..md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Michael Mastromarino.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mohammed Hammoud.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mazur.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sam Lake.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Wayne Jacobs.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Candida Royalle.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Darby Lloyd Rains.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Georgina Spelvin.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghassan Qassem.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ian Shearer.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lindsay Smith.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Philip Nordo.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Barclay Surrick.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Tina Russell.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Donald W. Van Artsdalen.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hugh Templeton.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John Milton Younge.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Development Finance Corporation.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Serious Fraud Office.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Kerry Committee.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia).md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bandbox Theater.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Biomedical Tissue Services.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit and Commerce American Holdings.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Femme Productions.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gulf Group.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/LifeCell.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Lost Mountain Tissue Bank.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Price Waterhouse.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Regeneration Technologies.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Screw (magazine).md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Stephens Finance Ltd..md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Press.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tutogen Medical.md create mode 100644 40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Bingham Report.md create mode 100644 40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Operation C-Chase.md create mode 100644 40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Sandstorm Report.md create mode 100644 40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England.md create mode 100644 60 - PLACES/CITIES/Hadlow, New Zealand.md create mode 100644 60 - PLACES/CITIES/Temuka.md create mode 100644 60 - PLACES/CITIES/Washdyke.md diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index e4af5006..41dc6dfb 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,100 +1,100 @@ -- 2026-09-23T1427 · [[_manifest]] -- 2026-09-23T1329 · [[John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer)]] -- 2026-09-23T1329 · [[Chemical Technology Limited]] -- 2026-09-23T1329 · [[R.C. Horsch]] -- 2026-09-23T1328 · [[_NOTES_NZ_aviation]] -- 2026-09-23T1327 · [[_NOTES_US_airman]] -- 2026-09-23T1326 · [[Myroslawa Ferkuniak]] -- 2026-09-23T1326 · [[Eugene Horsch]] -- 2026-09-23T1324 · [[_NOTES_Round3_checks]] -- 2026-09-23T1254 · [[Albert Hoersch]] -- 2026-09-23T1254 · [[Raymond C. Hoersch]] -- 2026-09-23T1235 · [[_NOTES_PapersPast]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[Jerome Brown]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[Wackenhut Corporation]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[Gabrielle Amarando]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[Nicole Fusaro]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[George Newsome]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[John Butterworth]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]] -- 2026-09-23T1229 · [[Black Mass (1975 film)]] -- 2026-09-23T1222 · [[Helen M. Hoersch]] -- 2026-09-23T1222 · [[Olney House Investigation]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[Charles B. Flack Jr.]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[Michael Yoder]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[J.J. Klaver]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[Don Seraydarian]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[Sally A. Kocher]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[Jill Fertel]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[Frank Vanore]] -- 2026-09-23T1221 · [[Robert Scafidi]] -- 2026-09-23T1219 · [[Krista Killen]] -- 2026-09-23T1219 · [[Amy McHale]] -- 2026-09-23T1219 · [[Maribel Fresses]] -- 2026-09-23T1219 · [[Blair Tonzelli]] -- 2026-09-23T1216 · [[_NOTES_Newspapers_com]] -- 2026-09-23T1212 · [[_NOTES_People_women]] -- 2026-09-23T1212 · [[_NOTES_People]] -- 2026-09-23T1208 · [[_NOTES_People_LE]] -- 2026-09-23T1207 · [[_NOTES_People_legal]] -- 2026-09-23T1204 · [[_NOTES_Family]] -- 2026-09-23T1200 · [[_NOTES_Film]] -- 2026-09-23T1158 · [[George R. Wackenhut]] -- 2026-09-23T1156 · [[Underground Cinema 16]] -- 2026-09-23T1156 · [[Charles Griffith]] -- 2026-09-23T1156 · [[Cecilia T. Hagerty]] -- 2026-09-23T1156 · [[Clara Hoersch]] -- 2026-09-23T1156 · [[Helen E. Hoersch]] -- 2026-09-23T1153 · [[_NOTES_Courts_2]] -- 2026-09-23T1150 · [[_NOTES_Wackenhut_Xref_2]] -- 2026-09-23T1147 · [[_NOTES_NZ_2]] -- 2026-09-23T1120 · [[_NOTES_Aviation_Courts]] -- 2026-09-23T1114 · [[_NOTES_Wackenhut_Xref]] -- 2026-09-23T1113 · [[_NOTES_NZ]] -- 2026-09-23T0033 · [[Dustin Moskovitz]] -- 2026-09-23T0030 · [[Cari Tuna]] -- 2026-09-23T0014 · [[key_figures_candidates]] -- 2026-09-23T0014 · [[KEY INDIVIDUALS]] -- 2026-09-23T0014 · [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Foreign Terrorist Organization]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Center for AI Safety]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Asana]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Combating Terrorism Center at West Point]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Helen Toner]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Mochtar Riady]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Luke Muehlhauser]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Jason Matheny]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Frederick Lacey]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[David Maland]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Paul Christiano]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Jorge Alessandri]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Dick Cheney]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[North Fox Island]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Queen's Accident]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[The Bell Curve]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Project FUBELT]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Russian Imperial Movement]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Troop 137]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[The Zizians]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[The Church of New Revelation]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[PayPal]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Open Philanthropy]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Ocean Living Institute]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Good Ventures]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Anthropic]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Atomwaffen Division]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Michelle Zajko]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[James R. Schlesinger]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Webster Hubbell]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Salvador Allende]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Kaleb Cole]] -- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Eugene Giaquinto]] -- 2026-09-23T0004 · [[_NOTES_EA11_cari_tuna]] -- 2026-09-23T0003 · [[_NOTES_EA9_moskovitz_politics]] +- 2026-09-23T1641 · [[_NOTES_N2_us_figures]] +- 2026-09-23T1637 · [[_NOTES_E2_money_board]] +- 2026-09-23T1636 · [[_NOTES_N1_pakistan]] +- 2026-09-23T1635 · [[_NOTES_E1_openphil_people]] +- 2026-09-23T1635 · [[_NOTES_N4_uk_media_places]] +- 2026-09-23T1633 · [[_NOTES_N3_gulf_asia]] +- 2026-09-23T1630 · [[_NOTES_E3_policy_people]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[U.S. Customs]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[Dassault Company]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[William J. Casey]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[State Department]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[Department of Justice]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[MOC - BCCI Scandal]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[KEY INDIVIDUALS]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[Abu Dhabi]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[Abu Dhabi Investment Authority]] +- 2026-09-23T1612 · [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan]] +- 2026-09-23T1540 · [[Mohammed Hammoud]] +- 2026-09-23T1540 · [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]] +- 2026-09-23T1540 · [[Abbas Gokal]] +- 2026-09-23T1540 · [[First American Bank]] +- 2026-09-23T1540 · [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] +- 2026-09-23T1540 · [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] +- 2026-09-23T1540 · [[Gokal brothers]] +- 2026-09-23T1537 · [[_manifest]] +- 2026-09-23T1537 · [[National Bank of Georgia]] +- 2026-09-23T1537 · [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] +- 2026-09-23T1537 · [[Independence Bank of Encino]] +- 2026-09-23T1537 · [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] +- 2026-09-23T1537 · [[Financial General Bankshares]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Operation C-Chase]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Serious Fraud Office]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Gulf Group]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Abdur Sakhia]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Price Waterhouse]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Nazir Chinoy]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Bingham Report]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Sandstorm Report]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[ICIC]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Capcom]] +- 2026-09-23T1535 · [[Robert Mazur]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Stephens Finance Ltd.]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[C. Joseph Giroir]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Eugene Metzger]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Roy P. M. Carlson]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Bert Lance]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[David L. Paul]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Kamal Adham]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Robert Altman]] +- 2026-09-23T1530 · [[Clark Clifford]] +- 2026-09-23T1529 · [[Robert Mueller]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Kerry Committee]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Robert Morgenthau]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Hank Brown]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Central Intelligence Agency]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[William von Raab]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Richard J. Kerr]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Gerald Lewis]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Jack Blum]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Federal Reserve Board]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Eddie George]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Robin Leigh-Pemberton]] +- 2026-09-23T1528 · [[Bank of England]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Philip Nordo]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia)]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Bandbox Theater]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Art Carduner]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Sam Lake]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Salvatore La Russa]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Leo Goldstein]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[James D'Amelio]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Wayne Jacobs]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Kevin Bethel]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Raymond Evers]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Joanne Epps]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Elizabeth F. Abrams]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[John Milton Younge]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Richard Barclay Surrick]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[John B. Hannum]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Donald W. Van Artsdalen]] +- 2026-09-23T1526 · [[Joseph L. McGlynn Jr.]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Garzone Funeral Home]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Screw (magazine)]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Al Goldstein]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Darby Lloyd Rains]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Tina Russell]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Georgina Spelvin]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Femme Productions]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Candida Royalle]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Alistair Cooke]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Tutogen Medical]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[Regeneration Technologies]] +- 2026-09-23T1525 · [[LifeCell]] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abbas Gokal.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abbas Gokal.md index 45d1e427..a8800b04 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abbas Gokal.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abbas Gokal.md @@ -9,34 +9,78 @@ tags: - London - 1980s - 1990s -summary: "Abbas Gokal was the senior partner of the Gulf Shipping Group, which became BCCI's largest single debtor at $831 million through fictitious trade transactions and circular credit, before fleeing Germany after BCCI's 1991 collapse and being convicted of fraud in German courts." +summary: "Chairman of the Gulf Group shipping empire, BCCI's largest debtor, convicted at the Old Bailey in 1997 of conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to fourteen years." born: 1936 -died: 2016 location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Gulf Group]]" + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Mustafa Gokal]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 2 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Murtaza Gokal]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Serious Fraud Office]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-09 + fn: 2 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Serious Fraud Office]]" + reverse: true + start: 1995-02 + end: 1997-05-08 + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Abbas Gokal was born in 1936 in Karachi, then British India, into a shipping family. With his brothers Mustafa and Murtaza, he built the Gulf Shipping Group into a substantial international shipping enterprise based in London, with subsidiary companies including Gulf Agency Company and Gulf International Inc. The Gulf Group's central role in the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] lending scandal made it one of the most documented cases of fraudulent banking relationships in the bank's history. Gokal died in 2016.[^1] +Abbas Gokal (born 1936) was a Pakistani shipping magnate and, with his brothers [[Mustafa Gokal|Mustafa]] and [[Murtaza Gokal|Murtaza]], the principal of the [[Gulf Group]], a Geneva-registered shipping and trading concern that was the largest single borrower from the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI). He was arrested at [[Frankfurt]] in July 1994, extradited to Britain, and convicted at the [[Old Bailey]] in April 1997 of conspiracy to account falsely and conspiracy to defraud; on May 8, 1997, he was sentenced to fourteen years, then the heaviest sentence obtained by the [[Serious Fraud Office]].[^1][^2][^3] ### Gulf Group and BCCI -The Gokal brothers established a lending relationship with BCCI that began legitimately and became progressively fraudulent as the Gulf Group's actual commercial performance diverged from the financial facade BCCI helped construct. By the time of BCCI's closure in July 1991, the Gulf Group had accumulated loans from BCCI totaling approximately $831 million - the bank's largest single exposure to any single client - none of which was realistically collectible. This exposure represented approximately 10 percent of BCCI's entire loan portfolio.[^1] +Born in 1936 into a shipping family, Abbas Gokal built the Gulf Group with his brothers into an international shipping enterprise with subsidiaries including Gulf Agency Company and Gulf International Inc.[^1] The Gokal family's relationship with BCCI began at the bank's founding, and the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described it as a "shipping empire [that] could be characterized as much BCCI affiliate as BCCI customer."[^4] -The mechanism of the fraud involved circular transactions: Gulf Group companies would book fictitious shipping contracts, issue documentation suggesting commercial activity, and use these documents to justify BCCI loans. The proceeds would be cycled back through the system in ways that generated the appearance of commercial revenue while the underlying transactions had no economic reality. BCCI officials cooperated in the fraud both because of their relationships with the Gokal family and because writing off the Gulf Group loans would have required acknowledging insolvency that the bank's management was concealing.[^2] +The Gulf Group's lending relationship with BCCI became progressively fraudulent. Gulf companies booked fictitious shipping and trade transactions, and the documentation was used to justify fresh BCCI loans whose proceeds were cycled back to service old ones, generating the appearance of commercial revenue. BCCI officials cooperated because writing the loans off would have exposed the bank's insolvency.[^4] The size of the exposure grew with each examination. In 1987 [[Price Waterhouse]] put the Gulf Group's borrowings at 318 million dollars, 23 percent of BCCI's capital base, and reported that repayment was "below expectations," that the security was "likely unenforceable," and that the financial information was "inadequate." Three years later the auditors found that for many Gokal loans the information was "not merely 'inadequate' but non-existent," and that "cash allocations to [some Gokal] accounts appear to be arbitrary"; a later report put the brothers' debts at more than 400 million dollars and recorded that BCCI's management told the auditors to rely on "the relationship of trust between the Gokals and BCCI's top officials rather than to any documents."[^5] By the bank's closure in July 1991 the Gulf Group owed about 831 million dollars, roughly 10 percent of BCCI's loan portfolio, and at Gokal's trial prosecutors put the fraudulent loans over the life of the relationship at 1.2 billion dollars (794 million pounds).[^1][^3] -The [[Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] on BCCI (December 1992) documented the Gulf Group relationship in detail, citing it as one of the clearest examples of how BCCI operated as "a criminal enterprise from its very beginning." The Senate investigators found that BCCI had extended credit to the Gokal brothers that bore no relationship to the Gulf Group's actual assets or cash flows, and that the relationship had been used to channel funds for purposes including the financing of clients and operations connected to intelligence services.[^2] +The appendix of the Kerry-Brown report lists the "Gokal group and the Gokal family" among unresolved connections to the financial empire of [[Charles Keating]], a matter the subcommittee recommended for further investigation and never resolved.[^6] -### BCCI's 1975 Chelsea National Bank Attempt +### Chelsea National Bank -In 1975, BCCI used the Gulf Group as a front in an attempt to acquire Chelsea National Bank in [[New York City]]. Federal Reserve Board regulations required disclosure of BCCI's interest in any acquisition of an American bank; using Gokal as a nominal acquirer was an attempt to circumvent this requirement. Regulators identified the arrangement and rejected the bid, though they did not prevent BCCI from later acquiring control of [[First American Bankshares]] through a similar nominee structure involving [[Kamal Adham]] and other intermediaries.[^1] +In 1975 BCCI used the Gokal family as nominee purchasers in an attempt to acquire the [[Chelsea National Bank]] in [[New York City]], which would have given the bank an undisclosed American subsidiary. Regulators identified the arrangement and the bid failed.[^1][^7] When [[Ghaith R. Pharaon|Ghaith Pharaon]] later appeared as a purchaser of [[Financial General Bankshares]], the Comptroller of the Currency, [[John Heimann]], directed his enforcement staff to determine "whether Pharaon, like Gokal before him, was a front for BCCI."[^7] BCCI acquired control of [[First American Bank|First American Bankshares]] through a similar nominee structure involving [[Kamal Adham]] and other Gulf investors.[^1] -### Post-Collapse and German Prosecution +### Flight and Arrest -Following BCCI's collapse and liquidation beginning in July 1991, Gulf Group's own financial structure disintegrated. Abbas Gokal fled London and eventually settled in Germany. He was arrested by German authorities in 1994 and tried in Hamburg on fraud charges related to the Gulf Group's collapse and the losses imposed on creditors including German banks that had extended credit to Gulf Group entities. He was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to three years imprisonment - the first criminal conviction of a senior BCCI-connected figure in any jurisdiction. He was released in 1999.[^3] +The Serious Fraud Office opened its inquiry into BCCI's loans to the Gulf Group in September 1992, examining "a conspiracy between members of senior management" at the bank. Its investigators drew on records from BCCI's London liquidators, [[Touche Ross]], and from [[Grand Cayman]], [[Abu Dhabi]] (the files of [[Swaleh Naqvi]]), and two New York banks, Security Pacific and the French American Bank, which were alleged to have been used to disguise the fraud. Gokal, then based in [[Geneva]] with his brothers and an associate, [[Shahveer Byramji]], left for [[Pakistan]], which had no extradition treaty with Britain, before Swiss police raided the Gulf Group's offices.[^2] -The British and American prosecutions of BCCI figures proceeded separately. [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]], BCCI's chief American legal counsel who had overseen First American Bankshares, reached settlements with regulators without criminal conviction. The principal BCCI official prosecuted in the United States was [[Swaleh Naqvi]], the bank's chief operating officer, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 1994 and cooperated with investigators.[^2] +On July 14, 1994, police learned that Gokal planned to fly covertly to New York. On July 18 his flight was intercepted at a refuelling stop in Frankfurt, where Detective Sergeant [[Doug Reeman]] found him "sitting in first class with his wife" and arrested him. He was held in a German prison pending extradition.[^2] In November 1994 his lawyer, [[Ian Burton]], said he was "no longer objecting to returning to this country"; arrest warrants had also been issued for Mustafa and Murtaza Gokal.[^8] + +### Trial and Sentence + +After extradition Gokal was remanded to [[HM Prison Brixton|Brixton]] prison, and in February 1995 he was charged with conspiracy to account falsely and conspiracy to defraud. His trial, postponed twice from September 1995, opened in September 1996 and ran for 122 days at the Old Bailey; 19 court days were lost to illness, two jurors were discharged, and the remaining ten returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on both counts after four days of deliberation in April 1997. The trial cost about 10 million pounds. [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and Naqvi were named as absent co-conspirators; the prosecution's accountants described a "document factory" at BCCI's London headquarters used to falsify records.[^2][^3] + +On May 8, 1997, Mr Justice Buxton sentenced him to fourteen years, calling him "intelligent, sophisticated and unscrupulous" and saying he had "created a serious threat to the integrity of the whole international banking system." "You have been convicted on two separate counts of dishonesty of the most serious and far-reaching kind," the judge told him, and private investors "plainly would not have parted with their money had the truth not been concealed from them." He was also ordered to pay nearly 5 million dollars from his personal assets. A Serious Fraud Office lawyer said the fraud had "brought despair to hundreds of thousands of ordinary people."[^3] + +### Other Prosecutions + +The Old Bailey conviction was one of several national prosecutions arising from BCCI's collapse. An Abu Dhabi court convicted twelve former BCCI executives in June 1994, among them Abedi in absentia; Naqvi, extradited from Abu Dhabi to the [[United States]] in May 1994, pleaded guilty in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] that July and was sentenced by Judge [[Joyce Hens Green]] in October 1994 to eleven years and ordered to pay 255 million dollars.[^9][^10] In New York, [[Robert Altman]] was acquitted on August 14, 1993, of charges brought by the New York County District Attorney, and on November 30, 1993, the charges against his partner [[Clark Clifford]], who had been too ill to stand trial with him, were dismissed.[^11][^12] ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993, pp. 9, 140. -[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, pp. 43-67. -[^3]: Adams, James Ring, and Douglas Frantz. *A Full Service Bank: How BCCI Stole Billions Around the World.* Pocket Books, 1992. +[^2]: "On the trail of Gokal," *Accountancy Age,* May 23, 1997. https://accountancyage.com/1997/05/23/on-the-trail-of-gokal/ +[^3]: "Gokal sentenced to 14 years for BCCI fraud," *The Irish Times,* May 9, 1997. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/gokal-sentenced-to-14-years-for-bcci-fraud-1.70650 +[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, pp. 43-67. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/ +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 10, "BCCI and Its Accountants." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/10accounta.htm +[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 24, appendix. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/24appendic.htm +[^7]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^8]: Saadawi, Danah. "BCCI chief debtor agrees to extradition," United Press International, November 2, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/11/02/BCCI-chief-debtor-agrees-to-extradition/2453783752400/ +[^9]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ +[^10]: "Ex-BCCI chief faces jail in UAE," United Press International, October 20, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/10/20/Ex-BCCI-chief-faces-jail-in-UAE/7767782625600/ +[^11]: "Altman Acquitted on BCCI Counts," *The Washington Post,* August 15, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/15/altman-acquitted-on-bcci-counts/33f3090f-0a02-4934-9c81-37f843aaead7/ +[^12]: "Charges dropped against Clark Clifford in BCCI case," United Press International, November 30, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/11/30/Charges-dropped-against-Clark-Clifford-in-BCCI-case/6641754635600/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdur Sakhia.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdur Sakhia.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8351b518 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdur Sakhia.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - Whistleblower + - FirstAmerican + - 1980s +summary: "BCCI's senior officer in the United States, who left the bank in 1990 and testified to the Senate on its secret control of First American and its courting of drug money." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "regional general manager, United States; head of the Miami office" + end: 1990-04 + fn: 5 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Agha Hasan Abedi]]" + fn: 5 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Abdur Sakhia was the senior officer of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) in the [[United States]], its regional general manager and the head of its [[Miami]] office, and earlier its officer for [[Latin America]] and the Caribbean. He left the bank in April 1990 and, with [[Masihur Rahman]], was one of the two former BCCI officials who testified before Senator [[John Kerry]]'s subcommittee in 1991.[^1][^2] + +### BCCI + +Sakhia recalled to Senate staff that when he tried to leave BCCI with two offers from other banks, one from Citicorp, [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] refused to let him go: "He started crying. It was absolutely heartbreaking. We used to sit in 15,000 square feet of open space. Mr. Abedi is at the head of the room and he started crying." He described Abedi's cultivation of Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Zayed]]: "Abedi created the UAE. He planted the idea of the UAE as a federation to Sheikh Zayed. These people had no standing anywhere in the world. They were smugglers and tribesmen," and said that the first embassies of the [[United Arab Emirates]], in [[Pakistan]] and London, were staffed by Abedi's appointees. Of the bank's methods he said: "Abedi's philosophy was to appeal to every sector. President Carter's main thing was charity, so he gave Carter charity. [Pakistani President] Zia's brother in law needed a job, he got a job," and that "there was a world wide list of people who were in the payoff of BCCI."[^1][^3] + +He testified that it had been obvious within the bank by 1983, when it decided to buy a bank in [[Colombia]], that BCCI was soliciting drug money: "We knew that the money that we would be getting in Colombia would be drug money. We knew that all the dollar deposits we would be getting would be drug money." He said his opposition to the purchase cost him the post of regional manager for all of Latin America. Other BCCI officers who remained at the bank scoffed at his professions of innocence.[^2] He told the subcommittee that in the autumn of 1984 he had met [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] officials in the office of Senator [[Paula Hawkins]] about allegations against BCCI, and was told the bank was not under investigation.[^4] + +### First American + +Sakhia testified that in BCCI's management discussions BCCI, the National Bank of Georgia and First American were thought of "in the same breath," and that when [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]] visited BCCI's offices in New York and Miami from 1982, Abedi met them alone and then briefed the staff. He described BCCI's choice and approval of office space for First American in New York, and served as coordinator of joint marketing meetings among the three banks. He arranged at Abedi's request the meeting in Miami in November 1985 at which Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]], Clifford, Altman and officials of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] met privately, after which Abedi told Sakhia and others that the Georgia bank would be merged with [[First American Bank|First American]]; in February 1986 he wrote to Abedi on "Future Plans in the United States." He recalled that the formal opening of BCCI's Miami office in August 1982 was attended by Governor [[Bob Graham]], [[Jeb Bush]] and the Mayor of Atlanta, [[Andrew Young]].[^5] He also testified that the arms transactions of [[Adnan Khashoggi]] through BCCI's Monte Carlo branch had been approved by Abedi from the beginning.[^6] + +### Threats + +Describing his departure, Sakhia testified that "when I left the bank in April 1990, we left as a group, about 12 of us," and that each was told: "you go quietly, if you make any noise, they are going to fix you. I got the word from Naqvi's secretary that if I made any noise, Altman's firm will get me involved in a drug case."[^2] He was first interviewed by investigators of the Manhattan District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]], and the Senate report credited him with testimony "in detail about the ties between BCCI and First American, Clifford and Altman's alleged knowledge of these ties, and Clifford and Altman's alleged actions at First American at the direction of BCCI."[^7] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI" (citing staff interviews with Sakhia, October 7 and 9, 1991). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm +[^2]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4 (citing a staff interview with Sakhia, October 7, 1991). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the US Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Part Two" (citing Sakhia's testimony, S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 2). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm +[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, The CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm +[^7]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 9, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: District Attorney of New York." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/09ny.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdus Sami.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdus Sami.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6caa31e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Abdus Sami.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - FirstAmerican + - FinancialGeneral + - 1970s +summary: "Senior BCCI officer from the bank's founding whose January 1978 memo to Abedi set out the nominee scheme for taking over Financial General Bankshares and recorded Clark Clifford's blessing." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "senior officer" + fn: 1 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Agha Hasan Abedi]]" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Bert Lance]]" + role: "worked with Lance on the Financial General takeover, 1977-78" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Abdus Sami was, in the words of a [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] finding quoted by the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], "a senior BCCI officer from its inception and a close associate of [[Agha Hasan Abedi|Abedi]]." In late 1977 and early 1978 he worked with [[Bert Lance]] on the secret acquisition of [[Financial General Bankshares]], later [[First American Bank|First American]], by the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), and his telex to Abedi of January 30, 1978, known as the Sami memo, became the report's principal documentary evidence of the scheme.[^1][^2] + +### Stephens and Lance + +According to the Federal Reserve, Sami met [[Jackson Stephens]] at Lance's suggestion to discuss the purchase by a BCCI client of the interest of Lance and others in the [[National Bank of Georgia]]; during the meeting on November 7, 1977, Stephens, "who was dissatisfied with his investment in Financial General, told Sami that Financial General might be a good investment for BCCI clients." The Senate report called these findings "the only account that is consistent with the contemporaneous documentary records," and said they showed that Lance's testimony had omitted Stephens' role and that [[Robert Altman]]'s account had omitted those of Lance and BCCI.[^1] Lance testified to a later meeting at which Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]], Sami and Dildar Rizvi, "the elite of BCCI," discussed the purchase of the Georgia bank and of Financial General; [[Ghaith R. Pharaon|Ghaith Pharaon]], the nominal purchaser of the Georgia bank, was not present.[^3] + +### The Sami Memo + +The memo, written in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] and sent to Abedi in [[Karachi]], was later found by the Federal Reserve in BCCI's files in [[Abu Dhabi]], having previously been held in Karachi. It reported that the BCCI group had bought 17.5 percent of Financial General's stock and had commitments or control over 23 to 24 percent, and that a meeting was needed between "our friend," Bert Lance, and the Middendorf group to decide whether the takeover would proceed by consent or by contest. Sami advised Abedi to prepare for litigation in which the Middendorf group would argue against a foreign takeover, and to retain [[Clark Clifford]] as counsel. He continued:[^1] + +> To keep individual ownership to below 5 percent we have to distribute the ownership to 4 persons of substance. We have already given the names of Sheikh [[Kamal Adham]] and Mr. Fulaig [sic]. We want two other names immediately. + +He added that care was needed so that BCCI's "name does not appear as financier to most of them for this acquisition." The Senate report described the memo as setting out "an intentional strategy by BCCI, Lance, Adham, Fulaij, and other members of the BCCI group to disguise BCCI's underlying interest in the transaction" and so circumvent the rule that anyone buying 5 percent of a public company must file a disclosure with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]].[^1] Within days BCCI added two further shareholders, Sheikh [[Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan]] of Abu Dhabi and Abdullah Darwaish, the financial adviser to the Abu Dhabi ruling family; in the account of the report's chapter on Georgia politicians, the two names submitted were those of Sheikh Zayed's sons Khalifa and Mohammad.[^1][^3] + +Sami also told Abedi that he had "met Clark Clifford and explained to him our strategy and our goal. He was happy to know the details and has blessed the acquisition." The Senate report found that this placed Clifford in the scheme by January 1978, before the SEC litigation of mid-February that Clifford had described as the start of his involvement, and that his law firm's bill of May 24, 1978, dated its services to BCCI from January.[^1][^2] Asked by Senator [[John Kerry]] about the memo, Lance acknowledged that "our friend" referred to him, but testified that "the acquisition of shares were basically handled by Mr. Sami, and he was the man who was responsible. I was not involved in that."[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 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" (quoting the Sami memo from S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^2]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman" (citing the Sami memo to Abedi, January 30, 1978, S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, pp. 26-27). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 16, "BCCI and Georgia Politicians." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/16ga.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Agha Hasan Abedi.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Agha Hasan Abedi.md index be3b327e..363ada8f 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Agha Hasan Abedi.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Agha Hasan Abedi.md @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ --- category: "Key Figures" created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 tags: - Person - BCCI @@ -9,6 +9,20 @@ summary: "Agha Hasan Abedi was a Pakistani financier who founded the BCCI in 197 born: 1922-05-14 died: 1995-08-05 location: "Lucknow, India" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1972 + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[United Bank Limited]]" + start: 1959 + fn: 10 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Robert Morgenthau]]" + reverse: true + start: 1991-07-29 + fn: 20 --- Agha Hasan Abedi was a Pakistani financier who founded the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] in 1972, with the intention of creating the Third World's first multinational bank. He is described as a diminutive man, the son of petty bureaucrats, who handcrafted BCCI into one of the most powerful private organizations globally by the early 1980s.[^1] Abedi was a visionary and a romantic, a Muslim who drifted into the secretive Sufi sect, which influenced his unique business style. He incorporated Islamic mysticism into the bank's driving force, emphasizing spiritual progress and a democratic theory of management, which eventually devolved into corruption. He was known for his ability to build relationships with ruling elites and for his philanthropic efforts in the Third World.[^2] @@ -29,7 +43,19 @@ Abedi's bank was nationalized by [[Zulfikar Ali Bhutto]] in 1972, leading to Abe Abedi's influence grew through strategic alliances, including with [[Zia ul-Haq|General Zia ul-Haq]], who became a trusted confidant.[^14] BCCI played a significant role in Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, brokering technology and financing.[^15] Abedi's network extended to high-level officials in various countries, often involving bribes, loans, and charitable contributions to gain influence. He cultivated relationships with figures like [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[James Callaghan]], using their prestige to further BCCI's image as a philanthropic institution.[^16] -BCCI's operations were deeply intertwined with intelligence agencies, including the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], and were involved in arms dealing, drug trafficking, and money laundering on a global scale.[^17] Abedi's ability to operate with apparent immunity from law enforcement in the United States was attributed to these high-level connections and a probable cover-up by government officials.[^18] +BCCI's operations were deeply intertwined with intelligence agencies, including the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], and were involved in arms dealing, drug trafficking, and money laundering on a global scale.[^17] Abedi's ability to operate with apparent immunity from law enforcement in the [[United States]] was attributed to these high-level connections and a probable cover-up by government officials.[^18] + +### Rahman's Account + +[[Masihur Rahman]], BCCI's chief financial officer, who worked with Abedi for nearly two decades, told Senator [[John Kerry]]'s subcommittee that Abedi had explained the bank's purpose to him at its founding: "Up to that stage in the early 1970's there were mostly national banks and savings banks. The few banks which are international are indeed the colonial banks from Britain, France, Germany, and lately from America." Rahman described the early quarters in Abu Dhabi as "mess-type flats," the command structure as "Mr. Abedi at the very top, there was Mr. Naqvi who was like a chief operating officer, who converted... Mr. Abedi's ideas and things into practical shapes. And then there was a big gap," and the bank's compartmentalization as "Chinese walls" that were "getting very, very watertight." Of Abedi himself he said: "I remember looking into his eyes and seeing God and the Devil balanced equally in them."[^19] + +### Illness + +The accounts of Abedi's collapse differ in form and date. Beaty and Gwynne dated it to a heart attack in February 1988; the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described "Abedi's stroke in early 1989, which led to Carter arranging an emergency heart transplant for him," and said it "had a substantial impact on BCCI's ability to survive the drug money laundering indictments in Tampa." Associated Press obituaries in 1995 reported two heart attacks that led him to step back from the bank in 1988, a heart transplant the same year, and a stroke that caused brain damage.[^6][^19][^20][^21] + +### Prosecutions and Death + +Abedi was indicted in New York County by [[Robert Morgenthau]] on July 29, 1991. Pakistan refused extradition requests from the [[United Arab Emirates]] and the United States. An Abu Dhabi court that tried BCCI's former executives from October 1993 to April 1994 convicted him in absentia in June 1994, while he was reported to be "bedridden in his home" in Pakistan; United Press International reported his sentence as six years and the *American Banker* as eight. The court ordered the convicted executives to pay more than 9.13 billion dollars to the Abu Dhabi government and the bank's former majority shareholders.[^20][^22][^23] Abedi died of heart failure at the [[Aga Khan University Hospital|Aga Khan Hospital]] in Karachi on August 5, 1995, aged 74, five days after he was admitted with chest pains; his wife was with him.[^20][^21] ### Footnotes @@ -50,4 +76,9 @@ BCCI's operations were deeply intertwined with intelligence agencies, including [^15]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 329. [^16]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 227-228. [^17]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 16-17. -[^18]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 17. \ No newline at end of file +[^18]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 17. +[^19]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI" (citing the testimony of Masihur Rahman, S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 1, pp. 489-491). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm +[^20]: "Key Figure In International Bank Scandal Dies At 74," Associated Press, *The Spokesman-Review,* August 6, 1995. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/aug/06/key-figure-in-international-bank-scandal-dies-at/ +[^21]: "BCCI founder dies after seeing his empire collapse in fraud," Associated Press, *Deseret News,* August 6, 1995. https://www.deseret.com/1995/8/6/19185992/bcci-founder-dies-after-seeing-his-empire-collapse-in-fraud/ +[^22]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ +[^23]: "Abu Dhabi gives former BCCI execs prison sentences of up to 14 years," *American Banker,* June 1994. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/abu-dhabi-gives-former-bcci-execs-prison-sentences-of-up-to-14-years diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Al Goldstein.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Al Goldstein.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ed96ca44 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Al Goldstein.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - Publisher + - Pornography + - Obscenity + - RCHorsch +summary: "Brooklyn-born publisher who co-founded Screw magazine in 1968, was arrested 19 times on obscenity charges in its first three years, and hosted the cable show Midnight Blue." +died: 2013-12-19 +location: "New York City" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Screw (magazine)]]" + start: 1968 + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Jim Buckley]]" + role: "co-founder of Screw" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Al Goldstein (died December 19, 2013) was the publisher of *[[Screw (magazine)|Screw]]*, which he co-founded with [[Jim Buckley]] in 1968, each putting in 175 dollars. He was arrested 19 times on obscenity charges in the magazine's first three years, and in 1974 a federal judge threw out an obscenity case against him, after which, the Associated Press reported, "the willingness of the government to prosecute such cases waned." He died at a hospice in [[Brooklyn]], at 77.[^1] + +### Before Screw + +Goldstein was born in Brooklyn. Before founding *Screw* he served in the [[United States Army|Army]], sold insurance, drove for the gossip columnist [[Walter Winchell]], was jailed in [[Cuba]] for taking unauthorized photographs of [[Raúl Castro]], and, as a photographer for [[Pakistan International Airlines]], was present in 1962 when [[Jacqueline Kennedy]] visited [[Pakistan]].[^1] + +### Screw and Midnight Blue + +*Screw* sold 140,000 copies a week at its height. "I really need the attention of being arrested, because that means I'm still bugging the establishment, that I'm still gadfly to the state," he told *[[Playboy]]* in 1974. The magazine was later outdone by [[Larry Flynt]]'s *[[Hustler (magazine)|Hustler]]* and other publications; in 1974 Goldstein launched a cable television show, *Midnight Blue*, which ran for nearly thirty years.[^1] *Screw* reviewed [[R.C. Horsch]]'s *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* in 1973; Goldstein wrote that the sex in it was disgusting.[^2] + +### Later Cases + +In 2002 he was sentenced to 60 days in jail for harassing a former secretary with threatening telephone calls and editorials; an appeals court overturned the conviction, ruling that prosecutors had used overly inflammatory language at trial. In 2003 he pleaded guilty to harassing one of his four former wives with obscene telephone messages. *Screw* folded in late 2003 and Goldstein filed for bankruptcy protection; he at times slept in a car and lived in a homeless shelter in [[Florida]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Al Goldstein, Infamous Pornographer, New Yorker, Dead at 77," Associated Press, *NBC New York,* December 19, 2013. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/al-goldstein-dead-obituary-screw-magazine/2124859/ +[^2]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alistair Cooke.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alistair Cooke.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..12a57759 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Alistair Cooke.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +category: "Authors & Journalists" +tags: + - Person + - Broadcaster + - Journalist + - BodyPartsTrade + - BiomedicalTissueServices +summary: "British broadcaster whose bones were cut from his body before his cremation in 2004 and sold by Michael Mastromarino's Biomedical Tissue Services to two tissue processors." +died: 2004-03-30 +location: "New York City" +relations: + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Susan Cooke Kittredge]]" + role: "father" + fn: 6 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Alistair Cooke (died March 30, 2004) was a British broadcaster, journalist and actor, host of the PBS series *[[Masterpiece Theatre]]*. He died at 95 of lung cancer that had spread to his bones. Before his body was cremated, bones were removed from it without his family's knowledge by the tissue-recovery company of [[Michael Mastromarino]], [[Biomedical Tissue Services]], and sold for more than 7,000 dollars to [[Regeneration Technologies]] and [[Tutogen Medical]].[^1][^2] + +### The Theft + +His daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, chose a funeral home with a 595 dollar cremation fee, the New York Mortuary Service in [[East Harlem]], according to the writer Kerry Howley; the home promised her a box of ashes, and for a fee gave a [[New Jersey]] tissue-procurement agency access to the body, whose bones were cut out at the hip, and three days later she received the ashes by mail.[^3] The Kings County District Attorney's release of February 2006 identified the funeral homes involved in the scheme as Daniel George & Sons in [[Brooklyn]] and New York Mortuary at 2242 First Avenue in [[Manhattan]], and recorded that "a 95-year-old cancer victim was listed as a healthy 85-year-old who died of heart failure."[^4] According to sources quoted by the *New York Daily News,* Mastromarino changed Cooke's age from 95 to 85 and his cause of death to a heart attack in the paperwork given to the two processors. Cancer that had spread to the bones is an automatic disqualification for tissue donation, the *Daily News* reporter William Sherman said.[^1][^5] "I hope those guys burn in hell for what they did," the family's attorney, David Grossberg, told the *Daily News*.[^1] + +Kittredge, a minister in [[East Montpelier, Vermont]], said she learned of the theft from a message left by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office about ten days before Christmas 2005. "I did think that my father had been cremated, and I still don't know that he wasn't," she said. "I just don't know how much of him was cremated."[^6] In October 2006 seven New York funeral directors linked to the scheme pleaded guilty, among them, according to defense attorneys, the director of the funeral home that took parts from Cooke's body.[^7] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "TV host Alistair Cooke's bones allegedly stolen," *NBC News* (msnbc.com, from the *New York Daily News*), December 22, 2005. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10574333 +[^2]: Shapiro, Joseph. "Mastermind Of 'Body Stealing' Scheme Dies," *NPR,* July 2013. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/07/09/200481947/mastermind-of-body-stealing-scheme-dies +[^3]: Howley, Kerry. "Who Owns Your Body Parts?" *Reason,* March 2007. https://reason.com/2007/02/07/who-owns-your-body-parts/ +[^4]: Office of the District Attorney, Kings County. "Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn Announce Indictment in Tissue Theft," media release, February 23, 2006. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doi/downloads/pdf/pr_tissueharvesting022306.pdf +[^5]: "Four Named in New York 'Body-Snatcher' Crimes," *Day to Day,* NPR, February 23, 2006 (William Sherman of the *New York Daily News* interviewed by Madeleine Brand). https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5230097 +[^6]: "Personal Story of the Brooklyn Tissue Theft Case," *Talk of the Nation,* NPR, March 6, 2006 (Susan Cooke Kittredge interviewed by Neal Conan). https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5247635 +[^7]: "7 charged with stealing body parts from corpses," *NBC News,* 2006. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/7-charged-stealing-body-parts-corpses-flna1c9473448 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amjad Awan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amjad Awan.md index 2ddd1de2..54343cc9 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amjad Awan.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Amjad Awan.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Amjad Awan was a manager of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] [ ### Role in BCCI's Operations -Awan was deeply involved in BCCI's efforts to hide illicit financial transactions and manage accounts for high-net-worth criminal clients.[^3] He facilitated the movement of money for drug cartels and maintained a close relationship with Noriega, who was looting his own country.[^4] Awan also told investigators that BCCI secretly owned and controlled [[First American Bank]] and other United States banks.[^5] +Awan was deeply involved in BCCI's efforts to hide illicit financial transactions and manage accounts for high-net-worth criminal clients.[^3] He facilitated the movement of money for drug cartels and maintained a close relationship with Noriega, who was looting his own country.[^4] Awan also told investigators that BCCI secretly owned and controlled [[First American Bank]] and other [[United States]] banks.[^5] In October 1988, Awan was arrested by American Customs agents in Tampa, Florida, as part of a sting operation targeting money laundering and narcotics trafficking.[^6] He was convicted of money laundering but never testified at his trial.[^7] Despite his conviction, Awan's testimony and cooperation with investigators were crucial in revealing the extent of BCCI's criminal enterprise. @@ -22,6 +22,16 @@ Awan's connections extended to high-level figures within BCCI and beyond. He was His case was part of a larger investigation into BCCI's money laundering activities, which eventually led to the bank pleading guilty in Tampa in 1990.[^9] +### Operation C-Chase + +Awan and Akbar Bilgrami were officers of BCCI's Latin American and Caribbean regional office on Brickell Avenue in [[Miami]], working in its "External Marketplace" program for clients depositing money outside their home countries. They were introduced to "Robert Musella," the undercover Customs agent [[Robert Mazur]], on January 11, 1988. Told on January 26 that Musella's clients were major Colombian drug dealers, Awan said: "I'm not concerned... it's not my business about who your customers are... we will provide you all security, all sorts of security and anonymity... I don't want to know." On June 30, 1988, the two told Mazur that they planned to leave BCCI for [[Capcom]].[^10] In a recorded meeting at the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami on September 9, 1988, Awan told Mazur that he had been subpoenaed by the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] over the Noriega accounts and that Robert Altman had advised the bank to transfer him to [[Paris]]; an [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] agent on the case, David Burris, recorded in an affidavit that "Awan said that BCCI has bought and controls First American Bank and [[National Bank of Georgia]] through private individuals."[^11] + +He was arrested on October 8, 1988, at a staged wedding party for Mazur at the Innisbrook Resort in [[Tarpon Springs, Florida|Tarpon Springs]]. After a trial from January 26 to July 29, 1990, he was convicted of money laundering, and on November 30, 1990, he was sentenced to 144 months, twelve years, with three years of supervised release and a fine of 100,000 dollars. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] affirmed his conviction on July 27, 1992; his counsel on appeal was John P. Hume of Washington, and the prosecutors were the Assistant United States Attorneys Mark Jackowski, Michael L. Rubinstein and Karla Spaulding.[^10] + +### Noriega + +The Senate report put Noriega's money at BCCI at some 23 million dollars, managed from its London branches, and recorded that the bank sent him a 25,000 dollar Persian carpet "hand delivered with Abedi's regards" by Alauddin Sheikh. Awan told the Senate investigator [[Jack Blum]] that he would be killed if the details of the limited information he had given the Senate were revealed.[^12] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 8. @@ -32,4 +42,7 @@ His case was part of a larger investigation into BCCI's money laundering activit [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 13. [^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 32. [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 41. -[^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 13. \ No newline at end of file +[^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 13. +[^10]: United States v. Awan, 966 F.2d 1415 (11th Cir. 1992), opinion of Circuit Judge Fay, July 27, 1992. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/966/966.F2d.1415.90-4114.html +[^11]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm +[^12]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md index 0045e319..588584ec 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Arif Durrani.md @@ -11,14 +11,20 @@ Arif Durrani was a [[Pakistan|Pakistani]] arms dealer convicted of illegally pro ### Arms Dealing and BCCI Connections -Durrani was described as a wealthy arms merchant who traveled the world in luxury.[^3] He admitted to supplying Iran with arms and stated that he was part of a joint operation conducted by the [[United States]] and [[Israel]] to release American hostages in the [[Middle East]].[^4] He met with a U.S. official named [[Oliver North]] to obtain HAWK parts.[^5] His arrest on October 3, 1986, occurred one month before the U.S. government's secret arms-for-hostages deal with Tehran was revealed.[^6] +Durrani was described as a wealthy arms merchant who traveled the world in luxury.[^3] He admitted to supplying Iran with arms and stated that he was part of a joint operation conducted by the [[United States]] and [[Israel]] to release American hostages in the [[Middle East]].[^4] He met with a U.S. official named [[Oliver North]] to obtain HAWK parts.[^5] His arrest on October 3, 1986, occurred one month before the [[U.S. government]]'s secret arms-for-hostages deal with Tehran was revealed.[^6] -Durrani had close connections to the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], knowing [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] personally and having his operations financed by the bank.[^7] He grew up in [[Karachi]] with many of the men who became BCCI executives and worked with them from the beginning of his career as an arms dealer.[^8] He stated that BCCI basically funded operations on instructions from the government of [[Pakistan]], including the construction of a Mirage factory.[^9] +Durrani had close connections to the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], knowing [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] personally and having his operations financed by the bank.[^7] He grew up in [[Karachi]] with many of the men who became BCCI executives and worked with them from the beginning of his career as an arms dealer.[^8] He stated that BCCI basically funded operations on instructions from the government of Pakistan, including the construction of a Mirage factory.[^9] He outlined BCCI's and [[Asaf Ali]]'s weapons deals across the globe, from [[Bulgaria]] to [[Nigeria]].[^10] Durrani also stated that BCCI steered some of his business to [[First American Bank]] in [[New York City]], considering BCCI and First American Bank interchangeable for financial transactions.[^11] Until his arrest, Durrani was the managing director of Merex, a California arms firm that supplied the Israelis.[^12] +### Sentence and Appeal + +In May 1987 Chief Judge [[T.F. Gilroy Daly]] of the federal court in [[Connecticut]] sentenced Durrani to ten years in prison and a fine of 2 million dollars for illegally exporting HAWK missile parts to Iran in 1986, with a concurrent ten years and 1 million dollars for selling arms without registering with the [[United States Department of State|State Department]]. The judge told him his testimony was riddled with "greed, lies, money, perjury, avarice and conniving" and that "your behavior was bordering on treason."[^13] In December 1987 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Second Circuit]] rejected his defense that he had acted on the orders of Oliver North and [[John Poindexter]], the first use of what became known as the "Oliver North defense," and upheld the conviction (United States v. Durrani, 835 F.2d 410). A petition he filed in 2003, his fourth post-conviction attack on the sentence, was denied (Durrani v. United States, 294 F. Supp. 2d 204, D. Conn.).[^14][^15] + +From prison he told *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]* in 1991 that "Asaf is B.C.C.I.'s man in the weapons business," referring to Asaf Ali.[^16] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 9. @@ -33,3 +39,7 @@ Until his arrest, Durrani was the managing director of Merex, a California arms [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 306. [^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 306. [^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 305. +[^13]: "Arms dealer sentenced to 10 years," United Press International, May 13, 1987. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/05/13/Arms-dealer-sentenced-to-10-years/6753547876800/ +[^14]: "Court rejects arms merchant's use of 'Oliver North defense,'" United Press International, December 4, 1987. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/12/04/Court-rejects-arms-merchants-use-of-Oliver-North-defense/3615565592400 +[^15]: Durrani v. United States, 294 F. Supp. 2d 204 (D. Conn. 2003). +[^16]: "Scandals: Not Just a Bank," *Time,* September 2, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718475/scandals-not-just-a-bank/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Art Carduner.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Art Carduner.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..224ef176 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Art Carduner.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +category: "Media & Entertainment" +tags: + - Person + - Cinema + - Philadelphia + - Germantown + - RCHorsch +summary: "Germantown bookseller and art-house exhibitor who ran the Bandbox Theater from 1966 to 1975 and gave R.C. Horsch's condemned film Black Mass a midnight screening in 1975." +died: 2009-12-04 +location: "Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bandbox Theater]]" + start: 1966 + end: 1975 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Art Carduner (about 1919 to December 4, 2009) was a [[Philadelphia]] bookseller, book reviewer and exhibitor of foreign and art films who owned the [[Bandbox Theater]] in [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]] from 1966 to 1975. In February 1975, after the [[Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia)|Arcadia]] cancelled a midnight showing of *[[Black Mass (1975 film)|Black Mass]]* by Ray Hoersch, later [[R.C. Horsch]], following what the *Inquirer* called reported pressure from the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia|Philadelphia Archdiocese]], Carduner gave the film a midnight screening at the Bandbox.[^1][^2] + +### Theaters and Books + +Carduner grew up in [[New York City]] and came to Philadelphia in 1941. Before the Second World War he worked as a civilian cryptographer at the [[United States Army Signal Corps|Signal Corps]] depot on Wissahickon Avenue, and then served in the Signal Corps; he claimed to have deciphered, three days before the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]], a message from Clark Field in the [[Philippines]] ending "Attack imminent, please rush," and said that his superiors ignored it. After the war he bought a bookstore in New York for 2,000 dollars, moved to [[New Hope, Pennsylvania|New Hope]], started a mail-order book business in [[Lambertville, New Jersey|Lambertville]], and bought and restored the New Strand Theater there. He also ran the Hill in [[Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia|Chestnut Hill]], a book-search business, and a shop on Germantown Avenue, Germantown Bikes & Books, and reviewed books for *[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]*, *The Distant Drummer* and the *Chestnut Hill Local*. His programs favored esoteric foreign films and often played to nearly empty houses; he kept no popcorn machine and would run after patrons who walked out to refund their money. His political hero was [[Al Smith]]. A friend, Dave Miller, said: "He was phenomenally bighearted. He looked like Orson Welles, and had a nasal way of speaking." He died at 90 and was survived by two daughters, a son, a brother and three grandchildren.[^1] + +### Hoersch + +The Bandbox's connection with Hoersch predates *Black Mass*. When the city's [[Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections|Department of Licenses and Inspections]] closed Hoersch's [[Underground Cinema 16]] in late 1969, the Bandbox ran the Vietnam documentary *[[In the Year of the Pig]]*, which Cinema 16 had under contract.[^3] On February 28, 1975, the *Inquirer* reported that *Black Mass* "will be shown at the Germantown Bandbox Theater this Saturday at midnight," according to "the Bandbox's Art Carduner, who gave the film a new home," as a benefit for the Friends of the Bandbox, with Hoersch attending.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Morrison, John F. "Art Carduner, a pioneer in exhibiting foreign films in Phila.," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* December 9, 2009. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20091209_Art_Carduner__a_pioneer_in_exhibiting_foreign_films_in_Phila_.html +[^2]: [Society and nightlife column], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* February 28, 1975, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/ +[^3]: "Mayor Tate's War On [title cut off in the scan]," *The Distant Drummer,* no. 65, December 25, 1969, p. 8, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p16002coll34/id/473 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Asaf Ali.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Asaf Ali.md index db15421d..719b9b92 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Asaf Ali.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Asaf Ali.md @@ -23,6 +23,10 @@ Ali's connections were extensive, reaching high-level officials and intelligence He was also involved in meetings with [[William J. Casey]], the former [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Director, and accompanied [[Zia ul-Haq|General Zia]] on a trip to Washington where they met with Casey.[^10] +### Durrani's Account + +*[[Time (magazine)|Time]]* reported in September 1991 that the imprisoned arms dealer [[Arif Durrani]] had told it: "Just as Ghaith Pharaon fronts for B.C.C.I. to purchase banks and businesses, Asaf is B.C.C.I.'s man in the weapons business"; the magazine noted that the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] disputed some of Durrani's other claims, but said "another well-placed source confirmed that Asaf Ali is backed financially by B.C.C.I." An unnamed French businessman told it: "Asaf Ali has been an important Dassault agent for years, and everyone knows that." A spokesman for Dassault, Francois Prigent, said: "We don't know that man," and of BCCI, "Banks are chosen by clients, not by us." Investigators told the magazine that Ali had rerouted nearly two dozen Mirages, not yet paid for and originally brokered through BCCI, to [[Peru]], an affair that became a political scandal there; Prigent said, "The shipment to Peru is the business of Peru; what happens to planes after we make a delivery is up to them." The magazine also reported that Ali had met William J. Casey in Washington and in Pakistan, and on one occasion attended a meeting in Washington with Casey, Agha Hasan Abedi and President Zia ul-Haq.[^11] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 8. @@ -35,3 +39,4 @@ He was also involved in meetings with [[William J. Casey]], the former [[Central [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 296. [^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 355. [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 347. +[^11]: "Scandals: Not Just a Bank," *Time,* September 2, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718475/scandals-not-just-a-bank/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Birch.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Birch.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..18886754 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bill Birch.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - NewZealand + - Politician + - Energy + - ThinkBig + - RCHorsch +alias: + - William Francis Birch + - Sir William Birch +summary: "New Zealand National Party minister of energy from 1978 to 1984, the minister behind the Think Big projects, and later finance minister; he co-announced the 1981 Temuka distillery licence." +born: 1934 +died: 2026-07 +location: "Pukekohe, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Executive Council of New Zealand]]" + role: "Minister of Energy and Minister of National Development" + start: 1978-12-13 + end: 1984-07-26 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +William Francis "Bill" Birch (1934 to July 2026) was a [[New Zealand]] National Party politician who served 27 years in Parliament and held, by one count, 15 portfolios in 12 years of government, earning the nickname "Minister for Everything."[^1] + +### Early Career + +Born in Hastings in 1934 and educated at Hamilton Technical College, Birch qualified as a surveyor in 1957, practised in [[Pukekohe]], and was twice the town's deputy mayor before winning the Franklin seat for the National Party in the 1972 election. He became a party whip in 1974 and senior whip in 1975.[^1] + +### Energy and Think Big + +On December 13, 1978, in the ministry of [[Robert Muldoon]] formed after that year's election, he was appointed "Minister of Energy, Minister of National Development and Minister of Science and Technology."[^2] At the reshuffle of February 12, 1981, he resigned Science and Technology to [[Ian Shearer]] and was appointed Minister of Regional Development in addition.[^3] As Minister of National Development he was at the centre of the government's [[Think Big]] programme of state-led industrialization and energy self-sufficiency, "sometimes against Treasury advice," in the words of Radio New Zealand's obituary.[^1] On July 14, 1981, he and the Minister of Customs, [[Hugh Templeton]], announced a licence for the ethanol distillery of [[Chemical Technology Limited]] at [[Temuka]]; Birch said it would save 250,000 dollars a year in overseas funds.[^4] He resigned the offices of Minister of Energy, Minister of National Development and Minister of Regional Development on July 26, 1984, after National's defeat.[^5] + +### Later Career + +In opposition Birch was third-ranked in the party and an adviser to its leaders Muldoon, [[Jim McLay]] and [[Jim Bolger]]. After National's return to office he became Minister of Finance in 1993, replacing [[Ruth Richardson]]. He died in July 2026, aged 92; Prime Minister [[Christopher Luxon]] called him a "giant" of the National Party.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Former finance minister Sir Bill Birch dies," *RNZ,* July 17, 2026. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/734057/former-finance-minister-sir-bill-birch-dies +[^2]: *New Zealand Gazette,* December 13, 1978, Extraordinary, No. 107, p. 3406 ("The Honourable William Francis Birch, to be Minister of Energy, Minister of National Development and Minister of Science and Technology"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1978/issue/107/page/3406 +[^3]: *New Zealand Gazette,* February 12, 1981, Extraordinary, No. 14, p. 323 ("The Honourable William Francis Birch, of the office of Minister of Science and Technology"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1981/issue/14/page/323 +[^4]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31 +[^5]: *New Zealand Gazette,* July 26-27, 1984, Supplement, No. 130, p. 2911 ("The Honourable William Francis Birch, of the Offices of Minister of Energy, Minister of National Development and Minister Regional Development"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1984/issue/130/page/2911 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Joseph Giroir.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Joseph Giroir.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..630d8bf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/C. Joseph Giroir.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - Lawyer + - Arkansas + - Lippo + - CampaignFinance +alias: + - Joseph Giroir + - C. Joseph Giroir Jr. + - Joe Giroir +summary: "Rose Law Firm lawyer and Worthen Banking Corporation partner whose deposition described the Lippo Group's Arkansas partnership with the Stephens family; Lippo later paid him through a company he incorporated in 1993." +location: "Little Rock, Arkansas" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Rose Law Firm]]" + role: "partner" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Worthen Banking Corporation]]" + role: "partner in the Worthen Banking Corporation" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Arkansas International Development Corporation]]" + start: 1993-04 + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Lippo Group]]" + reverse: true + role: "capitalized AIDC and paid Giroir's salary" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Democratic National Committee]]" + start: 1996 + role: "about 200,000 dollars in contributions" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +C. Joseph Giroir Jr. was an [[Arkansas]] lawyer, a partner at the [[Rose Law Firm]] and a former law partner of [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]], described by the [[United States House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight|House Government Reform and Oversight Committee]] in 1998 as "a partner in the Worthen Banking Corporation, attorney at the Rose Law Firm, and friend of the President and First Lady." His deposition to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's special investigation of April 30, 1997, is the committee's main source for the Arkansas partnership between the [[Lippo Group]] of the [[James Riady|Riady]] family and the [[Jackson Stephens|Stephens]] family.[^1] + +### Worthen and Lippo + +The House report, citing Giroir's deposition and that of James Riady, recorded that [[Mochtar Riady]] first met Jackson and [[Witt Stephens]] in 1976, while "looking into buying [[Bert Lance]]'s share of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]." That purchase fell through, and in 1978 the Riadys and the Stephens brothers established [[Stephens Finance Ltd.]] in [[Hong Kong]]. James Riady interned at Stephens' investment bank in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]], and by 1983 Lippo and Stephens had both invested in the [[Worthen Bank]]. According to Giroir's testimony, Lippo's strategy in Worthen "was to expand into the international arena"; it established "Edge Act" offices in New York and [[Los Angeles]], authorized to conduct international transactions but not to take deposits. James Riady set up Worthen's international trade division, and [[John Huang]], formerly executive vice president under James Riady at Stephens Finance, became Worthen's vice president for the Far East.[^1] After what the committee called "a major defalcation by [[Bevill, Bresler & Schulman|Bevil Bressler]] in 1986" at Worthen, the Stephens family bought the Riadys out of the bank, and the Riadys traded their interest in Worthen for the Stephens' interest in the [[Hong Kong Chinese Bank]].[^1] + +### AIDC + +In April 1993, shortly after the 1992 presidential election, Giroir incorporated the [[Arkansas International Development Corporation]] (AIDC) to develop projects and joint ventures for the Lippo Group. He testified that Lippo advanced him 50,000 dollars as its initial capital, that he was first paid "roughly a couple hundred thousands dollars [sic] a year in fees" and from 1995, through a second company of the same name formed with Lippo, "roughly $500,000" a year, in each case by a Lippo subsidiary; the committee put his salary at between 350,000 and 600,000 dollars with bonuses. In 1996 he contributed close to 200,000 dollars to the [[Democratic National Committee]] in connection with fundraisers organized by Huang.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law: Interim Report.* House Report 105-829, 105th Congress, 2nd Session, 1998, vol. 2 (citing the Deposition of C. Joseph Giroir, Jr., Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, April 30, 1997; the Deposition of James T. Riady, *Stephens Group, Inc. v. United States,* Cl. Ct. No. 91-1458T, March 5, 1993; and the Deposition of Arthur Vernon Weaver, August 11, 1997). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Clark Clifford.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Clark Clifford.md index ebaa3964..5a26b070 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Clark Clifford.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Clark Clifford.md @@ -1,22 +1,51 @@ --- category: "BCCI Scandal" created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-05-01 +updated: 2026-09-23 tags: - Person - BCCI - Banking - Lawyer -summary: "Clark Clifford (1906-1997) was a Washington attorney who served as Special Counsel to President Truman, co-authored the National Security Act of 1947, served as Secretary of Defense under Lyndon Johnson, and became the central American figure in the BCCI scandal after he and his partner Robert Altman personally vouched to banking regulators that BCCI would not secretly own First American Bank -- a representation that proved false." +summary: "Truman aide and Defense Secretary who, as chairman of BCCI's secretly owned First American Bankshares, assured regulators BCCI had no role in it; indicted in 1992, his charges were dismissed for ill health." born: 1906-12-25 died: 1997-10-10 location: "Fort Scott, Kansas" +relations: + - type: represented + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1978 + role: "American counsel" + fn: 10 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]" + fn: 8 + - type: head_of + with: "[[First American Bank]]" + role: "chairman" + fn: 10 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Robert Altman]]" + role: "law partner" + fn: 10 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Robert Morgenthau]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-07-29 + end: 1993-11-30 + fn: 4 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Federal Reserve Board]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-07-29 + end: 1998-02 + fn: 8 --- -Clark McAdams Clifford was born December 25, 1906, in Fort Scott, Kansas. He earned a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1927 and an LL.B. from Washington University School of Law in 1928, after which he practiced law in St. Louis through World War II. He served in the Navy during the war, rising to captain, and arrived at the [[White House]] in 1946 as naval aide to President Harry S. Truman. He died October 10, 1997, in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 90.[^1] +Clark McAdams Clifford was born December 25, 1906, in Fort Scott, Kansas. He earned a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1927 and an LL.B. from Washington University School of Law in 1928, after which he practiced law in St. Louis through [[World War II]]. He served in the Navy during the war, rising to captain, and arrived at the [[White House]] in 1946 as naval aide to President Harry S. Truman. He died October 10, 1997, in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 90.[^1] ### Truman Administration -Clifford served as Special Counsel to President [[Harry S. Truman]] from 1946 to 1950, becoming one of the most influential aides in the Truman White House. In September 1946, he co-authored (with George Elsey) a classified report on Soviet foreign policy -- the "Clifford-Elsey Report" -- assessing that the Soviet Union intended to expand its influence through military force and subversion and recommending a policy of strategic containment. The document anticipated the Truman Doctrine. +Clifford served as Special Counsel to President [[Harry S. Truman]] from 1946 to 1950, becoming one of the most influential aides in the Truman White House. In September 1946, he co-authored (with George Elsey) a classified report on Soviet foreign policy, the "Clifford-Elsey Report," assessing that the [[Soviet Union]] intended to expand its influence through military force and subversion and recommending a policy of strategic containment. The document anticipated the Truman Doctrine. Clifford was a principal drafter of the [[National Security Act of 1947]], which established the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[National Security Council]], the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], and unified the military services under a new [[Department of Defense]]. He remained Truman's closest domestic political advisor through the 1948 election, playing a central role in the campaign strategy that produced Truman's upset victory.[^1] @@ -24,15 +53,15 @@ In 1950, Clifford left government and founded the Washington law firm Clifford & ### Later Government Service -Clifford served as an informal advisor to President [[John F. Kennedy]] following the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] failure in April 1961. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] appointed him Secretary of Defense in January 1968, replacing Robert McNamara. In what became his most consequential decision in public life, Clifford convened a private reassessment of Vietnam strategy and concluded the war was unwinnable at any politically acceptable cost. His recommendations shaped Johnson's March 1968 decision to seek negotiations and decline to seek re-election. Clifford later served President [[Jimmy Carter]] as a diplomatic troubleshooter, negotiating the Panama Canal Treaties and serving as special envoy to Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and India.[^1] +Clifford served as an informal advisor to President [[John F. Kennedy]] following the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]] failure in April 1961. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] appointed him Secretary of Defense in January 1968, replacing [[Robert S. McNamara|Robert McNamara]]. In what became his most consequential decision in public life, Clifford convened a private reassessment of Vietnam strategy and concluded the war was unwinnable at any politically acceptable cost. His recommendations shaped Johnson's March 1968 decision to seek negotiations and decline to seek re-election. Clifford later served President [[Jimmy Carter]] as a diplomatic troubleshooter, negotiating the [[Panama Canal]] Treaties and serving as special envoy to Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and India.[^1] ### BCCI and First American Bank -In 1977, [[Bert Lance]] -- former director of the [[Office of Management and Budget]] under Carter -- introduced Clifford to [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], the Pakistani founder of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]. Abedi sought American legal representation for a planned acquisition of [[Financial General Bankshares]], a Washington, D.C.-based bank holding company. +In 1977, [[Bert Lance]], former director of the [[Office of Management and Budget]] under Carter, introduced Clifford to [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], the Pakistani founder of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]. Abedi sought American legal representation for a planned acquisition of [[Financial General Bankshares]], a Washington, D.C.-based bank holding company. -In 1978, BCCI orchestrated a hostile bid for Financial General Bankshares using a group of Middle Eastern investors as nominal purchasers. The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] filed suit against the participants, alleging undisclosed concert of action. Clifford and his partner [[Robert Altman]] -- the son of a friend, then in his early thirties -- served as counsel to the investor group. Clifford personally assured banking regulators that BCCI would play no ownership or management role in Financial General; he represented the purchase as a straightforward investment by independent Arab shareholders. Regulators approved the sale in 1981 based on these representations.[^2] +In 1978, BCCI orchestrated a hostile bid for Financial General Bankshares using a group of Middle Eastern investors as nominal purchasers. The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] filed suit against the participants, alleging undisclosed concert of action. Clifford and his partner [[Robert Altman]], the son of a friend, then in his early thirties, served as counsel to the investor group. Clifford personally assured banking regulators that BCCI would play no ownership or management role in Financial General; he represented the purchase as a straightforward investment by independent Arab shareholders. Regulators approved the sale in 1981 based on these representations.[^2] -The bank was subsequently renamed [[First American Bankshares]], Inc. Clifford became chairman of the board; Altman became president. Both men received substantial legal fees for their continued representation of BCCI's interests. In 1986, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] issued an internal report stating that BCCI had in fact owned First American since 1982 -- a report that was not acted on.[^2] +The bank was subsequently renamed [[First American Bank|First American Bankshares]], Inc. Clifford became chairman of the board; Altman became president. Both men received substantial legal fees for their continued representation of BCCI's interests. In 1986, the Central Intelligence Agency issued an internal report stating that BCCI had in fact owned First American since 1982, a report that was not acted on.[^2] In February 1988, Clifford and Altman sold a large portion of their First American stock to [[Mohammed Hammoud]], a BCCI front man, for substantial profits.[^3] @@ -42,13 +71,40 @@ In 1989, Senate investigator [[Jack Blum]] brought evidence of BCCI's operations In July 1992, a New York state grand jury convened by Morgenthau indicted Clifford and Altman on charges of bribery, fraud, and receiving benefits from BCCI in exchange for allowing BCCI to secretly own and control First American while representing to regulators that it did not. The Federal Reserve Board simultaneously brought civil charges. -Clifford, then 85 and suffering from serious heart disease, asserted that he had been deceived by Abedi and the other BCCI principals and had no knowledge of BCCI's actual ownership of First American. New York courts severed his case from Altman's on health grounds; Clifford was never tried. Altman was acquitted by a Manhattan jury in September 1993. In 1992, BCCI's liquidators had pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit $550 million to settle criminal charges; the BCCI settlement fund ultimately recovered approximately $880 million, including the $225 million settlement by [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]] in December 1993.[^4] +Clifford, then 85 and suffering from serious heart disease, asserted that he had been deceived by Abedi and the other BCCI principals and had no knowledge of BCCI's actual ownership of First American. New York courts severed his case from Altman's on health grounds; Clifford was never tried. Altman was acquitted by a Manhattan jury on August 14, 1993, and the charges against Clifford were dismissed on November 30, 1993.[^4][^5] In 1992, BCCI's liquidators had pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit $550 million to settle criminal charges; the BCCI settlement fund ultimately recovered approximately $880 million, including the $225 million settlement by [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]] in December 1993.[^6][^7] -Clifford died October 10, 1997, before any final legal resolution of the charges against him. He maintained his innocence to the end. +Clifford died October 10, 1997. He maintained his innocence to the end. The Federal Reserve's civil proceeding against him and Altman was settled by a consent order dated February 1998.[^8] + +### The Sami Memo and the Legal Bills + +Clifford told the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] in 1981, and the Senate on October 24, 1991, that [[Kamal Adham]]'s interest in Financial General had come "from a friend who was associated with the Saudi Arabian embassy," a man who, he testified, "looked into [FGB] in more detail and concluded that it might be an attractive acquisition. Apparently, that was one of his functions in the Saudi Arabian Embassy, to pass information of that kind back to [[Saudi Arabia]]." He and Altman told the Senate that they had not advised BCCI or its investors until the litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Middendorf group began in mid-February 1978.[^9][^10] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] found this account contradicted by the memo of the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] to Agha Hasan Abedi of January 30, 1978, found by the Federal Reserve in BCCI's files in [[Abu Dhabi]], which reported that Bert Lance had suggested retaining Clifford as chief counsel "in view of the possibility of this [takeover] contest and also for presentation of the holding company application to Fed[eral Reserve]," and that Sami had "met Clark Clifford and explained to him our strategy and goal. He was happy to know the details and has blessed the acquisition." A bill from Clifford's firm to BCCI dated May 24, 1978, dated its services from January 1978.[^9][^10] + +At the Federal Reserve hearing of April 23, 1981, on the application of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH), Clifford described BCCI's role as: "None. There is no function of any kind on the part of BCCI . . . I know of no present relationship. I know of no planned future relationship that exists." The Federal Reserve approved the application on August 25, 1981.[^9][^10] + +### Fees and Stock + +Clifford testified that his firm received "maybe $1 million a year" from First American. The Senate report found that Clifford & Warnke had billed First American and related entities about 11 million dollars over about eight years and BCCI about 6 million dollars over twelve years, 17 million dollars in all; the firm also led the defense of the BCCI officers indicted in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] in 1988. As chairman of First American, Clifford said, he was paid 50,000 dollars a year.[^10] In a rights offering, the BCCI nominee Masriq waived its rights so that Clifford and Altman could buy CCAH shares at book value, 2,216 dollars a share, one day after Masriq had bought other shares at 4,044.20 dollars. In 1988 the two men sold their CCAH stock to the BCCI nominee Mohammed Hammoud at 6,800 dollars a share, "the highest price ever paid for CCAH stock," for a combined gross profit of 9.5 million dollars; the Senate report found that the price "was set not by Hammoud, and not even by BCCI, but by Clifford and Altman, who told Naqvi the amount of net profit they wanted on the sale, after all taxes had been paid."[^10] + +### Indictment and Dismissal + +On July 29, 1992, a federal grand jury in Washington and a New York State grand jury indicted Clifford and Altman simultaneously, one year after Morgenthau opened his BCCI investigation. "We said then that BCCI was the largest bank fraud in world history," Morgenthau said. "Now we know it is also one of the biggest criminal enterprises in world history." The state indictment, which also named Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]], [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] and [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]], charged Clifford and Altman with receiving millions of dollars in bribes through their affiliation with BCCI, including about 10 million dollars in profits on stock they had not paid for and about 17 million dollars in legal fees; Clifford faced a maximum of eight years. The three-count federal indictment charged them with conspiring to defraud the Federal Reserve and concealing facts from investigators. Clifford's lawyer, Carl Rauh, had met Morgenthau the day before to argue that Clifford "would not be able to survive a prosecution" and that "it would kill him," according to the *New York Post* as quoted by United Press International. At his arraignment Clifford stood and said, "I plead not guilty, your honor," and Justice John Bradley released both men without bail.[^11] + +Clifford was too ill to stand trial with Altman, who was acquitted in Manhattan on August 14, 1993. On November 30, 1993, on a motion made jointly by Morgenthau and Clifford's lawyer, Charles Stillman, Justice Bradley dismissed the indictment against Clifford, finding that "Clifford's age and ill health prevent his being brought to trial on this indictment and will likely always do so." "In a sense, today's dismissal is the ultimate anti-climax," Stillman said.[^4][^5] + +### Federal Reserve Consent Order + +The Federal Reserve's civil proceeding, opened on July 29, 1992, continued after the criminal cases ended. Its Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit of January 14, 1997, charged that Clifford and Altman, as directors of CCAH and First American, had caused CCAH to borrow from BCCI beyond the acquisition debt allowed by the 1981 order, and had breached their fiduciary duties by accepting preferential loans and stock profits from BCCI and by failing to disclose BCCI's role in the purchase of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]. The settlement recited that "Clifford has submitted medical opinions to the Board of Governors indicating that because of his advanced age and ill health, there is no reasonable prospect that he will ever participate in any manner in the conduct of the affairs of a bank holding company or insured depository institution," and the two men relinquished 1,802 (Clifford) and 895 (Altman) CCAH shares to the court-appointed trustee of First American or the fiduciaries of BCCI; the payments, the order stated, "are not fines or civil money penalties." The order is dated effective February 1998, four months after Clifford's death, and carries a signature block in his name; the document does not state when he signed it.[^8][^11] ### Footnotes [^1]: Clifford, Clark, with Richard Holbrooke. *Counsel to the President: A Memoir.* Random House, 1991. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993. [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993, p. 215. -[^4]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations.* 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, December 1992. (Kerry-Brown Report.) +[^4]: "Charges dropped against Clark Clifford in BCCI case," United Press International, November 30, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/11/30/Charges-dropped-against-Clark-Clifford-in-BCCI-case/6641754635600/ +[^5]: "Altman Acquitted on BCCI Counts," *The Washington Post,* August 15, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/15/altman-acquitted-on-bcci-counts/33f3090f-0a02-4934-9c81-37f843aaead7/ +[^6]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations.* 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, December 1992. (Kerry-Brown Report.) +[^7]: "Saudi to Pay $225 Million in BCCI Settlement," *The Washington Post,* December 24, 1993. +[^8]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman, Institution-Affiliated Parties of Credit and Commerce American Holdings, N.V.,* Docket Nos. 92-080-E-I1, 92-080-B-I1, 92-080-CMP-I1, 92-080-E-I2, 92-080-B-I2, 92-080-CMP-I2, consent order, "effective this [day, illegible in the scan] day of February, 1998," with the Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit of January 14, 1997 (Federal Reserve press release of February 3, 1998). https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf +[^9]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^10]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^11]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eddie George.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eddie George.md index 598266aa..d4af4b8d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eddie George.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eddie George.md @@ -7,6 +7,11 @@ summary: "Eddie George was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England." born: 1938-09-16 died: 2009-04-18 location: "Carshalton, Surrey, England" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of England]]" + role: "deputy governor" + fn: 1 --- Eddie George was the Deputy Governor of the [[Bank of England]].[^1] @@ -17,6 +22,10 @@ George, along with Governor [[Robin Leigh-Pemberton]], was aware of the disastro On June 28, 1991, George and Leigh-Pemberton decided to act, informing the [[Federal Reserve Bank]] of the impending seizure of BCCI in the [[United Kingdom]].[^5] This decision was influenced by the revelations in the Price Waterhouse audit and the certainty that [[Robert Morgenthau]] and the Fed would take action.[^6] +### The Kerry-Brown Findings + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] treated the Bank of England's conduct institutionally. It found that in April 1990 the Bank agreed with BCCI, Abu Dhabi and [[Price Waterhouse]] to keep BCCI from collapsing, withheld information from the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] that delayed its investigation by about eight months, tentatively agreed in late 1990 and early 1991 to let BCCI restructure as three separate banks, and reversed course in late June 1991.[^7] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 9. @@ -25,3 +34,4 @@ On June 28, 1991, George and Leigh-Pemberton decided to act, informing the [[Fed [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 135. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 146. [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 136. +[^7]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Elizabeth F. Abrams.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Elizabeth F. Abrams.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7cec05c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Elizabeth F. Abrams.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Prosecutor + - Philadelphia + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Elizabeth Abrams +summary: "Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania who prosecuted R.C. Horsch's 2009-2012 marijuana and firearms case." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Executive Office for United States Attorneys|United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "assistant United States attorney" + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]" + start: 2009-12-15 + end: 2012-07-03 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Elizabeth F. Abrams has served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She prosecuted *United States v. Horsch*, No. 2:09-cr-00794, the case against [[R.C. Horsch]] for growing marijuana and possessing firearms at his house in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania|New Britain Township]].[^1] + +### United States v. Horsch + +The indictment was filed on December 15, 2009, before Judge [[Richard Barclay Surrick]], with [[Jerome Brown]] appearing for the defense. Abrams filed an information under 21 U.S.C. section 851 on December 23, 2010, giving notice of Horsch's prior drug convictions so as to enhance his sentence. He pleaded guilty on January 10, 2011, to possessing 100 or more marijuana plants with intent to distribute, possessing a short-barreled shotgun in furtherance of drug trafficking, and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, and was sentenced in 2012 to 54 months; his house on Airy Avenue was forfeited.[^1] + +### Other Cases + +In December 2014, under United States Attorney [[Zane David Memeger]], she was named as the prosecutor of a Philadelphia man charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, in a case investigated by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and the [[Philadelphia Police Department]].[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *United States v. Horsch,* No. 2:09-cr-00794-RBS (E.D. Pa.), filed December 15, 2009; superseding indictment of January 26, 2010, information under 21 U.S.C. sec. 851 of December 23, 2010, change of plea of January 10, 2011, judgments of June 28 and July 3, 2012, and final order of forfeiture of October 22, 2012, docket via CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/?q=Horsch&type=r&court=paed +[^2]: United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, "Man Charged With Possession Of A Firearm By A Convicted Felon," press release, December 16, 2014 ("is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Abrams"), archived. https://web.archive.org/web/20260524074237/https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/man-charged-possession-firearm-convicted-felon diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Faisal Saud al-Fulaij.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Faisal Saud al-Fulaij.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..30746582 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Faisal Saud al-Fulaij.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - Kuwait + - Nominee + - FirstAmerican +alias: + - Faisal al-Fulaij + - Faisal Fulaij + - Faisal al Fulaij +summary: "Kuwaiti businessman who served as a BCCI nominee shareholder in the Financial General and First American takeover and was indicted in New York with Clifford, Altman and Abedi in 1992." +location: "Kuwait" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]" + role: "nominee shareholder for BCCI" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Kuwait International Finance Company]]" + role: "nominee owner for BCCI" + fn: 1 + - type: represented + with: "[[Clark Clifford]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Robert Morgenthau]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-07-29 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Faisal Saud al-Fulaij was a Kuwaiti businessman who acted as a nominee for the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) in its secret acquisition of [[Financial General Bankshares]], later [[First American Bank|First American]], through the holding company [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH). He was one of the four "persons of substance" named in the January 1978 memorandum of the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]], testified before the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] in April 1981, and in July 1992 was indicted in New York with [[Clark Clifford]], [[Robert Altman]], [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], [[Swaleh Naqvi]] and [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]].[^1][^2] + +### Nominee + +In his memo to Abedi of January 30, 1978, Sami wrote: "We have already given the names of Sheikh Kamal Adham and Mr. Fulaig [sic]. We want two other names immediately." Part of the money for Fulaij's share purchases was borrowed from the [[Kuwait International Finance Company]] (KIFCO), which, according to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], BCCI "purportedly had a 49 percent interest in, but actually owned and controlled through its nominee, Faisal al-Fulaij." Clifford's firm represented him, with [[Bert Lance]], Abedi, BCCI and members of the [[Abu Dhabi]] ruling family, in the litigation brought by Financial General in 1978.[^1] A [[Price Waterhouse]] report to the [[Bank of England]] of June 1991 listed him among "the four investors" used "to keep individual ownership below 5% and to ensure that BCCI's name did not appear."[^3] + +### The 1981 Hearing + +At the Federal Reserve hearing of April 23, 1981, Fulaij followed [[Kamal Adham]] in assuring the regulators that future relations with BCCI would be for the new management to decide. According to Robert Altman, Fulaij had asked his representatives to find investments in the [[United States]] and BCCI had brought Financial General to their attention. When the Federal Reserve's counsel, Robert Mannion, asked whether it was a coincidence that BCCI had first analysed Financial General for Adham and then advised "several of their investment clients" to invest in it, the transcript records "MR. FULAIJ: (Nods in the affirmative.)" and Adham's reply, "That is very possible. Such things happen in our parts of the world." Adham told the Federal Reserve that he had not met Fulaij for ten years; the Senate report called this false and said the two had acted together as BCCI nominees in dealings in the shares of BCCI's oil company, [[Attock Oil]].[^1] + +The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that Adham, Fulaij, [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Khalil]] and the other Middle Eastern nominees "had secretly done precisely what the Federal Reserve had sought to assure they would not do." After the acquisition BCCI added capital to First American partly through loans to its nominees Fulaij, Khalil and Shorafa, and in later planning for the purchase of the Eagle Bank in Florida, Naqvi and BCCI's New York manager [[Abdur Sakhia]] discussed using Fulaij as the nominee in place of Pharaon, in Altman's presence.[^1][^4][^5] + +The Senate report also recorded that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] did not tell the Federal Reserve that Adham and Fulaij had been the subjects of a [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] inquiry under the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] into arms sales to [[Saudi Arabia]] by [[Boeing]] and [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]].[^6] + +### Indictment + +On July 29, 1992, the New York County District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]], announced a state indictment of Clifford, Altman, Abedi, Naqvi, Pharaon and Fulaij.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^2]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/ +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm +[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Garzone.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Garzone.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..287e0ccf --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gerald Garzone.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - BodyPartsTrade + - GarzoneFuneralHome + - Philadelphia + - Kensington + - RCHorsch +summary: "Philadelphia funeral director and co-owner of Liberty Crematorium who sold bodies to Michael Mastromarino's tissue company and whose appeal of a prosecution-cost order reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Garzone Funeral Home]]" + role: "co-owner of Liberty Crematorium" + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]]" + reverse: true + end: 2008-10-22 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Gerald Garzone is a [[Philadelphia]] funeral director who, with his brother [[Louis Garzone]] and James McCafferty, owned the Liberty Crematorium in [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]] and supplied at least 244 bodies to [[Michael Mastromarino]]'s [[Biomedical Tissue Services]] between early 2004 and September 2005 for more than 245,000 dollars. He pleaded guilty on September 2, 2008, and was sentenced to 8 to 20 years; his appeal of an order to pay the salaries of his prosecutors produced the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Commonwealth v. Garzone (2012).[^1][^2] The history of the business is set out under [[Garzone Funeral Home]]. + +### Plea and Sentence + +Gerald Garzone pleaded guilty to corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy, theft by unlawful taking for the theft of body parts, abuse of corpse, recklessly endangering another person, and fraudulently obtaining public assistance, the last for false claims to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare for funerals of the indigent already paid for by families, on which he received 51,750 dollars. Under his agreement the Commonwealth dropped the remaining charges; his share of the restitution was 144,000 dollars, and there was no agreement as to sentence. "Yes, sir," he answered at the colloquy.[^1] At the sentencing hearing in October 2008 the court imposed 8 to 20 years on each brother and joint restitution of over 300,000 dollars.[^2] + +### Costs Appeal + +On a post-sentence motion by the Commonwealth, the trial judge, who remarked, "I had been doing this for 27 years. I never saw anybody ask for cost of prosecution on guilty plea," ordered Gerald Garzone to pay 90,028 dollars, comprising 84,723 dollars for the salaries of the assistant district attorneys and county detectives assigned to the case and 5,305 dollars in grand jury costs. On April 13, 2010, the [[Superior Court of Pennsylvania|Superior Court]] vacated the salary portion and affirmed the rest: "although the crimes in this case are particularly heinous, if the General Assembly intended to permit such recovery of regularly paid salaries of assistant district attorneys and detectives to be costs associated with the prosecution, the Legislature would have expressly done so."[^1][^2] The [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania Supreme Court]], in an opinion by Chief Justice [[Ronald Castille]], affirmed on January 19, 2012, holding that the Philadelphia costs-of-prosecution statute did not authorize the assessment.[^2] + +In 2026 Gerald Garzone told *The Philadelphia Inquirer* that he had never heard of [[R.C. Horsch]], who was reported to have paid a crematorium employee for access to the dead.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Commonwealth v. Garzone (Gerald Garzone), 993 A.2d 306, 2010 PA Super 57 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 13, 2010), opinion of Stevens, J. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12429640407209552656 +[^2]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 34 A.3d 67, 613 Pa. 481 (Pa. 2012), opinion of Castille, C.J., decided January 19, 2012. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13924150246787701071 +[^3]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, Barbara Laker, and Ellie Rushing. "Raymond Horsch had access to a Kensington crematorium linked to illegal body parts sales, years before missing persons investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 21, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-missing-women-kensington-bodies-crematorium-20260921.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui.md index c8361fed..822506c3 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui.md @@ -1,13 +1,30 @@ --- category: "BCCI Scandal" +alias: + - Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui + - Ghanim Faris Al Mazrui + - Ghanim al-Mazrui tags: - Person - BCCI - CIA -summary: "Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui was the Head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department and a BCCI board member." + - AbuDhabi +summary: "Secretary general of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department who sat on BCCI's board from 1981 and became its chairman." +relations: + - type: director_of + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "director from 1981, later chairman" + start: 1981 + end: 1991 + fn: 6 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan]]" + role: "financial adviser; chairman of the Private Department" + start: 1982 + fn: 6 --- -Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui was the Head of [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]]'s Private Department and a [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] board member.[^1] He was also the director general of His Highness's Private Department and a longtime director of BCCI, effectively running [[Abu Dhabi]] alongside Sheikh Zayed.[^2] +Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui (given in some sources as Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui) was the head of [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]]'s Private Department and a [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] board member.[^1] He was also the director general of His Highness's Private Department and a longtime director of BCCI, effectively running [[Abu Dhabi]] alongside Sheikh Zayed.[^2] ### Role in BCCI Operations @@ -17,6 +34,18 @@ He was also connected to [[William J. Casey]], the former [[Central Intelligence Al-Mazrui's involvement in the BCCI scandal was a matter of public knowledge, and his actions were closely scrutinized during the investigations into the bank's illicit activities.[^5] +### Offices + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] gives his name as Ghanim Faris Al Mazrui, rendered in [[Price Waterhouse]]'s reports as "H.E.G.F. Mazrui." It records that he had served Sheikh Zayed as financial adviser and manager "for more than fifteen years": as secretary general of the [[Abu Dhabi Investment Authority]] (ADIA) from 1976, as chairman or acting chairman of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department from 1982, and from July 1991 as chairman of a "Shareholders Working Group," described by Abu Dhabi as "an informal committee appointed to oversee and coordinate the Majority Shareholders' response to the closure of BCCI." From 1981 he sat on BCCI's board as ADIA's representative, ADIA then holding 10 percent of BCCI's shares, and he ultimately became its chairman. He replaced Abdullah Darweish as head of the ruling family's investments after Darweish's arrest on December 8, 1981. At the same time he joined the boards of two [[Hong Kong]] institutions, the Hong Kong Deposit and Guaranty Bank and Tetra Finance, together with Yassin Hassan, [[Kamal Adham]]'s original contact for the [[Financial General Bankshares]] takeover; both collapsed about two years later with losses to depositors of several hundred million dollars.[^6] + +### What He Knew + +Abu Dhabi's witness, Ahmed Al Sayegh, told Senator [[John Kerry]] that al-Mazrui "first learned of BCCI's problems, and its involvement in false or deceitful accounting practices, in April, 1990, from Price Waterhouse, along with other members of BCCI's board of directors." Price Waterhouse's report under section 41 of the [[Banking Act 1987]] stated:[^6] + +> The extent to which the major shareholders and in particular their board representative H.E.G.F. Mazrui was aware of the matters discussed in this report cannot be established. We are, however, informed that H.E.G.F. Mazrui and the government were briefed fully on all the problems in April, 1990, notwithstanding that they allowed the 1989 accounts to be finalised in discussions with ourselves and the Regulators without disclosing this information. + +The auditors added that until October 1990 he had contended that loans later "proven to be totally fictitious" were recoverable. Price Waterhouse told the [[Bank of England]] that his own accounts at [[ICIC]] showed that he had received funds in 1986 and earlier from no-risk transactions in BCCI shares guaranteed against loss, which he confirmed in April 1990, and that he had confirmed a fictitious BCCI loan to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, [[Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan|Sheikh Khalifa]]; he told the auditors that "his signature must have been forged," a contention they rejected. The Senate report concluded that "Al Mazrui has neither been fired, nor resigned," and remained in charge of Abu Dhabi's working group on BCCI.[^6] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. @@ -24,3 +53,4 @@ Al-Mazrui's involvement in the BCCI scandal was a matter of public knowledge, an [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 128. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 351. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 394. +[^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. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gokal brothers.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gokal brothers.md index 06c04be1..02aab330 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gokal brothers.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Gokal brothers.md @@ -5,6 +5,15 @@ tags: - BCCI - CIA summary: "The Gokal brothers, Abbas Gokal, Murtaza Gokal, and Mustafa Gokal, were Pakistani businessmen who ran the Gulf Group, a London-based shipping company." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Gulf Group]]" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Serious Fraud Office]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-09 + fn: 5 --- The Gokal brothers, [[Abbas Gokal]], [[Murtaza Gokal]], and [[Mustafa Gokal]], were [[Pakistan|Pakistani]] businessmen who ran the [[Gulf Group]], a [[London]]-based shipping company.[^1] They were closely associated with [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], and, according to the journalists Jonathan Beaty and S. C. Gwynne, were BCCI's largest debtor.[^1] @@ -13,7 +22,11 @@ The Gokal brothers, [[Abbas Gokal]], [[Murtaza Gokal]], and [[Mustafa Gokal]], w The Gokal brothers used BCCI money to build their shipping empire, chartering more ships in one year than [[China]] and [[India]] combined during their heyday.[^2] Their loans from BCCI topped out at $831 million in 1990 and were never repaid, contributing significantly to BCCI's financial problems.[^2] -[[Mustafa Gokal]] was named Pakistan's minister for shipping, a position facilitated by Abedi, highlighting the intertwined relationship between BCCI and the Pakistani government.[^3] The Gokal brothers were also used by BCCI as a front for various transactions, including an attempt to acquire Chelsea National Bank in [[New York City]] in 1975.[^4] +Mustafa Gokal was named Pakistan's minister for shipping, a position facilitated by Abedi, highlighting the intertwined relationship between BCCI and the Pakistani government.[^3] The Gokal brothers were also used by BCCI as a front for various transactions, including an attempt to acquire Chelsea National Bank in [[New York City]] in 1975.[^4] + +### Prosecution + +The [[Serious Fraud Office]] opened its inquiry into BCCI's loans to the Gulf Group in September 1992. The brothers, then based in [[Geneva]], left for Pakistan, which had no extradition treaty with Britain, before Swiss police raided the group's offices. Abbas Gokal was arrested at a refuelling stop in [[Frankfurt]] on July 18, 1994, while flying to New York, and in November 1994 he agreed to extradition; British arrest warrants had also been issued for Mustafa and Murtaza.[^5][^6] After a 122-day trial at the [[Old Bailey]], Abbas was convicted in April 1997 of conspiracy to account falsely and conspiracy to defraud, and on May 8, 1997, he was sentenced to fourteen years; prosecutors put the fraudulent loans at 1.2 billion dollars.[^5][^7] ### Footnotes @@ -21,3 +34,6 @@ The Gokal brothers used BCCI money to build their shipping empire, chartering mo [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 139-140. [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 315. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 11. +[^5]: "On the trail of Gokal," *Accountancy Age,* May 23, 1997. https://accountancyage.com/1997/05/23/on-the-trail-of-gokal/ +[^6]: Saadawi, Danah. "BCCI chief debtor agrees to extradition," United Press International, November 2, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/11/02/BCCI-chief-debtor-agrees-to-extradition/2453783752400/ +[^7]: "Gokal sentenced to 14 years for BCCI fraud," *The Irish Times,* May 9, 1997. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/gokal-sentenced-to-14-years-for-bcci-fraud-1.70650 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hank Brown.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hank Brown.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c796cb7d --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hank Brown.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +alias: + - George Hanks Brown + - Hank Brown +tags: + - Person + - Congress + - BCCI + - Colorado +summary: "Republican representative and senator from Colorado, ranking member of the Kerry subcommittee's BCCI inquiry and co-author of its December 1992 report." +born: 1940-02-12 +location: "Denver, Colorado" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Kerry Committee]]" + role: "ranking member" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[University of Colorado]]" + role: "president" + start: 2005 + end: 2008 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +George Hanks "Hank" Brown (born February 12, 1940) represented [[Colorado]] as a Republican in the [[United States House of Representatives]] from 1981 to 1991 and in the [[United States Senate]] from 1991 to 1997. As the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations, the [[Kerry Committee]], he joined Senator [[John Kerry]] in the investigation of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) and co-signed its report of December 1992.[^1][^2] + +### Career + +Brown was born in [[Denver]], graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in 1957 and the [[University of Colorado]] in 1961, and served as a lieutenant in the [[United States Navy]] from 1962 to 1966. He took a law degree at the University of Colorado in 1969 and a master's in tax law at [[George Washington University]] in 1986, and became a certified public accountant in 1988. He was a vice president of the meatpacker Monfort of Colorado from 1969 to 1980 and a member of the Colorado state senate from 1972 to 1976. After six years in the Senate he did not seek reelection in 1996. He was later co-director of the Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues at the [[University of Denver]], president of the [[University of Northern Colorado]] from 1998 to 2002, president of the [[Daniels Fund]] from 2002 to 2005, and president of the University of Colorado from 2005 to 2008.[^1] + +### BCCI + +Brown joined the BCCI investigation as ranking member after the Foreign Relations Committee formally authorized it on May 23, 1991.[^2] The report, *[[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|The BCCI Affair]],* Senate Print 102-140, bears the names of both senators. The archivist [[Steven Aftergood]] of the [[Federation of American Scientists]] wrote in a note to the committee's electronic text that after the report's release "Sen. Hank Brown, reportedly acting at the behest of [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]], pressed for the deletion of a few passages, particularly in Chapter 20 on 'BCCI and Kissinger Associates,'" with the result that the version printed by the Government Printing Office "differs slightly from the Committee's softcopy version." The chapter concerned [[Kissinger Associates]] and its dealings with BCCI.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "BROWN, George Hanks (Hank)," *Biographical Directory of the United States Congress,* via U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art and Archives. https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/9967 +[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 2, "Introduction and Summary of Investigation." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/02intro.htm +[^3]: Aftergood, Steven. Editorial note, "The BCCI Affair," Federation of American Scientists. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md index c420ff35..9fa58894 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Henry B. Gonzalez.md @@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ alias: - Henry Gonzalez - Henry B. González - Henry Barbosa Gonzalez -summary: "House Banking Committee chairman from San Antonio who read classified documents on American aid to Iraq into the Congressional Record in 1992 after the Justice Department asked him to stop his inquiry on national security grounds." +summary: "House Banking Committee chairman who read classified documents on American aid to Iraq into the Congressional Record in 1992 after the Justice Department asked him to stop his inquiry on national security grounds." born: 1916-05-03 died: 2000-11-28 location: "San Antonio, Texas" created: 2026-09-21 -updated: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- Henry B. Gonzalez (May 3, 1916 to November 28, 2000) represented [[San Antonio]] in the [[United States House of Representatives]] from 1961 to 1999 and was chairman of the [[House Banking Committee|Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs]] from 1989 to 1995. In 1977 he was briefly chairman of the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]]. From 1990 to 1993 he investigated the loans of the [[Atlanta]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] to [[Iraq]], and published much of what his committee obtained by reading it on the House floor.[^1][^2] @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ In 1963 he shoved Representative [[Ed Foreman]], who had called him a "pinko," a ### The Assassinations Committee -Gonzalez became chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1977 and entered a public dispute with its chief counsel, [[Richard A. Sprague]], over Sprague's independence of the committee. The other members sided with Sprague, and Gonzalez resigned on March 2, 1977, within a month of taking the chair.[^1] +Gonzalez became chairman of the [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] in 1977 and entered a public dispute with its chief counsel, [[Richard A. Sprague]], over Sprague's independence of the committee. The other members sided with Sprague, and Gonzalez resigned on March 2, 1977, within a month of taking the chair.[^1] ### The Banking Committee @@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ His statement of July 7, 1992, drew on a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] doc The Kennedy Library gave him its Profile in Courage Award on September 11, 1994, for investigating, "regardless of the attempts to strip him of his committee chairmanship, the involvement of high-level officials in the Reagan and Bush Administrations in the sale of U.S. arms to Iraq." Of the war of 1991 he had said: "Not only did our own service men and women face military material that had been exported from the U.S., the U.S. military itself relied on these Iraqi front companies for some of the military goods they used." He lost the chairmanship to [[Jim Leach|James Leach]] in 1995 and did not run in 1998. His son Charles succeeded him.[^1][^2] +### BCCI + +On September 11, 1991, Gonzalez opened the banking committee's hearings on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], with [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]] as the first witnesses. He described BCCI as "tantamount to a racketeering bank" and the hearings as an inquiry into how it "gained a foothold in the United States and how regulators and bank officials failed to detect or understand or report the invasion." Recalling his inquiry into Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, which "became Bagdad's banker in the United States before our regulatory companies at the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] could locate Iraq on the map," he said that "in the case of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the Federal Reserve would have us believe that BCCI was a stealth banking operation, undetected on the regulators' radar screens," and asked: "What other foreign entities or criminal elements are secretly in control of U.S. banks at this very moment? That is a question I have been raising for 2 years."[^8] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Kohout, Martin Donell. "González, Henry Barbosa," *Handbook of Texas,* Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gonzalez-henry-barbosa @@ -61,3 +65,4 @@ The Kennedy Library gave him its Profile in Courage Award on September 11, 1994, [^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Brass Factory in Iraq," *Congressional Record,* House, September 25, 1992, p. H9502. [^6]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq*. Bantam, 1993, pp. 206, 216, 221. [^7]: "Resolution Calling for an Ethics Probe of Chairman Gonzalez," *Congressional Record,* House, August 4, 1992, p. H7366. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_cr/h920804-gonzales.htm +[^8]: House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs. *Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) Investigation, Part 1.* 102nd Cong., 1st Sess., September 11, 1991, Serial No. 102-69, pp. 1-2. https://archive.org/details/BCCIHearingsBeforeTheCommitteeOnBankingFinanceAndUrbanAffairs diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Blum.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Blum.md index c860d64d..8da0e1b5 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Blum.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jack Blum.md @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: Jack Blum aliases: - Jack Blum created: 2026-05-17 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-23 category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" tags: - Person @@ -12,6 +12,11 @@ tags: - ContraWar - Lawyer summary: "Former Senate investigator and chief counsel to Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, widely recognized for exposing the BCCI scandal and investigating Contra-connected drug trafficking." +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1988 + fn: 4 --- Jack Blum is a former Senate investigator and chief counsel to [[Senator John Kerry]]'s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, widely recognized for his pivotal role in exposing the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] scandal. Described as a crusader and a moralist, Blum was known for his unwavering pursuit of truth, even when it meant challenging powerful institutions and individuals.[^1] @@ -27,18 +32,27 @@ After a decade in private practice starting in 1976, Blum re-entered the public After seeing early news stories about [[Norwin Meneses]], Blum asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] to turn over its files on Meneses and the long-closed Frogman case. He ran into a buzzsaw. Blum later described the resistance: "We had a terrible, terrible time getting information about Meneses from the fellow who was the U.S. attorney out there at the time, [[Joseph Russoniello|Russoniello]], who was as rabid a right-wing true believer as ever came down the road." The Justice Department's obstruction prevented the Kerry committee from fully investigating the Meneses connection.[^2] -When [[Gary Webb]] called Blum years later while researching the Dark Alliance series, Blum confirmed that Meneses had been an early target of the Kerry investigation and that the Justice Department had stonewalled the committee's requests for information.[^3] +When [[Gary Webb]] called Blum years later while researching the [[Dark Alliance|Dark Alliance series]], Blum confirmed that Meneses had been an early target of the Kerry investigation and that the Justice Department had stonewalled the committee's requests for information.[^3] ### Uncovering the BCCI Scandal Blum's interest in BCCI intensified in spring 1988 during Kerry's hearings on drug trafficking, which veered into [[Manuel Noriega]]. He discovered that BCCI was at the epicenter of Noriega's financial operations. Despite a Miami BCCI branch being busted for money laundering, Blum believed the plea bargain was a "very big fix" and that BCCI was a "global criminal empire" on the verge of collapse.[^1] -He left the Kerry subcommittee after his proposal for a serious investigation into BCCI was dismissed, and his contract was not renewed. Frustrated by federal inaction, Blum approached Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] in March 1989, presenting the BCCI scandal as "the biggest bank fraud in the history of the world." He provided information from a tape-recorded debriefing of a former BCCI officer, [[Ali Mirza]], who detailed efforts to influence the Senate subcommittee, bribery of the Georgia legislature, and BCCI's secret ownership of American banks.[^1] +He left the [[Kerry Committee|Kerry subcommittee]] after his proposal for a serious investigation into BCCI was dismissed, and his contract was not renewed. Frustrated by federal inaction, Blum approached Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] in 1989 (Beaty and Gwynne date it to March; the Senate report dates his Tampa approach to March and his New York meeting to the late spring), presenting the BCCI scandal as "the biggest bank fraud in the history of the world." He provided information from a tape-recorded debriefing of a former BCCI officer, [[Ali Mirza]], who detailed efforts to influence the Senate subcommittee, bribery of the Georgia legislature, and BCCI's secret ownership of American banks.[^1] Blum's persistence helped prompt the [[Federal Reserve Board]] to investigate BCCI, leading to the bank's global seizure in July 1991. He consistently argued that BCCI was not merely a bank but a "global criminal empire" with deep ties to intelligence agencies and illicit activities.[^1] +### The Justice Department and New York + +According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], the subcommittee authorized subpoenas to BCCI in March 1988, and Blum deferred serving them until late July 1988 at the request of the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] and the [[United States Customs Service|Customs Service]], which were concerned for the [[Operation C-Chase|C-Chase]] sting in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]]. In the spring of 1989, as he was leaving the subcommittee, Senator [[John Kerry]] authorized him to give his information to the Justice Department. In March 1989 he took two BCCI witnesses to the United States Attorney in Tampa and arranged for a debriefing to be taped. After his informants told him that officials in Florida were not following up, he took the same information "in the late spring of 1989" to prosecutors working for Robert Morgenthau in New York.[^4][^5][^6] + +The Tampa prosecutor Mark Jackowski testified that he had discounted Blum's information because Blum had made "wild accusations" about the subcommittee and asked for money, and characterized Blum as a "wacko." The report noted that Jackowski made no contemporaneous record of the alleged remarks, never investigated them, and first raised them some thirty months later. The New York District Attorney's office told the subcommittee in a letter of November 21, 1991: "At no time did Mr. Blum ever seek or request money form this office for his assistance to us in the investigation of BCCI." The report concluded that while the Justice Department prosecutors "regarded Blum as a 'wacko,' and his information as worth little, the New York District Attorney's office took it seriously, investigated it, and proved it out."[^5][^6] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993. [^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 17. [^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 2: "We were the first." +[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 2, "Introduction and Summary of Investigation." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/02intro.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. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.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. 9, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: District Attorney of New York." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/09ny.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James D'Amelio.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James D'Amelio.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5278fe38 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James D'Amelio.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - SecretService + - Counterfeiting + - RCHorsch +summary: "United States Secret Service agent who announced the December 1974 counterfeiting arrests of Raymond Hoersch, later R.C. Horsch, and Charles Griffith in Bucks County." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States Secret Service]]" + role: "agent" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]" + start: 1974-12-10 + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Charles Griffith]]" + start: 1974-12-10 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +James D'Amelio was the [[United States Secret Service]] agent who announced the arrests in December 1974 of Raymond Hoersch, later [[R.C. Horsch]], and [[Charles Griffith]] on counterfeiting charges, and the seizure of 180,000 dollars in counterfeit ten-dollar notes.[^1][^2] + +### The 1974 Case + +"U.S. Secret Service Agent James D'Amelio identified the suspects as Raymond Hoersch, 31, of Chalfont and Charles Griffith, 39, of Wallingford," the Associated Press reported. D'Amelio said that [[Hatboro, Pennsylvania|Hatboro]] police had detained Hoersch on December 10, 1974, after the Hatboro Card Shop on Old York Road reported that he had passed a suspicious ten-dollar bill, and that Secret Service agents with a search warrant found 630 dollars in counterfeit notes in Hoersch's car. The agents seized printing equipment in a building on Taylor Street in [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown]], where they arrested Griffith. Accounts of the face value of the notes seized ranged from 180,000 dollars to more than one million dollars.[^1][^2] + +### Identity + +A tribute published by the [[National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund]] describes a James R. D'Amelio, born in 1933 in [[Malden, Massachusetts]], who joined the Secret Service in 1959, served among other posts as special agent in charge of its Pittsburgh and Philadelphia field offices, received the service's Valor Award in 1973, and retired in September 1985 to work on card security for [[MasterCard]]. The tribute does not give the dates of his Philadelphia posting.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Phony Bill Suspects Held," Associated Press, *Gloucester County Times* (Woodbury, N.J.), December 11, 1974, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1105967385/ +[^2]: [Counterfeiting arrests], *The Morning Call* (Allentown), December 11, 1974, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/275702319/ +[^3]: "37 Years of Fighting Crime in America," National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Stand With Honor series. https://nleomf.org/swh-story/37-years-of-fighting-crime-in-america/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Joanne Epps.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Joanne Epps.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c4c2dcfc --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Joanne Epps.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Prosecutor + - Philadelphia + - RCHorsch +summary: "Philadelphia prosecutor quoted in April 1985 on the guilty pleas and four-year sentence of Raymond Charles Hoersch, the fugitive known in New Zealand as Dr Stanley Stokowski." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]" + end: 1985-04-25 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Joanne Epps was the Philadelphia prosecutor quoted in April 1985 on the sentencing of Raymond Charles Hoersch, later [[R.C. Horsch]], who had lived in [[New Zealand]] from 1980 to 1984 as "Dr Stanley Stokowski." A Press Association report carried by *[[The Press]]* of [[Christchurch]] described her as "the Philadelphia assistant District Attorney."[^1] + +### The Hoersch Sentence + +According to the report, Epps said that Hoersch had pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing methamphetamine for supply and running a methamphetamine laboratory, offences committed in 1977, and that he had been sentenced to three years on the drug charges and a consecutive year and a day for jumping bail, with five years' probation to follow.[^1] The case was heard in federal court, before Judges [[Joseph L. McGlynn Jr.]] and [[Donald W. Van Artsdalen]] of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]].[^2] + +### Identity + +The Press Association's title for her is that of a county prosecutor in the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]], while the case was federal. JoAnne A. Epps (1951 to 2023), later dean of the Beasley School of Law at [[Temple University]] and the university's president, was an assistant United States attorney in Philadelphia before joining the Temple law faculty in 1985, according to the university's biography of her. No source located names her in connection with the Hoersch case.[^1][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Ethanol 'scientist' jailed for drug offences," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 27, 1985 (Press Association). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850427.2.26 +[^2]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/ +[^3]: Temple University, Office of the President, "President JoAnne A. Epps" ("an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia and deputy city attorney in Los Angeles"). https://president.temple.edu/university-leadership/past-presidents/president-joanne-epps diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/K.N. Curnow.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/K.N. Curnow.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..761e7d8d --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/K.N. Curnow.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +category: "Business & Finance" +tags: + - Person + - NewZealand + - Accountant + - Receivership + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Kevin Nicholas Curnow +summary: "Christchurch chartered accountant of Deloitte Haskins and Sells, appointed by Westpac in May 1984 as joint receiver of Chemical Technology Limited after its American director fled." +location: "Christchurch, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: appointed + with: "[[Westpac]]" + reverse: true + role: "joint receiver and manager of Chemical Technology Ltd" + start: 1984-05-22 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Deloitte Haskins & Sells]]" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Kevin Nicholas Curnow was a [[Christchurch]] chartered accountant who, with James Bruce Alfred McAlister, acted as receiver and liquidator for numerous Canterbury companies in the early 1980s. On May 22, 1984, [[Westpac]] Banking Corporation appointed the two men joint and several receivers and managers of [[Chemical Technology Limited]], the Clandeboye ethanol company whose American director, known as Dr Stanley Stokowski, had left [[New Zealand]] in March on a stolen passport.[^1][^2] + +### Receivership + +The appointment was made under a debenture dated August 3, 1981, given by Chemical Technology to Westpac, and covered "all assets of the company." The receivers' office was care of Deloitte Haskins and Sells, chartered accountants, Phoenix House, 76 Hereford Street, Christchurch.[^1] *[[The Press]]* reported that [[John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer)|John Rutherford]], the company's founder, had arranged to pay the bank about 170,000 dollars and that preferential tax debts remained.[^2] A following Gazette notice, signed by the company's solicitor, stated that all money owing to Westpac had been repaid and that the receiver would cease to act; the companies register records the receivership as ending on December 17, 1984.[^1][^3] + +### Other Appointments + +The Gazette's name index records Curnow and McAlister as joint receivers or liquidators of other Christchurch companies in 1982 and 1983, among them T. H. Alexander Building Co., E. G. South Ltd., Rolleston Truck and Implement Services, House of Sewing (N.Z.), Akaroa Export (1981), Merivale Hardware, Terrace Industries, Regent Furnishers (1979), Sunveil Products and the New Albion Hotel.[^4] The director of Chemical Technology was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *New Zealand Gazette,* May 31, 1984, No. 91, p. 1832 ("Westpac Banking Corporation appointed James Bruce Alfred McAlister and Kevin Nicholas Curnow both of Christchurch, chartered accountants, as joint and several receivers and managers ... All assets of the company"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1984/issue/91/page/1832 +[^2]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9 +[^3]: New Zealand Companies Office, Companies Register, "Chemical Technology Ltd," company number 141090, accessed September 23, 2026. https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/141090 +[^4]: NZ Gazette name index, "K N Curnow," 1970-2000, accessed September 23, 2026. https://gazette.howison.co.nz/search?name=K+N+Curnow&start_year=1970&end_year=2000 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kamal Adham.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kamal Adham.md index 3479b640..19beb0ff 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kamal Adham.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kamal Adham.md @@ -8,6 +8,23 @@ summary: "Kamal Adham was the former head of Saudi Arabian intelligence and brot born: 1929 died: 1999-10-29 location: "Istanbul, Turkey" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]" + role: "nominee shareholder for BCCI" + fn: 12 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Saudi Arabian intelligence]]" + fn: 10 + - type: represented + with: "[[Clark Clifford]]" + reverse: true + fn: 12 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[United States Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + end: 1992-07-29 + fn: 16 --- Kamal Adham was the former head of [[Saudi Arabian intelligence]] and brother-in-law of the late [[King Faisal]]. He was a significant shareholder in [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] and [[First American Bank]]. Adham was a shrewd and jovial figure who straddled the worlds of Middle Eastern business and politics for decades. He was considered one of the true inside power players of the [[Middle East]].[^1] @@ -15,7 +32,7 @@ Adham's influence stemmed from his royal connections, which he leveraged to faci He played a crucial role as a front man for [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] in BCCI's secret acquisitions, including the [[National Bank of Georgia]] and [[Financial General Bankshares]].[^4] Adham was instrumental in funneling money from [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]] and the CIA to [[Anwar Sadat]] and is credited with pressuring Sadat to engage in the [[Camp David summit|Camp David Accords]].[^5] -Adham was indicted in the United States for his involvement in BCCI's frauds and bribery, eventually pleading guilty in New York and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. He paid a $105 million fine.[^6] +Adham was indicted in the [[United States]] for his involvement in BCCI's frauds and bribery, eventually pleading guilty in New York and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. He paid a $105 million fine.[^6] ### Early Life and Career @@ -25,12 +42,26 @@ Adham launched his business career in 1951, at the age of twenty-two, by control ### Relationship with Abedi and BCCI -Abedi met Adham in the early 1970s through [[Sheikh Zayed]]. Adham became a key figure in Abedi's strategy to expand BCCI's influence in the United States. He was a nominal lead shareholder in [[First American Bank]] and was responsible for hiring [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]] to lead the bank.[^10] Adham's role was to provide a veneer of legitimacy and access for BCCI's clandestine operations. +Abedi met Adham in the early 1970s through [[Sheikh Zayed]]. Adham became a key figure in Abedi's strategy to expand BCCI's influence in the United States. He was a nominal lead shareholder in First American Bank and was responsible for hiring [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]] to lead the bank.[^10] Adham's role was to provide a veneer of legitimacy and access for BCCI's clandestine operations. ### Involvement in Nuclear Programs Adham publicly asserted that [[Pakistan]] possessed an atomic bomb and that Abedi and BCCI had financially supported its development. He viewed this as an achievement for the Third World, challenging Western powers' control over nuclear technology.[^11] +### The Federal Reserve Hearing + +Adham was one of four original investors, with [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]], Sheikh [[Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan]] and Abdullah Darwaish, named as holders of Financial General shares in 1978; the memo of the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] to Agha Hasan Abedi of January 30, 1978, reported: "We have already given the names of Sheikh Kamal Adham and Mr. Fulaig [sic]. We want two other names immediately."[^12][^13] At the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] hearing of April 23, 1981, he testified that "whatever relationships are developed between Financial General and BCCI in the future, if any, are matters to be decided by the new management of Financial General based upon that institution's best interests." Asked whether it was a coincidence that BCCI had analyzed Financial General for him and then advised other clients to invest, he said: "That is very possible. Such things happen in our parts of the world." He told the regulators, falsely according to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], that he had not met Fulaij for ten years; the two had acted together as BCCI nominees in dealings in the shares of BCCI's [[Attock Oil]]. "I would like to assure you," he said, "that each one on his own rights will not accept in any way to be a cover for somebody else."[^12] Clark Clifford described him to the regulators not as the former head of Saudi intelligence or the late king's brother-in-law, "but merely as a prominent Saudi businessman," and said he had the "deepest respect for his [Adham's] character, for his reputation, for his honor and for his integrity."[^12] In early drafts of the arrangement by which Clifford and Robert Altman acquired CCAH shares, Adham, with BCCI as back-up, was to be bound to repurchase their shares at any time at their discretion; the requirement was never discussed with him, which the Senate report took as showing that Clifford, Altman and BCCI regarded him "as no more than a nominee for BCCI."[^14] + +In a letter to the Federal Reserve of April 10, 1991, Adham gave another account of the investment's origin: a friend, Hasan Yassin, had told him Financial General would be a good investment, and he had brought it to BCCI "as his business agent." The Senate report called this "completely inconsistent" with the accounts of [[Bert Lance]], the *[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]* and Robert Altman, and noted that Lance had never heard of Yassin.[^12] + +### Intelligence Background + +The Senate report recorded that the CIA, asked about the CCAH shareholders, told the Federal Reserve it had no derogatory information on them, without telling it that Adham and [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Abdul Raouf Khalil]] were "the past and then-current Saudi intelligence liaisons to the United States," or that Adham and Fulaij had been the subject of a [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] inquiry under the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] into arms sales to Saudi Arabia by [[Boeing]] and [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]]. Paul Volcker, who as chairman of the Federal Reserve signed the 1981 approval, testified in 1991 that he "wasn't aware" of Adham's intelligence background and that it "might send an eyebrow or two up." The Virginia bank regulator Sidney Bailey asked the [[State Department]] and the CIA for information on the shareholders and received none; "at the time," the report found, "the CIA knew precisely who Adham was."[^12][^15] + +### Plea + +On July 29, 1992, the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] announced that Adham and his accountant, Sayed Jawhary, had pleaded guilty to charges arising from the BCCI case, and that Adham had agreed to cooperate with investigators and to pay 105 million dollars in reparations and fines.[^16] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 197. @@ -43,4 +74,9 @@ Adham publicly asserted that [[Pakistan]] possessed an atomic bomb and that Abed [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 203. [^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 198. [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 197. -[^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 310. \ No newline at end of file +[^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 310. +[^12]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^13]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm +[^14]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^15]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm +[^16]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kerry Burke.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kerry Burke.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9159d7d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kerry Burke.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - NewZealand + - Politician + - Immigration + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Thomas Kerry Burke + - Sir Kerry Burke +summary: "New Zealand Labour minister of immigration from July 1984 who announced in October 1984 that the impostor Raymond Hoersch had entered the country in 1980 and cleared the department of blame." +location: "Christchurch, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Executive Council of New Zealand]]" + role: "Minister of Regional Development, Minister of Employment, Minister of Immigration" + start: 1984-07-26 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Thomas Kerry Burke is a [[New Zealand]] politician who was appointed Minister of Regional Development, Minister of Employment and Minister of Immigration on July 26, 1984, in the first ministry formed after the [[New Zealand Labour Party|Labour Party]]'s election victory of that month; the same day the outgoing National minister, Anthony George Malcolm, resigned the offices of Minister of Health and Minister of Immigration.[^1] + +### The Stokowski Affair + +In October 1984 Burke reported on the admission to New Zealand of the man who had lived near [[Timaru]] as Dr Stanley Stokowski. He said that the case "involved an American-born man, now known to be Raymond Charles Hoersch, who entered New Zealand in 1980 and worked for a South Canterbury firm as an alternative fuels expert," and that police and customs inquiries had begun in March 1984 "after the impostor had been detained when reentering New Zealand in possession of a number of documents giving different identities." Burke said the immigration procedures had been correct: the university transcript submitted had been confirmed as genuine by the real Stokowski, but "all supporting documentation appeared to have been altered to the identity of the applicant," there had been "some pressure from the man's proposed employer to make an early decision," checks had not been made with the [[New Zealand Ministry of Energy|Ministry of Energy]] "because of representations from the proposed employer," and the applicant had not been interviewed by the New Zealand Consulate-General in [[San Francisco]]. He also disclosed that two regional development suspensory loans totalling 120,235 dollars had been approved for the company, [[Chemical Technology Limited]], in 1981 on the recommendation of the South Canterbury Regional Development Council, and that the [[Development Finance Corporation]] had reported favourably on the project's viability.[^2] The impostor was [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *New Zealand Gazette,* July 26, 1984, No. 130, p. 2912 ("The Honourable Thomas Kerry Burke, to be Minister of Regional Development, Minister of Employment, and Minister of Immigration"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1984/issue/130/page/2912 +[^2]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kevin Bethel.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kevin Bethel.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bae75762 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kevin Bethel.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Police + - Philadelphia + - OlneyHouseInvestigation +alias: + - Kevin J. Bethel +summary: "Philadelphia police commissioner from January 2024, a 1986 recruit and former school-district safety chief, who led the September 2026 briefing on the Olney House Investigation." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Philadelphia Police Department]]" + role: "police commissioner" + start: 2024-01-02 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Cherelle Parker]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-11 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[School District of Philadelphia]]" + role: "chief of school safety" + start: 2019 + end: 2023 + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Olney House Investigation]]" + start: 2026 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Kevin J. Bethel is the police commissioner of [[Philadelphia]], sworn in on January 2, 2024. On September 16, 2026, with Deputy Commissioner [[Frank Vanore]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s special agent in charge in Philadelphia, [[Wayne Jacobs]], he gave the briefing at which police said that 58 people had been identified in the material recovered in the [[Olney House Investigation]] and that five women shown in it were believed to be dead.[^1][^2] + +### Career + +Bethel was raised in Southwest Philadelphia and joined the [[Philadelphia Police Department]] in 1986. He served in Special Investigations, the Narcotics Strike Force, the Intelligence Unit and Internal Affairs, commanded the 17th District, and in 2009, as a captain aged 44, was promoted by Commissioner [[Charles H. Ramsey]] to deputy commissioner for patrol operations. He retired in 2016 and from 2019 to 2023 was chief of school safety for the [[School District of Philadelphia]], overseeing about 300 school safety officers. He holds degrees from [[Chestnut Hill College]] and [[Saint Joseph's University]] and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.[^1] + +In November 2023 Mayor-elect [[Cherelle Parker]] named him to succeed [[Danielle Outlaw]], and he was sworn in on the day of Parker's inauguration at a middle school in [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]], where he pledged to concentrate enforcement on the neighborhood's open-air drug markets: "enforcement means restoring law and order humanely and with dignity."[^1] + +### The Olney House + +At the briefing of September 16, 2026, Bethel said of the pace of the investigation: "We're going to dictate the pace."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Kevin J. Bethel sworn in as Philadelphia's newest police commissioner," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 2, 2024, and "Kevin Bethel, Philly's new police commissioner, has a 'strong and direct' style," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* November 22, 2023. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/kevin-bethel-philadelphia-police-commissioner-sworn-in-20240102.html +[^2]: Sharber, Cory. "Police, FBI provide updates on Horsch missing women case," *WHYY,* September 16, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/olney-home-investigation-abuse/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leo Goldstein.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leo Goldstein.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e2567427 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leo Goldstein.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Philadelphia + - Censorship + - RCHorsch +summary: "Deputy commissioner of Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections who closed Ray Hoersch's Underground Cinema 16 in October 1969 amid a wider closing of small theaters." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections]]" + role: "deputy commissioner" + start: 1969 + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Underground Cinema 16]]" + start: 1969-10-29 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Leo Goldstein was a deputy commissioner of the [[Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections]] who on October 29, 1969, closed [[Underground Cinema 16]], the 16-millimeter theater opened that month at 2021 Sansom Street by Ray Hoersch, later [[R.C. Horsch]].[^1] + +### Underground Cinema 16 + +The *Inquirer* reported that "Philadelphia's first commercial venture into noncommercial underground theater was threatened Wednesday by the Department of Licenses and Inspections, which ordered CINEMA 16 closed because it lacked requisite licenses. Leo Goldstein, deputy commissioner of L&I posted the theater, at 2021 Sansom st., and police were instructed to keep it empty." Hoersch, then 26, called the matter a "simple confusion" over the city's requirements and said the only question was whether the theater could open that week for a preview of the Vietnam documentary *[[In the Year of the Pig]]*; the city would send inspectors, but Goldstein said the process might take two weeks.[^1] + +The alternative weekly *The Distant Drummer*, in an article on the administration of Mayor [[James H. J. Tate]], reported in December 1969 that the department had closed the theater for want of a statement of occupancy and five minor building-code violations, which were corrected within a day, and quoted Goldstein: "I first heard about the theatre (Cinema 16) when I read in the BULLETIN that they were going to play that Vietnam film (In the Year of the Pig)." In the same period the department closed the "Space" annex of the [[Theatre of the Living Arts]] and the Manning Street Theater. While Cinema 16 was shut, *In the Year of the Pig* was shown at the [[Bandbox Theater]] in [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]].[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Police to Inspect Building: Cinema 16 Shut Down In License Dispute; Owner Is 'Confused'," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 30, 1969, p. 19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/169186622/ +[^2]: "Mayor Tate's War On [title cut off in the scan]," *The Distant Drummer,* no. 65, December 25, 1969, p. 8, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p16002coll34/id/473 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Louis Garzone.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Louis Garzone.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..86c3cd17 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Louis Garzone.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - BodyPartsTrade + - GarzoneFuneralHome + - Philadelphia + - Kensington + - RCHorsch +summary: "Philadelphia funeral director and co-owner of Liberty Crematorium who supplied at least 244 bodies to Michael Mastromarino's tissue company and was sentenced in 2008 to 8 to 20 years." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Garzone Funeral Home]]" + role: "co-owner of Liberty Crematorium" + fn: 2 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Gerald Garzone]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 3 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]]" + reverse: true + end: 2008-10-22 + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Louis Garzone was a licensed [[Philadelphia]] funeral director who, with his brother [[Gerald Garzone]] and James McCafferty, owned the Liberty Crematorium at 2778 Ruth Street in [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]]. From early 2004 to September 2005 the three supplied at least 244 bodies to [[Michael Mastromarino]] of [[Biomedical Tissue Services]], without the knowledge or consent of the families, and received more than 245,000 dollars. He pleaded guilty on September 2, 2008, and was sentenced on October 22, 2008, to 8 to 20 years.[^1][^2][^3] The history of the business is set out under [[Garzone Funeral Home]]. + +### The Crematorium + +As owners of a crematorium, the brothers and McCafferty had access to bodies destined for cremation, which, the court record states, could be provided "without concern for their post-harvesting condition." Mastromarino's cutters removed arms, legs, bones, ligaments, tendons and skin, "often leaving only a head and a bloody torso behind in a bag for cremation," and bodies awaiting them sat unrefrigerated in an alley for days. Mastromarino had told the brothers that donors had to be under seventy-five and free of disease; they supplied the bodies of people over eighty who had died with cancer, HIV and hepatitis. In September 2005, told by Mastromarino to burn their funeral homes, they instead incinerated their records in the crematory oven days before FDA investigators arrived, and told the investigators that the records had been destroyed in a flood.[^2][^3] + +### Welfare and Disability Fraud + +The brothers also filed false claims with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare for funerals of the indigent that families had already paid for, each claim for the maximum of 750 dollars; Louis received 25,250 dollars. Louis alone was also charged with disability fraud, having claimed from March 2006 that he could not work because of depression and received 18,300 dollars on eight claims through September 2007.[^1][^2] + +### Plea and Sentence + +On September 2, 2008, the day their trial was to begin, Louis Garzone pleaded guilty to corrupt organizations, conspiracy, theft of body parts, abuse of corpse, reckless endangerment and welfare fraud, and forfeited two properties, 1830 East Somerset Street and 2778 Ruth Street, "the location of the crematorium." His share of the brothers' joint restitution was 144,000 dollars, with a further 18,000 dollars on the disability count; the [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania Supreme Court]] described the joint restitution as "over $300,000 to be paid to the affected former clients of appellees' funeral homes." On a post-sentence motion by the Commonwealth, the court ordered him to pay 90,101 dollars in costs, of which 84,796 dollars was for the salaries of the prosecutors and county detectives and 5,305 dollars for grand jury costs. The [[Superior Court of Pennsylvania|Superior Court]] vacated the salary portion on April 14, 2010, and the Supreme Court affirmed on January 19, 2012, holding that the legislature had not authorized such costs.[^1][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Commonwealth v. Garzone (Louis Garzone), 993 A.2d 1245 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 14, 2010), No. 780 EDA 2009. +[^2]: Commonwealth v. Garzone (Gerald Garzone), 993 A.2d 306, 2010 PA Super 57 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 13, 2010), opinion of Stevens, J. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12429640407209552656 +[^3]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 34 A.3d 67, 613 Pa. 481 (Pa. 2012), opinion of Castille, C.J., decided January 19, 2012. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13924150246787701071 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Munther Ismael Bilheisi.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Munther Ismael Bilheisi.md index 4b30e4ed..38b3a870 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Munther Ismael Bilheisi.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Munther Ismael Bilheisi.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags: summary: "Munther Ismael Bilheisi was an expatriate Jordanian involved in coffee smuggling, arms dealing, customs violations, money laundering, and paying bribes and kickbacks." --- -Munther Ismael Bilheisi was an expatriate [[Jordan|Jordanian]] involved in coffee smuggling, arms dealing, customs violations, money laundering, and paying bribes and kickbacks.[^1] He maintained lavishly appointed residences in England, Spain, Jordan, and the United States.[^2] Bilheisi's activities were closely tied to the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], which facilitated his illicit operations. +Munther Ismael Bilheisi was an expatriate [[Jordan|Jordanian]] involved in coffee smuggling, arms dealing, customs violations, money laundering, and paying bribes and kickbacks.[^1] He maintained lavishly appointed residences in England, Spain, Jordan, and the [[United States]].[^2] Bilheisi's activities were closely tied to the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], which facilitated his illicit operations. ### Business Operations @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Bilheisi ran a formidable smuggling operation out of Boca Raton from 1982 to 198 He was involved in coffee smuggling, buying non-agreement coffee at cheap prices and selling it illegally to agreement countries like the United States, thereby pocketing a huge profit.[^6] BCCI provided services such as financing shipments and doctoring shipping documents for these operations.[^7] -Bilbeisi also engaged in illegal arms dealing. In 1974, he brokered British-made Centurion tanks and Tigercat missiles from Jordan to South Africa, defying British national policy.[^8] Other deals included retrofitting Jordanian tanks, selling small arms to Honduras and El Salvador, and selling U.S.-built F-86Safra jet fighters from Yugoslavia to Honduras.[^9] +Bilbeisi also engaged in illegal arms dealing. In 1974, he brokered British-made Centurion tanks and Tigercat missiles from Jordan to [[South Africa]], defying British national policy.[^8] Other deals included retrofitting Jordanian tanks, selling small arms to Honduras and [[El Salvador]], and selling U.S.-built F-86Safra jet fighters from Yugoslavia to Honduras.[^9] ### Financial Manipulations and Legal Issues @@ -25,6 +25,12 @@ He made two false claims against [[Lloyd's of London]], one for alleged art thef In August 1991, Bilheisi was indicted in the United States for failure to pay $840,000 in taxes, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.[^13] He was also charged with corruption in Guatemala, with a warrant issued for his extradition and arrest.[^14] +### Coffee and Commissions + +*[[Time (magazine)|Time]]* reported in 1991 that Bilbeisi, who owned a 1.8 million dollar house with a Mercedes, a Porsche and a Rolls-Royce and claimed friendship with King [[Hussein of Jordan]], had sold about 35 million dollars' worth of Central American coffee to American buyers during the 1980s, documented as bound for non-tariff countries such as Jordan and [[Syria]] and rerouted through [[Miami]] or [[New Orleans]]; shipping agents told the magazine they had taken 4.5 million dollars in bribes from him to supply false cargo manifests. Company ledgers showed payments of 160,000 dollars to Arthur Berman, president of Chase & Sanborn from 1981 to 1984 and of [[Chock Full o'Nuts]] from 1984 to 1985, for pushing sales of the smuggled coffee; in a 1988 deposition Berman denied wrongdoing, describing the payments as loans. Bilbeisi also brokered a sale of Jordanian helicopters and fighter aircraft to [[Guatemala]] at inflated prices, with kickbacks to Guatemalan officers and to the brother of President [[Vinicio Cerezo]]; BCCI financed the deal for a commission of 400,000 dollars. The Lloyd's of London civil racketeering suit of December 1990 followed his claims of 6 million dollars for an allegedly stolen Song dynasty vase and a coffee shipment.[^15] + +According to the *Journal of Commerce*, he was indicted on tax charges in [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]] in May 1991 and went to [[Amman]]; Guatemala's extradition request was addressed to Jordan.[^15][^16] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 8. @@ -40,4 +46,6 @@ In August 1991, Bilheisi was indicted in the United States for failure to pay $8 [^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 247. [^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 240. [^13]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 242. -[^14]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 242. \ No newline at end of file +[^14]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 242. +[^15]: "Banking: A Trail of Coffee and Cash," *Time,* 1991. https://time.com/archive/6717978/banking-a-trail-of-coffee-and-cash/ +[^16]: "Jordanian Denies Smuggling Charge," *The Journal of Commerce,* August 13, 1991. https://www.joc.com/jordanian-denies-smuggling-charge_19910813.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nazir Chinoy.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nazir Chinoy.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..41a457fb --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nazir Chinoy.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - Paris + - IranContra + - OperationCChase + - 1980s +summary: "BCCI's general manager in Paris and earlier Pakistan branch chief, a defendant in the Tampa money laundering case, whose testimony described Khashoggi's Iran arms financing and BCCI's protocol department." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "regional general manager, Paris; earlier branch chief in Pakistan" + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Operation C-Chase]]" + reverse: true + end: 1988-10 + fn: 1 + - type: represented + with: "[[Adnan Khashoggi]]" + role: "banker for Iran arms bridging credit, 1986" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Nazir Chinoy was the regional general manager in [[Paris]] of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), and earlier a branch chief of BCCI in [[Pakistan]] from 1978 to 1982. He was among the BCCI officers drawn into [[Operation C-Chase]] and a defendant in the resulting case in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]], and in interviews with Senate staff from March 9 to 16, 1992, and testimony on March 18, 1992, he became a principal source for the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]].[^1][^2][^3] + +### Pakistan + +Chinoy gave the Senate its most detailed account of BCCI's protocol department, run by [[Sani Ahmed]]. On his arrival at BCCI Pakistan in 1978, he said, it employed about 120 people, whose job was "to establish and further the rapport with the sheiks of and ruling families of Dubai and [[Abu Dhabi]]," from a separate building in [[Karachi]] opposite [[Agha Hasan Abedi]]'s house. "Sani would tell me that I need one million rupees today and we would give him the moneys and the branch would pay the money. What it was paid for we would have no idea," he said, and: "Sani was the trusted man for things no one else was supposed to know. We were the technocrats. Sani Ahmed would handle the things we wouldn't, like get girls." He also described the relationship between Abedi and President [[Zia ul-Haq]].[^2] + +### Paris + +Of BCCI's business in France, Chinoy told investigators: "All the money we got [at BCCI-France] in some way we were breaking the law... The law breaking was pretty systematic." Of Africa he said: "Commission means kick-back... It is known as a commission but it is actually a kickback. It is the only way to do business."[^4] In early 1986 he met [[Adnan Khashoggi]] in BCCI's Paris office after noticing a sudden rise in business at the bank's Monte Carlo branch, which answered to Paris, and learned that its manager, Manir Karim, had been giving Khashoggi short-term credit for the sale of American arms to [[Iran]] through [[Israel]]: "I met Khashoggi in a small room at the bank. He told me he had a deal, he was to be a supplier, buy American arms through Israel and supply them to the Iranians." Khashoggi, he said, told him he was working directly for the [[United States]] government and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. Chinoy described the fees as "juicy," but ordered the business stopped because it had not been approved in writing by BCCI London; he later learned that two or three more transactions totaling 15 to 17 million dollars had been completed, and documents indicated that London had gone around him. He said that [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]] also banked at Monte Carlo, and that in 1988 a London office asked him about an account in the name "Devon Island."[^3] + +Chinoy learned of BCCI's hidden role in the sale of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] when Abedi, visiting Paris with [[Swaleh Naqvi]] in December 1986 or January 1987, left a briefcase in a taxi; recovering it, "I saw written National Bank of Georgia written on the briefcase." In 1988 he was instructed by London to lend [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] about 25 million dollars to buy debentures of [[CenTrust Savings Bank]]; no credit report was prepared, and "we did a CYA letter instead to cover ourselves." He later saw a document requesting credit committee approval for the loan, ostensibly from Paris, which he believed Naqvi had fabricated after the fact. He said [[Mohammed Hammoud]] had "a very special relationship" with the bank, and that when he asked Hammoud to repay a loan of about 100,000 dollars he was rebuked by his superiors in London.[^5][^6] + +### C-Chase + +On May 20, 1988, the undercover Customs agent [[Robert Mazur]] opened accounts at BCCI Paris and told Chinoy privately that his clients were "drug dealers in Colombia"; Chinoy assigned the accounts to officers including Sibte Hassan. [[Amjad Awan]] had referred Mazur to "Chinoy and Howard in Paris and Baakza in London."[^1] The Senate report found that Awan, Akbar Bilgrami, Chinoy "and likely several other of the Tampa defendants" could have given information leading to a far broader indictment of BCCI.[^7] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: United States v. Awan, 966 F.2d 1415 (11th Cir. 1992), opinion of Circuit Judge Fay, July 27, 1992. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/966/966.F2d.1415.90-4114.html +[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI" (citing staff interviews with Chinoy, March 9-16, 1992). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, The CIA and Foreign Intelligence" (citing Chinoy's testimony of March 18, 1992). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm +[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Part Two." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm +[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 15, "Mohammed Hammoud: BCCI's Flexible Front-Man." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/15hammoud.htm +[^7]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the US Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Raymond Evers.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Raymond Evers.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a6469db1 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Raymond Evers.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Police + - Philadelphia + - OlneyHouseInvestigation +summary: "Philadelphia police inspector, formerly head of the Narcotics Bureau and the subject of a 2018 Internal Affairs finding, who in August 2026 named two women believed killed in the Olney house." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Philadelphia Police Department]]" + role: "inspector" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Olney House Investigation]]" + start: 2026 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Raymond Evers is an inspector of the [[Philadelphia Police Department]]. On August 12, 2026, in the [[Olney House Investigation]], he identified [[Gabrielle Amarando]] and [[Maribel Fresses]] as two women shown alive and then apparently dead in the material recovered from the house of [[R.C. Horsch]]. He had earlier headed the department's Narcotics Bureau, where an Internal Affairs investigation found in 2018 that he had abused his authority.[^1][^2] + +### Narcotics Bureau + +In May 2017 Evers, then an inspector in charge of the Narcotics Bureau, and Chief Inspector Anthony Boyle called the bureau's staff to a mandatory meeting in a police conference room in [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]]. Evers later described it as a "pep talk" to "get better-quality investigations." An Internal Affairs report of August 2018 found that what he had outlined amounted to a practice of turning low-level arrestees into informants off the books, which developed into the falsification of paperwork and the withholding of information from the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office|District Attorney's Office]]. The report "sustained allegations Evers abused his authority, failed to supervise subordinates, and then lied during the course of the investigation about it," and sustained charges against Boyle for failure to supervise and against two officers for false paperwork. *The Philadelphia Inquirer* reported that hundreds of cases might be challenged as a result.[^1] + +### The Olney House + +At the police briefing of August 12, 2026, Evers said that two of the women connected to the Chew Avenue house, Amarando and Fresses, were shown in recovered images alive and then apparently dead. Police said in September that five women shown in the material appeared to be dead.[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Report: Philly narcotics cops faked paperwork to hide informants. Hundreds of cases may be challenged," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 13, 2019. https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-narcotics-drugs-informants-practices-raymond-evers-anthony-boyle-20190113.html +[^2]: Rushing, Ellie, Barbara Laker, Max Marin, and Ryan W. Briggs. "'I knew she was gone': Police say at least two missing women likely killed inside Olney home linked to violent pornography," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 12, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-horsch-murder-missing-women-20260812.html +[^3]: Sharber, Cory. "Police, FBI provide updates on Horsch missing women case," *WHYY,* September 16, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/olney-home-investigation-abuse/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Altman.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Altman.md index e04d188b..2bdb2588 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Altman.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Altman.md @@ -1,16 +1,42 @@ --- category: "BCCI Scandal" created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 tags: - Person - BCCI - Lawyer - Banking -summary: "Robert Altman was a Washington attorney and partner to Clark Clifford who served as president of First American Bankshares and was indicted by Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau in July 1992 on charges of bribery and fraud related to BCCI's secret ownership of the bank; he was acquitted by a Manhattan jury in September 1993." +summary: "Washington lawyer, Clark Clifford's partner and president of First American Bankshares, indicted in July 1992 over BCCI's secret ownership of the bank and acquitted by a Manhattan jury in August 1993." born: 1947-02-23 died: 2021-02-03 location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: represented + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1978 + end: 1990 + role: "American counsel" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[First American Bank]]" + role: "president" + fn: 13 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]" + fn: 18 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Robert Morgenthau]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-07-29 + end: 1993-08-14 + fn: 16 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Federal Reserve Board]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-07-29 + end: 1998-02 + fn: 18 --- Robert Altman was a prominent American lawyer and banker, known for his close association with [[Clark Clifford]] and his involvement in the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] scandal. He served as the former president of [[First American Bank]] and was Clifford's law partner and protégé. Altman, along with Clifford, acted as BCCI's chief American counsel from 1978 to 1990.[^1] @@ -30,6 +56,22 @@ In February 1988, Altman and Clifford sold a large portion of their stock in Fir Altman was indicted by a New York grand jury in July 1992, along with Clark Clifford, on charges related to bribery and fraud for their role in helping BCCI influence First American Bank's affairs.[^11] +### The Federal Reserve Application + +On June 2, 1981, Altman asked the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]], on behalf of the Middle Eastern investors and [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH), to seal portions of the transcript of its April 23, 1981 hearing; the request was granted, "preventing anyone outside the Federal Reserve from learning the identities of several of the shareholders." At the hearing he told the Federal Reserve's counsel that it was "not correct" that [[Kamal Adham]] and [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]] had first been interested in the investment by BCCI, and that Adham had learned of it from "a friend who worked in the Saudi Arabian Embassy, Mr Yassin." In a letter to the Federal Reserve of May 9, 1978, he had given a different account, in which [[Jackson Stephens]] first proposed Financial General to a BCCI representative during the sale of the National Bank of Georgia in November 1977.[^12] + +### National Bank of Georgia + +On May 8, 1986, Altman wrote to [[Swaleh Naqvi]] enclosing a valuation of the National Bank of Georgia by First American's treasurer, A. Vincent Scoffone, and hoping for a price of 160 to 175 million dollars, as "we are nearing the point at which this purchase is too expensive."[^13] He later told journalists that the purchase "was clearly an arms-length business deal," and told the Senate that "First American, not BCCI, initiated the NBG transaction." Altman denied to the Senate subcommittee that he had attended a meeting in [[Miami]] with Abedi, Naqvi and Clifford at which the merger was arranged; [[Roy P. M. Carlson]], the bank's former president, told the subcommittee's staff that he, Clifford and Altman had met at the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami in February 1986 to discuss the price.[^13][^14] According to BCCI's former New York manager, [[Abdur Sakhia]], Altman was present when Sakhia and Naqvi discussed using Faisal al-Fulaij as the nominee for a planned BCCI purchase of the Eagle Bank in Florida.[^13] + +### Stock and Testimony + +Hammoud granted Altman a power of attorney allowing him to conduct any transaction in CCAH shares on Hammoud's behalf; Altman testified that he had never met Hammoud. The Federal Reserve found that "On February 12, 1991, in sworn testimony to the Board of Governors, Altman falsely stated that he did not know how the purchase price of $6800 per share was fixed, and that he did not discuss the matter with Imam."[^13] According to the [[House Banking Committee]], BCCI paid some 45 million dollars in legal fees disbursed by Altman; he told the Senate that the amount was "approximately $20 million."[^13] + +### Trial and Settlement + +On July 29, 1992, Altman was indicted by a New York State grand jury and a federal grand jury in Washington; the state charges carried a maximum of 32 years in prison and about 80 million dollars in fines.[^15] His trial in the Manhattan Supreme Court before Justice John Bradley began in March 1993, and on August 14, 1993, the jury acquitted him of the remaining counts, the others having been dismissed during the trial.[^16][^17] Under a Federal Reserve consent order dated effective February 1998 he relinquished 895 CCAH shares and agreed not to serve as an officer or director of a bank holding company or insured depository institution without the Board's consent, a restriction that did not apply to work "solely in the capacity of an attorney"; the order recorded that he had not served in such a post since 1991.[^18] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 8. @@ -43,3 +85,10 @@ Altman was indicted by a New York grand jury in July 1992, along with Clark Clif [^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 215. [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 215. [^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 14. +[^12]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^13]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^14]: 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 +[^15]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/ +[^16]: "Altman Acquitted on BCCI Counts," *The Washington Post,* August 15, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/08/15/altman-acquitted-on-bcci-counts/33f3090f-0a02-4934-9c81-37f843aaead7/ +[^17]: "Charges dropped against Clark Clifford in BCCI case," United Press International, November 30, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/11/30/Charges-dropped-against-Clark-Clifford-in-BCCI-case/6641754635600/ +[^18]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman, Institution-Affiliated Parties of Credit and Commerce American Holdings, N.V.,* Docket Nos. 92-080-E-I1, 92-080-B-I1, 92-080-CMP-I1, 92-080-E-I2, 92-080-B-I2, 92-080-CMP-I2, consent order, "effective this [day, illegible in the scan] day of February, 1998," with the Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit of January 14, 1997 (Federal Reserve press release of February 3, 1998). https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roy P. M. Carlson.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roy P. M. Carlson.md index 91b47ab8..216932ec 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roy P. M. Carlson.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roy P. M. Carlson.md @@ -4,22 +4,39 @@ tags: - Person - BCCI - CIA -summary: "Carlson was a key figure in the early relationship between Bank of America and BCCI." +summary: "Bank of America executive who arranged its 1972 stake in BCCI, then ran the National Bank of Georgia for Ghaith Pharaon and BCCI until its sale to First American." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of America]]" + end: 1975 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[National Bank of Georgia]]" + role: "president" + fn: 3 --- Roy P. M. Carlson was a [[Bank of America]] executive who orchestrated Bank of America's original investment in [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]].[^1] He later became the head of [[National Bank of Georgia]] at the request of [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]].[^1] ### Early Career and BCCI Involvement -Carlson was a key figure in the early relationship between Bank of America and BCCI. He had entertained [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] when Abedi came to the United States to negotiate Bank of America's 30-percent share in the new bank in 1972, and the two became friends.[^2] Carlson later left Bank of America in 1975 to become president of [[Rahim Irvani]]'s Melli Group in [[Iran]].[^2] He was also a partner in former [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Director [[Richard Helms]]'s consulting firm, Safeer.[^2] +Carlson was a key figure in the early relationship between Bank of America and BCCI. He had entertained [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] when Abedi came to the [[United States]] to negotiate Bank of America's 30-percent share in the new bank in 1972, and the two became friends.[^2] Carlson later left Bank of America in 1975 to become president of [[Rahim Irvani]]'s Melli Group in [[Iran]].[^2] He was also a partner in former [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Director [[Richard Helms]]'s consulting firm, Safeer.[^2] ### Role at National Bank of Georgia -Carlson was appointed head of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] by Abedi and Pharaon, who sought to reconfigure the bank along BCCI's lines.[^2] Under Carlson's guidance, the bank's assets quadrupled from $400 million to $1.6 billion. The National Bank of Georgia became a clearinghouse for BCCI funds in the United States, a destination for BCCI letters of credit, and a provider of loans and services to BCCI's international clientele.[^2] +Carlson was appointed head of the National Bank of Georgia by Abedi and Pharaon, who sought to reconfigure the bank along BCCI's lines.[^2] Under Carlson's guidance, the bank's assets quadrupled from $400 million to $1.6 billion. The National Bank of Georgia became a clearinghouse for BCCI funds in the United States, a destination for BCCI letters of credit, and a provider of loans and services to BCCI's international clientele.[^2] Carlson played a role in the acquisition of [[Financial General Bankshares]], negotiating the purchase for First American Bank.[^2] +### National Bank of Georgia and BCCI + +According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], Carlson, hired as president soon after Pharaon's purchase of the bank was approved, began making trips to London to visit BCCI and entertained Abedi and his wife in Atlanta; he made two BCCI-related trips abroad in 1983, to London and Athens, three in 1984, and three in 1985, together with trips to Miami and Chicago to meet BCCI officials. BCCI's New York manager [[Abdur Sakhia]] recalled a meeting in [[Miami]] in November 1985, attended by Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]], [[Clark Clifford]], [[Robert Altman]], Carlson and Tariq Jamil, after which Abedi said the bank would be merged with [[First American Bank|First American]]. When BCCI acquired the [[Independence Bank of Encino]], it abandoned an original plan to place Carlson on that bank's board of directors as well.[^3] + +Carlson told the subcommittee's staff that he, Clifford and Altman met at the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami in February 1986 to discuss the price for the bank. The report found that the statements of Clifford and Altman on the transaction "cannot be reconciled with the documentary and testimonial accounts of the other parties."[^4] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 9. -[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 210-14. \ No newline at end of file +[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 210-14. +[^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. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm +[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4ac7c799 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar.md @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - Fraud + - London + - 1980s + - 1990s +alias: + - Ziauddin Ali Akbar + - S.Z.A. Akbar +summary: "Head of BCCI's London treasury division, whose September 1993 guilty plea to false accounting was the first criminal conviction arising from the bank's collapse." +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "head of the treasury division, London" + fn: 1 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Agha Hasan Abedi]]" + fn: 1 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Swaleh Naqvi]]" + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Serious Fraud Office]]" + reverse: true + end: 1993-09-28 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar (born about 1944) headed the treasury division at the London headquarters of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), reporting directly to its founder, [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], and its chief executive, [[Swaleh Naqvi]]. On September 27, 1993, he pleaded guilty at the [[Old Bailey]] to sixteen counts of false accounting, and the next day he was sentenced to six years on each count, to run concurrently. His was the first criminal conviction anywhere arising from BCCI's collapse.[^1] + +### Treasury Division + +Prosecutors said Akbar, then 49 and one level below the bank's top rank, had been "at the heart of the deception and dishonesty," falsely inflating BCCI's profits and assets to keep an insolvent bank afloat, in a fraud put at 750 million dollars (500 million pounds). "If the collapse of BCCI could be described as catastrophic, then the scale of the fraud designed to conceal the true state of the bank's affairs was of epic proportions," the prosecutor, [[Timothy Langdale]], told the court. "If the treasury division could be described as the engine room of the bank, then Akbar, without doubt, was the chief engineer." Prosecutors also said he had misused or appropriated 61 million dollars from BCCI to set up a company of which he was a director.[^1] + +### Sentence + +The court credited him with the year and eight months he had already spent in prison, and prosecutors said the sentence had been reduced from a possible ten or eleven years on each count because he had pleaded guilty and was giving evidence to BCCI's investigators. An official of the [[Serious Fraud Office]] said no further criminal prosecution was planned, but that the bank's liquidators might try to recover the money he was alleged to have taken. At the time Abedi was reported to be seriously ill in [[Pakistan]], beyond the reach of British courts, and Naqvi was facing charges in [[Abu Dhabi]]. Three further BCCI trials were then scheduled in Britain, including that of a former account officer, [[Imran Iman]].[^1] When an Abu Dhabi court sentenced BCCI's former executives in June 1994, Akbar was described as already serving his British term.[^2] + +### Treasury and Capcom + +According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], Akbar was recruited from the [[National Bank of Oman]] in 1981 by Swaleh Naqvi, described as his mentor, to run BCCI's treasury from [[London]], and by 1984 was managing more than 5.5 billion dollars despite "no apparent experience in the commodities, foreign exchange or securities markets." [[Masihur Rahman]], BCCI's chief financial officer, testified that Akbar "was taking positions on silver and 20 year bonds" at a premium. He concealed mounting losses in off-book "Number Two" accounts which, in the words of the [[Price Waterhouse]] report of June 22, 1991, were "outside the scope of external audit... in the name of private clients but for [BCCI]," funded in part from "a pool of funds in the private named accounts of A. R. Khalil which were used freely by Z. Akbar to fund adjustments." By 1985 the treasury losses were approaching one billion dollars.[^3][^4] + +On April 26, 1984, Akbar registered a company, Hourcharm Ltd., at his home address in London; it was renamed Capital Commodity Dealers Ltd. in May and Capcom Financial Services in July, and began trading on September 17, 1984, with capital raised in stages to 25 million pounds and a credit line from BCCI. Its American arm, Capcom Futures of [[Chicago]], was fronted by four Americans without commodities experience, among them its chairman, [[Larry Romrell]]. When Price Waterhouse found the treasury losses in 1986 it attributed them to "incompetence"; its 1991 report found that "with the benefit of hindsight, it appears more sinister in that it now seems to have been a deliberate way to fictitiously inflate income." Akbar was removed from the treasury, and in 1988 told two BCCI officials that he had been a "scapegoat" used by management to deceive the auditors, and that BCCI had been inflating its assets "from the mid-1970's."[^3][^4] + +On September 19, 1988, as president of [[Capcom]], Akbar met in London with "Robert Musella," the undercover [[United States Customs Service|Customs]] agent [[Robert Mazur]] of [[Operation C-Chase]], and told him he did not want to know the nature of his clients' business; Mazur testified that Akbar described "mirror-image trading," buying contracts for one account while selling the same number from another controlled by the same person, and said such transactions "would take forever for anyone to ever find."[^4][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "BCCI official gets six years for fraud charges," United Press International, September 28, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/09/28/BCCI-official-gets-six-years-for-fraud-charges/3315749188800/ +[^2]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ +[^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. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 21, "Capcom: A Case Study of Money Laundering." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/21capcom.htm +[^5]: United States v. Awan, 966 F.2d 1415 (11th Cir. 1992), opinion of Circuit Judge Fay, July 27, 1992. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/966/966.F2d.1415.90-4114.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William J. Casey.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William J. Casey.md index fc44aa51..d0ebecbe 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William J. Casey.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William J. Casey.md @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ aliases: - William J. Casey - William Joseph Casey - Bill Casey + - "William Casey" category: "Key Figures" created: 2024-04-25 updated: 2026-05-17 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan.md index 52118852..a7279d15 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan.md @@ -1,12 +1,22 @@ --- category: "BCCI Scandal" +alias: + - "Sheikh Zayed" + - "Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan" tags: - Person - BCCI -summary: "Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan was the Head of Abu Dhabi's ruling family and president of the United Arab Emirates." +summary: "Ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, whose family and government owned 77 percent of BCCI at its 1991 closure and whom the Senate found not credible as its victim." born: 1918-05-06 died: 2004-11-02 location: "Abu Dhabi" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "principal shareholder with the Abu Dhabi government and ruling family" + start: 1972 + end: 1991 + fn: 11 --- Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan was the Head of [[Abu Dhabi]]'s ruling family and president of the [[United Arab Emirates]].[^1] @@ -23,10 +33,22 @@ BCCI effectively merged with Zayed's Private Department, which handled and inves ### Role in BCCI Scandal -Zayed and his chief lieutenant, [[Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui]], were infuriated by the global seizure of BCCI, as it occurred just ten days before a deal to restructure the bank was to be signed.[^7] Zayed's various state agencies, along with Zayed himself, lost as much as $8 billion in the shutdown of BCCI.[^8] +Zayed and his chief lieutenant, [[Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui]], were infuriated by the global seizure of BCCI, as it occurred just ten days before a deal to restructure the bank was to be signed.[^7] Zayed's various state agencies, along with Zayed himself, lost as much as $8 billion in the shutdown of BCCI.[^8] He ordered audits of BCCI, which revealed billions of dollars missing.[^9] The [[Bank of England]] tried to persuade Zayed to inject more money into BCCI to cover losses.[^10] +### The Kerry-Brown Findings + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] of December 1992 stated that "there was no relationship more central to BCCI's existence from its inception than that between BCCI and Sheikh Zayed and the ruling family of Abu Dhabi." Abu Dhabi shareholders bought 20 percent of BCCI at its creation in 1972 for 500,000 dollars and let that interest fall to just over one percent within three years. In January 1978, when BCCI needed two more names for its purchase of [[Financial General Bankshares]], the ruling family supplied them, and in 1980 and 1981, when BCCI needed a buyer for the shares held by the [[Bank of America]], Abu Dhabi again increased its interest.[^11] + +After the fall in 1980 of his financial adviser Abdullah Darweish, who was arrested on December 8, 1981, and charged with defrauding the ruling family, Zayed directed that all of his personal oil revenues be placed in BCCI, had the [[Abu Dhabi Investment Authority]] acquire a 10 percent stake in BCCI from its Cayman affiliate [[ICIC]], and placed the chairman of his Private Department, Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui, on BCCI's board, where he became chairman. Abu Dhabi's witness before the subcommittee, Ahmed Al Sayegh, testified that "in excess of $2 billion was entrusted to Abedi and Naqvi for investment by Their Highnesses Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Khalifa under a power of attorney between 1980 and 1990."[^11] + +Abu Dhabi's position was that it had been BCCI's victim. "We didn't know anything about the bank because of our passive role in the past," Al Sayegh testified. The report found instead that BCCI's records and insiders "outline a picture of the relationship which suggests that Abu Dhabi officials were indeed knowing participants in substantial wrongdoing," that members of the ruling family had taken risk-free investments in BCCI, and that Abu Dhabi officials had engaged "in a cover-up of fraudulent activity involving BCCI, which continues, in substantial part, to this day." Members of the ruling family appeared to have contributed no more than 500,000 dollars to BCCI's capital before April 1990 while recorded as owners of almost a quarter of its shares, with a book value of more than 750 million dollars. By the closure of July 5, 1991, Abu Dhabi owned 77 percent of BCCI; because the rest was held by nominees and ICIC, the report concluded that "Abu Dhabi was in fact BCCI's sole owner."[^11] + +### Settlement + +Under an agreement of January 12, 1994, by which Abu Dhabi handed [[Swaleh Naqvi]] to the [[United States]] and gave American prosecutors access to BCCI witnesses and documents, the United States dropped a civil suit of 1.5 billion dollars against Zayed, brought no criminal charges against him, and received 400 million dollars' worth of Abu Dhabi's shares in [[First American Bank]].[^12][^13] In June 1994 an Abu Dhabi court convicted twelve former BCCI executives and awarded Zayed's Private Department 6.56 billion dollars of the 9.13 billion dollars in damages.[^12] Abu Dhabi's shareholders agreed in November 1994 to a 1.8 billion dollar compensation package for BCCI's creditors, which received its last legal clearances in December 1995; an agreement with the liquidators in May 1996 cleared a first payment of 1.55 billion dollars.[^14] The liquidators later reported that the Abu Dhabi government had contributed 2.2 billion dollars to the liquidation funds.[^15] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 11. @@ -39,3 +61,8 @@ He ordered audits of BCCI, which revealed billions of dollars missing.[^9] The [ [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 129. [^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 55. [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 136. +[^11]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm +[^12]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ +[^13]: "Ex-BCCI chief faces jail in UAE," United Press International, October 20, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/10/20/Ex-BCCI-chief-faces-jail-in-UAE/7767782625600/ +[^14]: "BCCI small depositors paid in UAE," United Press International, October 11, 1997. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/10/11/BCCI-small-depositors-paid-in-UAE/2814876542400/ +[^15]: Hunter, Gregor Stuart. "After 22 years, UAE branches of defunct BCCI finally liquidated," *The National,* July 5, 2013. https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/after-22-years-uae-branches-of-defunct-bcci-finally-liquidated-1.606808 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil.md index 8f1d9fb1..7066159e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil.md @@ -4,7 +4,19 @@ tags: - Person - BCCI - CIA -summary: "Khalil was one of the nominees used by Abedi to secretly purchase shares in CCAH, the holding company that owned First American Bank." +summary: "Saudi intelligence official and BCCI front man who testified to the Federal Reserve in 1981 as a passive investor in First American's holding company and later served as a Capcom director." +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]" + role: "nominee shareholder for BCCI" + fn: 6 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Capcom]]" + fn: 5 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Saudi Arabian intelligence]]" + role: "liaison to the United States" + fn: 5 --- A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil is a high-level officer in [[Saudi Arabian intelligence]] and a key [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] front man.[^1] He was a prominent figure in [[Agha Hasan Abedi]]'s network of wealthy Middle Eastern individuals who were shareholders in BCCI and its associated entities. @@ -15,9 +27,17 @@ Khalil was one of the nominees used by Abedi to secretly purchase shares in [[Cr His involvement in BCCI's operations highlights the bank's strategy of using influential figures to conceal its true ownership and illicit financial activities. Khalil, along with [[Kamal Adham]] and [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]], held significant shares in BCCI and its subsidiaries, often acquired through these fraudulent loans.[^4] +### The Federal Reserve and the CIA + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described Khalil as, like Kamal Adham, "a BCCI shareholder and front man from its creation, and a key nominee in BCCI's secret takeover of First American." He appeared before the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] on April 23, 1981, and presented himself as a private businessman: "My career has been devoted to business and I presently hold interests in real estate, mechanical and electrical maintenance projects, and commodities. In addition, I have been involved in some business ventures with American and British manufacturers for the installation of electronic and computer equipment in Saudi Arabia." The report found that he did not tell the Federal Reserve that he was then a key figure in Saudi intelligence and its liaison to the [[United States]], or disclose that one of his businesses was the Saudi Security and Technical Services Company, which supplied electronic and computer equipment to the Saudi government and its intelligence operations.[^5] The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] told the Federal Reserve it had no derogatory information on the shareholders, among them Adham and Khalil, "the past and then-current Saudi intelligence liaisons to the United States."[^5] The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that Khalil, Adham, [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]] and the other Middle Eastern nominees "had secretly done precisely what the Federal Reserve had sought to assure they would not do."[^6] + +According to [[Price Waterhouse]] audit reports, Khalil had no written contact with BCCI from 1985; by the late 1980s senior BCCI officials knew of no way to reach him, and the chief financial officer, [[Masihur Rahman]], doubted he existed. BCCI nevertheless used his name extensively as a nominee in [[Latin America]], the Caribbean and Europe, and he was a principal shareholder and director of BCCI's commodities affiliate, [[Capcom]]. When American regulators asked the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] in 1991 to locate him for service of legal papers, they were told he could not be found; after some months they determined that he was frequently to be found in the offices of the CIA station chief in [[Saudi Arabia]], and on their suggesting this, service was quickly arranged.[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 193. [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 142. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 140. +[^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. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.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. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bert Lance.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bert Lance.md index 365d95b1..7a262930 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bert Lance.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Bert Lance.md @@ -1,15 +1,28 @@ --- category: "BCCI Scandal" created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-05-01 +updated: 2026-09-23 tags: - Person - BCCI - Banking -summary: "T. Bertram 'Bert' Lance was Jimmy Carter's first Director of the Office of Management and Budget, who resigned in 1977 amid a congressional investigation into banking improprieties, and subsequently became the crucial intermediary who introduced Agha Hasan Abedi to Clark Clifford and facilitated BCCI's covert entry into the U.S. banking market." +summary: "Jimmy Carter's budget director, who resigned in 1977, sold the National Bank of Georgia to BCCI nominee Ghaith Pharaon, and introduced Agha Hasan Abedi to Clark Clifford and Financial General." born: 1931-06-03 died: 2013-08-15 location: "Gainesville, Georgia" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[National Bank of Georgia]]" + end: 1978-01-04 + fn: 13 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "consultant" + fn: 10 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Abdus Sami]]" + role: "Financial General takeover, 1977-78" + fn: 13 --- T. Bertram (Bert) Lance was President [[Jimmy Carter]]'s budget director and former chairman of [[National Bank of Georgia]].[^1] @@ -24,6 +37,14 @@ Lance gained prominence as Jimmy Carter's budget director but later resigned due Lance played a key role in the acquisition of [[Financial General Bankshares]], which later became [[First American Bank]].[^8] He recruited his friend and attorney [[Clark Clifford]] to represent Abedi, BCCI, and the front men in the Financial General suit.[^9] BCCI also hired Lance as a consultant at a salary of $100,000.[^10] +### Stephens, Sami and Pharaon + +In 1976 [[Mochtar Riady]] of the [[Lippo Group]] met Jackson and [[Witt Stephens]] while "looking into buying Bert Lance's share of the National Bank of Georgia"; that deal fell through.[^11] According to the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]]'s findings of 1991, it was at Lance's suggestion that the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] met [[Jackson Stephens]] in November 1977 to discuss the purchase of Lance's interest in the bank by a BCCI client, and Stephens then suggested Financial General as an investment. Lance completed the sale of his stock to [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] on January 4, 1978, the day he repaid a Chicago loan and a 443,000 dollar loan to a Tennessee bank; he told the subcommittee he never met Pharaon until the night of the closing.[^12][^13] + +Sami's memo to Abedi of January 30, 1978, referred to "our friend" in the Financial General negotiations; Lance acknowledged to the subcommittee that the reference was to him, but testified that "the acquisition of shares were basically handled by Mr. Sami, and he was the man who was responsible. I was not involved in that." He testified that in 1978, at Abedi's suggestion, he met [[Kamal Adham]] and Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Zayed]], the latter in [[Lahore]] in "February or March, 1978," and the *[[Washington Post]]* reported that he had recently been in [[Karachi]] in connection with his dealings with Abedi; he made the trip on an official diplomatic passport although he no longer worked for the government.[^13] Of Abedi's relationship with Zayed he told the subcommittee that Abedi had "been kind and attentive to Sheikh Zayed when he was still wandering around in the desert and he had all his assets in his tent somewhere."[^14] + +According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], a federal judge on April 27, 1978, "permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants" from violating the securities laws in connection with the Financial General takeover.[^12] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. @@ -36,3 +57,7 @@ Lance played a key role in the acquisition of [[Financial General Bankshares]], [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 181. [^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 183. [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 182. +[^11]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law: Interim Report.* House Report 105-829, 105th Congress, 2nd Session, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm +[^12]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^13]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 16, "BCCI and Georgia Politicians." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/16ga.htm +[^14]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Eugene Metzger.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Eugene Metzger.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..810614f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Eugene Metzger.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - Lawyer + - FinancialGeneral +alias: + - Eugene J. Metzger +summary: "Washington lawyer and Financial General shareholder whom a federal court found in 1981 to have breached his duties as the company's counsel during the BCCI takeover fight; the judgment was vacated in 1982." +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: represented + with: "[[Financial General Bankshares]]" + role: "outside counsel" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Financial General Bankshares]]" + role: "shareholder, about 1.6 percent" + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Financial General Bankshares]]" + role: "defendant, Financial General Bankshares v. Metzger" + start: 1978-02-17 + end: 1982-05-18 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Eugene J. Metzger was a [[Washington, D.C.]] lawyer who had served as counsel to [[Financial General Bankshares]] and owned about 1.6 percent of its common stock when, in February 1978, the company sued him with [[Bert Lance]], the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], [[Jackson Stephens]] and others over a takeover attempt by Middle Eastern investors. In 1981 the federal district court found that he had breached his fiduciary duties to the company and ordered him to repay his fees; in 1982 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|D.C. Circuit]] vacated the judgment on jurisdictional grounds without reaching the merits.[^1] + +### The Takeover Fight + +According to the account in the *[[Washington Post]]* of 1978 summarized by the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], Stephens and Lance met Abedi in [[Atlanta]] on November 26, 1977, where Stephens offered to sell a block of 4.9 percent of Financial General, and recommended that Abedi meet Metzger. [[Robert Altman]] wrote to the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] on May 9, 1978, that in late November Stephens had told Abedi "that Abedi should meet with FGB investor Eugene Metzger, and designate Metzger and Stephens as agents for these Middle Eastern investors."[^2] The memo of the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] to Abedi of January 30, 1978, explained that a disclosure filing had become necessary "on account of concentration of over 5 percent in the hands of Metzger, his knowledge and our intention to acquire control."[^2] + +Financial General filed suit on February 17, 1978, after learning that the investors had acquired twenty percent of its shares; the defendants included Lance, BCCI, Abedi, Metzger, Stephens, [[Stephens Inc.]], and [[Systematics|Systematics Inc.]], and an amended complaint of March 21, 1978, added LaBelle Lance and five Middle Eastern investors, among them [[Kamal Adham]]. The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] filed its own action on March 18, 1978, settled the same day by consent judgments; on April 27, 1978, the district court entered a preliminary injunction on the company's claim that the defendants' disclosure statements were false. On May 21, 1980, all the defendants except Metzger settled with Financial General, which agreed not to oppose the takeover in return for a premium price for its shares.[^1] + +### Judgment + +Left as the sole defendant, Metzger was tried on the company's local-law claims for breach of fiduciary duty. The district court found (523 F. Supp. 744, 1981) that he had violated the duty of neutrality by participating actively in a dissident group of shareholders without disclosure to management; that he had written to another client proposing to sell a controlling block of Financial General stock, including his own shares, "to a foreign bank at a premium price"; that he had simultaneously represented Financial General and the Middle Eastern investors seeking control of it; and that he had used the list of shareholders to solicit sales of stock. It concluded: "From the outset of his representation, Metzger's attitude toward FG was marked by bad faith, secrecy, and self-dealing. He persistently placed his prerogatives as a shareholder above his fiduciary obligations as an attorney." The court ordered him to repay the 80,284.12 dollars in fees he had received, excused the company from 15,261.95 dollars in unpaid bills, and imposed 80,284.12 dollars in punitive damages.[^1] + +On May 18, 1982, the D.C. Circuit, in an opinion by Judge [[J. Skelly Wright]] for a panel with Judges [[George MacKinnon]] and [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]], held that the district court had abused its discretion by retaining jurisdiction over "novel and unsettled questions of District of Columbia law," vacated the judgment, and remanded with instructions to dismiss once Metzger had waived any statute of limitations in the District of Columbia Superior Court (680 F.2d 768).[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger,* 680 F.2d 768 (D.C. Cir. 1982), argued March 15, 1982, decided May 18, 1982 (summarizing *Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger,* 523 F. Supp. 744, D.D.C. 1981). https://openjurist.org/680/f2d/768 +[^2]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Gerald Lewis.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Gerald Lewis.md index 5216618d..f210b14d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Gerald Lewis.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Gerald Lewis.md @@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ tags: - Person - BCCI summary: "Gerald Lewis was the Florida state comptroller who refused to renew BCCI's license to operate in the state after the 1990 Tampa money-laundering conviction." +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "Florida comptroller, licensing decision" + start: 1990 + fn: 5 --- Gerald Lewis was the [[Florida]] state comptroller who refused to renew [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]'s license to operate in the state after the 1990 Tampa money-laundering conviction.[^1] @@ -12,9 +18,16 @@ Gerald Lewis was the [[Florida]] state comptroller who refused to renew [[Bank o Lewis's decision to shut down BCCI's operations in Florida was a direct response to the bank's money-laundering conviction. He received letters from [[Charles Saphos]], Chief of the Criminal Division Narcotics section of the [[Department of Justice]], requesting that BCCI be allowed to remain open.[^2] Lewis, however, maintained that the bank had to comply with all legal requirements, including those related to felony convictions.[^3] Lewis's actions ultimately led to the closure of BCCI's branches in Florida.[^4] +### The Saphos Correspondence + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] reproduced the exchange. On January 31, 1990, the [[United States]] Attorney in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]], Robert Genzman, told Florida regulators that he took no position on renewing BCCI's license. BCCI's lawyers, the former federal prosecutors Lawrence Wechsler, Lawrence Barcella and Raymond Banoun, then approached the Criminal Division in Washington, and on February 13, 1990, Charles Saphos, head of its narcotics section, wrote to Lewis: "We are, therefore, requesting that BCCI be permitted to operate in your jurisdiction, with the understanding that certain accounts may be maintained by the bank, at the request of the Department of Justice, which otherwise would be closed to avoid legal and regulatory violations." Lewis replied on February 14 that because BCCI had pleaded guilty to felony charges "the ultimate decision of renewal becomes a difficult one," and invited Saphos and "any other appropriate Department of Justice officials to meet with me in Tallahassee on February 19, 1990." On February 16 Saphos withdrew: "I must apologize if there was ambiguity in my letter of February 13, 1990, which led to a belief on your part that the Department of Justice wished to influence your decision... The Department of Justice takes no position in that regard."[^5] + +[[Robert Mueller]] told the subcommittee that the first letter was "ambiguous at best" and that "I do not know what initiated it." The report concluded: "The obvious explanation for what happened is that Saphos was personally lobbied by people he knew who had formerly been with the Justice Department and now represented BCCI on the outside, and agreed to do them a favor."[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 88. [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 375. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 374. +[^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. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John B. Hannum.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John B. Hannum.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9103f4c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John B. Hannum.md @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Judge + - FederalJudiciary + - ChesterCounty + - RCHorsch +alias: + - John Berne Hannum +summary: "Chester County Republican and federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1969 who ruled against the army deserter Raymond C. Hoersch Jr. in 1974." +born: 1915-03-19 +died: 2007-04-23 +location: "Unionville, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "district judge" + start: 1969-05-06 + end: 2007-04-23 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Richard Nixon]]" + reverse: true + start: 1969-03-24 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Superior Court of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "judge" + start: 1968 + end: 1969 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Chester County Republican Committee]]" + role: "chairman" + start: 1962 + end: 1964 + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Pepper Hamilton]]" + role: "litigator" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +John Berne Hannum (March 19, 1915, to April 23, 2007) was a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] from 1969 until his death. In October 1974 he decided *Hoersch v. Froehlke*, rejecting the claim of Raymond C. Hoersch Jr., later [[R.C. Horsch]], that his involuntary call to active duty in 1970 had been invalid.[^1][^2] + +### Career + +Hannum was born in [[Chester, Pennsylvania|Chester]] and grew up in Elwyn, Pennsylvania. He attended the Lawrenceville School and [[Princeton University]], where he was a boxing champion at 155 pounds, took his bachelor's degree at [[Franklin and Marshall College]], and graduated from the Dickinson School of Law in 1941. He enlisted in the [[United States Navy]] the day after the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] and commanded two submarine chasers in the Atlantic. After the war he returned to his father's firm in Chester and then became a litigator at [[Pepper Hamilton]] in [[Philadelphia]]. He chaired the Chester County Republican Committee from 1962 to 1964.[^1][^3] + +He sat on the [[Superior Court of Pennsylvania]], by appointment, before [[Richard Nixon]] nominated him to the federal bench on March 24, 1969, to the seat vacated by Francis L. Van Dusen; he was confirmed on May 5 and commissioned on May 6, 1969, and took senior status on May 29, 1984. The Federal Judicial Center dates his Superior Court service to 1968 and 1969; his *Inquirer* obituary gives his appointment as 1967.[^1][^3] As a federal judge he issued a restraining order blocking a strike at [[Conrail]], reinstated a Philadelphia firefighter dismissed in 1973 for refusing to cut his Afro, sentenced doctors for Medicare fraud and pharmacists for illegal sales of narcotics, and in 1988 gave probation to a drug dealer turned government informant on condition that he "avoid fornication and fathering any more illegitimate children." He and his wife, Nancy Penn Smith Hannum, placed a conservation easement on their 1,208-acre farm at Unionville in 1991. He served for 21 years on the Unionville-Chadds Ford school board and on the boards of [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]], Chester County Hospital, and the Dickinson School of Law. He died of heart failure at his home in Unionville at 92.[^3] + +### Hoersch v. Froehlke + +Hoersch had enlisted in the [[Pennsylvania Army National Guard]] in 1965 and was ordered to active duty in 1970 after absences from unit training; he did not report and was declared absent without leave from [[Fort Dix]]. In December 1972, giving his parents' address in [[Chalfont, Pennsylvania|Chalfont]], he sued the Secretary of the Army, [[Robert F. Froehlke]], for a declaration that the order was invalid; among the facts recorded was his request to wear his hair long "as required for his employment as a motion picture producer." He was represented by James J. Orlow, and the government by the United States Attorney, Robert E. J. Curran, through Assistant United States Attorney Michael B. Hepps. Hannum ruled against him on October 11, 1974.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "Hannum, John Berne." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/hannum-john-berne +[^2]: Hoersch v. Froehlke, 382 F. Supp. 1235 (E.D. Pa. 1974), Civ. A. No. 72-1759, decided October 11, 1974. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2596970/hoersch-v-froehlke/ +[^3]: Downey, Sally A. "John B. Hannum, 92, judge," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* April 25, 2007. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20070425_John_B__Hannum__92__judge.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Joseph L. McGlynn Jr..md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Joseph L. McGlynn Jr..md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cf13cf8e --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Joseph L. McGlynn Jr..md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Judge + - FederalJudiciary + - Philadelphia + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Joseph Leo McGlynn Jr. + - Joseph L. McGlynn +summary: "Federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, appointed by Nixon in 1974, who sentenced R.C. Horsch in 1985 to three years for manufacturing methamphetamine." +born: 1925-02-13 +died: 1999-02-23 +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "district judge" + start: 1974-03-08 + end: 1999-02-23 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Richard Nixon]]" + reverse: true + start: 1974-01-31 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Executive Office for United States Attorneys|United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "assistant United States attorney" + start: 1953 + end: 1960 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Joseph Leo McGlynn Jr. (February 13, 1925, to February 23, 1999) was a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] from 1974 until his death. In April 1985 he sentenced [[R.C. Horsch]], then Raymond Charles Hoersch, to three years in prison for manufacturing methamphetamine, the charge on which Hoersch had jumped bail in 1977 before living in [[New Zealand]] under a stolen identity.[^1][^2] + +### Career + +McGlynn was born in [[Philadelphia]]. He served in the [[United States Navy]] from 1943 to 1946, took a B.S. at Mount St. Mary's College in 1948 and an LL.B. at the [[University of Pennsylvania Law School]] in 1951, and was an assistant United States attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1953 to 1960. After five years in private practice in Philadelphia he became a judge of the Philadelphia County Court in 1965 and of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County in 1968. [[Richard Nixon]] nominated him to the federal bench on January 31, 1974, to the seat vacated by Thomas A. Masterson; the Senate confirmed him on March 1, and his commission issued on March 8, 1974. He took senior status on February 14, 1990, and died in [[Cancun]], [[Mexico]], on February 23, 1999.[^1] + +### The Hoersch Sentence + +Hoersch had been arrested by the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] in February 1977, jumped bail, and was arrested by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in [[Florida]] in 1984. Sentencing him on the drug-manufacturing count, McGlynn said that "anybody who has a speed lab ought to know he's going to jail." Judge [[Donald W. Van Artsdalen]] added a year and a day for bail-jumping, for a total of four years.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "McGlynn, Joseph Leo, Jr." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/mcglynn-joseph-leo-jr +[^2]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Khalid bin Mahfouz.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Khalid bin Mahfouz.md index e2046dfc..10a43f57 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Khalid bin Mahfouz.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Khalid bin Mahfouz.md @@ -8,28 +8,43 @@ tags: - Banking - PROMIS - OctopiNetwork -summary: "Khalid bin Mahfouz (1949-2009) was a Saudi billionaire banker who owned approximately 20% of BCCI, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in July 1992 on charges of defrauding BCCI depositors of $300 million, settled all charges for $225 million in December 1993, and was named in a May 1985 Department of Justice document as the intended recipient of espionage-modified PROMIS software brokered by Manucher Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, and Richard Armitage." +summary: "Saudi banker who held about 20 percent of BCCI, was indicted in Manhattan in 1992 for defrauding its depositors, and settled in 1993 for 225 million dollars; named in a 1985 PROMIS software document." born: 1949-12-26 died: 2009-08-16 location: "Jeddah, Saudi Arabia" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "about 20 percent" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[National Commercial Bank]]" + end: 1992-07 + fn: 2 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Robert Morgenthau]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-07-01 + end: 1993-12-23 + fn: 2 --- -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] +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] ### BCCI Ownership and Fraud -Bin Mahfouz personally owned approximately 20% of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]. Between 1986 and 1988, according to the 1992 Manhattan grand jury indictment, he invested more than $700 million in BCCI and separately invested $140 million in Credit and Commerce American Holdings, the vehicle that secretly owned [[First American Bank]] in Washington, D.C., before selling both sets of shares. The fraud: at least $300 million of the payments Mahfouz received for those shares came from BCCI's own funds, recorded on BCCI's books as fictitious loans and falsely confirmed to auditors as performing assets. As a result, BCCI's auditors and regulators were deceived into believing Mahfouz remained a major shareholder through at least April 1990, lending the institution a false appearance of solvency.[^1][^2] +Bin Mahfouz personally owned approximately 20% of BCCI. Between 1986 and 1988, according to the 1992 Manhattan grand jury indictment, he invested more than $700 million in BCCI and separately invested $140 million in [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]], the vehicle that secretly owned [[First American Bank]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], before selling both sets of shares. The fraud: at least $300 million of the payments Mahfouz received for those shares came from BCCI's own funds, recorded on BCCI's books as fictitious loans and falsely confirmed to auditors as performing assets. As a result, BCCI's auditors and regulators were deceived into believing Mahfouz remained a major shareholder through at least April 1990, lending the institution a false appearance of solvency.[^1][^2] ### Indictment and Settlement On July 1, 1992, Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] presented a New York state grand jury indictment naming bin Mahfouz and his associate Haroon Kahlon on charges of defrauding BCCI depositors and investors of $300 million and abetting a conspiracy by top BCCI officers to conceal the bank's true ownership and financial condition from regulators. Bin Mahfouz resigned as NCB chairman on or around July 8, 1992, to contest the charges. The [[Federal Reserve]] simultaneously moved against NCB's New York branch on grounds that Mahfouz had misled American regulators.[^2] -On December 23, 1993, bin Mahfouz agreed to pay $225 million to resolve all federal and New York state charges. The distribution was: $35 million to the U.S. Treasury, $1 million to New York State, $1 million to New York City, and $188 million to the BCCI settlement fund, bringing total BCCI-related recoveries to approximately $880 million. In exchange, Morgenthau's office and the Federal Reserve Board dropped all civil and criminal charges. Bin Mahfouz admitted no criminal guilt.[^2] +On December 23, 1993, bin Mahfouz agreed to pay $225 million to resolve all federal and New York state charges. The distribution was: $35 million to the U.S. Treasury, $1 million to New York State, $1 million to [[New York City]], and $188 million to the BCCI settlement fund, bringing total BCCI-related recoveries to approximately $880 million. In exchange, Morgenthau's office and the [[Federal Reserve Board]] dropped all civil and criminal charges. Bin Mahfouz admitted no criminal guilt.[^2] ### PROMIS Connection -A document dated May 14, 1985, on [[Department of Justice]] letterhead and signed by [[William Bradford Reynolds]], Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, set out a covert plan to distribute espionage-modified [[PROMIS]] software in the [[Middle East]]. The letter states: "As agreed, Messrs. [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Adnan Khashoggi]], and [[Richard Armitage]] will broker the transaction of the PROMISE software to Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz for resale and general distribution as gifts in his region." The letter specified that the software must be "equipped with the special retrieval unit" and that "no paper work, customs, or delay" was to accompany the transfer, with all payments to be routed through accounts at Credit Suisse and [[National Commercial Bank]]. Reynolds authenticated the letter in 2005 interviews with INSLAW investigators, stating he had signed it at the request of personnel in Deputy Attorney General [[Lowell Jensen]]'s office while [[Edwin Meese]] was recused from all PROMIS-related matters.[^3][^4] +A document dated May 14, 1985, on [[Department of Justice]] letterhead and signed by [[William Bradford Reynolds]], Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, set out a covert plan to distribute espionage-modified [[PROMIS]] software in the [[Middle East]]. The letter states: "As agreed, Messrs. [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Adnan Khashoggi]], and [[Richard Armitage]] will broker the transaction of the PROMISE software to Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz for resale and general distribution as gifts in his region." The letter specified that the software must be "equipped with the special retrieval unit" and that "no paper work, customs, or delay" was to accompany the transfer, with all payments to be routed through accounts at Credit Suisse and National Commercial Bank. Reynolds authenticated the letter in 2005 interviews with [[INSLAW]] investigators, stating he had signed it at the request of personnel in Deputy Attorney General [[Lowell Jensen]]'s office while [[Edwin Meese]] was recused from all PROMIS-related matters.[^3][^4] -The document placed bin Mahfouz alongside Ghorbanifar and Khashoggi -- both of whom were simultaneously central to the arms-for-hostages pipeline that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] -- in a network brokering intelligence-modified software to the Middle East. +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. ### Footnotes diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Michael Mastromarino.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Michael Mastromarino.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7ab33e35 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Michael Mastromarino.md @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - BodyPartsTrade + - BiomedicalTissueServices + - Fraud + - Brooklyn + - Philadelphia + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Dr. Michael Mastromarino +summary: "Former New Jersey oral surgeon whose company, Biomedical Tissue Services, took bone and tissue from more than a thousand corpses without consent and sold it to tissue processors." +died: 2013-07-07 +location: "Fort Lee, New Jersey" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Biomedical Tissue Services]]" + start: 2002 + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Joseph Nicelli]]" + role: "business partner in Biomedical Tissue Services" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Louis Garzone]]" + role: "paid for cadavers from Liberty Crematorium" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Gerald Garzone]]" + role: "paid for cadavers from Liberty Crematorium" + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Charles J. Hynes]]" + reverse: true + start: 2006-02-23 + fn: 5 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]]" + reverse: true + end: 2008-10-22 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Michael Mastromarino (died July 7, 2013) was a [[New Jersey]] oral surgeon who, after losing his dental license, founded [[Biomedical Tissue Services]] (BTS) in 2002 and ran it as a business "selling human tissue from cadavers to tissue banks around the country." Between 2001 and 2005, by his own admission, he and a team of "cutters" removed bone, skin, tendon and other tissue from the bodies of people who had not consented to donation, forged consent forms and death records, and sold the tissue to processors whose products were transplanted into patients. He pleaded guilty in [[Brooklyn]] in March 2008 and in [[Philadelphia]] in August 2008, and was serving concurrent sentences of 18 to 54 years in [[New York (state)|New York]] and 25 to 58 years in [[Pennsylvania]] when he died of cancer, aged 49.[^1][^2][^3] + +### Dentistry + +Before BTS he was a maxillofacial surgeon and the co-author of a book on dental implants, *Smile: How Dental Implants Can Transform Your Life*. The writer Kerry Howley reported that a patient charged that he had been "stoned on Demerol" during a botched operation, and that he then lost his license.[^4] The Pennsylvania trial court found that "in 2002, after unrelated criminal charges resulted in the loss of his dentistry license, [Mastromarino] started a business called Biomedical Tissue Services."[^1] NPR reported that he "gave up his license after he got addicted to drugs."[^3] + +### Biomedical Tissue Services + +BTS and a companion firm, BioTissue Technologies, were licensed in New Jersey but kept offices in Brooklyn. Mastromarino's partner, [[Joseph Nicelli]], an embalmer who owned the Daniel George & Son funeral home at 1852 Bath Avenue in Brooklyn and a business transporting bodies to funeral homes, supplied corpses; in "a secret room" at Daniel George & Son, according to the Kings County District Attorney, Mastromarino "would remove bones, tendons, heart valves and other tissue from recently deceased people," replaced the bones with PVC piping and repaired the incisions so that nothing would show at the funeral. Funeral directors were paid up to 1,000 dollars a body, the payments disguised as fees for services. The case began when the new owners of Daniel George & Son complained to the district attorney that money paid in advance for funerals was missing from the books.[^5] + +In February 2004 Mastromarino approached James McCafferty and the brothers [[Louis Garzone|Louis]] and [[Gerald Garzone]], owners of the [[Garzone Funeral Home|Liberty Crematorium]] in Philadelphia, who agreed to supply bodies destined for cremation at 1,000 dollars each; his cutters, usually led by [[Lee Cruceta]], worked on at least 244 of them. Many of the dead had been elderly and ill, some with HIV or hepatitis, and the bodies were cut outside the recommended time after death. The Pennsylvania court found that he "replaced blood samples for tissues from diseased cadavers with mislabeled blood samples from disease-free cadavers," so that "doctors across the country unknowingly transplanted diseased, mislabeled, or otherwise unsuitable tissue into transplant patients." He received more than 1,105,751 dollars from tissue banks for the Philadelphia material alone. When he learned in July 2005 that he was under investigation by New York authorities and the [[Food and Drug Administration]], he continued until September, then "destroyed BTS records and encouraged the Garzones to set fire to their funeral homes."[^1][^6] + +Among the bodies was that of the broadcaster [[Alistair Cooke]], who died in March 2004 of lung cancer that had spread to his bones; according to sources quoted by the *New York Daily News,* Mastromarino changed Cooke's age from 95 to 85 and his cause of death to a heart attack in the paperwork given to the two processors that bought his bones.[^7] BTS sold tissue to processors including [[Regeneration Technologies]], [[LifeCell]] and [[Tutogen Medical]]; about 10,000 people received tissue it had supplied.[^2] + +### Prosecutions + +On February 23, 2006, the Kings County District Attorney, [[Charles J. Hynes]], announced a 122-count indictment of Mastromarino, Nicelli, Cruceta and Christopher Aldorasi for enterprise corruption, body stealing, opening graves, unlawful dissection, forgery, grand larceny and falsifying business records. "What happened here," Hynes said, "is like something out of a cheap horror movie."[^5] The four were charged with removing bone and tissue from 1,077 bodies at funeral homes without the permission of families.[^8] On March 18, 2008, Mastromarino pleaded guilty in Brooklyn to fourteen counts including enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment, admitting that he had carried out the scheme from 2001 to 2005 and had forged records of the time of death and ages of the dead and switched blood and tissue samples; he agreed to forfeit 4.68 million dollars, and his wife, Barbra, 190,000 dollars. "What he did was wrong," said his lawyer, Mario Gallucci.[^2] At his sentencing to 18 to 54 years before Judge Albert Tomei, relatives of the dead addressed him; a woman who said she had contracted hepatitis from one of his bones implanted in her back called his actions "sick, disgusting, appalling." Mastromarino said: "I'd just like to take the opportunity to apologize for the pain and grief I've caused to the donor families and the donor recipients... God have mercy on my soul."[^9] Aldorasi was sentenced to 9 to 27 years; Cruceta pleaded guilty and testified against him.[^10] + +In Philadelphia, after a grand jury investigation begun on May 4, 2006, Mastromarino entered an open plea of guilty on August 29, 2008, and on October 22, 2008, was sentenced to 25 to 58 years, concurrent with his New York sentence. The judge sentenced him on 32 of the 244 theft counts consecutively and gave aggravated sentences for abuse of corpse because the conduct was "so beyond the pale of what the guidelines contemplate." Because he had forfeited 300,000 dollars in cash, the Commonwealth sought no further restitution. The [[Superior Court of Pennsylvania|Superior Court]] affirmed the sentence on July 21, 2010.[^1] + +### Death + +Mastromarino died on July 7, 2013, at a hospital in New York, of metastatic liver cancer that had spread to his brain and bones, diagnosed the previous October. In a prison interview the year before, he told NPR: "This case was completely blown out of proportion," and "no one talks about, you know, the gorilla in the room... And the gorilla is how much money everybody's making." His wife had divorced him after he admitted his guilt.[^3] He and his wife had agreed to pay back 4.6 million dollars, NPR reported.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Commonwealth v. Mastromarino, 2 A.3d 581, 2010 PA Super 128 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed July 21, 2010), opinion of Stevens, J. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1483314488518887260 +[^2]: Goldman, Adam. "Body-parts big pleads guilty," *Philadelphia Daily News,* March 19, 2008. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080319_Body-parts_big_pleads_guilty.html +[^3]: Shapiro, Joseph. "Mastermind Of 'Body Stealing' Scheme Dies," *NPR,* July 2013. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/07/09/200481947/mastermind-of-body-stealing-scheme-dies +[^4]: Howley, Kerry. "Who Owns Your Body Parts?" *Reason,* March 2007. https://reason.com/2007/02/07/who-owns-your-body-parts/ +[^5]: Office of the District Attorney, Kings County. "Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn Announce Indictment in Tissue Theft," media release, February 23, 2006. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doi/downloads/pdf/pr_tissueharvesting022306.pdf +[^6]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 34 A.3d 67, 613 Pa. 481 (Pa. 2012), opinion of Castille, C.J., decided January 19, 2012. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13924150246787701071 +[^7]: "TV host Alistair Cooke's bones allegedly stolen," *NBC News* (msnbc.com, from the *New York Daily News*), December 22, 2005. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10574333 +[^8]: "7 charged with stealing body parts from corpses," *NBC News,* 2006. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/7-charged-stealing-body-parts-corpses-flna1c9473448 +[^9]: Tracy, Thomas. "'Butcher' gets jail time," *The Brooklyn Paper,* July 19, 2008. https://www.brooklynpaper.com/butcher-gets-jail-time/ +[^10]: Tracy, Thomas. "Ghoul gets jail sentence," *The Brooklyn Paper,* July 2, 2008. https://www.brooklynpaper.com/ghoul-gets-jail-sentence-michael-mastromarino-faces-as-much-27-years-in-can/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mohammed Hammoud.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mohammed Hammoud.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..284d982c --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mohammed Hammoud.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - Lebanon + - Nominee + - FirstAmerican + - 1980s +summary: "Lebanese money changer who became a BCCI front man and shareholder, bought Clifford and Altman's First American stock, and was reported dead in Geneva in 1990." +died: 1990-05-03 +location: "Beirut, Lebanon" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "shareholder, 2,646,184 shares" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]" + role: "nominee shareholder for BCCI" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Robert Altman]]" + role: "purchaser of Altman's CCAH shares" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Clark Clifford]]" + role: "purchaser of Clifford's CCAH shares" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Charles W. Hostler]]" + role: "real estate adviser" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Mohammed M. Hammoud (died, reportedly, May 3, 1990) was a Lebanese businessman who acted during the 1980s as a front man and nominee for the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI). He became a shareholder of BCCI and of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH), the holding company of [[First American Bank|First American Bankshares]]; borrowed more than 110 million dollars from BCCI, much of it without paying interest; and bought the CCAH shares held by [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]]. The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] devoted a chapter to him, "BCCI's Flexible Front-Man," and concluded that "much about Mohammed Hammoud's life, business with BCCI, and alleged death remains a mystery to the Subcommittee."[^1] + +### Beirut + +[[Abdur Sakhia]], BCCI's former general manager in [[New York City|New York]], told the subcommittee that he had first known Hammoud in [[Beirut]] as "a small time money changer" with "a storefront the size of this sofa. His store was three feet deep and eight feet wide." [[Nazir Chinoy]], BCCI's general manager in [[Paris]], described "a short man, not a very impressive personality," "a slimey sort of a chap," and said: "Would Hammoud understand foreign policy? I do not think so. He was not a worldly man." [[Masihur Rahman]], BCCI's former chief financial officer, called him "a medium sized businessman."[^1] + +Hammoud's recorded wealth grew during the 1980s "exponentially, and inexplicably," at almost 5 million dollars a year, and by 1989 he was listed as owning assets of more than 35 million dollars, although Chinoy said he did not give "the impression of being an extremely rich man from his clothes and general behavior." A BCCI memorandum of 1983 described him as "a very good customer of the BCC Group" who "possesses large means." A [[Price Waterhouse]] report of February 1990 recorded him as the holder of 2,646,184 BCCI shares.[^1] + +### First American Shares + +Rahman testified that Hammoud used two front companies, Mid-Gulf and Rubstone, to buy CCAH shares on BCCI's behalf while appearing to act independently. In 1988 Hammoud bought the CCAH stock of Clifford and Altman, First American's chairman and president and BCCI's American lawyers, for about three times what Altman had paid for it; Altman testified that he had never met Hammoud. Shown by Senator [[John Kerry]] a power of attorney that allowed Altman to sell Hammoud's CCAH shares as his agent, Altman said: "this gives an authority to sell shares, and that is something that to the best of my recollection, I'd never seen before. I do not know how to explain it. I don't know where it came from, but I don't believe it was ever in our files."[^1] + +### Washington Contacts + +Hammoud's American real estate was managed by [[Charles W. Hostler]], later the [[United States]] ambassador to [[Bahrain]], whom he had met in Beirut in the 1960s when Hostler was a young [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] officer and Hammoud's wife taught him Arabic. Hostler went on to manage the Lebanese operations of [[Douglas Aircraft Company|Douglas Aircraft]] from 1965 to 1967 and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Commerce from 1974 to 1976. He advised Hammoud on three properties: vacant land in [[Sherman, Connecticut]], an old building in [[Boston]], and a building to be demolished in New York. The broker who handled the purchases, [[Curtis Hagen]], recalled a meeting at the [[The Pierre|Pierre Hotel]] on July 16, 1982, at which Hammoud told Hostler, "there will be a Cadillac in your driveway, tomorrow morning"; Hostler denied receiving any "salary, gifts or other gratuities" beyond reimbursement of expenses.[^1] + +Hammoud had contact with [[United States Department of State|State Department]] officials over the release of American hostages in Beirut and other Lebanese questions, and developed a personal and business relationship with [[Michael Pillsbury]], a former assistant under secretary of defense and Senate staff member. After BCCI's indictment in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] in October 1988 he worked with the bank's criminal defense team in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] on whether it would be possible to "reverse Tampa," and in the fall of 1989 he met senior officials of the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury]] and the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] about the BCCI case.[^1] + +### Death + +Hammoud died on May 3, 1990, "at the very time that investigations of BCCI were intensifying." He was said to have died in [[Geneva]] while visiting his doctor, and was buried in Beirut. Insurers reportedly refused to pay his life policy because the corpse was several inches shorter than the height recorded at his last medical examination, and several former BCCI officials told the subcommittee that they did not believe he was dead. His family supplied his London lawyers with a video of the funeral which allegedly showed senior Syrian intelligence officials in attendance.[^1] *[[Newsweek]]* reported in August 1992 that "intelligence officials now say" Hammoud had been taped saying on the telephone, "If anybody knew how dirty the Americans are in this BCCI business, they'd be surprised" and "they're dirtier than the Pakistanis," that he then said he was about to tell someone about the American role, and that "eight hours later he was found dead."[^1] The New York County indictment of [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and others of July 29, 1992, described assets bought in the name of "Mohammed M. Hammoud, a Lebanese businessman who reportedly died in 1990."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 15, "Mohammed Hammoud: BCCI's Flexible Front-Man" (quoting the testimony of Abdur Sakhia, Masihur Rahman, and Robert Altman, a staff interview of Nazir Chinoy, *Newsweek* of August 10, 1992, and *People v. Abedi*, Supreme Court of New York, County of New York, July 29, 1992). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/15hammoud.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard J. Kerr.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard J. Kerr.md index f221ae0f..dea42897 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard J. Kerr.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard J. Kerr.md @@ -4,17 +4,28 @@ tags: - Person - BCCI - CIA -summary: "Kerr appeared before Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations on October 25, 1992, to discuss the CIA's knowledge of BCCI's activities." +summary: "Kerr appeared before Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations on October 25, 1991, to discuss the CIA's knowledge of BCCI's activities." born: 1935-10-04 location: "Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + role: "acting director" + fn: 7 --- Richard J. Kerr served as Acting [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Director. In 1991, he confirmed that the agency had used [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] to move money around the world.[^1] ### Role in BCCI Affair -Kerr appeared before Senator [[John Kerry]]'s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations on October 25, 1992, to discuss the CIA's knowledge of BCCI's activities.[^2] He stated that the CIA had not been involved with a BCCI "black network" of thugs and assassins, nor had it used BCCI for arms sales to [[Iran]] or diversion of funds for the [[Nicaraguan Contras]].[^3] He also denied that the CIA had a relationship with [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] or had placed him on a watch list.[^4] +Kerr appeared before Senator [[John Kerry]]'s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations on October 25, 1991, to discuss the CIA's knowledge of BCCI's activities.[^2] He stated that the CIA had not been involved with a BCCI "black network" of thugs and assassins, nor had it used BCCI for arms sales to [[Iran]] or diversion of funds for the [[Nicaraguan Contras]].[^3] He also denied that the CIA had a relationship with [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] or had placed him on a watch list.[^4] -Despite these denials, Kerr admitted that the CIA did maintain accounts with BCCI, describing them as normal operational accounts.[^5] The Kerry subcommittee's report suggested that [[William J. Casey]]'s actions, including any role in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]], were undertaken in his position as an adviser to the President, rather than as Director of the CIA, allowing them to be undocumented and deniable.[^6] +Despite these denials, Kerr admitted that the CIA did maintain accounts with BCCI, describing them as normal operational accounts.[^5] The [[Kerry Committee|Kerry subcommittee]]'s report suggested that [[William J. Casey]]'s actions, including any role in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]], were undertaken in his position as an adviser to the President, rather than as Director of the CIA, allowing them to be undocumented and deniable.[^6] + +### Testimony + +Kerr first spoke publicly on BCCI on August 2, 1991. In open testimony on October 25, 1991, he told the subcommittee: "As an intelligence officer for 30 years, I find myself a little reluctant in an open hearing to talk about intelligence, intelligence sources, and intelligence methods." The subcommittee learned from him that the agency had produced not two memoranda on BCCI but hundreds, disseminated to other agencies, and that it had told the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury]] of BCCI's secret ownership of [[First American Bank]] in 1985. In closed session the following week he acknowledged that several questions he had refused to answer in public did not concern classified information, but that he had been "uncomfortable discussing information in public that might embarrass the [[United States]], or any U.S. agency or official."[^7] + +He described the agency's use of BCCI for intelligence gathering as "limited and routine, and undertaken without the knowledge of any person at BCCI," a characterization a [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]] audit confirmed according to a briefing given to subcommittee staff, and acknowledged that the agency had made "extensive use of First American" for "normal banking" and savings accounts, which neither [[Clark Clifford]] nor [[Robert Altman]] had known of before the summer of 1991. He testified that "allegations that the Agency had any direct or indirect relationship with Abedi or recruited him for CIA activities are absolutely baseless." The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] found that the official record he presented was "by and large, accurately represented," but contained gaps concerning [[Kamal Adham]], [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Abdul Raouf Khalil]] and [[Adnan Khashoggi]] "which strain belief."[^7] ### Footnotes @@ -24,3 +35,4 @@ Despite these denials, Kerr admitted that the CIA did maintain accounts with BCC [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 348. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 149. [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 348. +[^7]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mazur.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mazur.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6d0b6978 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mazur.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - USCustoms + - Undercover + - MoneyLaundering + - 1980s +alias: + - Robert Musella +summary: "United States Customs special agent who, as 'Robert Musella,' was the principal undercover operative of Operation C-Chase, the 1986-88 sting that led to BCCI's 1990 Tampa conviction." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[U.S. Customs]]" + role: "special agent" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Operation C-Chase]]" + role: "principal undercover operative, as Robert Musella" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1987-02 + end: 1988-10-08 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Robert Mazur was a special agent of the [[U.S. Customs|United States Customs Service]] who, under the cover name "Robert Musella," was the principal undercover operative of [[Operation C-Chase]], the money laundering sting run from [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] that in October 1988 led to the arrest of officers of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) and to the bank's guilty plea in January 1990.[^1][^2] + +### Musella + +According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], Mazur proposed the operation to his superiors in 1986 after almost two and a half years of undercover work on international money laundering in Florida, posing as a businessman whose investment and mortgage companies laundered drug money.[^2] His cover card as "Robert Musella" was passed to the Medellín money launderer Gabriel Jaime Mora in August 1986. In February 1987 he opened an account at BCCI's Tampa branch, which he chose, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] later recorded, "strictly for its convenience, having seen a sign advertising BCCI's international services."[^1] Over the following twenty months he met BCCI officers in Tampa, [[Miami]], [[Paris]] and [[London]], among them [[Amjad Awan]], Akbar Bilgrami, [[Nazir Chinoy]], and [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]] of [[Capcom]], and told several of them that his clients were Colombian drug traffickers. On September 9, 1988, at the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami, he recorded Awan describing BCCI's secret ownership of [[First American Bank]].[^1][^2] The operation ended on October 8, 1988, at a staged wedding between Mazur and another Customs agent, Kathleen Ertz, posing as his fiancée "Kathleen Erickson," at which the BCCI officers were arrested.[^1] + +### Testimony + +Mazur testified at length before Senator [[John Kerry]]'s subcommittee. He described BCCI's Panama and Luxembourg branches and "several locations in the [[Middle East]]" as offered to him for confidential handling of cash, and said the bank cared more about large deposits that made "their balance sheets to look very strong" than about the more than 250,000 dollars it earned in fees. Asked about the timing of the takedown a month before the 1988 presidential election, he said: "There certainly was mere speculation that that played a part by people at low levels like mine. But beyond that I cannot say more... I was at a loss for understanding why October." He testified that he and a few agents were left with some 1,200 tapes to transcribe, that he had felt "tremendously" outgunned by BCCI's defense, and that he had disagreed with the plea agreement: "I was, in the long run, of the opinion that we may as well go to trial." Customs agents had supported a RICO prosecution of the bank, which the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] did not approve.[^2] He also testified to the "mirror-image trading" by which Akbar moved money through commodity accounts, quoting Akbar's remark that such transactions "would take forever for anyone to ever find it."[^3] + +The Senate report found that the Customs Service and the Treasury Department had "failed to provide adequate support and assistance to investigators and prosecutors working on the case against BCCI in 1988 and 1989, contributing to conditions that ultimately caused the chief undercover agent who handled the sting against BCCI to quit Customs entirely."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: United States v. Awan, 966 F.2d 1415 (11th Cir. 1992), opinion of Circuit Judge Fay, July 27, 1992. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/966/966.F2d.1415.90-4114.html +[^2]: 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 US Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 21, "Capcom: A Case Study of Money Laundering." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/21capcom.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Morgenthau.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Morgenthau.md index 43600d10..947786d4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Morgenthau.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Morgenthau.md @@ -1,48 +1,61 @@ --- category: "BCCI Scandal" created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-05-01 +updated: 2026-09-23 tags: - Person - BCCI - Lawyer -summary: "Robert Morgenthau (1919-2019) was the longest-serving Manhattan District Attorney in history, serving from 1975 to 2009, and initiated the prosecution of BCCI, Clark Clifford, and Robert Altman after Senate investigator Jack Blum brought him evidence in March 1989." +summary: "Manhattan District Attorney from 1975 to 2009 who opened the BCCI investigation in 1989 on information from Senate investigator Jack Blum and indicted Abedi, Naqvi, Clifford and Altman." born: 1919-07-31 died: 2019-07-21 location: "New York City, New York, USA" +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1989 + fn: 3 --- Robert Morgenthau was the Manhattan district attorney known for his integrity and persistence in exposing government and business corruption.[^1] ### Role in BCCI Investigation -Morgenthau became involved in the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] investigation after [[Jack Blum]] brought the case to his attention in March 1989.[^2] Blum described BCCI as the "biggest bank fraud in the history of the world."[^3] Morgenthau decided to pursue the case, stating that if [[New York City]] was the banking center where money was laundered, then it was within his jurisdiction.[^4] +Morgenthau became involved in the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] investigation after [[Jack Blum]] brought the case to his attention in 1989; Beaty and Gwynne date the approach to March 1989, while the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] places Blum's visit to the [[United States]] Attorney in Tampa in March 1989 and his meeting with Morgenthau's prosecutors in the late spring.[^2][^3] Blum described BCCI as the "biggest bank fraud in the history of the world."[^4] Morgenthau decided to pursue the case, stating that if [[New York City]] was the banking center where money was laundered, then it was within his jurisdiction.[^5] -His office, particularly through his chief of investigations [[Michael Cherkasky]] and top investigator [[John Moscow]], spearheaded a comprehensive investigation into BCCI's activities.[^5] Morgenthau's efforts were met with resistance from federal authorities, including the [[Department of Justice]], who he accused of hindering his investigation.[^6] +His office, particularly through his chief of investigations [[Michael Cherkasky]] and top investigator [[John Moscow]], spearheaded a comprehensive investigation into BCCI's activities.[^6] Morgenthau's efforts were met with resistance from federal authorities, including the [[Department of Justice]], who he accused of hindering his investigation.[^7] -In July 1991, Morgenthau announced indictments against BCCI and its former top officers, [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and [[Swaleh Naqvi]], describing the case as "the largest bank fraud in world financial history."[^7] He also indicted [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]] in July 1992 on charges of bribery and fraud related to their involvement with BCCI.[^8] +In July 1991, Morgenthau announced indictments against BCCI and its former top officers, [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and [[Swaleh Naqvi]], describing the case as "the largest bank fraud in world financial history."[^8] He also indicted [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]] in July 1992 on charges of bribery and fraud related to their involvement with BCCI.[^9] -Morgenthau's investigation also targeted [[Kamal Adham]], who eventually pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.[^9] +Morgenthau's investigation also targeted [[Kamal Adham]], who eventually pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.[^10] ### Background and Reputation -Morgenthau, at seventy years old during the BCCI investigation, was described as a lean figure with silver hair and a patrician manner.[^10] He was soft-spoken and considered one of the most important men in New York.[^11] His family had been part of the political establishment since 1886, with his great-grandfather immigrating from Bavaria and his father serving as [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]]'s secretary of the Treasury.[^12] +Morgenthau, at seventy years old during the BCCI investigation, was described as a lean figure with silver hair and a patrician manner.[^11] He was soft-spoken and considered one of the most important men in New York.[^12] His family had been part of the political establishment since 1886, with his great-grandfather immigrating from Bavaria and his father serving as [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]]'s secretary of the Treasury.[^13] -Morgenthau's reputation as a crusader was built during his time as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a position he held after being appointed by [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] in 1960.[^13] He was known for his independence and his willingness to pursue cases against powerful figures.[^14] +Morgenthau's reputation as a crusader was built during his time as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a position he held after being appointed by [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] in 1960.[^14] He was known for his independence and his willingness to pursue cases against powerful figures.[^15] + +### The Senate Account + +The Kerry-Brown Senate Report dates the start of the investigation differently from Beaty and Gwynne. It records that Blum took his information to the United States Attorney in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] in March 1989, and that "in the late spring of 1989" he went to New York to meet prosecutors working for Morgenthau. Blum had worked with Morgenthau during the subcommittee's 1987 and 1988 investigation, at which Morgenthau was the lead witness in February 1988 and estimated that 5 to 10 billion dollars a year was being laundered through New York banks. Morgenthau's chief of investigations, Michael Cherkasky, later said: "Blum's story was ridiculous. [He said] the entire Third World was involved and that they had bought and sold entire governments and maybe some United States officials. It was a fascinating tale." Morgenthau assigned the case to John Moscow, who interviewed Blum's witnesses and, in Cherkasky's words, found that Blum's "'story' was proven to be true."[^3] + +The report stated that his office "has generally received credit for breaking open the BCCI investigation," not because it had witnesses or information unavailable to the Justice Department or the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]], but because it recognized BCCI "as a case of global international organized crime." Morgenthau testified: "[J]ust as illegal drugs are smuggled into this country, illegal profits must be smuggled out." BCCI's lawyers, accountants and shareholders, the [[Bank of England]], the [[Serious Fraud Office]] and the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] each, in the report's account, withheld information from him or delayed his inquiry, and "with the key exception of the Federal Reserve, there was almost none" in the way of cooperation.[^3] The report found that federal prosecutors had obstructed his office from 1989 to 1991, and that "in one case, a federal prosecutor lied to Morgenthau's office concerning the existence of such material."[^16] ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 48. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 48. -[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 48. -[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 51. +[^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. 9, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: District Attorney of New York." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/09ny.htm +[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 48. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 51. -[^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 377. -[^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 152. -[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 390. -[^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 391. -[^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 48. +[^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 51. +[^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 377. +[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 152. +[^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 390. +[^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 391. [^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 48. -[^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 49. +[^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 48. [^13]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 49. [^14]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 49. +[^15]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 49. +[^16]: 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 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mueller.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mueller.md index d0123a73..66547977 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mueller.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert Mueller.md @@ -6,8 +6,13 @@ tags: - Banker summary: "Robert Mueller was the head of the Justice Department's criminal division." born: 1944-08-07 -died: 2026-03-21 +died: 2026-03-20 location: "New York City, New York, USA" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + role: "Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division" + fn: 7 --- Robert Mueller was the head of the [[Department of Justice]]'s criminal division.[^1] @@ -18,6 +23,12 @@ Mueller appeared on ABC's Nightline to refute *Time* magazine's charges regardin Mueller asserted that the Justice Department had provided information leading to the shutdown of BCCI's offices in [[Florida]].[^5] He maintained that all allegations or evidence provided to the Justice Department were being pursued.[^6] +### Testimony to the Kerry Subcommittee + +As Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, Mueller told Senator [[John Kerry]]'s subcommittee in prepared testimony on November 21, 1991: "We are responsible, ethical prosecutors. We will not indict simply to get favorable press coverage or to quiet our critics... a fair review of the available facts will show that the Department of Justice has done an excellent job on the BCCI investigations, and that the criticisms of the Department are fundamentally unfair." The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] named the department's critics as the Customs undercover agent [[Robert Mazur]], Commissioner [[William von Raab]], [[Robert Morgenthau]], Jack Blum, and the former [[United States]] Attorney in Miami, Dexter Lehtinen, and found that the department had "masked inactivity" by telling critics that matters were "under investigation" when they were not.[^7] + +Asked why the department had not followed up leads on BCCI's secret ownership of First American Bank, Mueller, in the report's words, "passed the buck" to the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]], saying the information had been passed to it after the arrests of October 1988. He called the letter of the narcotics chief [[Charles Saphos]] urging Florida to keep BCCI open "ambiguous at best." The report found that the department obstructed congressional and New York inquiries until [[William Barr]] became Attorney General in October 1991, and that "some public statements by the Justice Department concerning its handling of matters pertaining to BCCI were more cleverly crafted than true."[^7] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. @@ -26,3 +37,4 @@ Mueller asserted that the Justice Department had provided information leading to [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 150. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 150. [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 152. +[^7]: 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 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robin Leigh-Pemberton.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robin Leigh-Pemberton.md index c3e28734..938deef8 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robin Leigh-Pemberton.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robin Leigh-Pemberton.md @@ -7,16 +7,25 @@ summary: "Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the Bank of England." born: 1927-01-05 died: 2013-11-24 location: "Hollingbourne, Kent, England" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Bank of England]]" + role: "governor" + fn: 1 --- Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the [[Bank of England]].[^1] ### Role in BCCI Scandal -Leigh-Pemberton, along with Deputy Governor [[Eddie George]], was aware of the disastrous 1990 Price Waterhouse audit of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], which revealed that many of BCCI's transactions were "fraudulent and deceitful."[^2] Despite this knowledge, the [[Bank of England]] agreed to a plan in spring 1990 to allow BCCI to move its headquarters to [[Abu Dhabi]] and for [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]] to take over the bank.[^3] This action effectively concealed BCCI's problems from its depositors and creditors.[^4] +Leigh-Pemberton, along with Deputy Governor [[Eddie George]], was aware of the disastrous 1990 Price Waterhouse audit of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], which revealed that many of BCCI's transactions were "fraudulent and deceitful."[^2] Despite this knowledge, the Bank of England agreed to a plan in spring 1990 to allow BCCI to move its headquarters to [[Abu Dhabi]] and for [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]] to take over the bank.[^3] This action effectively concealed BCCI's problems from its depositors and creditors.[^4] On June 28, 1991, Leigh-Pemberton and George decided to act, informing the [[Federal Reserve Bank]] of the impending seizure of BCCI in the [[United Kingdom]].[^5] The Bank of England had been reluctant to shut down BCCI, despite knowing of its insolvency, and had been trying to persuade [[Sheikh Zayed]] to inject more money.[^6] +### Testimony to Parliament + +Robin Leigh-Pemberton told the House of Commons Treasury and Civil Service Committee that on receipt of the [[Price Waterhouse]] reports of April and October 1990 the Bank had been "alerted to [fraud and deceit]," but that "our view was that even if this added up to individual acts of fraudulent conduct it did not give evidence of a system of fraud throughout the Bank which was wide enough to justify closure. I hope it does not shock you too much, it is only a matter of realism that we do have occasions of fraud in banks... if we close down a bank every time we find an individual act or two of fraud we would have rather fewer banks than we do at the moment." On warning depositors he said: "A hint from the Bank of England that somebody on our list may not be quite pukka would be the kiss of death to the future of a bank." He added: "I am sorry to say we have to leave it people to make their best judgment as to whether any one of those institutions is or is not fit to be a depository for the purpose they want." The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] quoted the testimony in its findings that the Bank had kept BCCI's problems secret from its depositors from April 1990.[^7] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. @@ -25,3 +34,4 @@ On June 28, 1991, Leigh-Pemberton and George decided to act, informing the [[Fed [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 135. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 146. [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 55. +[^7]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c4483544 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Salvatore La Russa.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - OrganizedCrime + - Philadelphia + - ScarfoFamily + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Sam the Barber + - Salvatore LaRussa + - Sam La Russa +summary: "Sicilian-born Philadelphia barber, bar owner and restaurateur, a friend of mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo, whom R.C. Horsch named as the main backer of his 1973 pornographic feature." +born: 1938 +died: 1996-08-18 +location: "Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Nicodemo Scarfo]]" + role: "friend and host" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[La Cucina Ristorante]]" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa (1938 to August 18, 1996) was a [[Philadelphia]] barber, bar owner and restaurateur known, in the words of his *Inquirer* obituary, as "a restaurateur and associate of local mobsters," chiefly through his friendship with the boss [[Nicodemo Scarfo]]. [[R.C. Horsch]] said that most of the budget of his 1973 pornographic feature *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* came from LaRussa.[^1][^2][^3] + +### Locust Street and South Street + +LaRussa was born in "Campobella dell Gatto, near Palermo," in [[Sicily]], as the *Daily News* gave it, the eldest of five children, and emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1950s, living on Sheridan Street near Porter in South Philadelphia. He left home at 19 to become a barber and cut hair at the Camac Baths. In the early 1960s he opened what became known as "bust-out bars," among them the Phone Booth, the HMS Pinafore and the ZuZu Club, featuring strippers in the red-light district around 13th and Locust Streets; he was arrested several times for liquor-code violations. In the early 1970s he bought the Piccadilly Club on South Street near Front, reopened it as Scruples and later Christine's, and next door opened La Cucina Ristorante, which became a gathering place for members and associates of the Scarfo family. In the 1990s he built and operated clubs on the Delaware waterfront, among them Club Vegas, the South Beach Club and the Aztec Club.[^2] + +### Scarfo + +LaRussa said under oath that he had first met Scarfo as a teenager around 11th and Carpenter Streets. In the mid-1980s Scarfo and his senior associates were frequent customers at La Cucina, and a Christmas party Scarfo held there in 1985 drew intense police surveillance. The mob informants [[Nicholas Caramandi]] and [[Thomas DelGiorno]] testified that LaRussa had allowed Scarfo to use his house in [[Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania|Whitemarsh Township]] for initiation ceremonies; Caramandi said that he and two others were "made" there one afternoon after LaRussa had left. Questioned by a federal grand jury in 1987, LaRussa said he had been called away to work that day, that he was a frequent guest at Scarfo's waterfront house in [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]] and had supervised construction work there, and that he knew nothing of Scarfo's criminal activities: "I never ask him any questions. We go out. We have dinner. We eat. We drink. We laugh. Christmas, we exchange gifts."[^1][^2] + +### The 1973 Film + +Horsch said in a 2013 interview that 60 to 70 percent of the roughly 20,000 dollar budget of *The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig* came from LaRussa, who ran the Bag of Nails bar at 13th and Locust Streets, from "money that he had laying around in a shoebox behind the bar. We're talking about organized crime," and that LaRussa arranged the film's distribution through Philadelphia organized crime to [[Sam Lake]]. No other source ties LaRussa to the film; his obituaries do not mention it.[^1][^2][^3] + +### Death + +LaRussa had undergone three open-heart operations and was awaiting a heart transplant, according to his godson. He died of a heart attack at Chestnut Hill Hospital on August 18, 1996, at 58, and was buried at [[Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Cheltenham)|Holy Sepulchre Cemetery]] in [[Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania|Cheltenham]] after a Mass at Epiphany of Our Lord Church.[^1][^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: [Obituary of Salvatore LaRussa], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 21, 1996, sec. B, p. 4, as transcribed on Find a Grave, memorial 123805574. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/123805574/salvatore-la_russa +[^2]: Caparella, Kitty. [Obituary of Salvatore LaRussa], *Philadelphia Daily News,* August 20, 1996, p. 16, as transcribed on Find a Grave, memorial 123805574. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/123805574/salvatore-la_russa +[^3]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sam Lake.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sam Lake.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2fefe715 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sam Lake.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - Pornography + - FilmDistribution + - NewYork + - RCHorsch +summary: "New York pornographic film distributor, named by R.C. Horsch as the head of Mature Pictures, to whom Horsch said he sold his 1973 feature for 50,000 dollars." +location: "New York, New York" +relations: + - type: partner_of + with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]" + role: "distributor of his 1973 feature, according to Horsch" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Sam Lake was, according to [[R.C. Horsch]], a [[New York City|New York]] distributor of pornographic films working through the company Mature Pictures. Horsch said that his 1973 feature *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* was sold to Lake for 50,000 dollars, and his website credited the film's distribution to "the legendary Sam Lake (Mature Pictures, Inc.)."[^1][^2] + +### The 1973 Film + +In Horsch's account, the sale was arranged through [[Salvatore La Russa|Salvatore "Sam the Barber" LaRussa]], the [[Philadelphia]] bar owner he said had financed most of the film, and through Philadelphia organized crime.[^1] Contemporary trade sources name the company but not Lake. The magazine *Take One* reported in the spring of 1973 that "Bob Sumner's Mature Films in New York followed up Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (starring Ms. Spelvin) with High Rise, which was budgeted at an astronomical $75,000," and the Canadian edition of *Boxoffice* in February 1974 listed the film's distributor as "Mature," with a booking date of October 15, 1973.[^3][^4] No source located explains the relation between Lake and the Bob Sumner named by *Take One*. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ +[^2]: Horsch, R.C. [Commentary on *The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig*], eroto.com, archived November 5, 2016. http://web.archive.org/web/20161105022433/http://eroto.com:80/commentary/64-mcp-commentary +[^3]: Morthland, John. "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," *Take One,* vol. 3, no. 6 (March-April 1973), pp. 11-15. https://archive.org/details/take-one-1973-03 +[^4]: "Boxoffice Bookinguide," *Boxoffice* (Canadian edition), February 4, 1974. https://archive.org/details/boxoffice-canadian-1974-02-04 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Wayne Jacobs.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Wayne Jacobs.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..613c2b15 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Wayne Jacobs.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - FBI + - Philadelphia + - OlneyHouseInvestigation +alias: + - Wayne A. Jacobs +summary: "FBI special agent in charge of the Philadelphia Field Office, a former counterintelligence section chief, who briefed with police on the Olney House Investigation in September 2026." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + role: "special agent in charge, Philadelphia Field Office" + start: 2003 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Christopher Wray]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Olney House Investigation]]" + start: 2026 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Wayne A. Jacobs is the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia Field Office of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], named by Director [[Christopher Wray]]. He appeared with Commissioner [[Kevin Bethel]] and Deputy Commissioner [[Frank Vanore]] of the [[Philadelphia Police Department]] at the briefing of September 16, 2026, on the [[Olney House Investigation]], and said that further search warrants were planned for the house on Chew Avenue.[^1][^2] + +### Career + +Jacobs was a trading systems analyst before joining the FBI as a special agent in 2003. He was assigned to the New York Field Office, where he worked on government and financial fraud and later violent crime and gangs. He became a supervisory special agent in the Criminal Investigative Division at headquarters in 2014, a violent gangs task force supervisor in [[Los Angeles]] in 2016, and assistant special agent in charge of the Mission Support Branch in [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]] in 2018. In 2020 he was promoted to section chief in the [[FBI Counterintelligence Division|Counterintelligence Division]] at headquarters, and in 2021 he became special agent in charge of the Criminal and Cyber Division of the Washington Field Office. He holds a bachelor's degree from the [[University of Delaware]] and a master's degree from [[Columbia University]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Wayne A. Jacobs Named Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Philadelphia Field Office," press release. https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/wayne-a-jacobs-named-special-agent-in-charge-of-the-fbi-philadelphia-field-office +[^2]: Sharber, Cory. "Police, FBI provide updates on Horsch missing women case," *WHYY,* September 16, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/olney-home-investigation-abuse/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Zafar Iqbal.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Zafar Iqbal.md index 9974dd89..50d016c1 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Zafar Iqbal.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Zafar Iqbal.md @@ -10,7 +10,15 @@ Zafar Iqbal took over as head of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCC ### Role at BCCI -As head of BCCI, Iqbal was the bank's president when [[William Ryback]] of the [[Federal Reserve]] demanded to see the audit reports.[^3] He was forced by Ryback to agree that the audit would not be brought back to the United States, nor would the [[Bank of England]] allow a copy to be taken.[^4] +As head of BCCI, Iqbal was the bank's president when [[William Ryback]] of the [[Federal Reserve]] demanded to see the audit reports.[^3] He was forced by Ryback to agree that the audit would not be brought back to the [[United States]], nor would the [[Bank of England]] allow a copy to be taken.[^4] + +### Abu Dhabi Management + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] recorded that after Swaleh Naqvi confessed his errors and resigned as chief executive in March 1990, the new management team "was headed by a long-time Abu Dhabi insider from BCCI itself, Zafar Iqbal, the former head of BCCI's branch in the United Arab Emirates, the Bank of Credit and Commerce Emirates, or BCCE, who had long had a close personal relationship with important members of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi arising out of his provision of intimate personal services for them in Pakistan and elsewhere." It added that within the bank Iqbal "was not considered to be an expert on much besides pleasing the Abu Dhabi ruling family," and that junior officers knew him "as the man who had for years provided 'singing and dancing girls' to the ruling family." Under his management BCCI's operations were moved to [[Abu Dhabi]] without objection from the Bank of England.[^5] + +### Sentence + +In June 1994 an Abu Dhabi court convicted Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, then 54, with other former BCCI executives; with Hasan Mahmood Kazmi and Abdul Hafeez Mohammed Ahmed, he received the longest sentence of those present in court, six years.[^6] ### Footnotes @@ -18,4 +26,5 @@ As head of BCCI, Iqbal was the bank's president when [[William Ryback]] of the [ [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 174. [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 132. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 133. -[^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 393. +[^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. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm +[^6]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Candida Royalle.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Candida Royalle.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9836634c --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Candida Royalle.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - AdultFilm + - FemmeProductions + - FreeSpeech + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Candice Vadala + - Candice Marion Vadala +summary: "Adult film actress who in 1984 founded Femme Productions to make adult films from a woman's perspective, and a founder of Feminists for Free Expression." +died: 2015-09-07 +location: "Mattituck, New York" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Femme Productions]]" + start: 1984 + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Feminists for Free Expression]]" + start: 1992 + role: "founder, per Reason; founding member, per The Suffolk Times" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Candida Royalle (born Candice Marion Vadala in [[Brooklyn]]; died September 7, 2015) was an adult film actress of the 1970s who in 1984 founded [[Femme Productions]] to produce "adult films from a woman's perspective." She died of ovarian cancer at her home in [[Mattituck, New York]], at 64.[^1] + +### Career + +Royalle performed in the mid-1970s in [[San Francisco]] and appeared in adult films including *Thoroughly Amorous Amy* and *Fascination* before moving to writing, producing and directing.[^1][^2] Femme Productions released 18 films between 1984 and 2007, 13 of them directed by Royalle; its best known included *Three Daughters* (1986) and *Sensual Escape* (1991). Two others, *Lovers* (1993) and *Lovers 2* (1994), were directed by [[R.C. Horsch]] under the name "RC Hürsch."[^2][^3] In the 1990s she arranged distribution of Femme titles through the adult-goods company [[Adam and Eve (company)|Adam and Eve]], with a line of vibrators. Her 1992 film *Revelations* she described as "my response to the right-wing attacks on the adult industry."[^2] According to the performer [[Annie Sprinkle]], she co-founded Club 90, a support group of adult film performers, in about 1985.[^1] + +### Free Expression + +In 1992 she founded, according to *Reason,* or was a founding member of, according to *The Suffolk Times,* [[Feminists for Free Expression]], a nonprofit that opposed censorship legislation and defended free speech in courts, on campuses and in the press.[^1][^2] Femme was founded, *Reason* noted, at the time [[Andrea Dworkin]] and [[Catharine MacKinnon]] were testifying to legislators that pornography was abusive by nature. Royalle wrote *How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do* (2004) and in 2014 received a doctorate in human sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.[^1][^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Young, Rachel. "Candida Royalle, feminist erotic filmmaker, dies in Mattituck at 64," *The Suffolk Times,* September 12, 2015. https://suffolktimes.archive.timesreview.com/2015/09/candida-royalle-feminist-pornographic-filmmaker-dies-in-mattituck-at-64/ +[^2]: Brown, Elizabeth Nolan. "Feminist Porn Producer and Free-Speech Advocate Candida Royalle Dies," *Reason,* September 14, 2015. https://reason.com/2015/09/14/rip-candida-royalle/ +[^3]: Internet Adult Film Database, "RC Hürsch," director credits *Lovers* (Femme Productions, 1993) and *Lovers 2* (Femme Productions, 1994). https://www.iafd.com/title.rme/id=b609e8df-4df6-46c4-8925-639ed9e91852 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Darby Lloyd Rains.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Darby Lloyd Rains.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dedd8d08 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Darby Lloyd Rains.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - AdultFilm + - RCHorsch +summary: "New York adult film actress of the 1970s, one of the industry's early performers, who appeared in R.C. Horsch's Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig." +location: "New York City" +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]" + role: "performer" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Darby Lloyd Rains, born Barbara in 1947 ("not 1948 as it says some places on the internet," she said), is a former adult film actress who was among the early group of New York performers of the 1970s with [[Marc Stevens]], [[Tina Russell]], [[Georgina Spelvin]] and [[Jamie Gillis]]; she played the lead in *Naked Came the Stranger* (1975).[^1][^2] + +### Early Life + +She grew up in [[Yorktown Heights, New York|Yorktown Heights]] in [[Westchester County, New York|Westchester County]]. Her father, from a musical family of the Pacific Northwest, had roles in Broadway productions of the 1950s including *[[Brigadoon]]* and *[[The Pajama Game]]*, toured with a male quartet, the Revelers, and later taught music at a local high school. With a friend she formed a singing duo, Cranberry, which recorded for [[Liberty Records]] with Joe Negroni of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers as producer; the record never had a real release.[^1] Her early films included *Sex U.S.A.* and *Dark Dreams* (1971).[^1] In February 1973 she appeared in *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]*, shot in [[Philadelphia]] by [[R.C. Horsch]].[^3][^4] + +### Elizabeth Arrest + +In 1974, she said, Stevens persuaded her to make a personal appearance at a new theater in [[Elizabeth, New Jersey]], the Liberty, which was showing *Lady on a Couch*; police arrested her, Stevens and a man named Allen under a local ordinance against exhibiting adult films. "I told the cops, 'We're not exhibiting anything!'" she said. The authorities, she said, released them on condition that they sign a document absolving the police of blame. She left New York in the late 1970s.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "NYC Starlets, Part 5: Darby Lloyd Rains, Why Do Fools Fall In Love? (Act 1)," *The Rialto Report,* February 2, 2025. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2025/02/02/darby-lloyd-rains/ +[^2]: "NYC Starlets, Part 5: Darby Lloyd Rains, Why Do Fools Fall In Love (Act 2)," *The Rialto Report,* January 26, 2025. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2025/01/26/darby-lloyd-rains-2/ +[^3]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026 (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ +[^4]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David L. Paul.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David L. Paul.md index 75dc21c0..d2bbbe7d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David L. Paul.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/David L. Paul.md @@ -4,7 +4,22 @@ tags: - Person - BCCI - CIA -summary: "Paul put CenTrust on a significant growth curve using brokered deposits, which he funneled into high-risk real estate loans, junk bonds, and offbeat investments." +summary: "Head of CenTrust Savings of Miami, whose failure cost 1.7 billion dollars; indicted with Ghaith Pharaon in 1992 over a BCCI debenture scheme and convicted of bank fraud in 1993 and 1994." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[CenTrust Savings Bank]]" + role: "president and chief executive" + fn: 12 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]" + role: "business associate" + fn: 11 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[United States Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-02-28 + end: 1994-02-10 + fn: 13 --- David L. Paul was a real estate developer and owner of [[CenTrust Savings Bank]] of [[Miami]].[^1] @@ -21,6 +36,16 @@ Paul had extensive political contacts, giving $300,000 to Democratic politicians In 1992, Paul and Pharaon were indicted together by the [[Department of Justice]] in Miami for the bond-swap conspiracy.[^10] His business practices and connections were scrutinized during the BCCI scandal, highlighting the intertwined nature of finance and politics. +### Pharaon and the Debentures + +When Ghaith R. Pharaon disclosed on August 12, 1987, that he held 16.9 percent of CenTrust's common stock, Paul told journalists the next day that Pharaon was "one of my very close personal friends. He is probably one of the three of four closest personal friends Mrs. Paul and I have." The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described the arrangement by which Pharaon would sell CenTrust subordinated debentures, a BCCI branch would buy 25 million dollars of them "to deceive other investors as to their market value," and CenTrust would buy back any debentures BCCI had bought.[^11] + +### Indictment and Conviction + +On February 28, 1992, a federal grand jury in Miami returned a 22-count indictment against Paul, Pharaon and CenTrust's former executive vice president William Christopher Berry. It charged that Paul had conspired with a BCCI insider to arrange a phony securities purchase: BCCI bought about 27.7 million dollars of CenTrust debentures on May 24, 1988, and two months later a Connecticut real estate subsidiary of CenTrust bought them back at par for 25 million dollars though their market value had fallen to about 24.7 million, and Pharaon kept the 331,500 dollar difference. It also charged Paul and Berry with structuring a June 1988 securities deal with [[Lincoln Savings and Loan|Lincoln Savings]] to conceal from regulators that the transactions were linked. CenTrust had collapsed on February 2, 1990, at a cost to the federal government of 1.7 billion dollars.[^12] + +After a trial in 1993 Paul was convicted on 68 of 69 counts concerning the diversion of 3.2 million dollars of CenTrust money to his own use, most of it for work on his mansion on La Gorce Island in [[Miami Beach, Florida|Miami Beach]]. On February 10, 1994, he pleaded guilty to the 29 remaining counts, which concerned dealings with Lincoln Savings, [[Michael Milken]]'s [[Drexel Burnham Lambert]] and BCCI. "This... represents the first conviction of a U.S. banker growing out of the worldwide BCCI investigations in this country," said the prosecutor, Allan Sullivan. United Press International noted that he had assembled a 30 million dollar collection of Old Masters paintings in CenTrust's executive suite.[^13] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. @@ -33,3 +58,6 @@ In 1992, Paul and Pharaon were indicted together by the [[Department of Justice] [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 218. [^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 221. [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 221. +[^11]: 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 +[^12]: "Former CenTrust CEO, two others indicted," United Press International, February 28, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/02/28/Former-CenTrust-CEO-two-others-indicted/5853699253200/ +[^13]: "David Paul pleads guilty to remaining fraud charges," United Press International, February 10, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/02/10/David-Paul-pleads-guilty-to-remaining-fraud-charges/6187760856400/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Georgina Spelvin.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Georgina Spelvin.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5fd4fb70 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Georgina Spelvin.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - AdultFilm + - Broadway + - RCHorsch +summary: "Broadway performer who at 36 starred in The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), appeared in R.C. Horsch's Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig, and published a memoir in 2006." +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]" + role: "performer" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Georgina Spelvin is an American performer who appeared on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in *[[The Pajama Game]]* and toured in musical productions through the 1950s and 1960s before starring, at 36, in [[Gerard Damiano]]'s *[[The Devil in Miss Jones]]* (1973), for which she had first been hired as the cook on the set; she had applied for that job because the anti-war film collective she had started needed money for the rent on its editing space.[^1] She lived and worked in [[New York City]] for two decades before moving to [[California]] in the mid-1970s, and in 2006 published a memoir, *The Devil Made Me Do It*.[^1] + +In February 1973 she appeared in *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]*, shot in [[Philadelphia]] by [[R.C. Horsch]] and [[John Butterworth]].[^2][^3] The trade magazine *Take One* reported in the spring of 1973 that "Bob Sumner's Mature Films in New York followed up Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (starring Ms. Spelvin) with High Rise."[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: West, Ashley. "Georgina Spelvin: The Devil, Miss Jones and the New York Years," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 11, May 19, 2013. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2013/05/19/georgina-spelvin/ +[^2]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026 (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ +[^3]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html +[^4]: Morthland, John. "Porn Films: An In-Depth Report," *Take One,* vol. 3, no. 6 (March-April 1973), pp. 11-15. https://archive.org/details/take-one-1973-03 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghaith R. Pharaon.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghaith R. Pharaon.md index dbc2e1f4..71b9a401 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghaith R. Pharaon.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghaith R. Pharaon.md @@ -1,5 +1,7 @@ --- category: "BCCI Scandal" +alias: + - "Ghaith Pharaon" tags: - Person - BCCI @@ -7,6 +9,36 @@ summary: "Pharaon launched himself into the construction business in Saudi Arabi born: 1940-09-07 died: 2017-01-06 location: "Riyadh, Saudi Arabia" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[National Bank of Georgia]]" + start: 1978 + end: 1987 + role: "nominee for BCCI of 50 percent" + fn: 14 + - type: owned + with: "[[Independence Bank of Encino]]" + role: "85 percent as fiduciary for ICIC Overseas" + fn: 15 + - type: owned + with: "[[CenTrust Savings Bank]]" + start: 1987 + role: "16.9 percent of common stock" + fn: 14 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[David L. Paul]]" + role: "business associate" + fn: 17 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[United States Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-02-28 + fn: 17 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Federal Reserve Board]]" + reverse: true + start: 1991-07-12 + fn: 15 --- Ghaith R. Pharaon was a flamboyant [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] front man and a [[Saudia Arabia|Saudi]] financier.[^1] He acquired [[Georgia National Bank]] and [[Independence Bank of Encino]], and was a shareholder in [[Attock Oil]], BCCI, and [[CenTrust Savings Bank]].[^2] @@ -22,7 +54,19 @@ He was involved in the sham purchase of CenTrust debentures, acting as a front f Pharaon had extensive political connections, including with [[Jimmy Carter]], to whose charitable organizations he made donations.[^9] He was involved in lobbying efforts to keep CenTrust afloat, meeting with figures like [[M. Danny Wall]], then the nation's top thrift regulator.[^10] -Pharaon was indicted by the [[Department of Justice]] in 1992 for his role in the bond-swap conspiracy related to CenTrust and the secret ownership of [[Independence Bank of Encino]].[^11] He is described as fleeing from several indictments in the United States and is under investigation in [[Argentina]].[^12] +Pharaon was indicted by the [[Department of Justice]] in 1992 for his role in the bond-swap conspiracy related to CenTrust and the secret ownership of Independence Bank of Encino.[^11] He is described as fleeing from several indictments in the [[United States]] and is under investigation in [[Argentina]].[^12] + +### National Bank of Georgia + +According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], BCCI owned 50 percent of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] from its ostensible sale to Pharaon in 1978, with Pharaon holding those shares as its nominee; the Federal Reserve concluded in 1991 that he had borrowed at least part of the purchase money, "with BCCI as his partner in the transaction from the beginning." In November 1981 he formed a holding company, GRP, Inc., renamed NBG Financial Corporation the next year, and agreed with BCCI that they would divide expenses equally and treat the bank as equally owned. In August 1983 he formed two further companies, Interedec (Georgia) N.V. of [[Curacao]] and Interedec (Georgia) of [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]], stacked so that each held the one below; the report found that "the obvious purpose and intent of this series of holding companies... was to permit Pharaon and BCCI to sell or mortgage Pharaon's interest in NBG without regulators or creditors finding out." Pharaon Holdings Limited of Nassau then acquired his 50 percent interest without the notice to the Federal Reserve required by law. On January 1, 1985, he signed a secret "Memorandum of Deposit" pledging all the shares of NBG Financial to BCCI as collateral for his loans and giving BCCI "or its nominees" the right to vote them. In December 1986, in the words of the Federal Reserve's charges, "BCCI caused [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings|CCAH]] to agree to purchase the shares of NBG [Financial] from Pharaon for $220 million."[^13][^14] + +### Independence Bank + +BCCI officials selected the Independence Bank of Encino for secret acquisition in November 1984. Under a nominee agreement with BCCI's affiliate [[ICIC|ICIC Overseas]], set out in the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]]'s notice of July 12, 1991, Pharaon held 85 percent of its shares "as a fiduciary for ICIC Overseas" and 15 percent for himself. BCCI lent him 8.5 million dollars through his account at the [[Banque Arabe et Internationale d'Investissement]] in [[Paris]], which telegraphed the California authorities that he held deposits of that amount, and the remainder came from the [[First National Bank of Boston]] against a letter of credit from BAII counter-guaranteed by BCCI. The Federal Reserve found that he had made false statements to the [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]] by concealing that he acted as nominee for BCCI, and moved to bar him, Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]] and Kemal Shoaib from banking.[^14][^15] On July 29, 1991, it fined him 37 million dollars.[^16] + +### CenTrust + +Pharaon told the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] on August 12, 1987, that he had bought 16.9 percent of the common stock of CenTrust Savings of [[Miami]] and 24.4 percent of its Series One participating preferred stock, just under the 25 percent that would have meant legal control; the next day [[David L. Paul]] told journalists that Pharaon was "one of my very close personal friends." His CenTrust shares were likewise pledged to BCCI under a memorandum of deposit, and the report concluded that "at the very time that BCCI was under indictment in Tampa, Florida for money laundering, it had secretly acquired and controlled the largest S&L in Florida, CenTrust."[^14] On February 28, 1992, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted him with Paul and CenTrust's executive vice president William Christopher Berry: BCCI had bought about 27.7 million dollars of CenTrust debentures on May 24, 1988, CenTrust repurchased them two months later for 25 million dollars at par though their market value had fallen to about 24.7 million, and, according to the indictment, "the repurchase price was $331,500 greater than what BCCI had paid and Pharaon kept the difference." Attorney General [[William Barr]] called the indictment "another step in the Justice Department's effort to track down and prosecute allegations of crimes related to BCCI."[^17] On July 29, 1992, he was also named in the New York County indictment of [[Clark Clifford]], [[Robert Altman]], Abedi, Naqvi and [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]].[^18] ### Footnotes @@ -38,3 +82,9 @@ Pharaon was indicted by the [[Department of Justice]] in 1992 for his role in th [^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 85. [^11]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 221. [^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 394. +[^13]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^14]: 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 +[^15]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Ghaith R. Pharaon, Agha Hasan Abedi, Swaleh Naqvi, and Kemal Shoaib,* Docket Nos. 91-037-E-I1 to I4, Notice of Intent to Prohibit, July 12, 1991. https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/files/19910712.pdf +[^16]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 12, "BCCI and the Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^17]: "Former CenTrust CEO, two others indicted," United Press International, February 28, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/02/28/Former-CenTrust-CEO-two-others-indicted/5853699253200/ +[^18]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghassan Qassem.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghassan Qassem.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bfc02831 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ghassan Qassem.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - BCCI + - AbuNidal + - Informant + - London + - 1980s +summary: "Manager of BCCI's Sloane Street branch in London who handled Abu Nidal's accounts and passed details of them to British and American intelligence." +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "manager, Sloane Street branch, London" + fn: 1 + - type: informant_for + with: "[[MI5]]" + fn: 1 + - type: represented + with: "[[Abu Nidal Organization]]" + role: "branch manager for its accounts" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Ghassan Qassem was the manager of the Sloane Street branch in [[London]] of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), where he was given the accounts of the Palestinian terrorist [[Abu Nidal]] (Sabri al-Banna). While still at the bank he passed detailed information on those accounts to British and American intelligence, "apparently as a paid informant, according to press accounts based on interviews with Qassem," in the words of the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], which called him "a key window on BCCI's support of terrorism."[^1] + +### The Abu Nidal Accounts + +By 1986, according to the Senate report, the information obtained about Abu Nidal's use of BCCI was detailed enough to be disseminated within the [[United States]] intelligence community. In July 1987, on the basis of Qassem's information, the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] prepared a report on the [[Abu Nidal Organization]] and its finances, declassified in 1991 at the request of Senator [[John Kerry]]'s subcommittee. It described the organization's commercial network as several businesses "created over the past seven years with the long-term goal of establishing legitimate trading enterprises in various countries," directed by its general manager and "principal agent in gray-arms transactions," Samir Hasan Najm al-Din (Samir Najmeddin), from offices in the [[INTRACO]] building in [[Warsaw]]. Najm al-Din "maintained a general account at a major West European Bank [BCCI in London] from which he transfers money to individual company accounts at local banks," held joint control of each company's accounts with its manager, and forwarded all major contracts to Sabri al-Banna for approval. After the material was disseminated, the Senate report states, the United States "coordinated efforts to shut down the financing of the activities exposed" through BCCI London, "with some success."[^1] Laurence Pope, the [[State Department]]'s associate coordinator for counter-terrorism, testified on the matter before the subcommittee.[^1] + +### MI5 + +The journalist [[Lucy Komisar]] wrote that Abu Nidal, a BCCI client since 1981, held a 60 million dollar London account for arms and logistics, and that Qassem discovered that his best customer was the world's most wanted terrorist when he was shown Abu Nidal's photograph in the French magazine *[[L'Express]]*. By her account, BCCI headquarters told him: "Destroy it immediately, and go back to your branch, and don't you ever mention it to anyone, because the general manager has got enough problems without having to add any more." Qassem then alerted [[MI5]], which, Komisar wrote, traced payments from the BCCI account of a Syrian intelligence operative to the Abu Nidal agent who in 1986 had used his girlfriend in the unsuccessful attempt to smuggle a bomb aboard an Israeli airliner at [[Heathrow Airport|Heathrow]]; the British warned the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], "which apparently was not interested."[^2] The Senate report separately listed among BCCI's clients the brothers Manzur and Ghassan al-Kassar ("the Qassar brothers"), whom it described as associated with terrorism, arms trafficking and narcotics in connection with the government of [[Syria]] and with the supply of Eastern Bloc arms to the Nicaraguan [[Contras]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 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 the *Financial Times,* November 13, 1991, p. 6; the testimony of Laurence Pope, S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, p. 580; and "Abu Nidal's Terror Network," U.S. Department of State, S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, pp. 640-641). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^2]: Komisar, Lucy. "BCCI's Double Game: Banking on America, Banking on Jihad." https://www.thekomisarscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BCCIs-Double-Game-Banking-on-America-Banking-on-Jihad-by-Lucy-Komisar.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ian Shearer.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ian Shearer.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ac5a1949 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ian Shearer.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - NewZealand + - Politician + - Science + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Ian John Shearer +summary: "New Zealand National Party minister of science and technology, environment and broadcasting from 1981 to 1984, who opened the Chemical Technology Limited whey-to-alcohol plant at Temuka in April 1982." +died: 2021-06-01 +location: "Hamilton, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Executive Council of New Zealand]]" + role: "Minister for the Environment and Minister of Science and Technology" + start: 1981-02-12 + end: 1984-07-26 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Ian John Shearer (died June 1, 2021) was a [[New Zealand]] National Party politician who represented Hamilton East from 1975 to 1984. He was appointed Minister for the Environment and Minister of Science and Technology on February 12, 1981, taking the science portfolio from [[Bill Birch]], and Minister of Broadcasting on December 11, 1981. He resigned all three offices on July 26, 1984, after National's election defeat.[^1][^2][^3] The House of Representatives recorded his death on June 3, 2021.[^4] + +### The Temuka Plant + +In April 1982, on the same visit to Canterbury on which he opened the Dairy Science and Technology Conference in [[Christchurch]], Shearer opened "the whey-to-alcohol factory of Chemical Technology, Ltd, at Temuka," the plant of [[Chemical Technology Limited]], and said it would turn what twenty years earlier had been "poured down the throat of a pig" into alcohol and proteins.[^5] The company's American director, Dr Stanley Stokowski, was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]], who had entered the country in 1980 under a stolen identity. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *New Zealand Gazette,* February 12, 1981, Extraordinary, No. 14, p. 323 ("Dr the Honourable Ian John Shearer to be Minister for the Environment and Minister of Science and Technology"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1981/issue/14/page/323 +[^2]: *New Zealand Gazette,* December 11, 1981 (gazetted December 14, 1981), Supplement, No. 149, p. 3780 ("Doctor the Honourable Ian John Shearer, to be Minister of Broadcasting"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1981/issue/149/page/3780 +[^3]: *New Zealand Gazette,* July 26-27, 1984, Supplement, No. 130, p. 2912 ("Doctor the Honourable Ian John Shearer, of the Offices of Minister for the Environment, Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Broadcasting"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1984/issue/130/page/2912 +[^4]: New Zealand Parliament, Hansard, "Obituary: Dr Ian Shearer," June 3, 2021 ("Members, I regret to inform the House of the death on 1 June 2021 of Dr the Hon Ian John Shearer, who represented the Hamilton East electorate between 1975 and 1984"). https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20210603_20210603_08 +[^5]: "Dr Shearer wants extra effort in biotechnology," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 23, 1982. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820423.2.96.9 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer).md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer).md index dc2f2b94..e266c1ea 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer).md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John Rutherford (New Zealand lawyer).md @@ -29,24 +29,25 @@ John Gordon Rutherford was a [[Christchurch]] lawyer who set up [[Chemical Techn ### Stokowski -The company was incorporated on May 26, 1981, with Rutherford and [[Dorothy Verna Rutherford]], who shared his Christchurch address, as its directors, and its registered office at Ibis House, 183 Hereford Street, Christchurch.[^3] In July 1981 the government approved a licence for its whey distillery, the first commercial one in the South Island, and two regional development suspensory loans totalling 120,235 dollars were approved for it the same year.[^4][^5] In December 1981, as a director, Rutherford asked the Canterbury United Council to support ethanol as a replacement for tetraethyl lead in petrol and to seek removal of the tax on ethanol used as an octane booster.[^6] The plant was opened by the Minister of Science and Technology, [[Ian Shearer]], in April 1982.[^7] +The company was incorporated on May 26, 1981, with Rutherford and [[Dorothy Verna Rutherford]], who shared his Christchurch address, as its directors, and its registered office at Ibis House, 183 Hereford Street, Christchurch.[^3] The *New Zealand Gazette* notice of 1984 announcing that the company's debt to [[Westpac]] had been repaid and that its receiver would cease to act is signed "J. C. RUTHERFORD, Solicitor to the Company."[^4] In July 1981 the government approved a licence for its whey distillery, the first commercial one in the South Island, and two regional development suspensory loans totalling 120,235 dollars were approved for it the same year.[^5][^6] In December 1981, as a director, Rutherford asked the Canterbury United Council to support ethanol as a replacement for tetraethyl lead in petrol and to seek removal of the tax on ethanol used as an octane booster.[^7] The plant was opened by the Minister of Science and Technology, [[Ian Shearer]], in April 1982.[^8] Rutherford told *[[The Press]]* in 1984 that he had contacted Stokowski "after reading American advertisements about new technology." A later [[New Zealand]] government investigation found that the [[New Zealand Department of Immigration|Department of Immigration]] had been "under some pressure" from the man's "proposed employer" to "make an early decision" on his application.[^1] -After Horsch left New Zealand on March 17, 1984, on a passport that police believed had been stolen in a burglary at [[Temuka]], Rutherford described him to *The Press* as "brilliant and hard working," "a brilliant chap" who "knew what he was about," and "a particularly smart fellow, a real toiler and an excellent family man." He conceded that his partner might have been living under a false identity and, according to the paper, believed that he "had had some sort of trouble in the [[United States]]; perhaps of the scale of being a draft dodger during the [[Vietnam War]]," while dismissing any suggestion that he was a spy. He said he had not heard from Horsch since his departure and that his business had not suffered: "As far as I am concerned, it is business as usual." He called the spy story "a romantic tale," said the [[New Zealand Security Intelligence Service|Security Intelligence Service]] had never approached him, and said he had last seen Horsch in early March, when the man had talked of leaving "for some months" and told him "his shares were worth nothing." Horsch, he said, "had a lot of trouble getting a beverage alcohol licence ... like a lot of Americans he did not appreciate the time things take here."[^1][^8] He told *The Press* that he had transferred an amphibian aircraft to the company to increase its assets and had flown once with Horsch to [[Lake Tekapo|Tekapo]], but that Horsch lacked the rating for solo landings on water: "He didn't have enough hours." [[Westpac]] put the company into receivership on May 22, 1984, and Rutherford arranged to pay the bank about 170,000 dollars.[^9] The aircraft was a Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer amphibian, construction number 469, registration ZK-EDK, formerly the American N5012L, which had been assembled at Christchurch and registered in New Zealand in December 1974; it was registered to Chemical Technology Ltd on October 30, 1981, passed to Rutherford personally on June 19, 1989, and was cancelled from the register as exported in September 2009. A local aviation historian recalled it standing for years in "a very tired state" at the Simon Spencer-Bower airfield, where he photographed it in September 1988.[^10][^11] In October 1984 he said business was booming and that Horsch "did everything he said he was going to accomplish."[^12] By 1986 he was growing Jerusalem artichokes under quarantine on his farm at Moncks Spur on the [[Port Hills]] as a feedstock for the company.[^13] +After Horsch left New Zealand on March 17, 1984, on a passport that police believed had been stolen in a burglary at [[Temuka]], Rutherford described him to *The Press* as "brilliant and hard working," "a brilliant chap" who "knew what he was about," and "a particularly smart fellow, a real toiler and an excellent family man." He conceded that his partner might have been living under a false identity and, according to the paper, believed that he "had had some sort of trouble in the [[United States]]; perhaps of the scale of being a draft dodger during the [[Vietnam War]]," while dismissing any suggestion that he was a spy. He said he had not heard from Horsch since his departure and that his business had not suffered: "As far as I am concerned, it is business as usual." He called the spy story "a romantic tale," said the [[New Zealand Security Intelligence Service|Security Intelligence Service]] had never approached him, and said he had last seen Horsch in early March, when the man had talked of leaving "for some months" and told him "his shares were worth nothing." Horsch, he said, "had a lot of trouble getting a beverage alcohol licence ... like a lot of Americans he did not appreciate the time things take here."[^1][^9] He told *The Press* that he had transferred an amphibian aircraft to the company to increase its assets and had flown once with Horsch to [[Lake Tekapo|Tekapo]], but that Horsch lacked the rating for solo landings on water: "He didn't have enough hours." Westpac put the company into receivership on May 22, 1984, and Rutherford arranged to pay the bank about 170,000 dollars.[^10] The aircraft was a Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer amphibian, construction number 469, registration ZK-EDK, formerly the American N5012L, which had been assembled at Christchurch and registered in New Zealand in December 1974; it was registered to Chemical Technology Ltd on October 30, 1981, passed to Rutherford personally on June 19, 1989, and was cancelled from the register as exported in September 2009. A local aviation historian recalled it standing for years in "a very tired state" at the Simon Spencer-Bower airfield, where he photographed it in September 1988.[^11][^12] In October 1984 he said business was booming and that Horsch "did everything he said he was going to accomplish."[^13] By 1986 he was growing Jerusalem artichokes under quarantine on his farm at Moncks Spur on the [[Port Hills]] as a feedstock for the company.[^14] ### Footnotes [^1]: Leask, Anna. "Man linked to multiple missing women in US had fled NZ 40 years ago after posing as scientist," *The New Zealand Herald,* September 23, 2026 (quoting *The Press* of 1984 and the New Zealand immigration investigation report). https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/raymond-horsch-man-linked-to-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-lived-near-timaru-under-stolen-name/BVQSWBL3LZDL3GIXFEHHBFY6RY/ [^2]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html [^3]: New Zealand Companies Office, Companies Register, "Chemical Technology Ltd," company number 141090, accessed September 23, 2026. https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/141090 -[^4]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31 -[^5]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23 -[^6]: "Ethanol study beyond council," *The Press* (Christchurch), December 11, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19811211.2.98 -[^7]: "Dr Shearer wants extra effort in biotechnology," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 23, 1982. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820423.2.96.9 -[^8]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 -[^9]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9 -[^10]: Paull, Dave. "Lake LA-4-200 Bucaneer ZK-EDK cancelled," *NZ Civil Aircraft* (blog), October 11, 2009 ("Chemical Technology Ltd of Christchurch became the listed owners on 30-10-1981 ... Ownership changed to John Rutherford on 19-06-89 ... cancelled for the NZ register as exported on 17-09-2009"). https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2009/10/lake-la-4-200-bucaneer-zk-edk-cancelled.html -[^11]: Wise, David. New Zealand civil aircraft register, ZK-EAA to ZK-EHZ ("ZK-EDK 1 12/74 LA-4-200 Buccaneer 469 ex N5012L export cx 9/09"). https://www.flydw.org.uk/DWZKEAH.htm -[^12]: "Ethanol plant's business booms," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 4, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841004.2.21 -[^13]: "Jerusalem artichokes as dual-purpose crop?," *The Press* (Christchurch), February 14, 1986. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860214.2.93.1 +[^4]: *New Zealand Gazette,* May 31, 1984, No. 91, p. 1832, Company Notices (receivership of Chemical Technology Ltd, and the notice "All moneys owing to Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd. have been repaid and the receiver will cease to act when the normal formalities have been complied with. J. C. RUTHERFORD, Solicitor to the Company"; wording confirmed against the scanned page). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1984/issue/91/page/1832 +[^5]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31 +[^6]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23 +[^7]: "Ethanol study beyond council," *The Press* (Christchurch), December 11, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19811211.2.98 +[^8]: "Dr Shearer wants extra effort in biotechnology," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 23, 1982. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820423.2.96.9 +[^9]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 +[^10]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9 +[^11]: Paull, Dave. "Lake LA-4-200 Bucaneer ZK-EDK cancelled," *NZ Civil Aircraft* (blog), October 11, 2009 ("Chemical Technology Ltd of Christchurch became the listed owners on 30-10-1981 ... Ownership changed to John Rutherford on 19-06-89 ... cancelled for the NZ register as exported on 17-09-2009"). https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2009/10/lake-la-4-200-bucaneer-zk-edk-cancelled.html +[^12]: Wise, David. New Zealand civil aircraft register, ZK-EAA to ZK-EHZ ("ZK-EDK 1 12/74 LA-4-200 Buccaneer 469 ex N5012L export cx 9/09"). https://www.flydw.org.uk/DWZKEAH.htm +[^13]: "Ethanol plant's business booms," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 4, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841004.2.21 +[^14]: "Jerusalem artichokes as dual-purpose crop?," *The Press* (Christchurch), February 14, 1986. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860214.2.93.1 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lindsay Smith.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lindsay Smith.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..be535c40 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lindsay Smith.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - NewZealand + - Intelligence + - NZSIS + - Military + - RainbowWarrior + - RCHorsch +alias: + - John Lindsay Smith + - Brigadier Lindsay Smith +summary: "New Zealand army brigadier who directed the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service from 1983 to 1991, including the 1984 Stokowski affair and the 1985 Rainbow Warrior bombing." +born: 1926-03-06 +died: 2002-09-11 +location: "Tauranga, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[New Zealand Security Intelligence Service]]" + role: "director" + start: 1983 + end: 1991 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[New Zealand Army]]" + role: "officer, retired as brigadier" + end: 1981 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +John Lindsay Smith (March 6, 1926, to September 11, 2002) was a [[New Zealand]] army officer and, from 1983 to 1991, director of the [[New Zealand Security Intelligence Service]] (NZSIS).[^1][^2] + +### Army + +Born at Kumara, Westland, and raised in a working-class family in [[Christchurch]], Smith worked as an uncertified teacher at Haupiri, attended teachers' college in 1945, and took a BA at Canterbury University. He served with the occupation force in [[Japan]], in the [[Korean War]] in 1952 with the 16th Field Regiment of the Royal New Zealand Artillery, and in [[Borneo]] and [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]; he later commanded the Army Field Force and the New Zealand force in Southeast Asia, and was Deputy Chief of General Staff in [[Wellington]] until he retired in 1981. He then worked as the government affairs adviser to BP New Zealand.[^1] The Vietnam War veterans' roll lists him as a major and his service number as 207087, and notes that he retired as a brigadier and received the MBE, the CBE, and, after his service as director of the NZSIS, the CMG.[^2] + +### Security Intelligence Service + +Smith succeeded Paul Molineaux as director in 1983, at a time of what his obituary called "some mistrust in the country about the scope and style of the service's covert operations." He described himself as "a pretty conventional sort of chap," kept his home telephone number listed, and said: "I'm the visible member of the organisation. That's what I'm meant to be." He cited the rule that the service was not to be involved with "the class of person engaged in lawful protest or dissent," saying, "You can't get anything clearer than that." In 1983 the New Zealand Party leader, [[Robert Jones]], alleged that the service had tried to infiltrate his party in Auckland.[^1] + +In June 1984, asked whether the police search for the American known as Dr Stanley Stokowski, who had fled the country in March on a stolen passport, involved security grounds, Smith said he had no comment: "It is a matter for the police and for customs."[^3] The man was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +After the bombing of the [[Rainbow Warrior]] in [[Auckland]] harbour in July 1985, a briefing he wrote, later declassified, stated that Prime Minister [[David Lange]] "would have been well pleased if the French couple, once apprehended, were removed from New Zealand jurisdiction quickly," and that "once they chose to plead guilty and accepted their sentence, we were subjected to French political and economic pressures." He retired from the service in 1991 and was succeeded by Don McIver. He died aged 76 and was given a full military funeral in [[Tauranga]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Obituary: John Lindsay Smith," *The New Zealand Herald,* September 20, 2002. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/iobituaryi-john-lindsay-smith/MKZ33367T76UQ4HMATRFJYPYGY/ +[^2]: New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Vietnam War veterans roll, "Maj John Lindsay Smith" (born March 6, 1926; died September 11, 2002; buried Pyes Pa Cemetery, Tauranga). http://web.archive.org/web/20250223075219/https://www.vietnamwar.govt.nz/veteran/maj-john-lindsay-smith +[^3]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Masihur Rahman.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Masihur Rahman.md index cc915234..47ba5ea0 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Masihur Rahman.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Masihur Rahman.md @@ -15,7 +15,13 @@ Rahman was brought into United Bank by [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and [[Swaleh Naqvi]] After BCCI pleaded guilty to money laundering in January 1990, Rahman was placed in charge of an internal audit committee to verify the Price Waterhouse figures.[^6] His findings showed that the bank's books were in a shambles, with hundreds of millions of dollars loaned or transferred without paperwork, and hundreds of millions more simply disappeared.[^7] -Rahman was very nervous about discussing BCCI's affairs with the press due to threats to his family.[^8] He described a secret bank within the bank, International Credit and Investment Company Holdings (ICIC) in the [[Cayman Islands]], into which billions of dollars in deposits were improperly diverted.[^9] +Rahman was very nervous about discussing BCCI's affairs with the press due to threats to his family.[^8] He described a secret bank within the bank, International Credit and Investment Company Holdings ([[ICIC]]) in the [[Cayman Islands]], into which billions of dollars in deposits were improperly diverted.[^9] + +### Testimony + +Rahman and [[Abdur Sakhia]], BCCI's former general manager in [[New York City|New York]], were the two BCCI officials who testified before Senator [[John Kerry]]'s subcommittee in 1991; both had left the bank in 1990, when Abu Dhabi took active control and forced out members of the original Pakistani group who lacked close ties to the Al Nahyan family, and both had been threatened. His testimony is recorded in the subcommittee's hearing volume S. Hrg. 102-350.[^10] He described the bank's founding quarters in Abu Dhabi as "mess-type flats," its hierarchy as "Mr. Abedi at the very top, there was Mr. Naqvi who was like a chief operating officer... And then there was a big gap," and its internal secrecy: "I could see these Chinese walls were getting very, very watertight and we were always taught about humility and ego and anything that was slightly out of context was considered just an ego trip." Of Abedi he said: "I remember looking into his eyes and seeing God and the Devil balanced equally in them."[^11] + +He told the subcommittee that the BCCI front man [[Mohammed Hammoud]], whom he called "a medium sized businessman," used two companies, Mid-Gulf and Rubstone, to buy shares of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] on the bank's behalf, and described the parallel Cayman group, ICIC, as an organization that would "hold shares of the bank for the founder group."[^12][^13] He said the treasury losses of [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]] in 1985 were "equivalent to BCCI's entire capital."[^10] ### Footnotes @@ -28,3 +34,7 @@ Rahman was very nervous about discussing BCCI's affairs with the press due to th [^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 83. [^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 80. [^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 82. +[^10]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^11]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm +[^12]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 15, "Mohammed Hammoud: BCCI's Flexible Front-Man." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/15hammoud.htm +[^13]: 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" (ICIC). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Philip Nordo.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Philip Nordo.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5aa5d3eb --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Philip Nordo.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Police + - PoliceMisconduct + - WrongfulConviction + - Philadelphia +summary: "Philadelphia homicide detective fired in 2017 and convicted in 2022 of sexually assaulting witnesses and stealing reward money; dozens of his homicide cases were reviewed." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Philadelphia Police Department]]" + role: "homicide detective" + end: 2017 + fn: 2 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]]" + reverse: true + end: 2022-06-01 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Philip Nordo is a former homicide detective of the [[Philadelphia Police Department]], dismissed in 2017, who was convicted on June 1, 2022, of rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, official oppression, stalking and theft by deception, and sentenced in December 2022 to 24 and a half to 49 years in prison. The [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]] said its Conviction Integrity Unit had reviewed about 62 homicide convictions in which he was involved.[^1][^2] + +### Conviction + +A Philadelphia jury found Nordo guilty of sexually assaulting witnesses in murder cases. The theft count concerned reward money in the murder of the off-duty police officer Moses Walker, which Nordo obtained by falsely claiming that one of his victims had helped solve the case. District Attorney [[Larry Krasner]] called Nordo's conduct "jaw-dropping and deeply shameful for the criminal justice system" and said that his office had disregarded strong evidence of misconduct in 2005. Sentencing was set for August 5, 2022, before Judge Giovanni Campbell, and bail was revoked; the sentence of 24 and a half to 49 years was reported on December 16, 2022, the defense having asked for ten years. "This is a terrible abuse of position to coerce and to victimize other people," Krasner said.[^1][^2] + +### Reviewed Cases + +As of the verdict, according to the District Attorney's Office, five people wrongfully convicted of homicide in cases involving Nordo had been exonerated, two had received reduced sentences and charges, one had been granted a new trial, and four were awaiting rulings; a person wrongfully convicted of firearms offenses had been exonerated in 2017.[^1] + +### Civil Suits + +Civil-rights suits arising from his conduct include *Thomas v. Nordo*, No. 2:24-cv-04914 in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|Eastern District of Pennsylvania]], filed on September 17, 2024, in which [[Jerome Brown]], counsel to [[Eugene Horsch]] and to [[R.C. Horsch]] in unrelated cases, is counsel of record.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney, "Former Homicide Detective Philip Nordo Accused of Sexual Assault, Theft Found Guilty on All Counts," press release, June 1, 2022. https://phillyda.org/news/former-homicide-detective-philip-nordo-accused-of-sexual-assault-theft-found-guilty-on-all-counts/ +[^2]: "Former Philadelphia detective Philip Nordo sentenced to 24-49 years in prison," *CBS News Philadelphia,* December 16, 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/former-philadelphia-detective-philip-nordo-sentenced-to-24-49-years-in-prison/ +[^3]: *Thomas v. Nordo,* No. 2:24-cv-04914 (E.D. Pa.), filed September 17, 2024, docket via CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/?q=%22Thomas+v.+Nordo%22 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Barclay Surrick.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Barclay Surrick.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e56bfeab --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Richard Barclay Surrick.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Judge + - FederalJudiciary + - DelawareCounty + - RCHorsch +alias: + - R. Barclay Surrick + - Barclay Surrick +summary: "Delaware County judge appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 2000 who presided over R.C. Horsch's 2009-2012 marijuana and firearms prosecution." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "district judge" + start: 2000-06-05 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Bill Clinton]]" + reverse: true + start: 2000-04-11 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Delaware County Court of Common Pleas]]" + role: "judge" + start: 1978 + end: 2000 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Delaware County Public Defender's Office]]" + role: "chief, appellate division" + start: 1965 + end: 1974 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +R. Barclay Surrick (born 1937) is a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]], appointed by [[Bill Clinton]] in 2000. He presided over *United States v. Horsch*, No. 2:09-cr-00794, the prosecution of [[R.C. Horsch]] for cultivating marijuana and possessing firearms at his house in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania|New Britain Township]], and in 2012 sentenced him to 54 months.[^1][^2][^3] + +### Career + +Surrick was born in [[Media, Pennsylvania|Media]], in [[Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Delaware County]]. He took a B.A. at [[Dickinson College]] in 1960, a J.D. at the Dickinson School of Law in 1965, and an LL.M. at the [[University of Virginia School of Law]] in 1982. He was in private practice in Pennsylvania from 1965 to 1977 and at the same time headed the appellate division of the Delaware County public defender's office from 1965 to 1974. He sat on the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas from 1978 to 2000. Clinton nominated him on April 11, 2000, to the seat vacated by Lowell A. Reed Jr.; he was confirmed on May 24 and commissioned on June 5, 2000, and took senior status on February 1, 2011.[^1] + +### United States v. Horsch + +The case was filed on December 15, 2009, charging Horsch with manufacturing 100 or more marijuana plants, and a bench warrant issued the same day. [[Jerome Brown]] appeared for the defense in January 2010; the prosecutor was Assistant United States Attorney [[Elizabeth F. Abrams]], who filed notice of Horsch's prior drug convictions to enhance the sentence. On January 10, 2011, Horsch pleaded guilty to possessing 100 or more marijuana plants with intent to distribute, possessing a short-barreled shotgun in furtherance of drug trafficking, and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Surrick sentenced him on June 28, 2012, and resentenced him on July 3 to 53 months on the drug and felon-in-possession counts and a consecutive month on the shotgun count, and entered a final order forfeiting the Airy Avenue house on October 22, 2012.[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "Surrick, R[ichard] Barclay." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/surrick-richard-barclay +[^2]: *United States v. Horsch,* No. 2:09-cr-00794-RBS (E.D. Pa.), filed December 15, 2009; indictment (Doc. 1), order for bench warrant (Doc. 2), notices of appearance of Jerome M. Brown (Docs. 5 and 7), docket via CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/?q=Horsch&type=r&court=paed +[^3]: *United States v. Horsch,* No. 2:09-cr-00794-RBS (E.D. Pa.), superseding indictment of January 26, 2010, information under 21 U.S.C. sec. 851 of December 23, 2010, change of plea of January 10, 2011, judgments of June 28 and July 3, 2012, and final order of forfeiture of October 22, 2012, docket via CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/?q=Horsch&type=r&court=paed diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Swaleh Naqvi.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Swaleh Naqvi.md index 690dd69c..fc36e8e0 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Swaleh Naqvi.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Swaleh Naqvi.md @@ -8,6 +8,19 @@ summary: "Swaleh Naqvi was the chief operating officer of BCCI, taking over afte born: 1933 died: 2019-09-07 location: "Agra, British India" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "chief executive" + fn: 1 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Agha Hasan Abedi]]" + fn: 10 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Robert Morgenthau]]" + reverse: true + start: 1991-07 + fn: 4 --- Swaleh Naqvi was the chief operating officer of [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], taking over after [[Agha Hasan Abedi]]'s 1988 heart attack.[^1] @@ -21,6 +34,16 @@ Naqvi, along with Abedi, was indicted by [[Robert Morgenthau]], the Manhattan di Naqvi had close ties with Abedi and was involved in many of the bank's illicit activities, including the use of nominees and offshore networks to conceal ownership and financial transactions.[^6] He was also involved in the meeting where [[Eugene Holley]] introduced [[Bert Lance]] to Abedi.[^7] +### Arrest and Extradition + +Naqvi, a British subject who had served more than twenty years as Abedi's deputy, was arrested in [[Abu Dhabi]] in September 1991 and held there for nearly three years. On January 12, 1994, the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] and the Abu Dhabi government agreed that American prosecutors would have access to BCCI witnesses and documents; under the arrangement, as United Press International reported it, the [[United States]] dropped a 1.5 billion dollar civil suit against Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan]], brought no criminal charges against him, and received 400 million dollars' worth of Abu Dhabi's shares in First American Bank. Naqvi was handed to American officials on May 7, 1994.[^8][^9] + +### Plea and Sentence + +On July 8, 1994, a federal judge in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] accepted his guilty plea to fraud, racketeering and conspiracy charges, in which he admitted responsibility for 255 million dollars in losses in the United States; Morgenthau opposed the agreement as too lenient.[^10] On October 19, 1994, Judge [[Joyce Hens Green]] sentenced him to eleven years for a racketeering conspiracy to control American banks secretly, including First American, and ordered him to pay 255 million dollars; with credit for the time he had spent in custody in Abu Dhabi, he was to serve about eight.[^9][^11] + +In June 1994 the Abu Dhabi court trying BCCI's former executives had sentenced him in absentia. United Press International first reported "four sentences totaling 11 years" on nine counts, and later reported the sentence as fourteen years, the figure also given by the *American Banker*, which called it the longest imposed. An appeals court in Abu Dhabi declined to hear his appeal unless he attended in person.[^8][^9][^12] At [[Abbas Gokal]]'s trial at the [[Old Bailey]] in 1997 he was named as an absent co-conspirator.[^13] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. @@ -30,4 +53,9 @@ Naqvi had close ties with Abedi and was involved in many of the bank's illicit a [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 383. [^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 143. [^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 180. -[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 393. +[^8]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ +[^9]: "Ex-BCCI chief faces jail in UAE," United Press International, October 20, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/10/20/Ex-BCCI-chief-faces-jail-in-UAE/7767782625600/ +[^10]: "Ex-BCCI executive admits fraud, conspiracy," *The Baltimore Sun,* July 9, 1994. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-07-09-1994190050-story.html +[^11]: "Former BCCI Executive Gets 11-Year Prison Sentence," Associated Press, *The Seattle Times,* October 19, 1994. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19941019&slug=1936843 +[^12]: "Abu Dhabi gives former BCCI execs prison sentences of up to 14 years," *American Banker,* June 1994. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/abu-dhabi-gives-former-bcci-execs-prison-sentences-of-up-to-14-years +[^13]: "On the trail of Gokal," *Accountancy Age,* May 23, 1997. https://accountancyage.com/1997/05/23/on-the-trail-of-gokal/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Tina Russell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Tina Russell.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c5915f51 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Tina Russell.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "Crime & Abuse Networks" +tags: + - Person + - AdultFilm + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Linda Marie Mintzer +summary: "Early 1970s New York adult film star, born Linda Marie Mintzer, author of the 1973 memoir Porno Star, who appeared in R.C. Horsch's Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig." +born: 1948-09-23 +location: "New York City" +relations: + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Jason Russell]]" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]" + role: "performer" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Tina Russell (born Linda Marie Mintzer, September 23, 1948, in [[Williamsport, Pennsylvania]]) was an adult film performer who, for a short time in the early 1970s, was "the biggest name in adult films," in the words of *The Rialto Report*. Her 1973 memoir, *Porno Star,* was the first account of the New York adult film industry.[^1][^2] + +### Career + +She met John Sanderson, a local photographer, while at college in Williamsport, and moved with him to [[New York City]] in the late 1960s, where she enrolled at [[New York University]]. The couple began nude modeling to raise bail for a friend arrested for marijuana possession; after leaving college she modeled for sexually oriented photographs and performed in loops and live sex shows around [[Times Square]]. After a period in [[Peru]] they returned to New York as Tina and Jason Russell, and in films she often appeared with her husband.[^1][^2] She spoke of wanting to make what she called "pretty fuck films," with budgets large enough for directors to make artistic statements; after the success of *[[Deep Throat (film)|Deep Throat]]* and [[Linda Lovelace]] she was, in the *Rialto Report*'s account, "slowly forgotten."[^2] In February 1973 she appeared in *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]*, shot in [[Philadelphia]] by [[R.C. Horsch]].[^3][^4] + +### Suffolk County Case + +A filmmaker interviewed by *The Rialto Report* under the name "Jack Bravman" said that after the 1973 film *All in the Sex Family*, shot partly at the Patchogue Drive-In in [[Suffolk County, New York]], with [[Jamie Gillis]] and Tina and Jason Russell and photographed by [[Roberta Findlay]], police traced the production through the license plates of cars in the film and arrested the actors, crew, the distributor Hal Rosen and the owners of the locations at dawn, taking them to be arraigned at the Suffolk County courthouse. By his account the case "dragged on for years" and ended for him with a misdemeanor and a 500 dollar fine; he did not give Russell's outcome.[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: West, Ashley. "Tina Russell: The First 'Porno Star', Scrapbook of an Actress," *The Rialto Report,* August 14, 2016. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2016/08/14/porno-star/ +[^2]: West, Ashley. "Tina Russell: Searching for the Lost Girl of Porn," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 62, August 21, 2016. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2016/08/21/tina-russell/ +[^3]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026 (republishing interviews recorded in 2013). https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ +[^4]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html +[^5]: "Busted!" oral history of "Jack Bravman," *The Rialto Report,* March 25, 2018. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2018/03/25/jack-bravman/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William von Raab.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William von Raab.md index f5c25c9b..40e74093 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William von Raab.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William von Raab.md @@ -5,14 +5,19 @@ tags: - BCCI - Banker - CIA -summary: "William von Raab was the U.S." +summary: "Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service during the C-Chase investigation of BCCI, whose agents recommended a RICO case against the bank that the Justice Department did not approve." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[U.S. Customs]]" + role: "commissioner" + fn: 6 --- William von Raab was the [[U.S. Customs]] Commissioner.[^1] He was involved in the [[Hashemi sting]] operation, which was designed to entrap individuals connected with [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence arms sales to [[Iran]].[^2] -Von Raab, along with [[Rudolph Giuliani]], gave joint TV interviews on April 22, 1986, announcing the arrest of a "huge ring of terrorists" and "Merchants of Death" who were supposedly about to sell arms worth a billion dollars to [[Iran]]. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] claims that von Raab and his associates had created the crime themselves.[^2] +Von Raab, along with [[Rudolph Giuliani]], gave joint TV interviews on April 22, 1986, announcing the arrest of a "huge ring of terrorists" and "Merchants of Death" who were supposedly about to sell arms worth a billion dollars to Iran. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] claims that von Raab and his associates had created the crime themselves.[^2] ### Role in BCCI Scandal @@ -20,6 +25,10 @@ Von Raab headed the agency during the Tampa money-laundering investigations invo After BCCI's Tampa conviction, von Raab thought the case was "enormously meaningful" and announced it publicly. He was told by his superiors to dampen his public enthusiasm.[^4] He later testified before the [[John Kerry|Kerry]] subcommittee that the [[Department of Justice]] had denied knowledge of the [[Ali Mirza]] tapes, which contained crucial information about BCCI's activities.[^5] +### RICO + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] recorded that "by March, 1988, high level Customs officials were reporting to Commissioner Von Raab that several BCCI officials were indictable under RICO." A Customs memorandum of April 6, 1988, stated the view of the [[United States]] Attorney's office in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] that "probative evidence exists to establish corporate criminality against BCCI as an institution," a recommendation repeated on May 10, 1988. In the fall of 1988, "for reasons that were never explained to the Customs agents," the Justice Department did not approve a RICO prosecution, and the case was brought on narrower money-laundering charges. The report named von Raab among the critics of the department's handling of BCCI.[^6] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 11. @@ -27,3 +36,4 @@ After BCCI's Tampa conviction, von Raab thought the case was "enormously meaning [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 25. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 389. [^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 54. +[^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. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Donald W. Van Artsdalen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Donald W. Van Artsdalen.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..40947b6b --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Donald W. Van Artsdalen.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Judge + - FederalJudiciary + - BucksCounty + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Donald West VanArtsdalen + - Donald W. VanArtsdalen +summary: "Bucks County prosecutor and federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1970 who added a year and a day to R.C. Horsch's 1985 sentence for bail-jumping." +born: 1919-10-21 +died: 2019-05-21 +location: "Doylestown, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "district judge" + start: 1970-10-15 + end: 2019-05-21 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Richard Nixon]]" + reverse: true + start: 1970-09-10 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Bucks County District Attorney's Office]]" + role: "district attorney" + start: 1954 + end: 1958 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Donald West VanArtsdalen (October 21, 1919, to May 21, 2019), whose name was printed as Van Artsdalen in the Philadelphia press, was the district attorney of [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]] from 1954 to 1958 and a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] from 1970 until his death at 99. In April 1985 he sentenced [[R.C. Horsch]], then Raymond Charles Hoersch, to a year and a day for bail-jumping, consecutive to the three-year methamphetamine sentence imposed by Judge [[Joseph L. McGlynn Jr.]][^1][^2] + +### Career + +VanArtsdalen was born in [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown]]. He served in the Canadian Army from 1940 to 1942 and in the [[United States Army]] as a sergeant from 1942 to 1945, then took an LL.B. at the [[University of Pennsylvania Law School]] in 1948 and practiced law in Doylestown until 1970, serving meanwhile as Bucks County district attorney. [[Richard Nixon]] nominated him on September 10, 1970, to a new seat created by statute; he was confirmed on October 8 and commissioned on October 15, 1970. He took senior status on October 21, 1985, and died in Doylestown on May 21, 2019.[^1] His wife, Marie Catherine VanArtsdalen, died in December 2016 after 63 years of marriage.[^3] + +### The Hoersch Sentence + +Hoersch, who had grown up in Bucks County and whose parents lived in [[Chalfont, Pennsylvania|Chalfont]], had jumped bail on a 1977 federal methamphetamine charge and spent the following seven years as a fugitive, most of them in [[New Zealand]] under a stolen name. Sentencing him for the bail offense, VanArtsdalen said that fugitives must be punished "no matter how exemplary a life they may have lived" while at large.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "VanArtsdalen, Donald West." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/vanartsdalen-donald-west +[^2]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/ +[^3]: "Marie A. VanArtsdalen," obituary, Reed and Steinbach Funeral Home, 2016. https://www.reedandsteinbach.com/obituaries/marie-a-vanartsdalen diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hugh Templeton.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hugh Templeton.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d00bbeb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hugh Templeton.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - NewZealand + - Politician + - Customs + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Hugh Campbell Templeton +summary: "New Zealand National Party minister of customs from 1978 who, with Bill Birch, announced the 1981 distillery licence for the Temuka ethanol plant of Chemical Technology Limited." +location: "Wellington, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Executive Council of New Zealand]]" + role: "Minister of Customs" + start: 1978-12-13 + end: 1982-06-15 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Executive Council of New Zealand]]" + role: "Minister of Trade and Industry" + start: 1981-12-11 + end: 1984-07-26 + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Hugh Campbell Templeton is a [[New Zealand]] politician who served in the National ministry of [[Robert Muldoon]]. He was appointed Minister of Customs on December 13, 1978, in the ministry formed after the 1978 election, on the same day that [[Bill Birch]] was appointed Minister of Energy.[^1] At the reshuffle of February 12, 1981, he resigned the office of Minister of Broadcasting and kept Customs.[^2] On December 11, 1981, he gave up the office of Minister of Statistics and was appointed Minister of Trade and Industry, in succession to Lancelot Raymond Adams-Schneider.[^3][^4] + +### Customs + +A Gazette notice of June 15, 1982, records his resignation of the office of Minister of Customs and the appointment of Keith Reading Allen in his place.[^5] The Gazette's notice of the resignations of the outgoing ministers after the July 1984 election, however, lists Templeton as resigning "the Offices of Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister of Customs"; no intervening notice returning Customs to him, or removing it from Allen, has been located.[^6] + +### The Temuka Distillery + +On July 14, 1981, as Minister of Customs, Templeton announced that a licence had been approved for the distillery of [[Chemical Technology Limited]] at [[Temuka]], 15 kilometres north of [[Timaru]], "the first such commercial venture in the South Island," to make industrial ethanol mainly from whey and beet crops; the announcement was made jointly with the Minister of Energy, Birch, who said the plant would save 250,000 dollars a year in overseas funds.[^7] The company's American director, who called himself Dr Stanley Stokowski, was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *New Zealand Gazette,* December 13, 1978, Extraordinary, No. 107, p. 3406 ("The Honourable Hugh Campbell Templeton, to be Minister of Customs"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1978/issue/107/page/3406 +[^2]: *New Zealand Gazette,* February 12, 1981, Extraordinary, No. 14, p. 323 ("The Honourable Hugh Campbell Templeton, of the office of Minister of Broadcasting"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1981/issue/14/page/323 +[^3]: *New Zealand Gazette,* December 11, 1981 (gazetted December 14, 1981), Supplement, No. 149, p. 3780 ("The Honourable Hugh Campbell Templeton, to be Minister of Trade and Industry"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1981/issue/149/page/3780 +[^4]: *New Zealand Gazette,* December 11, 1981, Supplement, No. 149, p. 3779 ("The Honourable Hugh Campbell Templeton, of the Office of Minister of Statistics"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1981/issue/149/page/3779 +[^5]: *New Zealand Gazette,* June 15, 1982, Supplement, No. 63, p. 1861 ("The Honourable Hugh Campbell Templeton of the Office of Minister of Customs ... The Honourable Keith Reading Allen, to be Minister of Customs"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1982/issue/63/page/1861 +[^6]: *New Zealand Gazette,* July 26-27, 1984, Supplement, No. 130, p. 2911 ("The Honourable Hugh Campbell Templeton, of the Offices of Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister of Customs"). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1984/issue/130/page/2911 +[^7]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John Milton Younge.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John Milton Younge.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..72fef5b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John Milton Younge.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - Judge + - FederalJudiciary + - Philadelphia + - OlneyHouseInvestigation +alias: + - John M. Younge +summary: "Philadelphia Common Pleas judge appointed to the federal bench in 2019 and assigned the 2026 firearms and false-identification case against Eugene Horsch." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]]" + role: "district judge" + start: 2019-08-20 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Donald Trump]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-01-23 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas]]" + role: "judge" + start: 1996 + end: 2019 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority]]" + role: "deputy executive director and general counsel" + start: 1985 + end: 1995 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +John Milton Younge (born 1955) is a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]], appointed by [[Donald Trump]] in 2019. He is the judge assigned to *United States v. Horsch*, No. 2:26-cr-00296, the federal case against [[Eugene Horsch]] arising from the traffic stop of June 19, 2026, that led to the [[Olney House Investigation]].[^1][^2] + +### Career + +Younge was born in [[Philadelphia]]. He took a B.A. at [[Boston University]] in 1977, a J.D. at the [[Howard University School of Law]] in 1981, and a master's degree in judicial studies at the [[University of Nevada, Reno]] in 2011. After private practice he worked from 1985 to 1995 at the [[Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority]], as staff attorney, development legal officer, deputy executive director, and from 1990 general counsel. He sat on the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County from 1996 to 2019 and has taught as an adjunct at Delaware County Community College since 2005. He was nominated to the federal bench on July 30, 2015, and again on July 17, 2018, without a Senate vote on either occasion; Trump renominated him on January 23, 2019, to the seat vacated by Mary A. McLaughlin, and he was confirmed on July 31 and commissioned on August 20, 2019.[^1] + +### United States v. Horsch + +A federal grand jury indicted Eugene Horsch on July 9, 2026, on two counts, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a fraudulent federal identification document. The government moved for pretrial detention on June 30, 2026, and the defense obtained three extensions of the motions deadline, the latest filed on September 18, 2026. Eugene Horsch has not been charged in connection with the missing women.[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "Younge, John Milton." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/younge-john-milton +[^2]: United States v. Horsch, No. 2:26-cr-00296 (E.D. Pa.), criminal complaint and affidavit, June 26, 2026; motion for pretrial detention, June 30, 2026; third motion for extension, September 18, 2026. Docket via CourtListener / RECAP. +[^3]: Kramer, Jillian. "Eugene Horsch indicted in federal court on firearms, fake credentials charges," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 9, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-olney-house-federal-indictment-20260709.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md b/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md index 554f7c4b..e328a6cc 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/KEY INDIVIDUALS.md @@ -1120,7 +1120,7 @@ Master index of the people pages, generated from each page's `category` and `sum | [[Eugene Holley]] | Eugene Holley was a former Georgia state senator who introduced Bert Lance to Agha Hasan Abedi. | | [[Gerald Lewis]] | Gerald Lewis was the Florida state comptroller who refused to renew BCCI's license to operate in the state after the 1990 Tampa money-laundering conviction. | | [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] | Pharaon launched himself into the construction business in Saudi Arabia in 1965, founding Saudi Arabian Research and Development Corporation (REDEC). | -| [[Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui]] | Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui was the Head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department and a BCCI board member. | +| [[Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui]] | Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui was the Head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department and a BCCI board member. | | [[Gokal brothers]] | The Gokal brothers, Abbas Gokal, Murtaza Gokal, and Mustafa Gokal, were Pakistani businessmen who ran the Gulf Group, a London-based shipping company. | | [[Jackson Stephens]] | Little Rock investment banker whose firm held the nominee account through which BCCI's clients bought into Financial General Bankshares in 1977, and whose Worthen Bank, owned with the Riady family, financed Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. | | [[James Callaghan]] | James Callaghan, also known as Lord Callaghan, was a former British prime minister who served as a paid economic adviser to the BCCI. | diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - BCCI Scandal.md b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - BCCI Scandal.md index d660c79a..c0b8ab53 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - BCCI Scandal.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/MOC - BCCI Scandal.md @@ -10,43 +10,66 @@ Central figures in the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) banking | Name | Description | | --- | --- | | [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil]] | Khalil was one of the nominees used by Abedi to secretly purchase shares in CCAH, the holding company that owned First American Bank. | -| [[Abbas Gokal]] | Abbas Gokal was one of the Gokal brothers who ran the Gulf Group, a London-based shipping company. | +| [[Abbas Gokal]] | Chairman of the Gulf Group shipping empire, BCCI's largest debtor, convicted at the Old Bailey in 1997 and sentenced to fourteen years. | +| [[Abdur Sakhia]] | BCCI's senior officer in the United States, who testified in 1991 on BCCI's control of First American and its courting of drug money. | +| [[Abdus Sami]] | Senior BCCI officer whose January 1978 memo to Abedi set out the nominee scheme for Financial General Bankshares. | +| [[Abu Dhabi Investment Authority]] | Abu Dhabi's sovereign investment institution, a BCCI shareholder from 1980. | | [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] | Agha Hasan Abedi was a Pakistani financier who founded the BCCI in 1972, with the intention of creating the Third World's first multinational bank. | | [[Amjad Awan]] | Amjad Awan was a manager of BCCI Panama and later the bank's marketing manager for Latin America and the Caribbean. | | [[Arif Durrani]] | Arif Durrani was a Pakistani arms dealer convicted of illegally providing HAWK antiaircraft missile parts to Iran. | | [[Asaf Ali]] | Asaf Ali is a Pakistani multimillionaire and arms dealer, closely associated with Agha Hasan Abedi and the BCCI. | +| [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] | The December 1992 Senate report "The BCCI Affair." | | [[Bert Lance]] | Lance gained prominence as Jimmy Carter's budget director but later resigned due to a congressional investigation into financial improprieties. | +| [[Bingham Report]] | Lord Justice Bingham's 1992 inquiry into the Bank of England's supervision of BCCI. | +| [[Capcom]] | BCCI's London and Chicago commodities affiliate, used for treasury losses and money laundering, including Noriega's. | | [[Charles Saphos]] | Charles Saphos was the Chief of the Criminal Division Narcotics section of the Justice Department. | | [[Clark Clifford]] | Clark Clifford was a prominent American attorney and government official who advised Democratic presidents since Truman. | +| [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] | Netherlands Antilles holding company through which BCCI's nominees held First American. | | [[David L. Paul]] | Paul put CenTrust on a significant growth curve using brokered deposits, which he funneled into high-risk real estate loans, junk bonds, and offbeat investments. | | [[Donald Regan]] | Donald Regan served as the Treasury Secretary during the Reagan Administration. | | [[Douglas Mulholland]] | Douglas Mulholland was the intelligence liaison at the Treasury Department. | | [[Eddie George]] | Eddie George was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. | | [[Eugene Holley]] | Eugene Holley was a former Georgia state senator who introduced Bert Lance to Agha Hasan Abedi. | +| [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]] | Kuwaiti BCCI nominee shareholder in the First American takeover, indicted in New York in 1992. | | [[Gerald Lewis]] | Gerald Lewis was the Florida state comptroller who refused to renew BCCI's license to operate in the state after the 1990 Tampa money-laundering conviction. | | [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] | Pharaon launched himself into the construction business in Saudi Arabia in 1965, founding Saudi Arabian Research and Development Corporation (REDEC). | -| [[Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui]] | Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui was the Head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department and a BCCI board member. | +| [[Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui]] | Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui was the Head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department and a BCCI board member. | +| [[Ghassan Qassem]] | Manager of BCCI's Sloane Street branch who reported on Abu Nidal's accounts to British and American intelligence. | | [[Gokal brothers]] | The Gokal brothers, Abbas Gokal, Murtaza Gokal, and Mustafa Gokal, were Pakistani businessmen who ran the Gulf Group, a London-based shipping company. | +| [[Gulf Group]] | The Gokal brothers' shipping group, BCCI's largest borrower. | +| [[Hank Brown]] | Senator from Colorado, ranking member of the Kerry subcommittee and co-author of its BCCI report. | +| [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] | Chairman of the House Banking Committee, which held BCCI hearings in 1991. | +| [[ICIC]] | BCCI's Cayman "bank within a bank," code-named "Fork" in the Sandstorm Report. | | [[Jack Blum]] | Former Senate investigator and chief counsel to Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, widely recognized for exposing the BCCI scandal and investigating Contra-connected drug trafficking. | | [[James Callaghan]] | James Callaghan, also known as Lord Callaghan, was a former British prime minister who served as a paid economic adviser to the BCCI. | | [[James Dougherty]] | James Dougherty was a Florida lawyer for Lloyd's of London who investigated Munther Ismael Bilheisi and the BCCI. | | [[John Kerry]] | Senator from Massachusetts who chaired the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, investigating both BCCI and links between the Contras and cocaine trafficking with findings that were systematically suppressed. | | [[Joseph E. Vaez]] | In February 1978, Vaez submitted a report on the BCCI that characterized it as a bank dangerously out of control. | | [[Kamal Adham]] | Kamal Adham was the former head of Saudi Arabian intelligence and brother-in-law of the late King Faisal. | +| [[Kerry Committee]] | The Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee under John Kerry that investigated BCCI from 1988 to 1992. | | [[Khalfan al-Mazrui]] | Khalfan al-Mazrui was the Head of the Karachi office of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department. | | [[Masihur Rahman]] | Masihur Rahman was the former chief financial officer of BCCI. | +| [[Mohammed Hammoud]] | Lebanese BCCI front man who bought Clifford and Altman's First American stock and was reported dead in 1990. | | [[Munther Ismael Bilheisi]] | Munther Ismael Bilheisi was an expatriate Jordanian involved in coffee smuggling, arms dealing, customs violations, money laundering, and paying bribes and kickbacks. | +| [[Nazir Chinoy]] | BCCI's general manager in Paris, a Tampa defendant, who described Khashoggi's Iran arms financing. | +| [[Operation C-Chase]] | United States Customs sting of 1986-88 that led to BCCI's 1990 money laundering conviction in Tampa. | +| [[Price Waterhouse]] | BCCI's auditors, authors of the 1991 Sandstorm Report. | | [[Richard Brenneke]] | October Surprise source who provided BCCI and Iran-Contra documents to Danny Casolaro through Bob Bickel. | -| [[Richard J. Kerr]] | Kerr appeared before Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations on October 25, 1992, to discuss the CIA's knowledge of BCCI's activities. | +| [[Richard J. Kerr]] | Acting Director of Central Intelligence who testified before Senator John Kerry's subcommittee on October 25, 1991, that CIA use of BCCI was "limited and routine." | | [[Robert Altman]] | Robert Altman was a prominent American lawyer and banker, known for his close association with Clark Clifford and his involvement in the BCCI scandal. | +| [[Robert Mazur]] | Customs agent who, as "Robert Musella," was the undercover operative of Operation C-Chase. | | [[Robert Morgenthau]] | Robert Morgenthau was the Manhattan district attorney known for his integrity and persistence in exposing government and business corruption. | | [[Robert Mueller]] | Robert Mueller was the head of the Justice Department's criminal division. | | [[Robin Leigh-Pemberton]] | Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the Bank of England. | | [[Roy P. M. Carlson]] | Carlson was a key figure in the early relationship between Bank of America and BCCI. | | [[Sami Masri]] | Sami Masri was a BCCI operative. | +| [[Sandstorm Report]] | Price Waterhouse's June 1991 Section 41 report that preceded BCCI's closure. | | [[Sani Ahmed]] | Sani Ahmed was a key figure in the BCCI, serving as the head of its protocol department in Pakistan before moving to Washington, D.C. | +| [[Serious Fraud Office]] | British prosecutor of BCCI's treasury chief Akbar (1993) and debtor Abbas Gokal (1997). | | [[Swaleh Naqvi]] | Swaleh Naqvi was the chief operating officer of BCCI, taking over after Agha Hasan Abedi's 1988 heart attack. | +| [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]] | Head of BCCI's treasury and creator of Capcom, whose 1993 guilty plea was the first conviction arising from the collapse. | +| [[Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England]] | Twelve-year suit by BCCI's liquidators against the Bank of England, abandoned in 2005. | | [[William Ryback]] | William Ryback was the Deputy Director of Banking Supervision at the Federal Reserve. | -| [[William von Raab]] | William von Raab was the U.S. | +| [[William von Raab]] | United States Commissioner of Customs, told by his officials in 1988 that BCCI officers were indictable under RICO. | | [[Zafar Iqbal]] | Zafar Iqbal took over as head of BCCI in late 1990, after the firing of Agha Hasan Abedi and Swaleh Naqvi. | | [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan]] | Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan was the Head of Abu Dhabi's ruling family and president of the United Arab Emirates. | diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/Federal Reserve Board.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/Federal Reserve Board.md index d0118a4e..f62dc406 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/Federal Reserve Board.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/Federal Reserve Board.md @@ -9,31 +9,45 @@ tags: - BCCI - Regulation - Intelligence -summary: "The Federal Reserve Board (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) is the governing body of the U.S. central banking system, established 1913; it appears in this vault primarily in connection with the BCCI scandal, in which the Federal Reserve approved Clark Clifford and Robert Altman's First American Bankshares acquisition without knowing of BCCI's secret beneficial ownership, and later investigated and fined BCCI's principals for the regulatory deception." +summary: "Governing body of the U.S. central banking system, which approved the BCCI-backed takeover of Financial General Bankshares in 1981 on false assurances and fined BCCI 200 million dollars in July 1991." created: 2026-05-15 -updated: 2026-05-15 +updated: 2026-09-23 location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1991-01-03 + fn: 3 --- -The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) is the governing body of the [[United States]] central banking system, established by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Board consists of seven members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, serving 14-year terms. The Federal Reserve is responsible for U.S. monetary policy, banking supervision and regulation, and maintenance of the financial system's stability. As a bank regulator, the Federal Reserve holds primary supervisory authority over bank holding companies - a jurisdiction directly relevant to the [[BCCI]] scandal.[^1] +The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) is the governing body of the [[United States]] central banking system, established by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and headquartered in [[Washington, D.C.]] The Board consists of seven members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, serving 14-year terms. The Federal Reserve is responsible for U.S. monetary policy, banking supervision and regulation, and maintenance of the financial system's stability. As a bank regulator, the Federal Reserve holds primary supervisory authority over bank holding companies - a jurisdiction directly relevant to the [[BCCI]] scandal.[^1] ### BCCI and First American Bankshares -The Federal Reserve Board is prominently implicated in the [[BCCI]] scandal through its regulatory approval of the acquisition of [[First American Bankshares]], the largest bank holding company in the Washington, D.C. area. In 1981-1982, a group of Middle Eastern investors fronted by [[Clark Clifford]] - the Washington super-lawyer and former Secretary of Defense - and his law partner [[Robert Altman]] sought [[Federal Reserve]] approval to purchase First American (then called Financial General Bankshares). The investors represented themselves as independent Arab investors with no connection to [[BCCI]]. +The Federal Reserve Board is prominently implicated in the BCCI scandal through its regulatory approval of the acquisition of [[First American Bankshares]], the largest bank holding company in the Washington, D.C. area. In 1981-1982, a group of Middle Eastern investors fronted by [[Clark Clifford]] - the Washington super-lawyer and former Secretary of Defense - and his law partner [[Robert Altman]] sought [[Federal Reserve]] approval to purchase First American (then called Financial General Bankshares). The investors represented themselves as independent Arab investors with no connection to BCCI. -The Federal Reserve approved the acquisition. In reality, [[BCCI]] secretly controlled the purchase: the nominally independent Arab investors were BCCI nominees whose shares were financed by BCCI, and BCCI chairman [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] made the key decisions about First American's management. Clifford and Altman maintained publicly - and in sworn testimony to the Federal Reserve - that BCCI did not control First American, which congressional investigators and prosecutors subsequently concluded was false. Clifford and Altman were indicted in 1992 for fraud in connection with the deception of the Federal Reserve; Clifford was ultimately not tried due to ill health, while Altman was acquitted.[^2] +The Federal Reserve approved the acquisition. In reality, BCCI secretly controlled the purchase: the nominally independent Arab investors were BCCI nominees whose shares were financed by BCCI, and BCCI chairman [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] made the key decisions about First American's management. Clifford and Altman maintained publicly - and in sworn testimony to the Federal Reserve - that BCCI did not control First American, which congressional investigators and prosecutors subsequently concluded was false. Clifford and Altman were indicted in 1992 for fraud in connection with the deception of the Federal Reserve; Clifford was ultimately not tried due to ill health, while Altman was acquitted.[^2] The Federal Reserve's failure to detect BCCI's secret ownership of First American - despite BCCI's known reputation in the international banking community as an institution with irregular practices - was identified by the [[Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry Committee investigation]] and the [[Bank of England]]'s [[Bingham Report]] as reflecting significant regulatory failure. The Federal Reserve paid insufficiently close attention to the backgrounds of investors seeking approval, relied on representations without adequate independent investigation, and permitted BCCI principals to escape detection for nearly a decade. ### Post-BCCI Response -Following the July 1991 closure of BCCI by international regulators, the Federal Reserve conducted its own investigation into BCCI's U.S. operations and imposed one of the largest fines in Federal Reserve history - $200 million - against BCCI and related entities in 1992. The settlement included the Federal Reserve's finding that BCCI and its principals had made false representations to the Board in connection with the First American acquisition, engaged in unsafe banking practices, and violated U.S. banking law.[^1] +Following the July 1991 closure of BCCI by international regulators, the Federal Reserve conducted its own investigation into BCCI's U.S. operations and imposed one of the largest fines in Federal Reserve history, 200 million dollars against BCCI, assessed on July 29, 1991. The settlement included the Federal Reserve's finding that BCCI and its principals had made false representations to the Board in connection with the First American acquisition, engaged in unsafe banking practices, and violated U.S. banking law.[^1] ### Iran-Contra Financial Flows The Federal Reserve System's broader role in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] was as the institutional infrastructure through which the financial flows of the "Enterprise" - [[Oliver North]]'s off-books covert operations fund - moved through the banking system. Accounts at major U.S. banks, Swiss numbered accounts, and the network of front companies managed by [[Richard Secord]] and [[Albert Hakim]] all operated through correspondent banking relationships that passed through the Federal Reserve's payment system. The Federal Reserve itself was not involved in or aware of these operations, but its payment infrastructure was the medium through which the illegal financial transactions moved.[^2] +### The Kerry-Brown Findings + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] found that when the Board approved the takeover of [[Financial General Bankshares]] by [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] in 1981 "it had substantial circumstantial evidence before it to suggest that BCCI was behind the bank's purchase," and that it "would not have approved the CCAH application but for the false statements made to it." It relied on representations from the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] and other agencies that they had no objections, and on the reputation of BCCI's lawyers, Clark Clifford and the former Federal Reserve counsel Baldwin Tuttle. Paul Volcker, who signed the approval, testified in 1991 that he "wasn't aware" of [[Kamal Adham]]'s intelligence background. The Treasury failed to pass on what the CIA told it in 1985 and 1986 about BCCI's ownership of [[First American Bank|First American]], although "[[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] agents did provide important information to the Federal Reserve on this issue in early 1989, which the Federal Reserve failed adequately to investigate at the time." The purchase of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] in 1986 was an obvious warning sign not investigated until late 1990.[^3][^4] + +The Board opened a formal investigation on January 3, 1991, which the report called "aggressive and diligent." In mid-March 1991 it sent two investigators, Richard Small and Thomas Baxter, to [[Abu Dhabi]], where they were refused direct access to BCCI's files. On July 29, 1991, the day of the New York County indictments, it assessed a fine of 200 million dollars against BCCI, one of 37 million dollars against [[Ghaith R. Pharaon|Ghaith Pharaon]] and one of 20 million dollars against the BCCI official Kemal Shoaib; with the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] and District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] it reached a plea agreement on December 17, 1991, under which BCCI's liquidators forfeited about 500 million dollars of BCCI's American assets. The report said that the Board's cooperation with the subcommittee "was unique among federal agencies."[^3] The [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s head of the Criminal Division, [[Robert Mueller]], told the subcommittee that the information on BCCI's secret ownership "was passed on to the Federal Reserve after the October 1988 takedown," quoting the Board's general counsel, Virgil Mattingly, that it was "the kind of allegation [that] they had heard before."[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Kerry, John and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993. +[^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. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.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. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..06045218 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +alias: + - ADIA +tags: + - Organization + - AbuDhabi + - SovereignWealth + - BCCI +summary: "Sovereign investment institution of Abu Dhabi, founded 1976, which held 10 percent of BCCI from 1980 and was awarded 1.347 billion dollars against BCCI's convicted executives in 1994." +start: 1976 +location: "Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "10 percent shareholder" + start: 1980 + end: 1991 + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui]]" + reverse: true + role: "secretary general" + start: 1976 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The [[Abu Dhabi]] Investment Authority (ADIA) is, in its own description to the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, "a public institution established by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1976 as an independent investment institution."[^1] From 1980 it held 10 percent of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), and its secretary general from 1976, [[Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui|Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui]], represented it on BCCI's board from 1981 and became the bank's chairman.[^2] + +### BCCI + +According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], after the fall in 1980 of Abdullah Darweish, the adviser who managed the investments of the ruling family, Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Zayed]] directed ADIA to acquire a 10 percent stake in BCCI from [[ICIC]], BCCI's Cayman affiliate, which had agreed to buy back the shares of the departing [[Bank of America]]. Unlike the ruling family, which appeared to have contributed no more than 500,000 dollars to BCCI's capital before April 1990, ADIA "appears to have made some cash payments for its interest in BCCI," whose book value was about 250 million dollars at the end of 1989.[^2] + +After BCCI's closure ADIA joined the Private Department of the UAE president in suing the bank's former executives in Abu Dhabi, and on June 14, 1994, the court awarded it 1.347 billion dollars of the 9.13 billion dollars in damages.[^3] ADIA held 10 percent of Union National Bank, the former Bank of Credit and Commerce Emirates. In January 1995 BCCI's liquidators agreed to sell the bank's 40 percent stake in it back to the Abu Dhabi government for about 27.4 million dollars, and an Abu Dhabi official said the government would later transfer its 50 percent holding to ADIA; the purchase was completed in May 1996.[^4][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, "Abu Dhabi Investment Authority." https://www.ifswf.org/members/abu-dhabi-investment-authority +[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm +[^3]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ +[^4]: "Abu Dhabi to buy BCCI share in UAE bank," United Press International, January 31, 1995. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/01/31/Abu-Dhabi-to-buy-BCCI-share-in-UAE-bank/6991791528400/ +[^5]: "BCCI small depositors paid in UAE," United Press International, October 11, 1997. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/10/11/BCCI-small-depositors-paid-in-UAE/2814876542400/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Bank of England.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Bank of England.md index 339a7b84..94ddcf61 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Bank of England.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Bank of England.md @@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ tags: - Banking - BCCI - Intelligence -summary: "The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and was the primary regulator of BCCI's British operations; its failure to act on clear warning signs about BCCI's fraud was documented in the 1992 Bingham Report, making it central to any account of how BCCI operated for so long under regulatory cover." +summary: "Central bank of the United Kingdom and BCCI's principal supervisor, which propped up the bank in secret from 1990 before closing it in July 1991." created: 2026-05-14 -updated: 2026-05-14 +updated: 2026-09-23 location: "London, United Kingdom" --- @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ The Bank of England is the central bank of the [[United Kingdom]], established b ### BCCI Supervision and Failure -The [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] was registered in Luxembourg and incorporated in the [[Cayman Islands]], but its primary operations and management were based in [[London]]. The Bank of England, as UK banking supervisor, was responsible for overseeing BCCI's British operations - its 65 branches and the London-based senior management. +The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was registered in Luxembourg and incorporated in the [[Cayman Islands]], but its primary operations and management were based in London. The Bank of England, as UK banking supervisor, was responsible for overseeing BCCI's British operations - its 65 branches and the London-based senior management. Multiple warnings about BCCI's fraudulent operations reached the Bank of England before the July 1991 closure. The Price Waterhouse audit firm, which had discovered systematic fraud in its 1990-1991 review of BCCI accounts, disclosed its findings to the Bank of England under a provision of the Banking Act 1987. The Bank of England was also in receipt of intelligence from U.S. authorities, including the [[CIA]], about BCCI's criminal operations from at least 1985. Despite these inputs, the Bank of England did not close BCCI but instead pursued a secret plan - agreed with [[Abu Dhabi]]'s Sheikh Zayed - to reorganize the bank under Abu Dhabi ownership. @@ -26,13 +26,26 @@ The Bank coordinated the international seizure of BCCI on July 5, 1991, when reg The [[Bingham Report]] - formally the Report of Inquiry into the Supervision of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, submitted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by Lord Justice Bingham in October 1992 - examined the Bank of England's supervisory failures in detail. The Report found that the Bank had received numerous indicators of BCCI's problems over the years and had failed to investigate them adequately. It attributed the failures to the Bank's culture of giving the benefit of the doubt to those it regulated, its limited enforcement powers, and the deliberate complexity of BCCI's corporate structure.[^2] -The [[Kerry Committee|Kerry-Brown Senate investigation]] in the United States was more critical, suggesting that intelligence about BCCI's criminal nature had been available and suppressed for reasons that included the bank's CIA utility. The Senate report documented the Bank of England's awareness of intelligence assessments from the CIA and others that went beyond mere supervisory information.[^1] +The [[Kerry Committee|Kerry-Brown Senate investigation]] in the [[United States]] was more critical, suggesting that intelligence about BCCI's criminal nature had been available and suppressed for reasons that included the bank's [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] utility. The Senate report documented the Bank of England's awareness of intelligence assessments from the CIA and others that went beyond mere supervisory information.[^1] ### Role in Broader Financial Oversight The Bank of England is also referenced in this vault through its historical role in overseeing the City of London's offshore financial markets, which provided the regulatory architecture within which [[Eurodollar]] markets and offshore bond markets developed. These markets were used extensively by the arms-brokering and intelligence-connected financial flows documented in subjects including [[Iran-Contra Affair]] and the [[BNL scandal]].[^1] +### The Kerry-Brown Findings + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] recorded that the Bank considered BCCI "the most difficult bank we have to deal with" as far back as the 1970s, and set out its conduct in a list of findings. In 1988 and 1989 the Bank learned of BCCI's involvement in financing terrorism and laundering drug money. In the spring of 1990 Price Waterhouse told it of substantial loan losses, poor banking practices and evidence of fraud, and its response "was not to close BCCI down, but to find ways to prop up BCCI and prevent its collapse," which meant "keeping secret the very serious nature of BCCI's problems from its creditors and one million depositors." In April 1990 the Bank reached an agreement with BCCI, Abu Dhabi and Price Waterhouse under which Abu Dhabi guaranteed BCCI's losses and Price Waterhouse certified its books. The Bank withheld information from the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] in the spring of 1990 about BCCI's lending on the shares of [[First American Bank|First American]]'s holding company, which "delayed the opening of a full investigation by the Federal Reserve for approximately eight months." In late 1990 and early 1991 it tentatively agreed to let BCCI restructure as three separate banks in London, Abu Dhabi and [[Hong Kong]], a decision the report said "demonstrated extraordinarily poor judgment," before deciding abruptly in late June 1991 to close it. Its decision of April 1990 to let BCCI move its headquarters, officers and records to Abu Dhabi "constituted a costly, and likely irretrievable, error."[^3] [[Robin Leigh-Pemberton]] told the House of Commons Treasury and Civil Service Committee that on receipt of the [[Price Waterhouse]] reports of April and October 1990 the Bank had been "alerted to [fraud and deceit]," but that "our view was that even if this added up to individual acts of fraudulent conduct it did not give evidence of a system of fraud throughout the Bank which was wide enough to justify closure. I hope it does not shock you too much, it is only a matter of realism that we do have occasions of fraud in banks... if we close down a bank every time we find an individual act or two of fraud we would have rather fewer banks than we do at the moment." On warning depositors he said: "A hint from the Bank of England that somebody on our list may not be quite pukka would be the kiss of death to the future of a bank."[^3] + +The Price Waterhouse draft report to the Bank dated June 22, 1991, code-named "Sandstorm," found evidence of "widespread fraud and manipulation" and was, in the words of the Senate report, "the final evidence that lead to the shutdown of BCCI globally on July 5, 1991." The Senate subcommittee received it only "in a heavily censured form" at the insistence of the Bank of England.[^4] + +### Three Rivers + +BCCI's liquidators, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, sued the Bank for 850 million pounds (1.78 billion dollars), the first such suit brought against it; because the Bank was protected from negligence claims, the liquidators alleged that 22 of its officials were guilty of "misfeasance," acting dishonestly or in bad faith. The trial, *Three Rivers District Council v. Bank of England*, began in January 2004, with opening speeches of 119 days for the Bank and 80 days for Deloitte. On November 2, 2005, Deloitte dropped the case after the Chancellor of the High Court said that continuing was no longer in the creditors' interests; the Bank called it "unconditional surrender," and its counsel, Nicholas Stadlen, "the most remarkable and humiliating climb down in the history of English litigation."[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: "Bank of England," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bank-of-England [^2]: Kerry, John, and Brown, Hank. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations.* United States Senate, 1992. +[^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. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^4]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^5]: "BCCI's $1.8-billion suit against Bank of England collapses," Reuters, *The Globe and Mail,* November 3, 2005. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/bccis-18-billion-suit-against-bank-of-england-collapses/article18251998/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Development Finance Corporation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Development Finance Corporation.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..321f0486 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Development Finance Corporation.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +category: "Business & Finance" +tags: + - Organization + - NewZealand + - Banking + - Privatization + - StatutoryManagement + - RCHorsch +aliases: + - Development Finance Corporation of New Zealand + - DFC New Zealand Ltd + - DFC +summary: "New Zealand state development lender founded in 1964, corporatized in 1987, sold in 1988 to the National Provident Fund and Salomon Brothers, and placed in statutory management as insolvent in October 1989." +start: 1964 +end: 1989-10-03 +location: "Wellington, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[National Provident Fund]]" + reverse: true + role: "80 percent" + start: 1988-11-18 + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Salomon Brothers]]" + reverse: true + role: "20 percent" + start: 1988-11-18 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Development Finance Corporation (DFC) was "originally established by an Act of Parliament in 1964 to encourage investment by providing financial assistance and financial advisory services to industry." It was first owned by private banks, the [[Reserve Bank of New Zealand|Reserve Bank]] and the [[New Zealand]] government; the government assumed sole ownership in 1973.[^1] + +### Chemical Technology + +In 1981 the corporation reported favourably on the viability of the whey-to-ethanol project of [[Chemical Technology Limited]] at [[Temuka]], alongside two regional development suspensory loans totalling 120,235 dollars approved for the company on the recommendation of the South Canterbury Regional Development Council, according to the Minister of Immigration, [[Kerry Burke]], in October 1984.[^2] The company's American director, known as Dr Stanley Stokowski, was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +### Sale and Collapse + +The corporation became a state-owned enterprise, DFC New Zealand Ltd, on April 1, 1987. Its 1987 annual report, signed by its chairman, Malcolm McConnell, said that the directors had "maintained DFC's relatively conservative accounting policies of previous years and, coupled with a rigorous approach to prudential management, this has ensured that the profit result is based on high quality earnings." In June 1988 the government announced the sale of 80 percent to the [[National Provident Fund]] and 20 percent to [[Salomon Brothers]] for 111.28 million dollars; the National Party opposition argued that the company was being "deliberately under-priced" to advantage senior managers who were to buy 20 percent later.[^1] + +In December 1988 DFC applied to become a registered bank. A management review of its loan portfolio in August and September 1989 concluded that it needed a large capital injection; its shareholders and the government declined to provide one. On October 2, 1989, the company advised the Reserve Bank that it had limited liquidity and was technically insolvent, and on October 3 it was placed in statutory management under section 38R of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Act 1986. The Reserve Bank governor, [[Don Brash]], later wrote that "the reputation of New Zealand and its financial system were very much at stake." Its total liabilities had risen from 1.578 billion dollars in 1986 to 2.881 billion in 1989.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Smith, Christie. "DFC NZ: a cautionary tale of one company's financial failure," preliminary draft, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, June 16, 2011. https://www.nzae.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/Session4/44_Smith.pdf +[^2]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..915a8082 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Organization + - NewZealand + - Intelligence + - NZSIS + - ColdWar +aliases: + - NZSIS + - New Zealand Security Service + - Security Intelligence Service +summary: "New Zealand's domestic intelligence agency, founded in 1956 as the New Zealand Security Service on the model of MI5 and given its present name and a statute in 1969." +start: 1956-11-28 +location: "Wellington, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[William Sutch]]" + start: 1974 + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Vsevolod Sofinsky]]" + start: 1980 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) is [[New Zealand]]'s domestic intelligence agency. It was established on November 28, 1956, as the New Zealand Security Service; "until then, apart from a brief period during the Second World War, national security had been handled by the Police," and between 1956 and 1969 it "existed without a legislative base." The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Act 1969 gave it its present name, recognized it in statute, and defined its role as protecting New Zealand "from threats of espionage, sabotage and subversion."[^1] + +### Origins + +The Police Special Branch was set up in December 1949 and concentrated on the [[Communist Party of New Zealand|Communist Party]] and other "radicals"; its limitations were exposed in the 1951 waterfront dispute. In November 1956 the government created the independent Security Service, and the Special Branch was disbanded by August 1957, after "a series of damning reports on the Special Branch from the controller general of police and from British and Australian security service officers" and amid concerns over corruption at the top of the police. The Soviet defector [[Vladimir Petrov]] had alleged in Australia that an informer was operating at a high level in the New Zealand government.[^2] + +### The Cold War + +The service, "closely modelled on the British [[MI5]]," concentrated its counter-espionage on the Soviet and East European embassies, and from 1973 on the new Chinese embassy. In 1962 it exposed two Soviet diplomats who were expelled for attempting to obtain information through bribery. In 1974 the economist and former senior public servant [[William Sutch]] was arrested and charged with espionage after an SIS investigation; he was acquitted. After the Sutch case and a scandal over leaked documents, the Ombudsman reported in 1976 that the service should concentrate on counter-espionage rather than counter-subversion; the amendment bill of 1977, which expanded its power to intercept communications, drew large protests. In 1980 an SIS investigation led to the expulsion of the Soviet ambassador, [[Vsevolod Sofinsky]], for allegedly passing money to the [[Socialist Unity Party (New Zealand)|Socialist Unity Party]].[^2] + +During the [[1981 Springbok tour]] the service supplied Prime Minister [[Robert Muldoon]] with a list of eight "subversives" and seven "radicals not positively known to be members of subversive groups," which Muldoon published in an attempt to discredit the protest movement. In December 1981 an SIS officer mislaid a briefcase that was found by a ten-year-old boy whose mother, Fran O'Sullivan, was a parliamentary journalist; it contained, according to the reports, "three cold oval meat pies, two slices of cake, copies of the latest Listener and Penthouse, three identity cards, the man's letter of appointment to the SIS ... and pages from what appeared to be a notebook."[^2] + +### The Stokowski Affair + +Under Brigadier [[Lindsay Smith]], director from 1983 to 1991, the service declined to comment on the disappearance in March 1984 of the American known as Dr Stanley Stokowski, a director of [[Chemical Technology Limited]], whom a Sunday newspaper had described as a Russian spy; Smith said it was "a matter for the police and for customs."[^3] The man was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. Smith's term also covered the bombing of the [[Rainbow Warrior]] in 1985.[^4] + +### Legislation + +The statutory definition of security was amended in 1977 "to take account of international terrorism," again in 1996 and 1999, and in 2003 to align with the [[Terrorism Suppression Act 2002]]. Further changes followed with the Intelligence and Security Act 2017.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, "Our history." http://web.archive.org/web/20260513190640/https://www.nzsis.govt.nz/about-us/our-history +[^2]: Clayworth, Peter. "Intelligence services: The Cold War, 1945 to 1984," *Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand,* May 29, 2012. http://web.archive.org/web/20250919013618/https://teara.govt.nz/en/intelligence-services/page-2 +[^3]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 +[^4]: "Obituary: John Lindsay Smith," *The New Zealand Herald,* September 20, 2002. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/iobituaryi-john-lindsay-smith/MKZ33367T76UQ4HMATRFJYPYGY/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Serious Fraud Office.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Serious Fraud Office.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a3a52372 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Serious Fraud Office.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - UnitedKingdom + - Prosecution + - BCCI +alias: + - SFO +summary: "British prosecuting agency for serious and complex fraud, which opened its BCCI investigation in 1991 and convicted the bank's treasury chief Ziauddin Akbar in 1993 and its largest debtor Abbas Gokal in 1997." +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1991-06 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is the British agency that investigates and prosecutes serious and complex fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described it as "the British version of the financial crimes unit within the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]."[^1] + +### BCCI Investigation + +According to the Senate report, the [[Bank of England]] alerted the SFO to begin an investigation of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) one week after receiving the draft [[Sandstorm Report]] of [[Price Waterhouse]] on June 22, 1991, four days before the bank's worldwide closure on July 5.[^2] The report recorded that when the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]], sought BCCI documents from the SFO, it "was unwilling to provide it with any assistance," and listed the SFO with BCCI's lawyers, accountants and shareholders, the Bank of England and the Justice Department among the institutions that, "while professing to cooperate with the District Attorney, in fact withheld information." It also found that the investigations of the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] had been hampered by the SFO, which prevented it from interviewing certain witnesses and reviewing certain documents in the [[United Kingdom]].[^1][^2] + +### Prosecutions + +On September 27, 1993, [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]], the former head of BCCI's treasury division in London, pleaded guilty at the [[Old Bailey]] to sixteen counts of false accounting, and the next day was sentenced to six years, the first criminal conviction arising from BCCI's collapse; an SFO official said no further criminal prosecution of him was planned. Three further BCCI-related trials were then scheduled for January 1994.[^3] + +In September 1992 the SFO opened an inquiry into BCCI's loans to the [[Gulf Group]] of the [[Gokal brothers]], drawing on records from the London liquidators, [[Touche Ross]], and from [[Grand Cayman]], [[Abu Dhabi]] and two New York banks. [[Abbas Gokal]] was arrested at [[Frankfurt]] in July 1994, extradited, and charged in February 1995; after a trial of 122 days at the Old Bailey he was convicted of conspiracy to account falsely and conspiracy to defraud, and on May 8, 1997, he was sentenced to fourteen years, the heaviest sentence the SFO had then obtained. The trial cost about 10 million pounds.[^4][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 9, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: District Attorney of New York." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/09ny.htm +[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^3]: "BCCI official gets six years for fraud charges," United Press International, September 28, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/09/28/BCCI-official-gets-six-years-for-fraud-charges/3315749188800/ +[^4]: "On the trail of Gokal," *Accountancy Age,* May 23, 1997. https://accountancyage.com/1997/05/23/on-the-trail-of-gokal/ +[^5]: "Gokal sentenced to 14 years for BCCI fraud," *The Irish Times,* May 9, 1997. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/gokal-sentenced-to-14-years-for-bcci-fraud-1.70650 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md index 1dc3e633..17bff2f6 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Central Intelligence Agency.md @@ -25,11 +25,11 @@ The CIA, particularly through its Photographic Intelligence Division, was instru The CIA's interest in psi research dates back to the early 1970s, partly in response to rumors of extensive Soviet psi research. Following a number of scandals in the mid-1970s, including revelations of domestic spying, the CIA came under unprecedented scrutiny from Congress. This led to a preference for "clean" spying methods, making psychic intelligence an appealing, low-profile alternative to traditional human intelligence (HUMINT).[^1] -In 1972, the CIA, through officials like [[Kenneth A. Kress|Ken Kress]] from the Technical Services Division (TSD) (later the Office of Technical Service, OTS), provided the initial funding for [[Hal Puthoff]]'s psi research program at [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI). This funding, initially $50,000 for eight months, was contingent on the researchers demonstrating a repeatable psi phenomenon. The Office of Research and Development (ORD) also jointly managed the funding and contract.[^1] In the late 1960s, the CIA had approached Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ at Stanford University to develop a program to counter a similar effort in the Soviet Union, which led to the creation of the [[Stargate Project]], a program that trained individuals in [[Remote Viewing]] to spy on foreign targets. The program was reportedly highly successful, and Puthoff reported directly to the Director of the CIA and the [[White House]].[^11] +In 1972, the CIA, through officials like [[Kenneth A. Kress|Ken Kress]] from the Technical Services Division (TSD) (later the Office of Technical Service, OTS), provided the initial funding for [[Hal Puthoff]]'s psi research program at [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI). This funding, initially $50,000 for eight months, was contingent on the researchers demonstrating a repeatable psi phenomenon. The Office of Research and Development (ORD) also jointly managed the funding and contract.[^1] In the late 1960s, the CIA had approached Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ at Stanford University to develop a program to counter a similar effort in the Soviet Union, which led to the creation of the [[Stargate Project]], a program that trained individuals in [[Remote Viewing]] to spy on foreign targets. The program was reportedly highly successful, and Puthoff reported directly to the Director of the CIA and the [[White House]].[^3] ### The Search for Behavioral Control -Since [[World War II]] the CIA searched secretly for ways to control human behavior, an effort that extended the wartime [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] quest for a truth drug and echoed both the Nazi experiments at [[Dachau]] and [[Albert Hofmann]]'s discovery of [[LSD]]. The programs were triggered by the 1949 show trial of [[Josef Cardinal Mindszenty]] in [[Hungary]], whose glazed confession convinced Agency officials the Communists had developed a technique to render defendants zombielike; what began as defensive research quickly turned offensive, with documents stressing the goal of "controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against such fundamental laws of nature as self-preservation." The effort passed through [[Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke|Project BLUEBIRD]] (1950), ARTICHOKE (1952), and finally [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] under the [[Office of Technical Service|Technical Services Staff]], with [[Richard Helms]] its most important sponsor and his protégé [[Sidney Gottlieb]] running it day to day. The research systematically violated the will of subjects drawn from groups officials considered expendable, mental patients, prostitutes, foreigners, drug addicts, and prisoners; as one Agency psychologist put it, operators lacked "a universal concept of mankind" and were willing to do things to foreigners they would not try on Americans. "It was strictly a patriotic vision," he said.[^16] +Since [[World War II]] the CIA searched secretly for ways to control human behavior, an effort that extended the wartime [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] quest for a truth drug and echoed both the Nazi experiments at [[Dachau]] and [[Albert Hofmann]]'s discovery of [[LSD]]. The programs were triggered by the 1949 show trial of [[Josef Cardinal Mindszenty]] in [[Hungary]], whose glazed confession convinced Agency officials the Communists had developed a technique to render defendants zombielike; what began as defensive research quickly turned offensive, with documents stressing the goal of "controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against such fundamental laws of nature as self-preservation." The effort passed through [[Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke|Project BLUEBIRD]] (1950), ARTICHOKE (1952), and finally [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] under the [[Office of Technical Service|Technical Services Staff]], with [[Richard Helms]] its most important sponsor and his protégé [[Sidney Gottlieb]] running it day to day. The research systematically violated the will of subjects drawn from groups officials considered expendable, mental patients, prostitutes, foreigners, drug addicts, and prisoners; as one Agency psychologist put it, operators lacked "a universal concept of mankind" and were willing to do things to foreigners they would not try on Americans. "It was strictly a patriotic vision," he said.[^4] ### Notable Operations and Impact @@ -51,67 +51,70 @@ Following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] ### Involvement with BCCI -The CIA used the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] extensively, particularly in connection with covert U.S. operations in [[Central America]].[^3] Even before [[Oliver North]] established his network for illegal payments to the [[Contras]], the [[National Security Council]] used BCCI to channel money to them through [[Saudi Arabia]].[^3] The CIA maintained accounts in BCCI for covert operations.[^4] +The CIA used the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] extensively, particularly in connection with covert U.S. operations in [[Central America]].[^5] Even before [[Oliver North]] established his network for illegal payments to the [[Contras]], the [[National Security Council]] used BCCI to channel money to them through [[Saudi Arabia]].[^5] The CIA maintained accounts in BCCI for covert operations.[^6] -In 1986, the CIA issued a report stating that BCCI had owned [[First American Bank]] since 1982.[^5] In 1991, Acting CIA Director [[Richard J. Kerr]] confirmed that the agency had used BCCI to move money around the world.[^6] The CIA also maintained slush funds at BCCI branches, which were used for payoffs of Pakistani military officers and Afghan rebel leaders.[^7] +In 1986, the CIA issued a report stating that BCCI had owned [[First American Bank]] since 1982.[^7] In 1991, Acting CIA Director [[Richard J. Kerr]] confirmed that the agency had used BCCI to move money around the world.[^8] The CIA also maintained slush funds at BCCI branches, which were used for payoffs of Pakistani military officers and Afghan rebel leaders.[^9] -William J. Casey, former CIA Director, met secretly with [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] over a three-year period, discussing U.S. arms deals with Iran and the arming of Afghan resistance forces.[^8] The CIA began using BCCI in the bank's earliest days, as it was establishing itself in countries where American intelligence had few assets.[^8] +William J. Casey, former CIA Director, met secretly with [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] over a three-year period, discussing U.S. arms deals with Iran and the arming of Afghan resistance forces.[^10] The CIA began using BCCI in the bank's earliest days, as it was establishing itself in countries where American intelligence had few assets.[^10] + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] recorded that the agency produced several hundred reports on BCCI between 1979 and 1991, including special analyses in 1985, 1986 and 1989. The 1985 report, delivered in January 1985 to the Treasury's intelligence liaison, [[Douglas Mulholland]], who called it "dynamite," stated that BCCI secretly owned First American Bank; the 1986 report went to the [[State Department]], the Defense Intelligence Agency, the [[National Security Agency]], the National Security Council, Commerce and the Treasury, except for "the two agencies which would have had a statutory responsibility to begin investigations in response," the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] and the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. Acting Director Richard J. Kerr testified on October 25, 1991, that the agency's own use of BCCI had been "limited and routine," and acknowledged "extensive use of First American" for ordinary accounts. The agency denied any relationship between William J. Casey and Agha Hasan Abedi; the report recorded a contrary account from a BCCI official of meetings at the [[Madison Hotel]] in Washington, and the view of the agency's legal department that any such activity by Casey would have been undertaken "in his position as an advisor to the President, rather than in his position as Director of Central Intelligence," outside the agency's records.[^11] ### Operations and Activities -The CIA sent the [[Inter-Services Intelligence|Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)]] agency enormous quantities of cash to keep things moving through [[Pakistan]] during the [[Soviet-Afghan War]].[^9] The CIA was responsible for obtaining arms and ammunition for the [[Mujahideen]], but once delivered to [[Karachi]], the ISI was responsible for moving the equipment.[^9] +The CIA sent the [[Inter-Services Intelligence|Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)]] agency enormous quantities of cash to keep things moving through [[Pakistan]] during the [[Soviet-Afghan War]].[^12] The CIA was responsible for obtaining arms and ammunition for the [[Mujahideen]], but once delivered to [[Karachi]], the ISI was responsible for moving the equipment.[^12] -In 1980, Jimmy Carter signed a presidential "finding" authorizing the CIA to aid the Afghan rebels in "harassment" of the Soviet occupying forces through secret supplies of light weapons and limited funds.[^10] This became the largest covert-action program since [[World War Two]].[^10] +In 1980, Jimmy Carter signed a presidential "finding" authorizing the CIA to aid the Afghan rebels in "harassment" of the Soviet occupying forces through secret supplies of light weapons and limited funds.[^13] This became the largest covert-action program since [[World War Two]].[^13] ### UAP Research and Secrecy -The CIA has a long and complex history with the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) issue. The agency has been a key player in the government's long-standing policy of secrecy and denial on the UAP topic. The Robertson Panel, a CIA-sponsored committee in 1953, recommended a policy of debunking UAP reports and using the mass media to ridicule the topic. This policy was highly effective in creating the stigma that has surrounded the UAP issue for decades.[^11] +The CIA has a long and complex history with the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) issue. The agency has been a key player in the government's long-standing policy of secrecy and denial on the UAP topic. The Robertson Panel, a CIA-sponsored committee in 1953, recommended a policy of debunking UAP reports and using the mass media to ridicule the topic. This policy was highly effective in creating the stigma that has surrounded the UAP issue for decades.[^3] -The CIA is also said to have operated a little-known "weird desk," which was responsible for investigating unusual medical issues, implants, and abductions related to UAP encounters. [[Dr. William Livingston]], who served as a medical advisor to the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP), is described as having presided over this desk.[^11] +The CIA is also said to have operated a little-known "weird desk," which was responsible for investigating unusual medical issues, implants, and abductions related to UAP encounters. [[Dr. William Livingston]], who served as a medical advisor to the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP), is described as having presided over this desk.[^3] -In recent years, the CIA has been more involved in the official UAP investigation. The agency was a participant in the [[UAP Task Force]] and is a member of the current [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO). However, the agency's long history of secrecy and obfuscation on the UAP topic has led to a great deal of skepticism about its willingness to be fully transparent.[^11] +In recent years, the CIA has been more involved in the official UAP investigation. The agency was a participant in the [[UAP Task Force]] and is a member of the current [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO). However, the agency's long history of secrecy and obfuscation on the UAP topic has led to a great deal of skepticism about its willingness to be fully transparent.[^3] ### Dark Alliance Investigation -The CIA's covert action division, the Directorate of Operations, created and managed the Contra project during the 1980s, with its Latin American Division headed by [[Dewey Clarridge]] from 1981 to 1984. The agency recruited Contra leaders including [[Enrique Bermudez|Enrique Bermúdez]] in 1980 and [[Eden Pastora]] in 1981. The CIA maintained station chiefs in [[Costa Rica]], notably [[Joseph Fernandez|Joseph Fernández]] from 1984 to 1986, who were integral to Oliver North's illegal Contra resupply operation.[^12] +The CIA's covert action division, the Directorate of Operations, created and managed the Contra project during the 1980s, with its Latin American Division headed by [[Dewey Clarridge]] from 1981 to 1984. The agency recruited Contra leaders including [[Enrique Bermudez|Enrique Bermúdez]] in 1980 and [[Eden Pastora]] in 1981. The CIA maintained station chiefs in [[Costa Rica]], notably [[Joseph Fernandez|Joseph Fernández]] from 1984 to 1986, who were integral to Oliver North's illegal Contra resupply operation.[^14] ### Contra Drug Trafficking and the Frogman Case -Federal law enforcement records and congressional testimony established that the CIA had reports of [[Cocaine]] being transshipped through Contra-linked facilities, including [[Ilopango Airbase]] in [[El Salvador]]. When defense attorneys in the [[Frogman Case]] obtained letters from CIA assets claiming seized drug money belonged to the Contras, the CIA's Costa Rican station cabled Langley that both men were assets of an organization that had "unwittingly received CIA support." CIA lawyer Lee Strickland flew to [[San Francisco]] and asked the prosecutor to ensure depositions did not go forward. The government returned $36,020 in seized drug money and a CIA cable declared: "CIA equities are fully protected."[^13] +Federal law enforcement records and congressional testimony established that the CIA had reports of [[Cocaine]] being transshipped through Contra-linked facilities, including [[Ilopango Airbase]] in [[El Salvador]]. When defense attorneys in the [[Frogman Case]] obtained letters from CIA assets claiming seized drug money belonged to the Contras, the CIA's Costa Rican station cabled Langley that both men were assets of an organization that had "unwittingly received CIA support." CIA lawyer Lee Strickland flew to [[San Francisco]] and asked the prosecutor to ensure depositions did not go forward. The government returned $36,020 in seized drug money and a CIA cable declared: "CIA equities are fully protected."[^15] -The pseudonymous agent [[Ivan Gomez|Iván Gómez]], assigned to Costa Rica in 1982 as the CIA's liaison to the Contra armies, admitted during polygraph tests that he had laundered drug money. He was fired in 1989 for repeated polygraph failures concerning drug dealing.[^13] +The pseudonymous agent [[Ivan Gomez|Iván Gómez]], assigned to Costa Rica in 1982 as the CIA's liaison to the Contra armies, admitted during polygraph tests that he had laundered drug money. He was fired in 1989 for repeated polygraph failures concerning drug dealing.[^15] ### The Secret 1982 Agreement with the Justice Department -In early 1982, CIA director William J. Casey and Attorney General [[William French Smith]] signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding that exempted the CIA from reporting drug crimes committed by its non-employees - a category including agents, assets, and non-staff employees. Drug offenses were specifically removed from the list of crimes the CIA was required to report. The agreement remained in effect from 1982 to 1995.[^14] +In early 1982, CIA director William J. Casey and Attorney General [[William French Smith]] signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding that exempted the CIA from reporting drug crimes committed by its non-employees - a category including agents, assets, and non-staff employees. Drug offenses were specifically removed from the list of crimes the CIA was required to report. The agreement remained in effect from 1982 to 1995.[^16] ### Ilopango Obstruction -When [[DEA]] agent [[Celerino Castillo]] began investigating Contra drug trafficking at Ilopango, the CIA intervened directly. In April 1986 the El Salvador station sent a cable asking the Costa Rica station to persuade the DEA to back off: "El Salvador Station would appreciate Costa Rica Station advising DEA not to make any inquiries into anyone re: Hangar No. 4 at Ilopango since only legitimate CIA supported operations were conducted from this facility."[^15] +When [[DEA]] agent [[Celerino Castillo]] began investigating Contra drug trafficking at Ilopango, the CIA intervened directly. In April 1986 the El Salvador station sent a cable asking the Costa Rica station to persuade the DEA to back off: "El Salvador Station would appreciate Costa Rica Station advising DEA not to make any inquiries into anyone re: Hangar No. 4 at Ilopango since only legitimate CIA supported operations were conducted from this facility."[^17] ### Inspector General Investigation -CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998 that the CIA "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity," including trafficking within the United States. His 400-page report documented CIA relationships with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war.[^14] +CIA Inspector General [[Fred Hitz]] testified before the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] in March 1998 that the CIA "did not, in an expeditious or consistent fashion, cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity," including trafficking within the United States. His 400-page report documented CIA relationships with more than 50 suspected drug traffickers during the Contra war.[^16] ### Iran-Contra Indictments -Multiple CIA officials were indicted during the Iran-Contra investigation. Clarridge was indicted on seven counts of perjury. Fernández was indicted on four counts. [[Alan Fiers]] pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. All were pardoned by former CIA director [[George H.W. Bush]].[^12] +Multiple CIA officials were indicted during the Iran-Contra investigation. Clarridge was indicted on seven counts of perjury. Fernández was indicted on four counts. [[Alan Fiers]] pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. All were pardoned by former CIA director [[George H.W. Bush]].[^14] ### Footnotes [^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997. [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. -[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 126. -[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 147. -[^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12. -[^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 9. -[^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 149. -[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 347. -[^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 334. -[^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 341. -[^11]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024. -[^12]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue and Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom" -[^13]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom" -[^14]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue: "The damage that has been done" -[^15]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends" -[^16]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979, Chapters 1-2. +[^3]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024. +[^4]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979, Chapters 1-2. +[^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 126. +[^6]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 147. +[^7]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12. +[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 9. +[^9]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 149. +[^10]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 347. +[^11]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm +[^12]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 334. +[^13]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 341. +[^14]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue and Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom" +[^15]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom" +[^16]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Epilogue: "The damage that has been done" +[^17]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends" diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Department of Justice.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Department of Justice.md index ca30640d..73c7369a 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Department of Justice.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Department of Justice.md @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ aliases: - DOJ - Justice Department - U.S. Department of Justice + - "United States Department of Justice" created: 2026-05-17 updated: 2026-09-22 tags: diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Kerry Committee.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Kerry Committee.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d0945207 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Kerry Committee.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +alias: + - Kerry subcommittee + - Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations + - Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations +tags: + - Organization + - Government + - Congress + - BCCI + - Contras +summary: "Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee under John Kerry that investigated drugs and foreign policy in 1987-88 and BCCI from 1988 to 1992, with a staff of two attorneys and no travel budget." +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[John Kerry]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Jack Blum]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief counsel" + end: 1989 + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1988 + end: 1992-12 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]], chaired by Senator [[John Kerry]] of [[Massachusetts]], conducted a two-year investigation of drugs, law enforcement and foreign policy in 1987 and 1988 and, from 1988 to 1992, the congressional investigation of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) that produced the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] of December 1992. Its ranking member for the BCCI inquiry was Senator [[Hank Brown]] of [[Colorado]].[^1] + +### Origins + +BCCI came to the subcommittee's attention in February 1988, during a hearing on the drug trafficking and money laundering of [[Manuel Noriega]]. In March 1988 the Foreign Relations Committee authorized subpoenas to BCCI and to those at the bank who handled Noriega's assets and the accounts of others in [[Panama]] and [[Colombia]]. Service was delayed at the request of the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] and the [[United States Customs Service|Customs Service]], which were concerned for the [[Operation C-Chase|C-Chase]] sting in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]]; by the time the subpoenas were served in late July 1988, the subcommittee's public hearings were over. BCCI officials then told its counsel, [[Jack Blum]], that the bank and its attorneys, among them [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]], were obstructing the inquiry. The subcommittee deposed [[Amjad Awan]] shortly before his arrest in the sting and a second former BCCI officer afterward.[^1] + +In the spring of 1989, as Blum left the subcommittee, Kerry authorized him to give his information to the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]; when the department did not act on it, Blum took it to the New York District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]]. Kerry meanwhile continued the inquiry with two members of his personal staff. After failing to obtain authorization through the Banking Committee, he obtained it from the full Foreign Relations Committee, without dissent, on May 23, 1991, together with a new subpoena to BCCI; further subpoena authorizations followed on November 27, 1991, February 29, 1992, and June 4, 1992. The report recorded that the investigation's staff "remained limited, amounting to two attorneys, with no budget for travel," which particularly hampered its work outside the [[United States]].[^1] + +### Hearings and Report + +The subcommittee held public hearings on BCCI on August 1, 2 and 8, October 18, 22, 23, 24 and 25, and November 21, 1991, and on February 19, March 18, May 14 and July 30, 1992, with a closed hearing on October 31, 1991. It obtained documents from BCCI and its attorneys, former officials and creditors, [[Price Waterhouse]], Clifford and Altman, [[First American Bank]], the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]], the [[Office of the Comptroller of the Currency]], the [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]], the [[Office of Thrift Supervision]], the [[Resolution Trust Corporation]], [[Abu Dhabi]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Customs Service and the [[United States Department of State|State Department]].[^1] Its report, Senate Print 102-140, was issued in December 1992. The archivist [[Steven Aftergood]] of the [[Federation of American Scientists]], which published the committee's electronic text, noted that after its release "Sen. Hank Brown, reportedly acting at the behest of [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]], pressed for the deletion of a few passages, particularly in Chapter 20 on 'BCCI and [[Kissinger Associates]],'" so that the version printed by the Government Printing Office "differs slightly from the Committee's softcopy version."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 2, "Introduction and Summary of Investigation." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/02intro.htm +[^2]: Aftergood, Steven. Editorial note, "The BCCI Affair," Federation of American Scientists. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Foreign Relations Committee.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Foreign Relations Committee.md index 48f70ff5..81e9a39f 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Foreign Relations Committee.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Senate Foreign Relations Committee.md @@ -2,8 +2,7 @@ category: "Intelligence & Government" aliases: - "Senate Committee on Foreign Relations" - - "Kerry subcommittee" - - "Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations" + - "United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations" tags: - Organization - Government @@ -25,16 +24,16 @@ relations: with: "[[John Kerry]]" reverse: true role: "chairman, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations" - fn: 8 + fn: 10 - type: employed_by with: "[[Jack Blum]]" reverse: true role: "special counsel to the Kerry subcommittee" - fn: 8 + fn: 10 - type: investigated with: "[[Contras]]" end: 1988-12 - fn: 9 + fn: 11 created: 2026-09-22 updated: 2026-09-22 --- @@ -43,13 +42,13 @@ The Senate established the Committee on Foreign Relations in 1816 as one of its ### Hearings -On January 6, 1961, Secretary of State [[Christian A. Herter]] gave his farewell briefing to a closed session of the committee and spoke of a "disturbing" new element in the [[Middle East]], the reactor at [[Dimona]].[^3] At his confirmation hearing of 1966 as assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, [[Lincoln Gordon]] testified that "Neither the American Embassy nor I personally played any part" in the 1964 coup in Brazil.[^4] The committee held hearings on the [[AIFLD|American Institute for Free Labor Development]] on August 1, 1969.[^5] On February 7 and March 6, 1973, [[Richard Helms]], newly ambassador to Iran, testified to it about Chile and [[ITT Corporation|ITT]], stating under oath that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had not "tried to overthrow the government of Chile" and had not "passed money to the opponents of Allende"; in 1977 he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of misleading Congress.[^6][^13] At the hearing of July 26, 1983, on [[Thomas F. Ellis]], nominated to the Board for International Broadcasting, Senators Paul Tsongas and [[Joe Biden|Joseph Biden]] questioned him about his service on the board of the [[Pioneer Fund]]; he withdrew.[^7] It confirmed [[Donald Gregg]]'s ambassadorial nomination in June 1989 after hearings in which Kerry pressed him on what he had known of Contra operations.[^10] +On January 6, 1961, Secretary of State [[Christian A. Herter]] gave his farewell briefing to a closed session of the committee and spoke of a "disturbing" new element in the [[Middle East]], the reactor at [[Dimona]].[^3] At his confirmation hearing of 1966 as assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, [[Lincoln Gordon]] testified that "Neither the American Embassy nor I personally played any part" in the 1964 coup in Brazil.[^4] The committee held hearings on the [[AIFLD|American Institute for Free Labor Development]] on August 1, 1969.[^5] On February 7 and March 6, 1973, [[Richard Helms]], newly ambassador to Iran, testified to it about Chile and [[ITT Corporation|ITT]], stating under oath that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had not "tried to overthrow the government of Chile" and had not "passed money to the opponents of Allende"; in 1977 he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of misleading Congress.[^6][^7] At the hearing of July 26, 1983, on [[Thomas F. Ellis]], nominated to the Board for International Broadcasting, Senators Paul Tsongas and [[Joe Biden|Joseph Biden]] questioned him about his service on the board of the [[Pioneer Fund]]; he withdrew.[^8] It confirmed [[Donald Gregg]]'s ambassadorial nomination in June 1989 after hearings in which Kerry pressed him on what he had known of Contra operations.[^9] ### The Kerry Subcommittee -The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations under [[John Kerry]], with [[Jack Blum]] as special counsel, took testimony in 1987 and 1988 from traffickers, pilots and officials, among them [[Ramon Milian Rodriguez]] and, in February 1988, José Blandón.[^8] Its report of December 1988, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* stated: "The Subcommittee did not find that the Contra leaders personally were involved in drug trafficking. There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region." It found that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra's funding problems," citing [[Oliver North]]'s suggestion to the [[DEA]] in June 1985 that 1.5 million dollars from [[Barry Seal]]'s sting be given to the Contras, and that "the [[State Department]] selected four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras," among them [[SETCO]] Air, set up by [[Juan Matta Ballesteros|Ramón Matta Ballesteros]], and [[DIACSA]].[^9] The subcommittee's investigation of the [[BCCI|Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] led to *[[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|The BCCI Affair]],* the report of Kerry and Senator [[Hank Brown]] of December 1992.[^11] +The [[Kerry Committee|Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations]] under [[John Kerry]], with [[Jack Blum]] as special counsel, took testimony in 1987 and 1988 from traffickers, pilots and officials, among them [[Ramon Milian Rodriguez]] and, in February 1988, José Blandón.[^10] Its report of December 1988, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* stated: "The Subcommittee did not find that the Contra leaders personally were involved in drug trafficking. There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra supporters throughout the region." It found that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra's funding problems," citing [[Oliver North]]'s suggestion to the [[DEA]] in June 1985 that 1.5 million dollars from [[Barry Seal]]'s sting be given to the Contras, and that "the [[State Department]] selected four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers to supply humanitarian assistance to the Contras," among them [[SETCO]] Air, set up by [[Juan Matta Ballesteros|Ramón Matta Ballesteros]], and [[DIACSA]].[^11] The subcommittee's investigation of the [[BCCI|Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] led to *[[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|The BCCI Affair]],* the report of Kerry and Senator [[Hank Brown]] of December 1992.[^12] -In 1992 a subcommittee of the committee investigated the [[October Surprise]] allegations and found that [[William J. Casey]] had made "potentially dangerous" unauthorized efforts to collect intelligence on the Carter administration's negotiations for the release of the hostages in Iran, without finding a deal.[^12] +In 1992 a subcommittee of the committee investigated the [[October Surprise]] allegations and found that [[William J. Casey]] had made "potentially dangerous" unauthorized efforts to collect intelligence on the Carter administration's negotiations for the release of the hostages in Iran, without finding a deal.[^13] ### Footnotes @@ -59,10 +58,10 @@ In 1992 a subcommittee of the committee investigated the [[October Surprise]] al [^4]: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hearing on the nomination of Lincoln Gordon as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1966, as quoted on the Lincoln Gordon page. [^5]: University of Maryland Special Collections, finding aid, "Senate Foreign Relations Committee, American Institute for Free Labor Development hearings," as cited on the AIFLD page. [^6]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA.* Knopf, 1979; Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, "Richard Helms' Eligibility Under 5 U.S.C. Section 8314 To Receive an Annuity," as cited on the Project FUBELT page. -[^7]: United Press International, dispatch on the withdrawal of Thomas Ellis, Washington, July 28, 1983; United States Senate, nomination PN59-1, 98th Congress. -[^8]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993; as cited on the John Kerry, Ramon Milian Rodriguez and Mike Harari pages. -[^9]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations. *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras -[^10]: As cited on the Donald Gregg page. -[^11]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,* December 1992, as cited on the BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report page. -[^13]: Powers, Thomas, *The Man Who Kept the Secrets,* as cited on the Richard Helms page. -[^12]: U.S. House of Representatives, October Surprise Task Force, *Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980,* 1993, as cited on the October Surprise page. +[^7]: Powers, Thomas, *The Man Who Kept the Secrets,* as cited on the Richard Helms page. +[^8]: United Press International, dispatch on the withdrawal of Thomas Ellis, Washington, July 28, 1983; United States Senate, nomination PN59-1, 98th Congress. +[^9]: As cited on the Donald Gregg page. +[^10]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993; as cited on the John Kerry, Ramon Milian Rodriguez and Mike Harari pages. +[^11]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations. *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy,* S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988. https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras +[^12]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,* December 1992, as cited on the BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report page. +[^13]: U.S. House of Representatives, October Surprise Task Force, *Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980,* 1993, as cited on the October Surprise page. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/State Department.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/State Department.md index 1b73dee7..14ecd753 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/State Department.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/State Department.md @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ title: State Department aliases: - U.S. Department of State - Department of State + - "United States Department of State" tags: - Organization - Government diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Customs.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Customs.md index dc03b5d7..693677db 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Customs.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/U.S. Customs.md @@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ tags: - Contra_War - 1980s summary: U.S. federal law enforcement agency responsible for border protection and customs enforcement that investigated Contra-connected cocaine trafficking through informants including Joseph Kelso. +alias: + - "United States Customs Service" --- [[U.S. Customs and Border Protection]] (U.S. Customs) is a federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting the borders of the [[United States]].[^1] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia).md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia).md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..19ac6250 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia).md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +category: "Media & Entertainment" +tags: + - Organization + - Cinema + - Philadelphia + - Censorship + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Arcadia Theatre + - Arcadia Theater +summary: "First-run cinema at 1529-1531 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, which cancelled a February 1975 midnight showing of R.C. Horsch's Black Mass after reported pressure from the Archdiocese." +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Arcadia Theatre was a cinema at 1529-1531 Chestnut Street in [[Center City, Philadelphia|Center City]], [[Philadelphia]], recorded by the Athenaeum of Philadelphia with a seating capacity of 500 and with the Sablosky Corporation and Frank DeLong among its clients. In February 1975 it cancelled a midnight booking of *[[Black Mass (1975 film)|Black Mass]]*, a film about a satanic rite by Ray Hoersch, later [[R.C. Horsch]], after what *The Philadelphia Inquirer* called reported pressure from the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia|Philadelphia Archdiocese]].[^1][^2] + +### Black Mass + +"Chestnut Hill filmmaker Ray Hoersch" was to show *Black Mass* at midnight at the Arcadia. The *Inquirer* reported on February 28, 1975, that the showing "was cancelled after reported pressure by the Philadelphia Archdiocese, according to the Bandbox's [[Art Carduner]], who gave the film a new home" at the [[Bandbox Theater]] in [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]].[^2] A joint statement of sixteen Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders of Philadelphia, led by Cardinal [[John Krol]], called the film "a blasphemous attack on the religious rites held in sacred reverence by millions of Christian believers" and urged "believers of every religious conviction to use every moral force to discourage the showing of this film."[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, Athenaeum of Philadelphia, "Arcadia Theatre," 1529-1531 Chestnut St. (clients "Sablosky Corporation; DeLong, Frank"; "Seating capacity: 500"). https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/8403 +[^2]: [Society and nightlife column], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* February 28, 1975, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/ +[^3]: "Offensive Material: Leaders Condemn Black Mass Film," Religious News Service, *Lake Shore Visitor* (Erie), March 7, 1975, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/951794835/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bandbox Theater.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bandbox Theater.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c1841db7 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bandbox Theater.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +category: "Media & Entertainment" +tags: + - Organization + - Cinema + - Philadelphia + - Germantown + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Band Box Theater + - Bandbox Theatre +summary: "Art-house cinema at 20-22 East Armat Street in Germantown, owned by Art Carduner from 1966 to 1975, which screened R.C. Horsch's condemned film Black Mass in 1975." +location: "Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Bandbox Theater, also written Band Box, was a cinema at 20-22 East Armat Street in the [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]] section of [[Philadelphia]], recorded with a seating capacity of 499. [[Art Carduner]] bought it, then shuttered, in 1966 and ran it as a house for foreign and art films until 1975. It screened films of Ray Hoersch, later [[R.C. Horsch]], in 1969 and 1975.[^1][^2] + +### Hoersch + +In late 1969, when the city's [[Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections|Department of Licenses and Inspections]] closed Hoersch's [[Underground Cinema 16]] on Sansom Street, the Bandbox ran the Vietnam documentary *[[In the Year of the Pig]]*, which Cinema 16 had under contract.[^3] In February 1975 the [[Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia)|Arcadia]] on Chestnut Street cancelled a midnight booking of Hoersch's *[[Black Mass (1975 film)|Black Mass]]* after what the *Inquirer* called reported pressure from the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia|Philadelphia Archdiocese]], and a joint statement of sixteen religious leaders led by Cardinal [[John Krol]] condemned the film. Carduner gave it a midnight screening at the Bandbox on Saturday, March 1, 1975, as a benefit for the Friends of the Bandbox, with Hoersch attending.[^4][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, Athenaeum of Philadelphia, "Bandbox Theatre," 20-22 E. Armat St. ("Seating capacity: 499"). https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/8266 +[^2]: Morrison, John F. "Art Carduner, a pioneer in exhibiting foreign films in Phila.," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* December 9, 2009. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20091209_Art_Carduner__a_pioneer_in_exhibiting_foreign_films_in_Phila_.html +[^3]: "Mayor Tate's War On [title cut off in the scan]," *The Distant Drummer,* no. 65, December 25, 1969, p. 8, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p16002coll34/id/473 +[^4]: [Society and nightlife column], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* February 28, 1975, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/ +[^5]: "Offensive Material: Leaders Condemn Black Mass Film," Religious News Service, *Lake Shore Visitor* (Erie), March 7, 1975, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/951794835/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bank of Credit and Commerce International.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bank of Credit and Commerce International.md index cbde6a86..9174989e 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bank of Credit and Commerce International.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bank of Credit and Commerce International.md @@ -3,8 +3,9 @@ title: Bank of Credit and Commerce International aliases: - Bank of Credit and Commerce International - BCCI + - Sandstorm created: 2024-04-25 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-23 tags: - Organization - Private @@ -15,12 +16,24 @@ tags: - IranContra - OctopiNetwork category: "BCCI Scandal" -summary: "The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a Pakistani-founded offshore bank that operated across 78 countries before its 1991 collapse exposed a decade-long conspiracy involving money laundering for drug cartels and intelligence agencies, illegal acquisition of U.S. banks, bribery, fraud, and arms trafficking, in what regulators called the largest bank fraud in history." +summary: "Pakistani-founded international bank, registered in Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands, that secretly owned US banks and laundered money for traffickers and intelligence clients before regulators closed it on July 5, 1991." start: 1972-09-21 end: 1991-07-05 location: "Luxembourg" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of America]]" + reverse: true + role: "shareholder, 30 percent in 1977, divested 1978" + start: 1972 + end: 1978 + fn: 3 + - type: owned + with: "[[First American Bank]]" + role: "secret owner through nominees" + fn: 7 --- -BCCI was a financial institution that became embroiled in a major scandal involving money laundering, drug trafficking, and covert operations. Its collapse had far-reaching implications and was a significant focus of [[Danny Casolaro]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" investigation.[^1] +BCCI was a financial institution that became embroiled in a major scandal involving money laundering, drug trafficking, and covert operations. Its collapse had far-reaching implications and was a significant focus of [[Danny Casolaro]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" investigation.[^1] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] of 1992 described it as "a $23 billion criminal bank operating in some 73 countries."[^2] ### Involvement in Illicit Activities @@ -28,41 +41,73 @@ BCCI was a financial institution that became embroiled in a major scandal involv Danny Casolaro was investigating the BCCI scandal as part of his broader "The Octopus" probe, believing it was interconnected with the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and the Iran-Contra Affair. He obtained papers referring to Iran-Contra arms deals, including photocopies of checks drawn on BCCI accounts for Adnan Khashoggi and [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], from his confidante [[Bob Bickel]].[^1] -[[Bill Turner]], a friend and confidante of [[Danny Casolaro]], claimed to have seen papers from Casolaro that connected [[Oliver North]] and BCCI.[^1] +[[Bill Turner]], a friend and confidante of Danny Casolaro, claimed to have seen papers from Casolaro that connected [[Oliver North]] and BCCI.[^1] + +### Founding and Bank of America + +According to the Senate report, Abedi's first choice of a Western partner, [[American Express]], "insisted on having a major say in BCCI's management, which Abedi would not tolerate." He turned instead to [[Bank of America]], for which BCCI offered "a potentially lucrative entry to Arab oil wealth, at a tiny capitalization cost of just $2.5 million." After what Abedi called "an historic lunch" in [[San Francisco]], the American bank agreed to be a passive partner; Abedi told *Euromoney* in 1978: "Bank of America agreed to become a shareholder, but we made it a condition that we would establish the management style." BCCI began with 3 million dollars in total capital. Bank of America officials sat on its board: Yves Lamarche, formerly head of its [[Middle East]] operations; J.D. Van Oenen; P.C. Twitchen; and, from Iran, [[Roy P. M. Carlson|Roy Carlson]], who later became president of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] when it was secretly owned by BCCI. The ruling family of [[Abu Dhabi]], whose initial cash investment of 500,000 dollars was acknowledged to the Senate subcommittee for the first time on May 14, 1992, provided deposits; the Middle Eastern royal shareholders were given "hold harmless agreements" against loss, and insiders called the board "RAF," for "rent-a-face."[^3] + +A Bank of America record of September 30, 1977, listed BCCI's majority owner as [[ICIC]], its Cayman affiliate, with 50.1 percent; Bank of America held 30 percent, Majid Al-Futaim of [[Dubai]] 4 percent, and the Abu Dhabi ruling family 3.4 percent. A Bank of America executive vice president, Alvin C. Rice, wrote in a memorandum of May 10, 1976: "We are just not operating on the basis of mutual trust and cooperation that make the whole effort and exercise worthwhile," and later told journalists that BCCI believed regulatory obstacles could be fixed through "baksheesh." By early 1978 an examiner of the Comptroller of the Currency in London concluded that Bank of America was "substantially at risk from BCCI." Bank of America sold its stake to ICIC, announcing on January 30, 1978, that "the close co-operation that has developed between the two banks will be maintained"; over the following decade it kept correspondent relationships with BCCI and, the report found, colluded "in at least one of BCCI's purchases of foreign banks through nominees in [[South America]]."[^3] ### Chronology -**1972:** [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] organizes BCCI with the intention of forming the Third World's first multinational bank.[^2] +1972: [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] organizes BCCI with the intention of forming the Third World's first multinational bank.[^4] -**1975:** Using [[Abbas Gokal]] as a front, BCCI attempts to acquire Chelsea National Bank in [[New York City]]. Regulators reject the bid due to concerns about BCCI's involvement.[^2] +1975: Using [[Abbas Gokal]] as a front, BCCI attempts to acquire [[Chelsea National Bank]] in [[New York City]]. Regulators reject the bid due to concerns about BCCI's involvement.[^4] -**1976:** BCCI opens its [[Cayman Islands]] subsidiary ICIC, which becomes BCCI's repository for loans to privileged insiders.[^2] +1976: BCCI opens its [[Cayman Islands]] subsidiary ICIC, which becomes BCCI's repository for loans to privileged insiders. ICIC Holdings and ICIC (Overseas) Ltd. were incorporated on April 6, 1976.[^4][^5] -**1977:** [[Eugene Holley]] introduces [[Bert Lance]] to Abedi.[^2] +1977: [[Eugene Holley]] introduces [[Bert Lance]] to Abedi.[^4] -**1978:** [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] finalizes his acquisition of [[National Bank of Georgia]] from Bert Lance with Abedi's help. Abedi pays off Lance's $3.5-million bank loan. BCCI orchestrates a hostile bid for [[Financial General Bankshares]] of [[Washington, D.C.]] with Lance's help. [[Joseph E. Vaez]] submits a report on BCCI characterizing it as dangerously out of control. The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] files suit against BCCI, Abedi, Lance, and others in connection with the purchase of Financial General Bankshares stock.[^2] +1978: [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] finalizes his acquisition of National Bank of Georgia from Bert Lance with Abedi's help. Abedi pays off Lance's $3.5-million bank loan. BCCI orchestrates a hostile bid for [[Financial General Bankshares]] of [[Washington, D.C.]] with Lance's help; on January 30, 1978, the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] advised Abedi to spread ownership among "4 persons of substance" to keep each below 5 percent.[^6] [[Joseph E. Vaez]] submits a report on BCCI characterizing it as dangerously out of control. The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] files suit against BCCI, Abedi, Lance, and others in connection with the purchase of Financial General Bankshares stock.[^4][^7] -**1979:** The [[Soviet Union]] invades [[Afghanistan]], making [[Pakistan]] a key strategic priority for the [[United States]].[^2] +1979: The [[Soviet Union]] invades [[Afghanistan]], making [[Pakistan]] a key strategic priority for the [[United States]].[^4] -**1981:** Regulators approve the sale of Financial General to Middle Eastern investors connected with BCCI, based on [[Clark Clifford]]'s assurances of no link between BCCI and Financial General Bankshares.[^2] +1981: Regulators approve the sale of Financial General to Middle Eastern investors connected with BCCI, based on [[Clark Clifford]]'s assurances of no link between BCCI and Financial General Bankshares. The Federal Reserve later found that BCCI owned at least 25 percent of the holding company, [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]], when it acquired [[First American Bank|First American]] in 1982.[^4][^7] -**1982:** Lance introduces Abedi to [[Jimmy Carter]]. BCCI illegally acquires [[Independence Bank of Encino]] using [[Ghaith Pharaon]] as a front man. BCCI helps Adnan Khashoggi finance arms sales to [[Iran]] as part of the [[Reagan Administration]]'s Iran-Contra Affair. BCCI suffers over $440 million in losses from options trading through its subsidiary Capcom.[^2] +1982: Lance introduces Abedi to [[Jimmy Carter]]. BCCI illegally acquires [[Independence Bank of Encino]] using [[Ghaith Pharaon]] as a front man. BCCI helps Adnan Khashoggi finance arms sales to [[Iran]] as part of the [[Reagan Administration]]'s Iran-Contra Affair. BCCI suffers over $440 million in losses from options trading through its subsidiary [[Capcom]], according to Beaty and Gwynne; the Senate report, citing [[Price Waterhouse]], dated the Capcom losses to 1985 and put them at 500 million dollars.[^4][^8] -**1986:** The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] issues a report stating that BCCI has owned [[First American Bank]] since 1982.[^2] +1986: The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] issues a report stating that BCCI has owned First American Bank since 1982.[^4] -**1987:** Pharaon becomes a partner in [[David L. Paul]]'s [[CenTrust Savings Bank]] of [[Miami]]. First American Bank buys the National Bank of Georgia from Ghaith Pharaon for $227 million.[^2] +1987: Pharaon becomes a partner in [[David L. Paul]]'s [[CenTrust Savings Bank]] of [[Miami]]. First American Bank buys the National Bank of Georgia from Ghaith Pharaon for $227 million, according to Beaty and Gwynne; the Senate report gives 220 million dollars.[^4][^9] -**1988:** Clifford and [[Robert Altman]] sell their stock in First American to [[Mohammed Hammoud]]. Abedi's heart attack ends his direct control of BCCI, and [[Swaleh Naqvi]] becomes chief executive. [[Amjad Awan]] tells investigators that BCCI owns First American and National Bank of Georgia. American Customs agents arrest five BCCI bankers in Tampa, Florida, along with other bankers and narcotics traffickers in London and the U.S. on money laundering charges.[^2] +1988: Clifford and [[Robert Altman]] sell their stock in First American to [[Mohammed Hammoud]]. Abedi's heart attack ends his direct control of BCCI, and [[Swaleh Naqvi]] becomes chief executive. [[Amjad Awan]] tells an undercover agent that BCCI owns First American and National Bank of Georgia. On October 8, American Customs agents of [[Operation C-Chase]] arrest BCCI bankers at a staged wedding in [[Tarpon Springs, Florida|Tarpon Springs]], with arrests in London and Paris, on money laundering charges.[^4][^10] -**1989:** [[Jack Blum]] visits Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] to persuade him to take on the BCCI case.[^2] +1989: [[Jack Blum]] visits Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] to persuade him to take on the BCCI case.[^4] -**1990:** BCCI pleads guilty to money laundering in Tampa, Florida, forfeiting $14 million. The first Price Waterhouse audit reveals a $1.7 billion black hole in the bank's accounts. A second Price Waterhouse audit details thousands of irregular transactions and confirms BCCI's control of First American.[^2] +1990: BCCI pleads guilty to money laundering in Tampa, Florida, in January, forfeiting $14 million. A Tampa jury convicts the BCCI officers on July 29, and they are sentenced on November 30, Awan and Akbar Bilgrami to twelve years each. The first Price Waterhouse audit reveals a $1.7 billion black hole in the bank's accounts. A second Price Waterhouse audit details thousands of irregular transactions and confirms BCCI's control of First American. The [[Bank of England]] agrees to let BCCI move its headquarters and records to Abu Dhabi.[^4][^10][^11] -**1991:** [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]] acquires 77 percent control of BCCI. A Florida jury convicts five Tampa BCCI officers of conspiring to launder cocaine profits. The [[Federal Reserve]] orders BCCI to sell illegally acquired shares in First American Bank. Regulators worldwide seize BCCI offices, placing over 75 percent of the bank's assets in government hands. A New York City State grand jury indicts BCCI, Abedi, and Naqvi for fraud, bribery, grand larceny, and money laundering. The Federal Reserve Board fines BCCI $200 million for illegally acquiring control of First American Bank, National Bank of Georgia, and CenTrust Savings. Clifford and Altman resign from First American. BCCI's liquidators plead guilty and agree to forfeit $550 million.[^2] +1991: [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Sheikh Zayed]] acquires 77 percent control of BCCI. The [[Federal Reserve]] orders BCCI to sell illegally acquired shares in First American Bank. Regulators worldwide seize BCCI offices on July 5, placing over 75 percent of the bank's assets in government hands. On July 29 a New York State grand jury indicts BCCI, Abedi, and Naqvi for fraud, bribery, grand larceny, and money laundering, and the [[Federal Reserve Board]] fines BCCI $200 million for illegally acquiring control of First American Bank, National Bank of Georgia, and CenTrust Savings. Clifford and Altman resign from First American. BCCI's liquidators plead guilty and agree to forfeit $550 million.[^4][^7][^12] -**1992:** [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]] is indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. [[Kamal Adham]] pleads guilty in New York and agrees to cooperate with Morgenthau and the Justice Department. Clifford and Altman are indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and a federal grand jury.[^2] +1992: [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]] is indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. [[Kamal Adham]] pleads guilty in New York and agrees to cooperate with Morgenthau and the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. Clifford and Altman are indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and a federal grand jury.[^4] + +### Closure + +Through late 1990 and the spring of 1991, according to the Senate report, BCCI, Abu Dhabi and the Bank of England worked on a plan to reconstitute the bank as three institutions based in London, Abu Dhabi and [[Hong Kong]], while all of them, with Price Waterhouse, "worked together to keep what they knew about BCCI secret," including from Morgenthau. The Federal Reserve "had been fully alerted to the state of affairs at BCCI for the first time not by the Bank of England, but by the Manhattan District Attorney." In March 1991 the Bank of England commissioned Price Waterhouse to investigate under Section 41 of the Banking Act; its draft report of June 22, 1991, the [[Sandstorm Report]], in which BCCI was code-named "Sandstorm," found "fraud on a significant scale." One week later the Bank of England alerted the [[Serious Fraud Office]], and four days after that, on July 5, 1991, BCCI was closed internationally.[^11] The Senate report concluded that "the pressure from a single, local prosecutor's office that would not relent when it found evidence of global criminality, proved sufficient to shut down a $23 billion criminal bank operating in some 73 countries," since the Bank of England "had reason to know that the New York District Attorney was only a few weeks away from indicting BCCI."[^2][^11] The British inquiry into the Bank's supervision, the [[Bingham Report]], found the closure "an appropriate course of action."[^13] + +### Prosecutions and Forfeiture + +On July 29, 1991, the day of Morgenthau's indictment, the Federal Reserve announced a 200 million dollar civil penalty against BCCI and related banks and sought to bar Abedi, Naqvi, Hasan Mahmood Kazmi, Adham, Faisal Saud Al-Fulaij, [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|A. R. Khalil]], Sayed Jawhary, Pharaon and Khusro Elley from American banking. It found that BCCI had acquired CCAH shares in its customers' names through loans "with side agreements that the customer would not be required to repay," and that BCCI "resorted to these arrangements because BCCI was told it could not receive the necessary approvals from the Federal Reserve Board to acquire a bank in the United States."[^7] By December 1991 BCCI's liquidators had pleaded guilty to the first six counts of the New York indictment "as part of an agreement concerning BCCI's assets in the United States," and a superseding information was filed in the federal court in Washington on December 19, 1991.[^2][^8] British prosecutions followed: [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]], head of the treasury division, was sentenced in 1993 and Abbas Gokal of the [[Gulf Group]] in 1997.[^14] + +### Liquidation + +The liquidators, [[Touche Ross]], reported a year into the liquidation that the true picture of BCCI's activities had been distorted by practices such as "loan parking" and "artificial fund transfers."[^8] The Abu Dhabi shareholders, who held 77.4 percent of BCCI at its closure, agreed a 1.8 billion dollar compensation package for creditors in November 1994, which received its last legal clearance, from a court in Luxembourg, in December 1995. An agreement with the liquidators in May 1996 allowed an initial payment of 1.55 billion dollars, a first dividend of 20 percent to more than 250,000 creditors, with 10 to 20 percent more to follow; by October 1997, 80 percent of small depositors in the [[United Arab Emirates]] had been repaid in full.[^15] In 2005 the liquidators abandoned their suit against the Bank of England, [[Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England]].[^16] ### Footnotes [^1]: Seymour, Cheri. _The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal_. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. -[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. _The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI_. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 11-14. \ No newline at end of file +[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 9, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: District Attorney of New York." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/09ny.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm +[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. _The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI_. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 11-14. +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry and FGB and NBG Takeovers." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^7]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, press release, July 29, 1991. https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/files/19910729.pdf +[^8]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality" (Price Waterhouse and Touche Ross findings). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^9]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Part Two." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm +[^10]: United States v. Awan, 966 F.2d 1415 (11th Cir. 1992). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/966/966.F2d.1415.90-4114.html +[^11]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^12]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 1, "Executive Summary." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/01exec.htm +[^13]: House of Commons, "BCCI (Bingham Report)," *Hansard,* October 22, 1992. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/oct/22/bcci-bingham-report +[^14]: "BCCI official gets six years for fraud charges," United Press International, September 28, 1993. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/09/28/BCCI-official-gets-six-years-for-fraud-charges/3315749188800/; "Gokal sentenced to 14 years for BCCI fraud," *The Irish Times,* May 9, 1997. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/gokal-sentenced-to-14-years-for-bcci-fraud-1.70650 +[^15]: "BCCI small depositors paid in UAE," United Press International, October 11, 1997. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/10/11/BCCI-small-depositors-paid-in-UAE/2814876542400/ +[^16]: Three Rivers District Council and Others v. The Governor and Company of the Bank of England [2006] EWHC 816 (Comm). https://web.archive.org/web/20260203100053/https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Comm/2006/816.html diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Biomedical Tissue Services.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Biomedical Tissue Services.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5ac2bbf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Biomedical Tissue Services.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - BiomedicalTissueServices + - BodyPartsTrade + - FortLee + - RCHorsch +alias: + - BTS + - Biomedical Tissue Services, Ltd. + - BioMedical Tissue Services +summary: "Fort Lee, New Jersey, tissue-recovery company run by Michael Mastromarino that took tissue from more than a thousand corpses without consent and sold it to processors, until closed by the FDA in 2006." +start: 2002 +end: 2006 +location: "Fort Lee, New Jersey" +relations: + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Regeneration Technologies]]" + role: "tissue supplier" + fn: 3 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[LifeCell]]" + role: "tissue supplier" + fn: 3 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Tutogen Medical]]" + role: "tissue supplier" + fn: 3 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Lost Mountain Tissue Bank]]" + role: "tissue supplier" + fn: 3 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Food and Drug Administration]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005 + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Biomedical Tissue Services, Ltd. (BTS) was a tissue-recovery company licensed in [[New Jersey]] and based in [[Fort Lee, New Jersey|Fort Lee]], with offices in [[Brooklyn]] and a satellite office in [[Brighton, New York|Brighton]], near [[Rochester, New York|Rochester]]. It was founded in 2002 by [[Michael Mastromarino]], a former oral surgeon, to sell "human tissue from cadavers to tissue banks around the country." From 2001 to 2005, by Mastromarino's admission, it took bone, skin, tendon and other tissue from the bodies of people who had not consented, using forged consent forms and falsified records of age and cause of death. The processors that bought its tissue recalled it in September and October 2005, and the [[Food and Drug Administration]] ordered the company to cease manufacturing in early 2006.[^1][^2][^3][^4] + +### Operations + +BTS paid funeral directors about 1,000 dollars a body. In Brooklyn it worked from a room in the Daniel George & Son funeral home, owned by Mastromarino's partner [[Joseph Nicelli]]; in [[Manhattan]], among other places, through the New York Mortuary at 2242 First Avenue; and in [[Philadelphia]], from 2004, through the [[Garzone Funeral Home|Liberty Crematorium]] of [[Louis Garzone|Louis]] and [[Gerald Garzone]] and James McCafferty, which supplied at least 244 bodies. Before the Philadelphia arrangement, cutters had to rebuild the bodies with PVC pipe to hide the removals from families at funerals.[^1][^2] The *New York Daily News* reporter William Sherman said that the tissue went to "just about every state, including Alaska," to five Canadian provinces, and to England, Ireland and other European countries.[^5] Its Rochester office paid funeral homes the same standard fee; in 2006 the [[Monroe County, New York|Monroe County]] District Attorney, Michael Green, indicted four BTS employees, Darlene Deats, Kevin Vickers, Nicholas Sloyer and Kirssy Knapp, and three funeral directors, Jason Gano, Scott Batjer and Serrell Gayton, over 36 bodies taken in 2005.[^6] + +### Recall + +According to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], the tissue went directly to five processors, [[Regeneration Technologies]], [[LifeCell]], [[Tutogen Medical]], the Central Texas Regional Blood and Tissue Center, and the [[Lost Mountain Tissue Bank]], which recalled it in September and October 2005. The CDC dated the FDA's order to BTS to cease manufacturing and to retain all its tissue products to January 2006; the FDA's own statement, reported on February 6, 2006, described the order as issued that day.[^3][^7] About 10,000 people received tissue supplied by BTS, and the processors faced hundreds of civil suits from recipients.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Commonwealth v. Mastromarino, 2 A.3d 581, 2010 PA Super 128 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed July 21, 2010), opinion of Stevens, J. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1483314488518887260 +[^2]: Office of the District Attorney, Kings County. "Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn Announce Indictment in Tissue Theft," media release, February 23, 2006. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doi/downloads/pdf/pr_tissueharvesting022306.pdf +[^3]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Investigation into Recalled Human Tissue for Transplantation, United States, 2005-2006," *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report* 55, no. 20 (2006), p. 564. +[^4]: Goldman, Adam. "Body-parts big pleads guilty," *Philadelphia Daily News,* March 19, 2008. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080319_Body-parts_big_pleads_guilty.html +[^5]: "Four Named in New York 'Body-Snatcher' Crimes," *Day to Day,* NPR, February 23, 2006 (William Sherman of the *New York Daily News* interviewed by Madeleine Brand). https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5230097 +[^6]: "7 charged with stealing body parts from corpses," *NBC News,* 2006. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/7-charged-stealing-body-parts-corpses-flna1c9473448 +[^7]: [FDA statement on Biomedical Tissue Services], *Infection Control Today,* February 6, 2006. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Capcom.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Capcom.md index 13453e67..435e97f9 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Capcom.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Capcom.md @@ -1,14 +1,71 @@ --- -tags: ["Organization", "Financial", "BCCI"] +tags: + - Organization + - Financial + - BCCI + - Commodities + - MoneyLaundering + - Noriega category: "Private Organization" -summary: "Capcom was a trading subsidiary of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1]" +alias: + - Capcom Financial Services + - Capital Commodity Dealers + - Capcom Futures +summary: "London and Chicago commodities futures firm of 1984 to 1988, created by BCCI's treasury chief Ziauddin Akbar and owned by BCCI's Saudi shareholders, through which BCCI took trading losses and laundered money, including Noriega's." +start: 1984-04-26 +end: 1988 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]]" + reverse: true + start: 1984-04-26 + fn: 2 + - type: owned + with: "[[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil]]" + reverse: true + role: "dominant shareholder and director" + fn: 2 + - type: owned + with: "[[Kamal Adham]]" + reverse: true + role: "shareholder, Saudi Group" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + reverse: true + role: "credit line" + fn: 2 + - type: represented + with: "[[Manuel Noriega]]" + role: "laundered 20.5 million dollars of his funds, 1988" + fn: 2 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Capcom was a trading subsidiary of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]].[^1] +Capcom was a commodities futures firm based in [[London]] and [[Chicago]] that operated from 1984 to 1988, created by [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar|Ziauddin Akbar]], the head of the treasury of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], and owned largely by BCCI's Saudi shareholders.[^1][^2] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] said that "in the entire BCCI affair, perhaps no entity is more mysterious and yet more central to BCCI's collapse and criminality than Capcom," and it moved "billions of dollars" through the futures markets "in a largely anonymous fashion."[^2] -### Financial Activities +### Founding -BCCI suffered over $440 million in losses from options trading through Capcom.[^1] +Akbar had been recruited from the [[National Bank of Oman]] in 1981 by [[Swaleh Naqvi]] to run BCCI's treasury from London, and by 1984 was managing more than 5.5 billion dollars with "no apparent experience in the commodities, foreign exchange or securities markets." On April 26, 1984, he registered a company, Hourcharm Ltd., at his home address in London; it was renamed Capital Commodity Dealers Ltd. on May 22, 1984, and Capcom Financial Services in July. Its capital was raised from 1 million pounds to 10 million and then to 25 million, about 37 million dollars, and it began trading on September 17, 1984; within a year customer accounts exceeded 100 million pounds. [[Masihur Rahman]] testified that "Capcom was given an official credit line" by BCCI.[^2] In late 1984 it opened an American arm, Capcom Futures of Chicago, run by Mohammed Saghir, a former colleague of Akbar's at the National Bank of Oman; Capcom UK owned 82 percent of it, according to [[Wendy Gramm]], the chair of the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]].[^2] + +### Ownership + +According to a [[Price Waterhouse]] report of June 1991, Capcom's "initial shareholders were dominated by major shareholders of [BCCI]." [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil]], director general of the Saudi Ministry of Communications and deputy chief of Saudi intelligence, was its dominant shareholder and a director from its foundation to its end. The "Saudi Group" also included [[Kamal Adham]], Khalil's former superior and the lead investor in the takeover of [[Financial General Bankshares]]; J.J. Uddin, a substitute for Khalil; El Sayed E. El Jawhary, an associate of both; and Robert E. Powell, an American with long ties to Adham and Khalil. Four Americans without commodities experience, Larry Romrell, Robert Magness, Kerry Fox and Powell, served as its front men; Romrell was chairman of both the London and Chicago boards.[^2] + +### Losses + +The losses BCCI took through Capcom are given differently by different sources. Beaty and Gwynne put the options trading losses at more than 440 million dollars.[^1] The Senate report, drawing on Price Waterhouse, recorded that BCCI's position "worsened dramatically in 1985 as a result of $500 million in losses 'incurred' by BCCI in commodity trading undertaken through Capcom," which Rahman said was "equivalent to BCCI's entire capital," and put the cumulative treasury losses from 1977 to 1985 at "$600-$700 million before funding costs, or approaching $1 billion if funding costs are added."[^3] In July 1985 BCCI's accounts were ostensibly withdrawn from Capcom on the advice of its auditors, and Romrell observed in the annual report that "the cessation of BCCI business obviously had an impact upon our volume"; but Price Waterhouse found that BCCI's treasury paid 68 million dollars to Brenchase Ltd., a Capcom subsidiary controlled by Akbar, at the same time, and "two payments of $50 million were made to Capcom in March, 1986 out of external funds for which no liability for repayment was recorded." Asked whether Naqvi had profited from the losses, Rahman said: "since only two, three people are involved ...somebody has profited a lot."[^2] Akbar left the treasury in 1986, after the discovery of the losses, taking "his company car and other benefits," and formed Financial Advisory Services, an introducing broker for Capcom owned by his nominee company ZASK Trading and Investments.[^2] He later told Customs agent [[Robert Mazur]]: "We have contracted 165,000 contracts totalling $53 billion with [[Drexel Burnham]]," and "we have done over $90 billion total in 1988."[^2] + +### Noriega + +The Senate report called Capcom's handling of the money of General [[Manuel Noriega]] "an illustration of textbook money laundering." From 1982 to 1986 Noriega opened BCCI accounts for the "placement of secret funds of the [Panama] National Guard," which by 1986 held about 23 million dollars in [[Luxembourg]] and London. On July 26, 1986, 11.1 million dollars was moved to an account of the [[Banco Nacional de Panamá]] at the [[Union Bank of Switzerland]] in [[Zurich]] and 11.8 million dollars to one at the Deutsch-Südamerikanische Bank in [[Hamburg]], both in the name of "Finlay International." On September 8, 1988, the money was consolidated at the [[Middle East]] Bank in London under the name "Findlays," and on September 15 to 19, on letters signed by Akbar as president of Capcom, almost all of it was paid out: 20.5 million dollars to Capcom accounts coded "GESS" and "GOOD," and 2.6 million dollars to a coded account at the Trade Development Bank in Geneva. Akbar was Capcom's managing director, chairman of Finley, and holder of a power of attorney over the GESS account, whose owning company was directed by his brother; the report concluded that Akbar "stood on both sides of the transaction." Mazur testified that Akbar described "mirror-image trading," buying contracts for one account while selling the same number from another controlled by the same person, and said it "would take forever for anyone to ever find it."[^2] + +### Other Clients + +Citing a [[Peat Marwick]] report, the Senate report linked Capcom to Shakarchi Trading of Zurich, the gold dealer of Mohammed Shakarchi, to which it made a payment of 150,000 dollars on the instruction of Ahmed Tawfik in February 1988; Swiss and American investigators later linked Shakarchi to the brothers Jean and Barkev Magharian, who admitted that part of the 2 billion Swiss francs they moved between 1985 and 1988 came from drug transactions. About 44 percent of Capcom's American clients were West German accounts; the most important, Ambros Holdings, a Panama-registered company with offices in Germany and [[Liechtenstein]] whose president, Richard Sax, traded under the name "Richard Wagner," accounted for half to seventy percent of Capcom Futures' commissions in September and October 1988, and went bankrupt in 1991.[^2] The subcommittee said it had been unable to determine why Capcom was created, listing "misappropriation of BCCI assets for personal enrichment," laundering money from the Middle East, and siphoning assets out of BCCI as possibilities.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12. +[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 21, "Capcom: A Case Study of Money Laundering." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/21capcom.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Chemical Technology Limited.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Chemical Technology Limited.md index 38caccb3..fdf02e6f 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Chemical Technology Limited.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Chemical Technology Limited.md @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Whey ethanol was then an established New Zealand industry: the technology for fe Rutherford told *[[The Press]]* in 1984 that he had contacted "Stokowski" "after reading American advertisements about new technology," and that the man was "brilliant and hard working" and "trained unskilled men in skills from welding to more complex tasks." Horsch had obtained the post with a forged [[Stanford University]] transcript in Stokowski's name.[^1][^2] A New Zealand government investigation into his admission to the country found that his papers included a transcript of a university degree, that the [[New Zealand Department of Immigration|Department of Immigration]] had been "under some pressure" from his "proposed employer" to "make an early decision," and that "checks were not made with the [[New Zealand Ministry of Energy|Ministry of Energy]] and other Government departments." The real Stokowski later confirmed that the transcript was his.[^1] The *Philadelphia Daily News* reported at Horsch's sentencing in April 1985 that while on the run he had "helped design and build an ethanol plant for the New Zealand government."[^12] He was described in 1984 as a director of the plant who also ran a computer software exchange at [[Washdyke]]. Rutherford said the man had trained unskilled workers and that about eight jobs had been created, and that the company had not performed as well as expected late in 1983. Horsch said in 2013 that he had owned 80 percent of the distillery and signed his share over when he left.[^3][^13][^14] -In March 1984 Horsch returned from a trip to the [[United States]] carrying several passports and on March 17 left New Zealand on another passport, which police believed had been stolen in a burglary at Temuka. Rumors followed that he was a Soviet or Bulgarian spy or was sought by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. Rutherford told *The Press* that his partner might have had trouble in the United States "perhaps of the scale of being a draft dodger during the [[Vietnam War]]," dismissed the suggestion that he was a spy, and said of the company: "As far as I am concerned, it is business as usual."[^1] At police request the Fire Service drained a well at the plant in late May 1984, and Detective Superintendent [[R.N. MacDonald]] would not comment on reports that firearms and drugs had been found in it.[^15] [[Westpac]] put the company into receivership, with [[K.N. Curnow]] of [[Deloitte Haskins & Sells]] appointed receiver on May 22, 1984; Rutherford arranged to pay the bank about 170,000 dollars, and said the business made "a modest profit." Preferential tax debts remained.[^3][^13] In October 1984 he told *The Press* that business was booming, with protein and acetone planned, and that Horsch "had trained everybody up before he left."[^16] The company also owned an amphibian aircraft, which Rutherford said he had transferred to it to increase its assets and in which he had flown with Horsch to [[Lake Tekapo|Tekapo]]. The aircraft was a Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer amphibian, construction number 469, registration ZK-EDK, formerly the American N5012L, which had been assembled at Christchurch and registered in New Zealand in December 1974; it was registered to Chemical Technology Ltd on October 30, 1981, passed to Rutherford personally on June 19, 1989, and was cancelled from the register as exported in September 2009. A local aviation historian recalled it standing for years in "a very tired state" at the Simon Spencer-Bower airfield, where he photographed it in September 1988.[^17][^18] In 1986 the company was still producing alcohol from whey at Clandeboye and had grown Jerusalem artichoke varieties under quarantine for three years on Rutherford's farm at Moncks Spur on the [[Port Hills]], as a possible feedstock.[^19] +In March 1984 Horsch returned from a trip to the [[United States]] carrying several passports and on March 17 left New Zealand on another passport, which police believed had been stolen in a burglary at Temuka. Rumors followed that he was a Soviet or Bulgarian spy or was sought by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. Rutherford told *The Press* that his partner might have had trouble in the United States "perhaps of the scale of being a draft dodger during the [[Vietnam War]]," dismissed the suggestion that he was a spy, and said of the company: "As far as I am concerned, it is business as usual."[^1] At police request the Fire Service drained a well at the plant in late May 1984, and Detective Superintendent [[R.N. MacDonald]] would not comment on reports that firearms and drugs had been found in it.[^15] [[Westpac]] put the company into receivership, with [[K.N. Curnow]] of [[Deloitte Haskins & Sells]] appointed receiver on May 22, 1984; Rutherford arranged to pay the bank about 170,000 dollars, and said the business made "a modest profit." Preferential tax debts remained.[^3][^13] The Gazette notice of the appointment names the receivers as James Bruce Alfred McAlister and Kevin Nicholas Curnow, "both of Christchurch, chartered accountants," acting under a debenture of August 3, 1981, in favour of Westpac over "all assets of the company." A following notice stated that all money owing to Westpac had been repaid and that the receiver would cease to act; it is signed "J. C. RUTHERFORD, Solicitor to the Company," initials that differ from the "John Gordon Rutherford" of the companies register.[^16] In October 1984 he told *The Press* that business was booming, with protein and acetone planned, and that Horsch "had trained everybody up before he left."[^17] The company also owned an amphibian aircraft, which Rutherford said he had transferred to it to increase its assets and in which he had flown with Horsch to [[Lake Tekapo|Tekapo]]. The aircraft was a Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer amphibian, construction number 469, registration ZK-EDK, formerly the American N5012L, which had been assembled at Christchurch and registered in New Zealand in December 1974; it was registered to Chemical Technology Ltd on October 30, 1981, passed to Rutherford personally on June 19, 1989, and was cancelled from the register as exported in September 2009. A local aviation historian recalled it standing for years in "a very tired state" at the Simon Spencer-Bower airfield, where he photographed it in September 1988.[^18][^19] In 1986 the company was still producing alcohol from whey at Clandeboye and had grown Jerusalem artichoke varieties under quarantine for three years on Rutherford's farm at Moncks Spur on the [[Port Hills]], as a possible feedstock.[^20] ### Footnotes @@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ In March 1984 Horsch returned from a trip to the [[United States]] carrying seve [^13]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 [^14]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:05:45 to 1:09:27 (audio preserved in a Wayback Machine capture of March 31, 2019). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3 [^15]: "Police seek wife, child," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 13, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840613.2.7 -[^16]: "Ethanol plant's business booms," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 4, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841004.2.21 -[^17]: Paull, Dave. "Lake LA-4-200 Bucaneer ZK-EDK cancelled," *NZ Civil Aircraft* (blog), October 11, 2009 ("Chemical Technology Ltd of Christchurch became the listed owners on 30-10-1981 ... Ownership changed to John Rutherford on 19-06-89 ... cancelled for the NZ register as exported on 17-09-2009"). https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2009/10/lake-la-4-200-bucaneer-zk-edk-cancelled.html -[^18]: Wise, David. New Zealand civil aircraft register, ZK-EAA to ZK-EHZ ("ZK-EDK 1 12/74 LA-4-200 Buccaneer 469 ex N5012L export cx 9/09"). https://www.flydw.org.uk/DWZKEAH.htm -[^19]: "Jerusalem artichokes as dual-purpose crop?," *The Press* (Christchurch), February 14, 1986. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860214.2.93.1 +[^16]: *New Zealand Gazette,* May 31, 1984, No. 91, p. 1832, Company Notices (receivership of Chemical Technology Ltd, and the notice "All moneys owing to Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd. have been repaid and the receiver will cease to act when the normal formalities have been complied with. J. C. RUTHERFORD, Solicitor to the Company"; wording confirmed against the scanned page). https://gazette.howison.co.nz/nzg/1984/issue/91/page/1832 +[^17]: "Ethanol plant's business booms," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 4, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841004.2.21 +[^18]: Paull, Dave. "Lake LA-4-200 Bucaneer ZK-EDK cancelled," *NZ Civil Aircraft* (blog), October 11, 2009 ("Chemical Technology Ltd of Christchurch became the listed owners on 30-10-1981 ... Ownership changed to John Rutherford on 19-06-89 ... cancelled for the NZ register as exported on 17-09-2009"). https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2009/10/lake-la-4-200-bucaneer-zk-edk-cancelled.html +[^19]: Wise, David. New Zealand civil aircraft register, ZK-EAA to ZK-EHZ ("ZK-EDK 1 12/74 LA-4-200 Buccaneer 469 ex N5012L export cx 9/09"). https://www.flydw.org.uk/DWZKEAH.htm +[^20]: "Jerusalem artichokes as dual-purpose crop?," *The Press* (Christchurch), February 14, 1986. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860214.2.93.1 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit and Commerce American Holdings.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit and Commerce American Holdings.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ef49dd6b --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit and Commerce American Holdings.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Organization + - BCCI + - FirstAmerican + - HoldingCompany + - NetherlandsAntilles +alias: + - CCAH + - Credit and Commerce American Holdings, N.V. +summary: "Netherlands Antilles holding company formed by BCCI in 1978 through which nominee shareholders held First American Bankshares, the Washington bank BCCI secretly controlled." +start: 1978 +location: "Netherlands Antilles" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + reverse: true + role: "secret controlling owner through nominees" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[First American Bank]]" + role: "holding company" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[National Bank of Georgia]]" + start: 1987-08-19 + fn: 5 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Federal Reserve Board]]" + reverse: true + start: 1991 + end: 1998 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Credit and Commerce American Holdings, N.V. (CCAH) was a holding company incorporated in the [[Netherlands Antilles]] and formed in the summer of 1978 by the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), "ostensibly on behalf of the Middle Eastern investors," with a Dutch subsidiary, Credit and Commerce American Investment, B.V., as the vehicles for acquiring shares of [[Financial General Bankshares]]. After the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] approved its application on August 25, 1981, CCAH became the registered bank holding company of Financial General, renamed First American and later [[First American Bank|First American Bankshares, Inc.]], of [[Washington, D.C.]] In statements to the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] BCCI, [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and the four named investors stated that BCCI would have no interest in CCAH; the Federal Reserve found in 1991 that BCCI had controlled it through nominees from the start.[^1][^2] + +### Formation and Approval + +The four original investors were [[Kamal Adham]], [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]], Sheikh [[Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan]], and Abdullah Darwaish, acting for Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed; an Iranian, [[Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani]], the partner of the former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director [[Richard Helms]] in his consulting firm, was listed in the original SEC filing as a 5 percent shareholder and was, in the words of the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], "BCCI's lead front-man in the original takeover."[^3][^4] The application was opposed by the Virginia bank regulator Sidney A. Bailey, who told the Federal Reserve that "the proposed acquisition will be inimical to the convenience and needs of the community" and later testified that he had been given nothing but assurances: "Take me at my word. Believe me. Have I ever lied to you?" At a hearing convened on April 23, 1981, by the Federal Reserve's associate counsel, Robert Mannion, Adham, Fulaij, [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Abdul Raouf Khalil]] and El Sayed El Gohary gave assurances that any future relationship with BCCI would be "decided by the new management." The Federal Reserve approved the application on August 25, 1981, and at [[Robert Altman]]'s request of June 2, 1981, sealed portions of the hearing transcript, "preventing anyone outside the Federal Reserve from learning the identities of several of the shareholders."[^1] + +The Federal Reserve later found that all four Middle Easterners who had appeared in person, Adham, Fulaij, Khalil, and Sayed Jawhary, were nominees for BCCI, as were "Sheikh Naomi," ruler of [[Ajman]], a corporation owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, ruler of [[Fujairah]], and a government official of the [[United Arab Emirates]], Sheikh Shorafa. BCCI financed CCAH's start-up costs, and a 50 million dollar loan to First American nominally from an outside bank, the [[Banque Arabe et Internationale d'Investissement]], which had interlocking directors with BCCI. "In short," the Senate report concluded, "BCCI, Kamal Adham, Faisal al Fulaij, A.R.K. Khalil, and the other Middle Eastern nominees had secretly done precisely what the Federal Reserve had sought to assure they would not do."[^1] After the purchase BCCI added 30 million dollars in capital to First American and CCAH, partly from deposits of the Crown Prince of [[Abu Dhabi]] and partly from BCCI loans to its nominees Fulaij, Khalil and Shorafa.[^5] + +### Management and Shares + +[[Clark Clifford]] and Robert Altman, BCCI's American counsel, served as directors of CCAH and as chairman and president of First American; Clifford said he was paid 50,000 dollars a year as chairman.[^2][^6][^7] BCCI installed its own officers, K.K. Elley and Aijaz Afridi, at First American's New York bank.[^5] In December 1986 BCCI caused CCAH to agree to buy the [[National Bank of Georgia]] from [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] for 220 million dollars; the purchase closed on August 19, 1987.[^5] In a rights offering, a BCCI nominee called Masriq waived its rights so that Clifford and Altman could buy CCAH shares at book value, 2,216 dollars a share, one day after Masriq had bought other CCAH shares at 4,044.20 dollars. In 1988 the two men sold their CCAH stock to the BCCI nominee [[Mohammed Hammoud]] at 6,800 dollars a share, "the highest price ever paid for CCAH stock," for a combined gross profit of 9.5 million dollars.[^6] + +### Enforcement + +On July 29, 1991, the Federal Reserve assessed a fine of 200 million dollars against BCCI, 37 million dollars against Pharaon and 20 million dollars against the BCCI official Kemal Shoaib, and on July 29, 1992, it opened a civil enforcement action against Clifford and Altman as "institution-affiliated parties" of CCAH. Its Second Amended Notice of Intent to Prohibit, issued on January 14, 1997, charged that they had caused CCAH to borrow from BCCI beyond the acquisition debt permitted by the 1981 order, that Altman had structured the National Bank of Georgia purchase to conceal BCCI's role, and that both had accepted compensation from BCCI in the form of preferential loans and profits on their CCAH stock. Under a consent order dated effective February 1998 the two men relinquished 1,802 and 895 CCAH shares, respectively, to the court-appointed trustee of First American or the court-appointed fiduciaries of BCCI; the order stated that these "are not fines or civil money penalties."[^2][^7][^8] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^2]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman, Institution-Affiliated Parties of Credit and Commerce American Holdings, N.V.,* Docket Nos. 92-080-E-I1, 92-080-B-I1, 92-080-CMP-I1, 92-080-E-I2, 92-080-B-I2, 92-080-CMP-I2, consent order, effective February 1998, with the Second Amended Notice of January 14, 1997. https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders" (quoting the Price Waterhouse section 41 report of June 1991 on "the four investors [Kamal Adham, Faisal al Fulaij, Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed and Abdullah Darweish on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed]"). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm +[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* 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. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^7]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 12, "BCCI and the Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^8]: "Clifford, Altman indicted in BCCI bank fraud," United Press International, July 29, 1992. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/29/Clifford-Altman-indicted-in-BCCI-bank-fraud/5122712382400/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dassault Company.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dassault Company.md index b9627ba7..1534c0c0 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dassault Company.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dassault Company.md @@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ category: "Private Organization" summary: "Dassault is the French aerospace company that jointly developed the Jericho I missile with Israel under a 1963 $100 million contract, providing France's key role in the early Israeli ballistic missile program." start: 1929 location: "Vaucresson, France" +alias: + - "Dassault" --- Dassault Company is a French aerospace company. In 1963, [[Israel]] paid $100 million to Dassault for the joint development and manufacture of twenty-five medium-range Israeli missiles, which would become known as the Jericho I. These missiles were anticipated to be capable of delivering a miniaturized nuclear warhead to targets three hundred miles away.[^1] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Femme Productions.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Femme Productions.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..148719bd --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Femme Productions.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - AdultFilm + - FemmeProductions + - RCHorsch +summary: "Adult film company founded by Candida Royalle in 1984 to make films from a woman's perspective; it released 18 films through 2007, two directed by R.C. Horsch." +start: 1984 +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[R.C. Horsch]]" + reverse: true + role: "director of Lovers (1993) and Lovers 2 (1994), as RC Hürsch" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Femme Productions was an adult film company founded in 1984 by [[Candida Royalle]] to produce "adult films from a woman's perspective" and films that couples could watch together. It released 18 films between 1984 and 2007, 13 directed by Royalle, which she described as "sensuously explicit," with "high production values, non-formulaic eroticism."[^1][^2] Its titles included *Three Daughters* (1986), *Sensual Escape* (1991), *Revelations* (1992), *My Surrender* (1996) and *Stud Hunters* (2002).[^1] The Internet Adult Film Database credits "RC Hürsch," a name used by [[R.C. Horsch]], as director of *Lovers* (1993) and *Lovers 2* (1994) for the company.[^3] In the 1990s Femme's titles were distributed by [[Adam and Eve (company)|Adam and Eve]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Brown, Elizabeth Nolan. "Feminist Porn Producer and Free-Speech Advocate Candida Royalle Dies," *Reason,* September 14, 2015. https://reason.com/2015/09/14/rip-candida-royalle/ +[^2]: Young, Rachel. "Candida Royalle, feminist erotic filmmaker, dies in Mattituck at 64," *The Suffolk Times,* September 12, 2015. https://suffolktimes.archive.timesreview.com/2015/09/candida-royalle-feminist-pornographic-filmmaker-dies-in-mattituck-at-64/ +[^3]: Internet Adult Film Database, "RC Hürsch," director credits *Lovers* (Femme Productions, 1993) and *Lovers 2* (Femme Productions, 1994). https://www.iafd.com/title.rme/id=b609e8df-4df6-46c4-8925-639ed9e91852 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Financial General Bankshares.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Financial General Bankshares.md index c91f3b3a..c7d8470b 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Financial General Bankshares.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Financial General Bankshares.md @@ -1,8 +1,18 @@ --- tags: ["Organization", "Financial Institution"] category: "Private Organization" -summary: "Financial General Bankshares was a bank holding company that became a target of acquisition by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1]" +summary: "Washington bank holding company secretly taken over by BCCI through Middle Eastern nominees between 1977 and 1982, and renamed First American." location: "Washington, DC" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]" + reverse: true + start: 1981-08-25 + fn: 4 + - type: represented + with: "[[Clark Clifford]]" + reverse: true + fn: 2 --- Financial General Bankshares was a bank holding company that became a target of acquisition by the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]].[^1] @@ -18,8 +28,25 @@ BCCI secretly acquired control of Financial General Bankshares through nominees, The acquisition attempts led to lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny, highlighting BCCI's use of front men and illicit financial practices to gain control of American banking institutions.[^3] The [[Federal Reserve Board]] later fined BCCI $200 million for illegally acquiring control of three prominent U.S. banking institutions, including Financial General Bankshares.[^1] +### Ownership Before the Fight + +In April 1977 Middendorf and a group of about twenty investors bought the interest of the previous controlling shareholder, Olmstead, and Middendorf became chairman. The group, which included the former ambassador to Iran Joseph Farland, the Arkansas banker [[Jackson Stephens]], and the [[Occidental Petroleum]] chairman [[Armand Hammer]], split by November 1977, with Stephens leading a faction opposed to Middendorf. The company's outside counsel, [[Eugene Metzger]], owned about 1.6 percent of its stock.[^4][^5] + +### Four Accounts of the Origin + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] set out mutually inconsistent accounts of how BCCI came to Financial General. The *[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]* reported in 1978, and Robert Altman wrote to the Federal Reserve on May 9, 1978, that Stephens had proposed it during the negotiations over the sale of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] in November 1977, and on November 26, meeting Agha Hasan Abedi in [[Atlanta]] with Bert Lance, had offered a block of 4.9 percent and recommended that Abedi meet Metzger. The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that at Lance's suggestion the BCCI officer [[Abdus Sami]] had met Stephens, who "told Sami that Financial General might be a good investment for BCCI clients." Kamal Adham wrote to the Federal Reserve in April 1991 that a friend, Hasan Yassin, had told him of the opportunity, and Clark Clifford testified that it had come through "a friend who was associated with the Saudi Arabian embassy." The report found the Federal Reserve's account "the only account that is consistent with the contemporaneous documentary records."[^4] + +### Litigation and Approval + +Financial General sued on February 17, 1978, after learning that Middle Eastern investors had acquired twenty percent of its shares; the Securities and Exchange Commission filed and settled its own action on March 18, 1978. The Senate report states that on April 27, 1978, a federal judge "permanently enjoined Lance and ten other defendants" from violating the securities laws and found that the BCCI clients had relied "heavily, if not exclusively" on Abedi and BCCI; the later opinion of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|D.C. Circuit]] describes the order of that date as a preliminary injunction on the company's disclosure claim. On May 21, 1980, all the defendants except Metzger settled with the company, which agreed not to oppose the takeover in return for a premium price.[^4][^5] + +The Virginia bank regulator Sidney A. Bailey objected that the acquisition "will be inimical to the convenience and needs of the community." After a hearing convened on April 23, 1981, the Federal Reserve approved the application of [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]] (CCAH) on August 25, 1981, and at Altman's request sealed parts of the transcript. A year later the company changed the name of its banks to First American and of its holding company to First American Corporation; the holding company above the banks was later known as First American Bankshares, Inc.[^4][^6] The Federal Reserve found in 1991 that all four Middle Easterners who had appeared at the 1981 hearing had been BCCI nominees.[^4] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12-14. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 191. -[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 183. \ No newline at end of file +[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 183. +[^4]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^5]: *Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger,* 680 F.2d 768 (D.C. Cir. 1982). https://openjurist.org/680/f2d/768 +[^6]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, consent order, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman,* Docket Nos. 92-080, effective February 1998. https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First American Bank.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First American Bank.md index 13ddbeb2..2b83cd6b 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First American Bank.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First American Bank.md @@ -1,8 +1,16 @@ --- +alias: + - "First American Bankshares" + - "First American Bankshares, Inc." tags: ["Organization", "Bank", "BCCI"] category: "Private Organization" -summary: "First American Bank was a bank based in Washington, D.C., which became secretly owned and controlled by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1]" +summary: "Washington bank, formerly Financial General Bankshares, secretly owned and controlled by BCCI through the nominee holding company CCAH; Clark Clifford was its chairman and Robert Altman its president." location: "Washington, DC" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[National Bank of Georgia]]" + start: 1987-08-19 + fn: 5 --- First American Bank was a bank based in [[Washington, D.C.]], which became secretly owned and controlled by the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]].[^1] @@ -18,9 +26,22 @@ The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] issued a report in 1986 stating that BCC In July 1992, Clifford and Altman were indicted by a [[New York City]] grand jury on charges of bribery and fraud related to their involvement with BCCI and First American Bank.[^1] +### BCCI Officers and Expansion + +After the purchase BCCI added 30 million dollars in capital to First American and its holding company, partly from deposits of the Crown Prince of [[Abu Dhabi]] and partly from BCCI loans to its nominees [[Faisal Saud al-Fulaij]], [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil|Khalil]] and Shorafa. The Bank of Commerce, Financial General's former New York bank, refused to join First American, which then built a New York bank from scratch; there BCCI placed its own officials, K.K. Elley and Aijaz Afridi, who continued to draw BCCI benefits, Elley obtaining his post in 1983 after [[Swaleh Naqvi]] told Robert Altman to hire him. A BCCI memorandum of July 25, 1983, from Afridi to Naqvi described First American New York as the channel for "their entire international business." First American extended credit lines to BCCI branches and affiliates in return for deposits and fees.[^5] In 1987, as BCCI acquired its interest in CenTrust Savings Bank, First American bought the Bank of Escambia in Florida, renamed First American Florida, which led regulators to ask for more information on its dealings with BCCI.[^5] + +In December 1986 BCCI caused First American's parent, Credit and Commerce American Holdings, to agree to buy the National Bank of Georgia from [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] for 220 million dollars; First American paid 80 million dollars that month for an option, and the purchase closed on August 19, 1987. [[Price Waterhouse]] later estimated that BCCI would lose 200 million dollars or more on any sale of First American.[^5] + +### Enforcement + +On July 29, 1991, the Federal Reserve fined BCCI 200 million dollars, Pharaon 37 million dollars and Kemal Shoaib 20 million dollars, and worked with directors of First American, among them the former Maryland senator [[Charles Mathias]], to remove Clark Clifford and Altman as chairman and president.[^6] The Federal Reserve's civil case against the two men ended in a consent order of February 1998 under which their CCAH shares were transferred to the court-appointed trustee of First American or the fiduciaries of BCCI.[^7] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 8-14. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 192-194. [^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 141. [^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 134. +[^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, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 12, "BCCI and the Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^7]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, consent order, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman,* Docket Nos. 92-080, effective February 1998. https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Garzone Funeral Home.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Garzone Funeral Home.md index 8ecf7a59..2826bbdc 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Garzone Funeral Home.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Garzone Funeral Home.md @@ -12,35 +12,39 @@ alias: - Liberty Cremations - Liberty Crematorium - Garzone Funeral Home Inc. -summary: "Philadelphia funeral home and crematorium whose owners sold 244 corpses to the New Jersey tissue broker Michael Mastromarino between 2004 and 2005, and to whose crematorium the pornographer R.C. Horsch is reported to have bought access." +summary: "Philadelphia funeral home and crematorium whose owners sold 244 corpses to the tissue broker Michael Mastromarino between 2004 and 2005, and to whose crematorium the pornographer R.C. Horsch is reported to have bought access." location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania" created: 2026-09-21 -updated: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -The Garzone Funeral Home, in the [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]] section of [[Philadelphia]], was operated by the brothers [[Louis Garzone|Louis]] and [[Gerald Garzone]], who with [[James McCafferty]] also owned a crematorium, [[Liberty Cremations]]. Between early 2004 and September 2005 they sold the bodies of 244 people entrusted to them for cremation to [[Biomedical Tissue Services]] of [[Fort Lee, New Jersey]], whose crews removed bone, skin, and tendon for sale to tissue processors. All three pleaded guilty in 2008. In 2026 Philadelphia police investigating the disappearance of seven women began examining the access that the pornographer [[R.C. Horsch]] is said to have had to the crematorium.[^1][^2] +The Garzone Funeral Home, in the [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]] section of [[Philadelphia]], was operated by the brothers [[Louis Garzone|Louis]] and [[Gerald Garzone]], who with [[James McCafferty]] also owned a crematorium, the Liberty Crematorium, at 2778 Ruth Street.[^1] Between early 2004 and September 2005 they sold the bodies of 244 people entrusted to them for cremation to [[Biomedical Tissue Services]] of [[Fort Lee, New Jersey]], whose crews removed bone, skin, and tendon for sale to tissue processors. All three pleaded guilty in 2008. In 2026 Philadelphia police investigating the disappearance of seven women began examining the access that the pornographer [[R.C. Horsch]] is said to have had to the crematorium.[^2][^3] ### Biomedical Tissue Services -[[Michael Mastromarino]], a [[New Jersey]] oral surgeon who had lost his license over drug use, ran Biomedical Tissue Services from Fort Lee and harvested bodies in a back room of a funeral home in [[East Harlem|Spanish Harlem]] and at funeral homes in Philadelphia. The head of his cutting crew was a former surgical nurse, [[Lee Cruceta]]. Consent forms and death certificates were forged to alter ages and causes of death. The bones of the broadcaster [[Alistair Cooke]], who died of cancer at 95 in March 2004, were taken before his cremation and sold for more than 7,000 dollars to [[Regeneration Technologies]] of [[Florida]] and [[Tutogen Medical]] of New Jersey, with his age given as 85 and the cause of death as a heart attack. His daughter said: "That people in need of healing should have received his body parts, considering his age and the fact that he was ill when he died, is as appalling to the family as it is that his remains were violated."[^3] +[[Michael Mastromarino]], a [[New Jersey]] oral surgeon who had lost his license over drug use, ran Biomedical Tissue Services from Fort Lee and harvested bodies in a secret room of the Daniel George & Son funeral home in [[Brooklyn]], owned by his partner [[Joseph Nicelli]], through the New York Mortuary at 2242 First Avenue in [[East Harlem]], and at funeral homes in Philadelphia.[^4] The head of his cutting crew was a former surgical nurse, [[Lee Cruceta]]. Consent forms and death certificates were forged to alter ages and causes of death. The bones of the broadcaster [[Alistair Cooke]], who died of cancer at 95 in March 2004, were taken before his cremation and sold for more than 7,000 dollars to [[Regeneration Technologies]] of [[Alachua, Florida|Alachua]], [[Florida]], and [[Tutogen Medical]] of [[Paterson, New Jersey|Paterson]], New Jersey, with his age given as 85 and the cause of death as a heart attack; the family's attorney, David Grossberg, told the *New York Daily News,* "I hope those guys burn in hell for what they did."[^5] His daughter said: "That people in need of healing should have received his body parts, considering his age and the fact that he was ill when he died, is as appalling to the family as it is that his remains were violated."[^6] -A processor that noticed discrepancies in the donor records informed the [[Food and Drug Administration]] on September 29, 2005. The [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania Supreme Court]] later recited that when Mastromarino learned of the inquiry he "advised Appellees to destroy their records days before FDA investigators arrived." The agency stopped the company's operations that October, the company and five processors recalled the tissue, and on February 7, 2006, the agency ordered it closed for "serious and widespread deficiencies." Federal estimates of the number of patients who received the tissue ran to 10,000 or more. Recipients sued the company and the processors that had bought from it, among them [[LifeCell]], Regeneration Technologies, Tutogen, [[Medtronic]] [[Sofamor Danek]], and the [[Lost Mountain Tissue Bank]], in consolidated litigation in the federal court in New Jersey. The processors said they had not known how the tissue was obtained.[^1][^4] +A processor that noticed discrepancies in the donor records informed the [[Food and Drug Administration]] on September 29, 2005. The [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania Supreme Court]] later recited that when Mastromarino learned of the inquiry he "advised Appellees to destroy their records days before FDA investigators arrived." The agency stopped the company's operations that October, the company and five processors recalled the tissue, and on February 7, 2006, the agency ordered it closed for "serious and widespread deficiencies." Federal estimates of the number of patients who received the tissue ran to 10,000 or more. According to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], the five processors that received the company's tissue directly were [[LifeCell]], Regeneration Technologies, Tutogen, the Central Texas Regional Blood and Tissue Center, and the [[Lost Mountain Tissue Bank]].[^7] Recipients sued the company, the processors, and other distributors of the tissue, among them [[Medtronic]] [[Sofamor Danek]], in consolidated litigation in the federal court in New Jersey. The processors said they had not known how the tissue was obtained.[^2][^8] ### The Philadelphia Prosecution -After a grand jury investigation of sixteen months, District Attorney [[Lynne Abraham]] announced the arrests of the Garzones and McCafferty on October 4, 2007, and called the scheme "unbelievably craven." The grand jury found that Mastromarino had paid them more than 245,000 dollars, about 1,000 dollars a body. Bodies had been left unrefrigerated for days awaiting the cutters. The identities of only 48 of the 244 had been established. The brothers had given up their state licenses the year before and continued to operate. They had also billed the state welfare department for funerals that families had already paid for.[^2][^5] +After a grand jury investigation of sixteen months, District Attorney [[Lynne Abraham]] announced the arrests of the Garzones and McCafferty on October 4, 2007, and called the scheme "unbelievably craven." The grand jury found that Mastromarino had paid them more than 245,000 dollars, about 1,000 dollars a body. Bodies had been left unrefrigerated for days awaiting the cutters. According to the court record, Mastromarino's crews took arms, legs, bones, ligaments, tendons and skin, "often leaving only a head and a bloody torso behind in a bag for cremation"; he had told the brothers that donors had to be under seventy-five and free of disease, and they supplied the bodies of people over eighty who had died with cancer, HIV and hepatitis. Told by Mastromarino in September 2005 to burn their funeral homes, they instead incinerated their records in the crematory oven days before FDA investigators arrived, and told the investigators that the records had been lost in a flood.[^9] The identities of only 48 of the 244 had been established. The brothers had given up their state licenses the year before and continued to operate. They had also billed the state welfare department for funerals that families had already paid for, claiming the maximum of 750 dollars each time; Gerald received 51,750 dollars and Louis 25,250 dollars. Louis was separately charged with disability fraud, having claimed from March 2006 that depression kept him from working, and received 18,300 dollars.[^1][^3][^9][^10] -Cruceta pleaded guilty in Philadelphia on January 30, 2008, and was sentenced to six years and eight months, concurrent with his [[New York City|New York]] term. Mastromarino was sentenced in Brooklyn on June 27, 2008, to 18 to 54 years, and in Philadelphia to 25 to 58 years, concurrent. He died of cancer in July 2013. The Garzones pleaded guilty on September 2, 2008, the day their trial was to begin, to corrupt organizations, conspiracy, 244 counts of theft, abuse of corpse, and welfare fraud, and on October 22 were each sentenced to 8 to 20 years and ordered to pay 307,000 dollars in restitution. McCafferty, who had cooperated, received three and a half to ten years. The sentencing court also ordered the brothers to pay 84,796 dollars toward the salaries of the prosecutors and detectives assigned to them. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck that order on January 19, 2012, Chief Justice [[Ronald Castille]] writing that "although the crimes in this case are particularly heinous," the legislature had not authorized it. A third brother, James Garzone of Florida, reactivated his [[Pennsylvania]] license and reopened the business as Garzone Funeral Home Inc.[^1][^5][^6] +Cruceta pleaded guilty in Philadelphia on January 30, 2008, and was sentenced to six years and eight months, concurrent with his [[New York City|New York]] term. Mastromarino was sentenced in Brooklyn on June 27, 2008, to 18 to 54 years, and in Philadelphia to 25 to 58 years, concurrent. He died of cancer in July 2013. The Garzones pleaded guilty on September 2, 2008, the day their trial was to begin, to corrupt organizations, conspiracy, 244 counts of theft, abuse of corpse, and welfare fraud, and on October 22 were each sentenced to 8 to 20 years; the Pennsylvania Supreme Court described the joint restitution as "over $300,000," which the *Inquirer* reported as 307,000 dollars, and each brother's share under his plea agreement was 144,000 dollars, with a further 18,000 dollars for Louis on the disability count. Louis forfeited 1830 East Somerset Street and the crematorium property at 2778 Ruth Street.[^1][^2][^9][^10] McCafferty, who had cooperated, received three and a half to ten years. On a post-sentence motion by the Commonwealth, the sentencing judge, who remarked that in 27 years he had never seen a request for costs of prosecution on a guilty plea, ordered Louis to pay 90,101 dollars and Gerald 90,028 dollars, of which 84,796 dollars and 84,723 dollars respectively were for the salaries of the prosecutors and county detectives assigned to the case and 5,305 dollars each for grand jury costs. The [[Superior Court of Pennsylvania|Superior Court]] vacated the salary portions in April 2010, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed on January 19, 2012, Chief Justice [[Ronald Castille]] writing that "although the crimes in this case are particularly heinous," the legislature had not authorized it. A third brother, James Garzone of Florida, reactivated his [[Pennsylvania]] license and reopened the business as Garzone Funeral Home Inc.[^2][^9][^10] ### Horsch -At a gallery in Kensington in 2014 Horsch exhibited what appeared to be autopsy photographs of an unidentified woman and video of her body being put into an incinerator, which he said he had filmed at "a Kensington warehouse where the city morgue would send unidentified remains." A law enforcement official and four people who knew him told the [[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Inquirer]] in 2026 that he had paid an employee of the Garzone crematorium, identified as [[George Newsome]], in drugs and cash for access to photograph and film the dead. Newsome lived a block from the crematorium, was arrested for heroin possession in 2011 and cocaine possession in 2013, and died in 2014. Gerald Garzone said he had never heard of Horsch. He acknowledged knowing a man named George from the neighborhood and declined to say whether he had employed him. The [[Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office]] declined to say whether the city had sent unclaimed bodies to the crematorium. Horsch was not named in the 2007 case. The five women whom police believe to be dead disappeared between 2012 and 2023.[^2] +At a gallery in Kensington in 2014 Horsch exhibited what appeared to be autopsy photographs of an unidentified woman and video of her body being put into an incinerator, which he said he had filmed at "a Kensington warehouse where the city morgue would send unidentified remains." A law enforcement official and four people who knew him told the [[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Inquirer]] in 2026 that he had paid an employee of the Garzone crematorium, identified as [[George Newsome]], in drugs and cash for access to photograph and film the dead. Newsome lived a block from the crematorium, was arrested for heroin possession in 2011 and cocaine possession in 2013, and died in 2014. Gerald Garzone said he had never heard of Horsch. He acknowledged knowing a man named George from the neighborhood and declined to say whether he had employed him. The [[Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office]] declined to say whether the city had sent unclaimed bodies to the crematorium. Horsch was not named in the 2007 case. The five women whom police believe to be dead disappeared between 2012 and 2023.[^3] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 34 A.3d 67 (Pa. 2012). -[^2]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, Barbara Laker, and Ellie Rushing. "Raymond Horsch had access to a Kensington crematorium linked to illegal body parts sales, years before missing persons investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 21, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-missing-women-kensington-bodies-crematorium-20260921.html -[^3]: "Stealing Alistair Cooke's Bones," *National Public Radio,* December 22, 2005. -[^4]: In re Human Tissue Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (Wells, Robbins, Graves, Vitola, Horner, Rodgers, O'Byrne, and Greenfield v. Biomedical Tissue Services, Ltd.). -[^5]: "Three funeral directors held in selling body parts," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 5, 2007; "Garzones plead guilty in body-parts case," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 3, 2008; "Funeral directors who sold body parts sentenced," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 23, 2008. -[^6]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 993 A.2d 306 (Pa. Super. 2010). +[^1]: Commonwealth v. Garzone (Louis Garzone), 993 A.2d 1245 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 14, 2010), No. 780 EDA 2009. +[^2]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 34 A.3d 67 (Pa. 2012). +[^3]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, Barbara Laker, and Ellie Rushing. "Raymond Horsch had access to a Kensington crematorium linked to illegal body parts sales, years before missing persons investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 21, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-missing-women-kensington-bodies-crematorium-20260921.html +[^4]: Office of the District Attorney, Kings County. "Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn Announce Indictment in Tissue Theft," media release, February 23, 2006. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doi/downloads/pdf/pr_tissueharvesting022306.pdf +[^5]: "TV host Alistair Cooke's bones allegedly stolen," *NBC News* (msnbc.com, from the *New York Daily News*), December 22, 2005. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10574333 +[^6]: "Stealing Alistair Cooke's Bones," *National Public Radio,* December 22, 2005. +[^7]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Investigation into Recalled Human Tissue for Transplantation, United States, 2005-2006," *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report* 55, no. 20 (2006), p. 564. +[^8]: In re Human Tissue Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (Wells, Robbins, Graves, Vitola, Horner, Rodgers, O'Byrne, and Greenfield v. Biomedical Tissue Services, Ltd.). +[^9]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 993 A.2d 306 (Pa. Super. 2010). +[^10]: "Three funeral directors held in selling body parts," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 5, 2007; "Garzones plead guilty in body-parts case," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 3, 2008; "Funeral directors who sold body parts sentenced," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 23, 2008. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gulf Group.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gulf Group.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7798a8eb --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gulf Group.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Organization + - Shipping + - BCCI + - Fraud + - Pakistan + - Geneva +alias: + - Gulf Shipping Group + - Gulf International Holdings + - Gulf shipping group +summary: "Shipping and trading group of the Gokal brothers, based in Geneva and London, which became BCCI's largest borrower; its chairman, Abbas Gokal, was convicted of fraud in London in 1997." +location: "Geneva, Switzerland" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Gokal brothers]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + reverse: true + role: "lender, 831 million dollars by 1990" + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Serious Fraud Office]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-09 + fn: 7 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Gulf Group was the shipping and trading business of the [[Gokal brothers]], [[Abbas Gokal|Abbas]], [[Mustafa Gokal|Mustafa]] and [[Murtaza Gokal|Murtaza]], with operations in [[London]] and [[Geneva]] and subsidiaries including Gulf Agency Company and Gulf International Inc. It was the largest single borrower from the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), whose loans to it were never repaid.[^1][^2] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described the Gokal family's "shipping empire" as one that "could be characterized as much BCCI affiliate as BCCI customer."[^3] + +### Lending + +According to the journalists Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, the brothers used BCCI money to build their shipping business, in their heyday chartering more ships in a year than [[China]] and [[India]] combined, and their borrowings topped out at 831 million dollars in 1990.[^2] BCCI's auditors, [[Price Waterhouse]], reported the exposure at each examination. In 1987 they found it had reached 318 million dollars, "23 percent of BCCI's capital base," rising every year, with repayment performance "below expectations," security likely unenforceable, and financial information "inadequate." Three years later they found that on many of the Gokal loans the information was "not merely 'inadequate' but non-existent," and that "cash allocations to [some Gokal] accounts appear to be arbitrary and, as a result of this and the lack of formal repayment schedules, it is difficult to assess the underlying performance of each account." A later report put the brothers' debts at more than 400 million dollars, noted violations of Indian and Pakistani exchange controls, and recorded statements by BCCI's management that the auditors "should look to the relationship of trust between the Gokals and BCCI's top officials rather than to any documents" in judging whether the loans could be recovered. Price Waterhouse did not require the loans to be classified or provided against, so long as BCCI promised to correct them.[^4] At the trial of Abbas Gokal in 1997, prosecutors put the fraudulent loans over the life of the relationship at 1.2 billion dollars (794 million pounds).[^5] + +### Nominee Role + +In 1975 BCCI used the Gokal family as nominees in an attempt to acquire the [[Chelsea National Bank]] in [[New York City]], which regulators blocked; when [[Ghaith R. Pharaon|Ghaith Pharaon]] later bid for [[Financial General Bankshares]], the Comptroller of the Currency, [[John Heimann]], asked his staff to determine "whether Pharaon, like Gokal before him, was a front for BCCI."[^1][^3] The Senate report's appendix listed the connections between "the Gokal group and the Gokal family" and the financial empire of [[Charles Keating]] among matters for further investigation.[^6] + +### Prosecution + +The [[Serious Fraud Office]] opened its inquiry into BCCI's loans to the Gulf Group in September 1992, using records from the London liquidators, [[Touche Ross]], and from [[Grand Cayman]], [[Abu Dhabi]] and two New York banks, Security Pacific and the French American Bank, which were alleged to have been used to disguise the fraud. The brothers, then based in Geneva with an associate, Shahveer Byramji, left for [[Pakistan]] before Swiss police raided the group's offices. Abbas Gokal was arrested at [[Frankfurt]] in July 1994, and warrants were also issued for Mustafa and Murtaza. At his trial at the [[Old Bailey]], prosecution accountants described a "document factory" at BCCI's London headquarters, and on May 8, 1997, he was sentenced to fourteen years for conspiracy to account falsely and conspiracy to defraud.[^5][^7][^8] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993, pp. 9, 11, 140. +[^2]: Beaty and Gwynne, *The Outlaw Bank,* pp. 139-140. +[^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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 10, "BCCI and Its Accountants." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/10accounta.htm +[^5]: "Gokal sentenced to 14 years for BCCI fraud," *The Irish Times,* May 9, 1997. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/gokal-sentenced-to-14-years-for-bcci-fraud-1.70650 +[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 24, appendix. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/24appendic.htm +[^7]: "On the trail of Gokal," *Accountancy Age,* May 23, 1997. https://accountancyage.com/1997/05/23/on-the-trail-of-gokal/ +[^8]: Saadawi, Danah. "BCCI chief debtor agrees to extradition," United Press International, November 2, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/11/02/BCCI-chief-debtor-agrees-to-extradition/2453783752400/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/ICIC.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/ICIC.md index a3d9fa06..d9e7e3d0 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/ICIC.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/ICIC.md @@ -1,20 +1,60 @@ --- -tags: ["Organization", "Financial Institution", "BCCI"] +tags: + - Organization + - FinancialInstitution + - BCCI + - CaymanIslands + - Nominees category: "Private Organization" -summary: "ICIC (International Credit and Investment Company Holdings) was a Cayman Islands subsidiary of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1] It served as BCCI's repository for loans to privileged insiders.[^1]" -start: 1976 +alias: + - International Credit and Investment Company + - ICIC Overseas + - ICIC Holdings + - Fork +summary: "Group of Cayman Islands entities that held and disguised the ownership of BCCI, booked its insider loans, and carried at least one billion dollars of circular transactions." +start: 1976-04-06 location: "Cayman Islands" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "record holder of 50.1 percent in 1977, up to 70 percent by the late 1970s" + fn: 5 + - type: owned + with: "[[Independence Bank of Encino]]" + role: "85 percent, through nominee Ghaith Pharaon" + fn: 6 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Swaleh Naqvi]]" + reverse: true + role: "directed most ICIC transactions" + fn: 2 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -ICIC (International Credit and Investment Company Holdings) was a [[Cayman Islands]] subsidiary of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]].[^1] It served as BCCI's repository for loans to privileged insiders.[^1] +ICIC (International Credit and Investment Company Holdings) was a [[Cayman Islands]] subsidiary of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]].[^1] It served as BCCI's repository for loans to privileged insiders.[^1] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] described it not as a single company but as a group of at least eleven entities sharing the abbreviation, and recorded the finding of BCCI's Cayman liquidators that "ICIC was not really a bank at all, but a post-office box location to 'book' transactions that were initiated, organized, and approved in other parts of BCCI. In essence, ICIC was a 'conduit' or mechanism for BCCI's fraud."[^2] In [[Price Waterhouse]]'s coded draft report of June 1991 to the [[Bank of England]], known as the [[Sandstorm Report]], ICIC was "Fork" and BCCI "Sandstorm."[^2] ### Role in BCCI Operations -ICIC was incorporated in 1976 and became the primary entity through which much of BCCI's illicit financial dealings took place.[^2] It consisted of three Caymanian entities: the BCC Foundation, the ICIC Staff Benefit Trust, and ICIC Business Promotions, which collectively owned about 41 percent of BCCI itself.[^2] +ICIC was incorporated in 1976 and became the primary entity through which much of BCCI's illicit financial dealings took place.[^3] It consisted of three Caymanian entities: the BCC Foundation, the ICIC Staff Benefit Trust, and ICIC Business Promotions, which collectively owned about 41 percent of BCCI itself.[^3] -ICIC was used to conceal the bank's true ownership and financial manipulations. Billions of dollars in deposits were improperly diverted through ICIC, and it was a key mechanism for creating fictitious loans and rerouting deposits to cover losses.[^3] The worst of BCCI's account manipulation, particularly related to bad loans, was booked through ICIC.[^2] +ICIC was used to conceal the bank's true ownership and financial manipulations. Billions of dollars in deposits were improperly diverted through ICIC, and it was a key mechanism for creating fictitious loans and rerouting deposits to cover losses.[^4] The worst of BCCI's account manipulation, particularly related to bad loans, was booked through ICIC.[^3] + +### The Entities + +The Senate report listed, among others, International Credit and Investment Company Overseas Ltd.; International Credit and Investment Co. Ltd.; International Credit and Commerce (Overseas) Ltd.; ICIC Holdings of Grand Cayman; ICIC Apex Holdings; ICIC Overseas, Cayman; ICIC Foundation; the ICIC Staff Benefit Fund; the ICIC Staff Benefit Trust; ICIC Business Promotions; and ICIC Business and Promotions. ICIC Holdings and ICIC (Overseas) Ltd. were both incorporated on April 6, 1976, the latter as an offshore bank "to facilitate the purchase and sale of BCCI shares and to provide private banking services for BCCI shareholders and customers," which also advanced money to nominees to buy interests in three other BCCI affiliates, Attock Oil, Credit and Commerce Insurance, and the Saudi Development Company. ICIC Apex Holding Ltd., incorporated on October 2, 1987, became the ultimate holding company of the group, "equivalent to a charitable trust, with the beneficiaries designated as 'mankind at large.'" The ICIC Foundation in the Cayman Islands and the ICIC Staff Benefit Fund each held BCCI shares, and each held a third of LOANS, BCCI's secretly owned Swiss affiliate, whose transfers were marked "PAY WITHOUT MENTIONING OUR NAME."[^2] + +### Ownership of BCCI + +A Bank of America record of BCCI's shareholders as of September 30, 1977, listed ICIC as the majority owner with 50.1 percent, Bank of America with 30 percent, Majid Al-Futaim of [[Dubai]] with 4 percent, and the ruling family of [[Abu Dhabi]] with 3.4 percent; the Senate report concluded that "the Pakistanis actually owned BCCI at a time when to the outside world, the bank was ostensibly owned by oil-rich Middle Eastern Arabs." By the late 1970s ICIC was the record holder of as much as 70 percent of BCCI, although [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] told officers that it really owned about 30 percent; because ICIC borrowed continuously from BCCI with inadequate documentation, "for all practical purposes, BCCI was repeatedly buying itself."[^5] [[Masihur Rahman]] told the subcommittee that ICIC had been described to early recruits as a "parallel organization" that would "hold shares of the bank for the founder group." Only Abedi, [[Swaleh Naqvi]] and a small circle of assistants had an overall picture of it.[^2] + +### The 1991 Audit + +Price Waterhouse's first detailed audit of ICIC was given to BCCI's board in draft on June 17, 1991. It found that BCCI effectively controlled ICIC and that most of its transactions were initiated on the instructions of Naqvi and two of his assistants, Mr. Hafeez and Mr. Imam. Its uses included financing BCCI's shares and capital through nominees, buy-back arrangements and guaranteed returns; routing funds to disguise their nature; and "providing guarantees, through commitments signed by BCCI management on ICIC letterhead, for various nominee arrangements for shareholders of companies secretly controlled by BCCI, such as First American through its holding company, CCAH." The Senate report put the circular transactions booked through ICIC to inflate BCCI's books at "at least $1 billion."[^2] ICIC Overseas also held, through [[Ghaith R. Pharaon|Ghaith Pharaon]] as nominee, 85 percent of the [[Independence Bank of Encino]], for which the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] named it in its enforcement action of July 1991.[^6] See also [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings]]. ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 11. -[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 143. -[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 83. +[^2]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 143. +[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 83. +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm +[^6]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Ghaith R. Pharaon, Agha Hasan Abedi, Swaleh Naqvi, and Kemal Shoaib,* Docket Nos. 91-037-E-I1 to I4, Notice of Intent to Prohibit, July 12, 1991. https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/files/19910712.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Independence Bank of Encino.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Independence Bank of Encino.md index ace8478b..d529561e 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Independence Bank of Encino.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Independence Bank of Encino.md @@ -1,24 +1,47 @@ --- tags: ["Organization", "Bank", "BCCI"] category: "Private Organization" -summary: "Independence Bank of Encino was a financial institution illegally acquired by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1]" +summary: "California bank secretly acquired by BCCI in 1985 through Ghaith Pharaon as nominee; its failure in 1992 cost the federal bank insurance fund about 140 million dollars." end: 1992 location: "Encino, California, USA" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + reverse: true + role: "secret owner through ICIC Overseas" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Kemal Shoaib]]" + reverse: true + fn: 4 --- Independence Bank of Encino was a financial institution illegally acquired by the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]].[^1] ### Acquisition by BCCI -BCCI illegally acquired Independence Bank of Encino in October 1985 for close to $23 million, using [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] as a front man.[^1] The true nature of the transaction was concealed when [[Swaleh Naqvi]] secretly funneled money to Pharaon through the Parisian [[Bancque Arabe et Investissement]].[^2] +BCCI illegally acquired Independence Bank of Encino in October 1985 for close to $23 million, using [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] as a front man.[^1] The true nature of the transaction was concealed when [[Swaleh Naqvi]] secretly funneled money to Pharaon through the Parisian [[Banque Arabe et Internationale d'Investissement]].[^2][^3] -Pharaon quickly installed BCCI personnel, including [[Kemal Shoaih]], as president.[^2] Independence Bank of Encino shortly ran out of capital and had to be rescued in 1991 with funds seized from BCCI.[^2] +Pharaon quickly installed BCCI personnel, including [[Kemal Shoaib]].[^2][^4] Independence Bank of Encino shortly ran out of capital and had to be rescued in 1991 with funds seized from BCCI.[^2] ### Legal Issues -Independence Bank of Encino was one of the three prominent U.S. banking institutions that the [[Federal Reserve Board]] fined BCCI $200 million for illegally acquiring control.[^1] It was also part of the indictment against BCCI and [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] in November 1991.[^3] +Independence Bank of Encino was one of the three prominent U.S. banking institutions that the [[Federal Reserve Board]] fined BCCI $200 million for illegally acquiring control.[^1] It was also part of the indictment against BCCI and [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] in November 1991.[^5] + +### The Nominee Agreement + +BCCI officials in the [[United States]] were directed in 1983 and 1984 to look for California banks to acquire secretly, and in November 1984 they selected Independence Bank. Abedi and Pharaon agreed that Pharaon would act as BCCI's nominee, and BCCI's affiliate [[ICIC|ICIC Overseas]] entered into an agreement under which, in the words of the Federal Reserve, "Pharaon would hold 85 percent of the shares of Independence as a fiduciary for ICIC Overseas," which held them for BCCI. Regulators were told Pharaon would pay 8.4 million dollars from his own funds and borrow the rest from the [[First National Bank of Boston]]; in fact BCCI lent him 8.5 million dollars through his account at the Banque Arabe et Internationale d'Investissement (BAII) in [[Paris]], which telegraphed the California banking authorities that he held that sum on deposit, and the Boston loan was backed by a BAII letter of credit counter-guaranteed by BCCI. Swaleh Naqvi admitted to BCCI's London lawyers in early 1991 that BCCI had provided all the financing.[^3][^4] + +Abedi installed a senior BCCI official, Kemal Shoaib, as chief operating officer and later chairman; the Federal Reserve found that BCCI continued to pay him "employee-type benefits." Bank examiners wrote in 1991: "Loans subject to adverse classification total $194 million, representing nearly 44% of total loans, a phenomenal ratio for a commercial bank. . . The bank has an especially unenviable record of selecting or attracting borrowers of questionable character and creditworthiness." In all, according to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], BCCI spent 90 million dollars on the bank, whose failure in 1992 cost the bank insurance fund some 140 million dollars.[^3][^4] + +### Enforcement + +On July 12, 1991, the Federal Reserve issued a notice of intent to bar Pharaon, Abedi, Naqvi and Shoaib permanently from banking, charging that Pharaon had made false statements to the [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]] by concealing that he acted for BCCI and that the purchase was funded by BCCI.[^4] On July 29, 1991, it fined Pharaon 37 million dollars and Shoaib 20 million dollars.[^6] ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12-14 [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 211-212 -[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 383. +[^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. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm +[^4]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Ghaith R. Pharaon, Agha Hasan Abedi, Swaleh Naqvi, and Kemal Shoaib,* Docket Nos. 91-037-E-I1 to I4, Notice of Intent to Prohibit, July 12, 1991. https://www.federalreserve.gov/supervisionreg/files/19910712.pdf +[^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 383. +[^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. 12, "BCCI and the Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/LifeCell.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/LifeCell.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8f62bbe5 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/LifeCell.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - BodyPartsTrade + - BiomedicalTissueServices + - TissueBank +alias: + - LifeCell Corporation + - LifeCell Corp. +summary: "Tissue processor that bought tissue from Biomedical Tissue Services, recalled it in 2005, and faced recipients' lawsuits." +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +LifeCell Corporation was a tissue processor that bought tissue from [[Biomedical Tissue Services]], the company of [[Michael Mastromarino]]. According to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], it was one of five processors that received BTS tissue directly and recalled it in September and October 2005, the others being [[Regeneration Technologies]], [[Tutogen Medical]], the Central Texas Regional Blood and Tissue Center, and the [[Lost Mountain Tissue Bank]].[^1] In 2008 the Associated Press reported that the processors to which BTS had shipped bones, skin and tendons, among them LifeCell, faced hundreds of civil suits from people who had received the tissue in transplants.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Investigation into Recalled Human Tissue for Transplantation, United States, 2005-2006," *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report* 55, no. 20 (2006), p. 564. +[^2]: Goldman, Adam. "Body-parts big pleads guilty," *Philadelphia Daily News,* March 19, 2008. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080319_Body-parts_big_pleads_guilty.html diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Lost Mountain Tissue Bank.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Lost Mountain Tissue Bank.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..50897ece --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Lost Mountain Tissue Bank.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - BodyPartsTrade + - BiomedicalTissueServices + - TissueBank +summary: "Georgia tissue processor that received tissue directly from Biomedical Tissue Services and recalled it in 2005." +location: "Kennesaw, Georgia" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Lost Mountain Tissue Bank, Inc., of [[Kennesaw, Georgia]], was one of the five tissue processors that, according to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], received tissue directly from [[Biomedical Tissue Services]], the company of [[Michael Mastromarino]], and recalled it in September and October 2005 after the [[Food and Drug Administration]] learned that the tissue had been taken from corpses without consent. The others were [[Regeneration Technologies]], [[LifeCell]], [[Tutogen Medical]], and the Central Texas Regional Blood and Tissue Center.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Investigation into Recalled Human Tissue for Transplantation, United States, 2005-2006," *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report* 55, no. 20 (2006), p. 564. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Bank of Georgia.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Bank of Georgia.md index 37016f4c..722d31fe 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Bank of Georgia.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Bank of Georgia.md @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ --- tags: ["Organization", "Bank"] category: "Private Organization" -summary: "National Bank of Georgia was a financial institution that became entangled in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal.[^1]" +summary: "Atlanta bank sold by Bert Lance to Ghaith Pharaon in 1978, half owned by BCCI through him, and bought by BCCI's First American for 220 million dollars in 1987." end: 1987 location: "Atlanta, Georgia, USA" --- @@ -13,14 +13,29 @@ National Bank of Georgia was a financial institution that became entangled in th BCCI illegally acquired the National Bank of Georgia, using Pharaon as a front man.[^1] The bank's assets quadrupled from $400 million to $1.6 billion under [[Roy P. M. Carlson]]'s leadership, who was appointed head of the bank by Abedi and Pharaon.[^2] The National Bank of Georgia functioned primarily as a clearinghouse for BCCI funds in the [[United States]], a destination for BCCI letters of credit, and a provider of loans and services to BCCI's international clientele.[^2] -By 1987, the bank's share of the [[Atlanta]] retail market had dropped to 5 percent, and it began to suffer significant loan losses, requiring new capital infusions.[^2] [[First American Bank]] purchased the National Bank of Georgia from [[Ghaith Pharaon]] for $227 million in 1987.[^1] +By 1987, the bank's share of the [[Atlanta]] retail market had dropped to 5 percent, and it began to suffer significant loan losses, requiring new capital infusions.[^2] [[First American Bank]] purchased the National Bank of Georgia from Ghaith Pharaon in 1987; Beaty and Gwynne put the price at $227 million, and the Federal Reserve charges quoted in the Kerry-Brown report at $220 million.[^1][^3] ### Legal Issues -The National Bank of Georgia was one of the three prominent U.S. banking institutions that the [[Federal Reserve Board]] fined BCCI $200 million for illegally acquiring control.[^1] It was also part of the indictment against BCCI and Abedi in November 1991.[^3] +The National Bank of Georgia was one of the three prominent U.S. banking institutions that the [[Federal Reserve Board]] fined BCCI $200 million for illegally acquiring control.[^1] It was also part of the indictment against BCCI and Abedi in November 1991.[^4] + +### Pharaon's Holding Companies + +Bert Lance completed the sale of his stock to Pharaon on January 4, 1978, the same day he repaid a Chicago loan; Lance testified that he never met Pharaon until the night of the closing.[^5] In 1976 [[Mochtar Riady]] of the [[Lippo Group]] had looked into buying Lance's share of the bank, a deal that fell through.[^6] The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] found that BCCI owned 50 percent of the bank from its ostensible sale to Pharaon, who held those shares as its nominee. His shares passed through a chain of holding companies: GRP, Inc. (1981), renamed NBG Financial Corporation; Interedec (Georgia) N.V. of [[Curacao]] and Interedec (Georgia) of [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]] (1983); and Pharaon Holdings Limited of Nassau, which acquired his 50 percent without notice to the Federal Reserve. On January 1, 1985, he pledged all the shares of NBG Financial to BCCI in a secret "Memorandum of Deposit" that gave BCCI "or its nominees" the right to vote them.[^3] + +Roy P. M. Carlson, a former [[Bank of America]] officer who had worked with Abedi, became the bank's president and made repeated BCCI-related trips abroad; Tariq Jamil, a former BCCI employee, worked at the bank until its sale and then returned to BCCI, and the bank financed the travel of Abedi and [[Swaleh Naqvi]] to the United States from as early as August 1982.[^3] + +### Sale to First American + +According to BCCI's New York manager [[Abdur Sakhia]], the decision to merge the bank with First American was taken at a meeting in [[Miami]] in November 1985 attended by Abedi, Naqvi, [[Clark Clifford]], [[Robert Altman]], Carlson and Jamil; Carlson told the Senate subcommittee's staff that he, Clifford and Altman met at the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami in February 1986 to discuss the price, a meeting Altman denied. In February 1986 Keefe, Bruyette & Woods valued the bank at 130 to 144 million dollars; First American's treasurer, A. Vincent Scoffone, put its value at 152 million on the median price of recent bank sales, suggesting a premium for its Atlanta location, and on May 8, 1986, Altman wrote to Naqvi hoping for a price of 160 to 175 million dollars. According to the Senate report, a week later in London Altman and a BCCI officer, Batastini, agreed on 205 million dollars, 80 million of it for an option; in the words of the Federal Reserve's charges, "in December 1986, BCCI caused [[Credit and Commerce American Holdings|CCAH]] to agree to purchase the shares of NBG [Financial] from Pharaon for $220 million." First American paid 80 million dollars at the end of December 1986, and the purchase closed on August 19, 1987.[^3][^7] The Federal Reserve later charged that Altman had structured the transaction to conceal BCCI's role.[^8] ### Footnotes [^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 11-14. [^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 211. -[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 383. +[^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. 7, "BCCI in the United States: Later Acquisitions." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/07later.htm +[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 383. +[^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. 16, "BCCI and Georgia Politicians." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/16ga.htm +[^6]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law: Interim Report.* House Report 105-829, 105th Congress, 2nd Session, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm +[^7]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^8]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, *In the Matter of Clark M. Clifford and Robert A. Altman,* Docket Nos. 92-080, Second Amended Notice of January 14, 1997, and consent order, effective February 1998. https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/enforcement/1998/19980203/Attachment.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Price Waterhouse.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Price Waterhouse.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..73570e91 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Price Waterhouse.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Accounting + - Audit + - BCCI +alias: + - Price Waterhouse (UK) + - PW +summary: "Accounting firm whose British partnership audited BCCI's Cayman bank for fifteen years and its consolidated accounts from 1987, and whose 1991 Sandstorm Report preceded the bank's closure." +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + role: "auditor; consolidated audit from 1987" + fn: 1 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Bank of England]]" + role: "Section 41 investigation of BCCI, March to June 1991" + start: 1991-03 + end: 1991-06-22 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Price Waterhouse was an international accounting firm whose British partnership, Price Waterhouse (UK), was the principal auditor of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI). It audited BCCI Overseas in [[Grand Cayman]], one of BCCI's two main banks, for more than fifteen years, and handled BCCI's consolidated worldwide audit from 1987; in 1991 it wrote the report for the [[Bank of England]] known as the [[Sandstorm Report]], which preceded the bank's closure on July 5, 1991.[^1][^2] + +### Audits + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] recorded two views of the firm's conduct. BCCI's chief financial officer, [[Masihur Rahman]], testified that he relied on the outside auditors as "more my eyes and ears than my own inspection division," and that if Price Waterhouse "had been doing its job, there's no way that this $1 billion exposure [in BCCI's Central Treasury] which was taken to $11 billion exposure in the course of 3 or 4 months [in 1985] could have happened"; he annotated its 1991 report: "Price Waterhouse should have known from their audit of Grand Cayman over many years that deposits of BCCI were being misused." Price Waterhouse (UK) took the position that it had been completely deceived by BCCI until the spring of 1990.[^1] + +In its 1987 audit of the [[Gulf Group]] of the [[Gokal brothers]], it found an exposure of 318 million dollars, 23 percent of BCCI's capital, with security "likely unenforceable" and information "inadequate"; its audits found that many of the shares of First American's holding company held by [[Kamal Adham]] were pledged as security for BCCI loans to other borrowers, and that it was impossible to determine whether [[A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil]] still owned the 13,250 shares attributed to him, which BCCI held against 120 million dollars ostensibly lent to him. It did not require that these loans be classified or provided for, so long as BCCI promised to correct the problems. When it discovered BCCI's treasury losses in 1986 it attributed them to "incompetence"; in 1991 it wrote that "with the benefit of hindsight, it appears more sinister in that it now seems to have been a deliberate way to fictitiously inflate income."[^1][^3] In April 1990, after finding massive deficiencies, it certified BCCI's accounts as "true and fair" under an agreement with BCCI, [[Abu Dhabi]] and the Bank of England; the Senate report found that this certification, with a single footnote on the losses, "was materially misleading," and that the firm "would not have made the certification but for the assurances it received from the Bank of England."[^1] + +### The Section 41 Report + +In March 1991 the Bank of England commissioned the firm to investigate BCCI under Section 41 of the Banking Act. Its draft of June 22, 1991, code-named BCCI "Sandstorm" and its Cayman affiliate [[ICIC]] "Fork," found "widespread fraud and manipulation," and its first detailed audit of ICIC, delivered to BCCI's board in draft on June 17, 1991, found that BCCI effectively controlled ICIC.[^2][^3] The Bank of England, closing the bank, stated that "it appears from the Price Waterhouse Report [of June 1991] that the accounting records [of BCCI] have completely failed and continue to fail to meet the standard required."[^1] + +### Secrecy + +Price Waterhouse (UK) refused to give its audit reports to the Senate subcommittee under subpoena, arguing that British law forbade it, and the American partnership said it had no knowledge of or responsibility for BCCI's audit.[^1] The Manhattan District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]], testified that the main audit "was done by Price Waterhouse U.K. They are not permitted, under English law, to disclose... without authorization from the Bank of England," so that BCCI's statements had been "audited by auditors who are beyond the reach of law enforcement."[^4] The Senate report found that BCCI's accountants "failed to protect BCCI's innocent depositors and creditors from the consequences of poor practices at the bank of which the auditors were aware for years."[^5] The British inquiry, the [[Bingham Report]], concluded that the scale of the fraud "would not have come as a surprise had Price Waterhouse more plainly and comprehensively brought the various elements of the fraud to the notice of the Bank as they emerged."[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 10, "BCCI and Its Accountants." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/10accounta.htm +[^2]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 9, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: District Attorney of New York." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/09ny.htm +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 1, "Executive Summary." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/01exec.htm +[^6]: House of Commons, "BCCI (Bingham Report)," *Hansard,* October 22, 1992. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/oct/22/bcci-bingham-report diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Regeneration Technologies.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Regeneration Technologies.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6bbdbeb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Regeneration Technologies.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - BodyPartsTrade + - BiomedicalTissueServices + - TissueBank + - Florida +alias: + - Regeneration Technologies, Inc. + - RTI Biologics + - RTI Biologics, Inc. +summary: "Florida tissue processor that bought tissue from Biomedical Tissue Services, including bones taken from Alistair Cooke, and merged with Tutogen Medical in 2008 to form RTI Biologics." +location: "Alachua, Florida" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Tutogen Medical]]" + start: 2008-02-27 + fn: 4 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Regeneration Technologies, Inc. (RTI), of [[Alachua, Florida]], was a tissue processor, listed on the Nasdaq as RTIX, that bought tissue from [[Biomedical Tissue Services]], the company of [[Michael Mastromarino]]. According to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], it was one of five processors that received BTS tissue directly and recalled it in September and October 2005.[^1] Among the tissue it bought were bones taken from the body of the broadcaster [[Alistair Cooke]] before his cremation in 2004; according to the *New York Daily News,* his bones were sold for more than 7,000 dollars to Regeneration Technologies and [[Tutogen Medical]].[^2] In 2008 the Associated Press reported that the processors that had bought from BTS faced hundreds of civil suits from recipients.[^3] + +### RTI Biologics + +On February 27, 2008, Regeneration Technologies completed its merger with Tutogen Medical, the other company that had bought Cooke's bones, in a transaction valued at about 205 million dollars; the combined company took the name RTI Biologics, Inc., and kept the RTIX symbol. "RTI Biologics is now positioned as the leading provider of sterile biologic solutions for patients around the world," said its chairman and chief executive, Brian K. Hutchison.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Investigation into Recalled Human Tissue for Transplantation, United States, 2005-2006," *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report* 55, no. 20 (2006), p. 564. +[^2]: "TV host Alistair Cooke's bones allegedly stolen," *NBC News* (msnbc.com, from the *New York Daily News*), December 22, 2005. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10574333 +[^3]: Goldman, Adam. "Body-parts big pleads guilty," *Philadelphia Daily News,* March 19, 2008. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080319_Body-parts_big_pleads_guilty.html +[^4]: Regeneration Technologies, Inc. "Regeneration Technologies, Tutogen Medical Merger Completed," press release, Exhibit 99.1 to SEC filing, February 27, 2008. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1100441/000119312508043151/dex991.htm diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Screw (magazine).md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Screw (magazine).md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a5ee4d1b --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Screw (magazine).md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Publication + - Pornography + - Obscenity + - RCHorsch +alias: + - Screw + - Screw magazine +summary: "New York sex tabloid founded in 1968 by Al Goldstein and Jim Buckley, whose publisher was arrested 19 times on obscenity charges in its first three years; it folded in 2003." +start: 1968 +end: 2003 +location: "New York City" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +*Screw* was a weekly sex tabloid published in [[New York City]], founded in 1968 by [[Al Goldstein]] and [[Jim Buckley]] with 175 dollars each. "Screw grew from a combination of many factors, chief of which was my own dissatisfaction with the sex literature of 1968 and my yearning for a publication that reflected my sexual appetites," Goldstein wrote in a 1971 anthology. It sold 140,000 copies a week at its height. In its first three years Goldstein was arrested 19 times on obscenity charges; in 1974 a federal judge threw out an obscenity case against him. The magazine was later outdone by more explicit publications including *[[Hustler (magazine)|Hustler]]*, and it folded in late 2003, when Goldstein filed for bankruptcy protection.[^1] Its review of [[R.C. Horsch]]'s 1973 film *[[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]]* called the sex in it disgusting.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Al Goldstein, Infamous Pornographer, New Yorker, Dead at 77," Associated Press, *NBC New York,* December 19, 2013. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/al-goldstein-dead-obituary-screw-magazine/2124859/ +[^2]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Stephens Finance Ltd..md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Stephens Finance Ltd..md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..81d23255 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Stephens Finance Ltd..md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Lippo + - Stephens + - HongKong + - Banking +alias: + - Stephens Finance +summary: "Hong Kong finance company established in 1978 by the Riady family's Lippo Group and the Stephens brothers of Arkansas, where John Huang worked before joining Worthen Bank." +start: 1978 +location: "Hong Kong" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Mochtar Riady]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978 + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Jackson Stephens]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[John Huang]]" + reverse: true + role: "executive vice president" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[James Riady]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Stephens Finance Ltd. was a [[Hong Kong]] finance company established in 1978 by [[Mochtar Riady]] of the [[Lippo Group]] and the Arkansas financiers Jackson and [[Witt Stephens]]. According to a 1998 report of the [[United States House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight|House Government Reform and Oversight Committee]], Mochtar Riady had first met the Stephens brothers in 1976, when he was "looking into buying Bert Lance's share of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]"; that deal fell through, and the friendship produced Stephens Finance two years later and "several other joint projects before Lippo and Stephens acquired a substantial stake in Worthen Bank of Arkansas in 1983."[^1] + +[[John Huang]] was executive vice president at Stephens Finance under [[James Riady]] before moving to [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] as vice president for the Far East at the [[Worthen Bank]], and was later appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Economic Policy in the International Trade Administration of the [[United States Department of Commerce|Commerce Department]].[^1] The committee's account of these ventures rested chiefly on depositions of James Riady in *Stephens Group, Inc. v. [[United States]]* (1993), of the Little Rock lawyer [[C. Joseph Giroir]] (1997), and of Arthur Vernon Weaver (1997). The Riadys later traded their interest in Worthen for the Stephens family's interest in the [[Hong Kong Chinese Bank]], and traded their interests in other joint ventures.[^1] + +The National Bank of Georgia that Riady had considered buying from [[Bert Lance]] was sold instead, at a closing in January 1978, to [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]; the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] concluded in 1991, according to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], that Pharaon had borrowed at least part of the purchase money, "with [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] as his partner in the transaction from the beginning."[^2][^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law: Interim Report.* House Report 105-829, 105th Congress, 2nd Session, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm +[^2]: 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." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 16, "BCCI and Georgia Politicians." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/16ga.htm diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Press.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Press.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ec39c775 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Press.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Newspaper + - NewZealand + - Christchurch + - RCHorsch +aliases: + - The Press (Christchurch) + - Christchurch Press +summary: "Christchurch daily newspaper published by the Christchurch Press Company from Cathedral Square, whose 1981 to 1986 reporting is the principal record of the Stokowski affair." +location: "Christchurch, New Zealand" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Christchurch Press Company]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +*The Press* is a daily newspaper published in [[Christchurch]], [[New Zealand]]. In the 1970s and 1980s it was published by the Christchurch Press Company Ltd, whose registered office was "The Christchurch Press Company's building in Cathedral Square"; in December 1984 the Commerce Commission cleared the company to acquire shares in another business.[^1] + +### The Stokowski Affair + +Between 1981 and 1986 the paper reported the progress and collapse of [[Chemical Technology Limited]], the whey-to-ethanol company at Clandeboye near [[Temuka]] whose American director, Dr Stanley Stokowski, was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. Its reports included the 1981 licensing of the distillery, the opening of the plant by [[Ian Shearer]] in 1982, the police search after Stokowski fled in March 1984, and the feature "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?" of June 9, 1984, for which its [[San Francisco]] correspondent, John Hutchison, reached the real Dr Stanley Edward Stokowski, then working at the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]].[^2][^3][^4][^5] In October 1984 it reported the statement of the Minister of Immigration, [[Kerry Burke]], identifying the impostor as Raymond Charles Hoersch.[^6] + +The paper was also the first to report, on December 10, 1981, the contents of a briefcase mislaid by an officer of the [[New Zealand Security Intelligence Service]].[^7] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: NZ Gazette full-text index, "Christchurch Press Company," 1880-2017 (winding-up notices of 1978 and 1980 giving service at "its registered office at The Christchurch Press Company's building in Cathedral Square"; Commerce Commission notice of January 17, 1985), accessed September 23, 2026. https://gazette.howison.co.nz/search-full-text?query=%22Christchurch+Press+Company%22&start_year=1880&end_year=2017 +[^2]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31 +[^3]: "Dr Shearer wants extra effort in biotechnology," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 23, 1982. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820423.2.96.9 +[^4]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 +[^5]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9 +[^6]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23 +[^7]: Clayworth, Peter. "Intelligence services: The Cold War, 1945 to 1984," *Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand,* May 29, 2012. http://web.archive.org/web/20250919013618/https://teara.govt.nz/en/intelligence-services/page-2 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tutogen Medical.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tutogen Medical.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..12c6dff8 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tutogen Medical.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - BodyPartsTrade + - BiomedicalTissueServices + - TissueBank + - NewJersey +alias: + - Tutogen Medical, Inc. + - Tutogen Medical Inc. +summary: "New Jersey tissue processor that bought tissue from Biomedical Tissue Services, including bones taken from Alistair Cooke, and merged into RTI Biologics in 2008." +location: "Paterson, New Jersey" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Tutogen Medical, Inc., of [[Paterson, New Jersey]], was a tissue processor that bought tissue from [[Biomedical Tissue Services]], the company of [[Michael Mastromarino]]. According to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], it was one of five processors that received BTS tissue directly and recalled it in September and October 2005.[^1] According to the *New York Daily News,* bones taken from the body of the broadcaster [[Alistair Cooke]] were sold for more than 7,000 dollars to Tutogen and [[Regeneration Technologies]].[^2] In 2008 the Associated Press reported that the processors that had bought from BTS faced hundreds of civil suits from recipients.[^3] On February 27, 2008, Tutogen completed its merger with Regeneration Technologies, in a transaction valued at about 205 million dollars, to form RTI Biologics, Inc.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Investigation into Recalled Human Tissue for Transplantation, United States, 2005-2006," *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report* 55, no. 20 (2006), p. 564. +[^2]: "TV host Alistair Cooke's bones allegedly stolen," *NBC News* (msnbc.com, from the *New York Daily News*), December 22, 2005. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10574333 +[^3]: Goldman, Adam. "Body-parts big pleads guilty," *Philadelphia Daily News,* March 19, 2008. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080319_Body-parts_big_pleads_guilty.html +[^4]: Regeneration Technologies, Inc. "Regeneration Technologies, Tutogen Medical Merger Completed," press release, Exhibit 99.1 to SEC filing, February 27, 2008. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1100441/000119312508043151/dex991.htm diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md index 70f69bc2..e883daad 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md @@ -1,11 +1,12 @@ --- created: 2026-05-15 -updated: 2026-05-16 +updated: 2026-09-23 title: BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report aliases: - Kerry-Brown Report - The BCCI Affair - Senate BCCI Report + - "Kerry-Brown Senate Report" tags: - Event - BCCI @@ -13,56 +14,91 @@ tags: - Investigation - 1990s category: "Intelligence Scandal" -summary: "A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations was a December 1992 Senate report by John Kerry and Hank Brown documenting BCCI's systematic criminal enterprise - money laundering, terrorist financing, arms dealing, drug trafficking, and CIA relationships - and finding that the Department of Justice had obstructed investigation of the bank." +summary: "December 1992 report by Senators John Kerry and Hank Brown on BCCI, documenting its fraud, money laundering, bribery and secret ownership of US banks, and criticizing the Justice Department, regulators and the CIA." start: 1992-12-01 location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1988-02 + end: 1992-12 + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[John Kerry]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman of the subcommittee and co-author" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Hank Brown]]" + reverse: true + role: "ranking member and co-author" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Jack Blum]]" + reverse: true + role: "subcommittee counsel" + fn: 2 --- -"The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, [[United States Senate]]" was a December 1992 report co-authored by Senators [[John Kerry]] (D-Massachusetts) and [[Hank Brown]] (R-Colorado) summarizing a three-year investigation by the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations into the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)]]. The 800-page report represented the most comprehensive official account of BCCI's criminal operations and documented the bank's relationships with intelligence agencies including the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]].[^1] +"The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, [[United States Senate]]" (Senate Print 102-140) was a December 1992 report co-authored by Senators [[John Kerry]] (D-Massachusetts) and [[Hank Brown]] (R-Colorado) on the investigation by the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, the [[Kerry Committee]], into the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)]]. It documented the bank's fraud, money laundering, bribery and secret acquisition of American banks, its relationships with intelligence agencies including the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], and the conduct of the regulators and prosecutors who dealt with it.[^1][^2] ### Investigation Origins -Kerry's subcommittee investigation began in 1988, predating BCCI's July 1991 shutdown by three years. The subcommittee was originally focused on drug trafficking and money laundering when it first encountered BCCI through its investigation of [[Manuel Noriega]]'s Panamanian bank accounts and the [[Medellín Cartel]]'s financial infrastructure. [[Amjad Awan]], BCCI's manager for [[Latin America]] and Noriega's personal banker, became a key witness after his arrest in Tampa in October 1988 as part of a U.S. Customs sting. +The subcommittee's inquiry began in February 1988, during a hearing on the drug trafficking and money laundering of General [[Manuel Noriega]], at which BCCI was identified as facilitating his crimes. In March 1988 the Foreign Relations Committee authorized subpoenas to BCCI and to the bank officers who handled Noriega's assets, but their service was delayed at the request of the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] and the [[U.S. Customs|Customs Service]] so as not to interfere with [[Operation C-Chase]], the undercover sting in [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]]. The subcommittee deposed [[Amjad Awan]], BCCI's manager for [[Latin America]] and Noriega's banker, shortly before his arrest in the sting in October 1988, and a second former BCCI officer afterward.[^2] -The investigation expanded dramatically after Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] brought BCCI evidence to Kerry's attention, and after [[Jack Blum]], a former [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee|Kerry subcommittee]] investigator, continued developing sources within and around BCCI independently. The [[Bank of England]]'s forced closure of BCCI in July 1991 and the simultaneous international criminal indictments gave the investigation new impetus.[^1] +In the spring of 1989 Kerry authorized the subcommittee's departing counsel, [[Jack Blum]], to give what he had developed to the Justice Department; when, in Blum's view, the department failed to follow up, he took it to the Manhattan District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]], whose investigation was "based in substantial part on the leads provided him by Blum and the Subcommittee." Kerry's personal staff continued the inquiry through 1989 and 1990. In January 1990 Kerry criticized the Tampa plea agreement and its 14 million dollar forfeiture as insufficient, and the subcommittee published a report on drug money laundering that raised BCCI's alleged secret ownership of [[First American Bank|First American]]. After the [[Bank of England]] closed BCCI on July 5, 1991, the investigation resumed with Brown as ranking member; its staff, the report recorded, amounted to "two attorneys, with no budget for travel."[^2] + +### Structure + +The report was published in chapters: an executive summary; an introduction; "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI"; "BCCI's Criminality"; "BCCI's Relationship with Foreign Governments, Central Banks, and International Organizations"; two chapters on BCCI in the [[United States]], covering the takeovers of [[Financial General Bankshares]] and the [[National Bank of Georgia]] and their consolidation; two on law enforcement, "The Justice Department and the US Customs Service" and "District Attorney of New York"; "BCCI and Its Accountants"; "BCCI, The CIA and Foreign Intelligence"; "The Regulators"; "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman"; "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders"; "[[Mohammed Hammoud]]: BCCI's Flexible Frontman"; "BCCI And Georgia Politicians"; "BCCI's Lawyers and Lobbyists"; "Hill and Knowlton and BCCI's PR Campaign"; "[[Ed Rogers]] and Kamal Adham"; "BCCI and [[Kissinger Associates]]"; "Capcom: A Case Study of Money Laundering"; "Legislative and Policy Recommendations"; and an appendix of matters for further investigation.[^3] ### Principal Findings -The Kerry-Brown Report documented BCCI's operations as a coordinated criminal enterprise operating across approximately seventy countries. Its principal findings included: +The executive summary set out sixteen findings. It concluded that BCCI "constituted international financial crime on a massive and global scale," its "unique criminal structure," which it called "an elaborate corporate spider-web" with [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and [[Swaleh Naqvi]] "in the middle," having been conceived "for the specific purpose of evading regulation or control by governments." It listed BCCI's crimes as including fraud involving billions of dollars, money laundering in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, bribery, "support of terrorism, arms trafficking, and the sale of nuclear technologies," management of prostitution, tax evasion, smuggling, illegal immigration, and "illicit purchases of banks and real estate." It found that BCCI "systematically bribed world leaders and political figures" in most of the 73 countries in which it operated, and named more than thirty countries where its relationships ranged "from the questionable, to the improper, to the fully corrupt."[^1] -Money laundering: BCCI provided specialized services for laundering drug proceeds, particularly from the Medellín and [[Cali Cartel|Cali Cartels]] in [[Colombia]]. The bank developed internal expertise in structuring transactions to avoid currency reporting requirements and created networks of shell companies and nominee accounts for high-level criminal clients. +Money laundering: BCCI provided specialized services for laundering drug proceeds, including those of [[Medellín Cartel|Medellín]] traffickers in [[Colombia]], using shell corporations, secrecy havens, front men and nominees, and back-to-back documentation among its own entities.[^1][^4] Its former American regional manager, [[Abdur Sakhia]], testified that when BCCI bought a bank in Colombia in 1983, "we knew that all the dollar deposits we would be getting would be drug money."[^5] -Intelligence relationships: The report documented BCCI's role as a financial institution used by intelligence agencies including the CIA. It found that the CIA maintained accounts at BCCI and used the bank to finance covert operations, including weapons purchases for the Afghan Mujahideen and funding for other covert programs. The report found that senior U.S. intelligence officials had been aware of BCCI's criminal character years before the bank's closure and had not reported this to law enforcement. +Arms dealing and terrorist financing: BCCI provided financial services to arms dealers and to the [[Abu Nidal]] organization, whose accounts at its Sloane Street branch in London were reported to British and American intelligence by the branch manager, [[Ghassan Qassem]].[^5] -Arms dealing and terrorist financing: BCCI provided financial services to arms dealers and terrorist organizations including [[Abu Nidal]]. The bank financed weapons transactions across multiple conflicts and maintained accounts for figures connected to state-sponsored terrorism. +Noriega accounts: BCCI managed some 23 million dollars of Noriega's money from its London branches and helped him move it out of reach after his indictments, laundering part of it through its commodities affiliate [[Capcom]].[^5][^6] -Noriega accounts: The report detailed how BCCI had laundered Noriega's looted funds and drug trafficking proceeds, with BCCI officials actively assisting Noriega in concealing assets. +First American: BCCI secretly acquired First American, the Washington bank holding company, through nominee shareholders led by [[Kamal Adham]], with [[Clark Clifford]] and [[Robert Altman]] as its chairman and president and as BCCI's lawyers. The report found that Clifford and Altman "participated in improprieties with BCCI in the United States."[^1][^7] -First American Bank: The report documented how BCCI had illegally acquired control of [[First American Bank]], Washington's largest bank, through nominees including former Secretary of Defense [[Clark Clifford]] and his law partner [[Robert Altman]]. The report found that Clifford had either known of or been deliberately deceived about BCCI's role. - -Saddam Hussein accounts: BCCI provided financial services to [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government and facilitated transactions in the [[BNL Scandal|BNL]] ([[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]) Iraq credit scandal.[^1] +Iraq: the report's appendix recorded that BCCI "also made loans to Iraq, although of a substantially smaller nature" than those of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]], and listed the relationship among matters whose further investigation "could produce further understanding of [[Saddam Hussein]]'s international network for acquiring weapons."[^8] ### DOJ Obstruction Finding -One of the report's most significant conclusions was that the [[Department of Justice]] had obstructed investigation of BCCI. The subcommittee found that DOJ attorneys had declined to pursue leads provided by Customs agents and foreign prosecutors, had failed to coordinate with state prosecutors, and had negotiated a lenient 1990 guilty plea in Tampa that allowed BCCI to continue operating for more than a year while its criminal activities continued. +The report found that "the Justice Department mishandled its investigation and prosecution of BCCI." Customs officials had told Commissioner [[William von Raab]] by March 1988 that several BCCI officers were indictable under the racketeering statute, and Tampa prosecutors planned in April and May 1988 to indict BCCI as an institution, but in the fall of 1988 the department did not approve a RICO prosecution, "for reasons that were never explained to the Customs agents." The report found that after a recorded conversation in which Awan described BCCI's secret ownership of First American, prosecutors made "no effort to broaden the case against BCCI," with no attempt to interview Clifford or Altman. The January 1990 plea agreement, negotiated with BCCI's lawyers, the former federal prosecutors [[Lawrence Wechsler]] and [[E. Lawrence Barcella Jr.]], was decided by the United States Attorney in Tampa, [[Robert Genzman]]; the report found that it "kept BCCI alive," discouraged BCCI's officers from telling what they knew, and was followed by the department's ceasing to investigate BCCI entirely.[^1][^4] -The report documented specific instances in which DOJ officials had received information about BCCI's full criminal character and had failed to act. It noted that federal law enforcement inaction had contrasted with the aggressive pursuit of the case by Morgenthau's Manhattan DA office, which operated under state rather than federal jurisdiction.[^1] +The report contrasted the department with Morgenthau's office, which obtained the Price Waterhouse audits despite resistance from BCCI's lawyers and accountants, the Bank of England, the British [[Serious Fraud Office]] and the Justice Department. It stated that the Justice Department's prosecutors "regarded Blum as a 'wacko'" while "the New York District Attorney's office took it seriously, investigated it, and proved it out," and concluded that Morgenthau "not only broke the case on BCCI, but indirectly brought about BCCI's global closure": "the pressure from a single, local prosecutor's office that would not relent when it found evidence of global criminality, proved sufficient to shut down a $23 billion criminal bank operating in some 73 countries."[^1][^9] ### CIA Connections -The report's treatment of CIA-BCCI relationships was among its most sensitive findings. It documented that the CIA had used BCCI accounts for operational purposes and that CIA officials had been aware of BCCI's criminal character. It specifically found that: +The report's chapter on intelligence recorded that the CIA first developed information on BCCI in 1979, learned in the early 1980s that it was involved in money laundering, targeted it for intelligence collection from the mid-1980s, and ran "a larger and more comprehensive operation as of 1986, which continued through 1990," producing several hundred reports on the bank. Acting Director [[Richard J. Kerr]] testified on October 25, 1991, that the CIA had also used BCCI for intelligence-gathering, which he "characterized... as limited and routine, and undertaken without the knowledge of any person at BCCI"; a [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|Senate Intelligence Committee]] audit, the subcommittee was told, confirmed that testimony, though the CIA did not allow the subcommittee to read it. Kerr acknowledged that the CIA "had made extensive use of First American for a variety of purposes." He testified that the agency had not been involved with any BCCI "black network," had no knowledge of any use of BCCI for arms sales to Iran or the diversion of funds to the [[Contras]], had no relationship with Agha Hasan Abedi, and had never placed Abedi on a watch list.[^10] -- The CIA had accounts at BCCI used to finance the Afghan covert program -- CIA personnel had socialized with and obtained information from BCCI insiders -- Intelligence community knowledge of BCCI had not been shared with law enforcement in a timely manner +The report identified two CIA mistakes on the agency's own account: it "failed to provide the critical information it had gathered to the correct users of the information," the Federal Reserve and the Justice Department, and it used both BCCI and First American for its operations "even when the CIA knew that BCCI was as an institution a fundamentally corrupt criminal enterprise." Kerr said he was "not sure it was a bad decision," and Brown replied: "My training was that somebody's supposed to take responsibility... I have a different view of it."[^10] -The report was careful to distinguish between CIA use of BCCI for specific operational purposes and broader claims about CIA management or direction of BCCI, finding the former clearly documented and the latter unproven.[^1] +The report recorded without adopting them two further claims. On February 23, 1992, NBC News broadcast an allegation that the former [[Director of Central Intelligence]], [[William J. Casey]], had met Abedi secretly every few months for three years at the Madison Hotel in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] to discuss arms deals with Iran and the arming of the Afghan rebels; the CIA told NBC that a search of its files had found no such evidence. On Afghanistan, the report stated only that BCCI "may have been moving money through the National Bank of Oman to fund the war in Afghanistan," quoting unnamed British journalists who cited a member of the cabinet of General [[Zia ul-Haq]], reported in *[[The Wall Street Journal]]* of October 23, 1991, as saying "It was Arab money that was pouring through BCCI"; BCCI owned 29 percent of the National Bank of Oman. The report found that BCCI was "incontestably used by key Iran/Contra figures to finance arms," including [[Adnan Khashoggi]] and [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], regardless of whether Casey and Abedi concluded any "off-the-books" operation.[^10] It concluded that "key questions about the relationship between U.S. intelligence and BCCI cannot be answered at this time, and may never be answered," because [[Abu Dhabi]] held BCCI's records and witnesses, a British judge had barred the subcommittee from documents without the permission of depositors such as Abu Nidal, and other documents had been "segregated and sealed by British intelligence (MI-5)."[^10] -### Significance +### Regulators and Accountants -The Kerry-Brown Report served as the primary public accounting of BCCI's criminal enterprise at a level of detail that neither the bank's criminal plea agreements nor subsequent prosecutions individually achieved. It provided the documentation base for subsequent historical accounts of BCCI and influenced ongoing prosecutorial efforts. The report also raised questions about the adequacy of financial regulation and the oversight of intelligence agency relationships with financial institutions that remained active in regulatory reform discussions through the 1990s.[^2] +The report found that the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] would not have approved the 1981 takeover of Financial General Bankshares "but for the false statements made to it," and that the Bank of England's regulation of BCCI "was wholly inadequate" and that it withheld information about BCCI's frauds "for fifteen months" before the closure; it called the Bank's tentative agreement to restructure BCCI as three banks "extraordinarily poor judgment" and its decision to let BCCI move its records to Abu Dhabi "a costly, and likely irretrievable, error."[^1][^11] It found that BCCI's auditors, [[Price Waterhouse]], "failed to protect BCCI's innocent depositors and creditors from the consequences of poor practices at the bank of which the auditors were aware for years," and recorded that the Bank of England allowed the Federal Reserve to give Congress Price Waterhouse's final report, the [[Sandstorm Report]], only in censored form.[^1][^5] + +### Reception + +Presenting the British inquiry into the Bank of England's supervision of BCCI, the [[Bingham Report]], to the House of Commons on October 22, 1992, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, [[Norman Lamont]], said: "I do not accept the findings of Senator Kerry's report. He did not have access to the documents to which Lord Justice Bingham had access and he did not take evidence from the Bank of England. I believe that some wild and incorrect allegations were made in that report."[^12] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* Senate Print 102-140. 102nd Congress, 2nd Session. December 1992. Available through U.S. Government Printing Office. -[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S.C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993. +[^1]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* Senate Print 102-140. 102nd Congress, 2nd Session. December 1992, ch. 1, "Executive Summary." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/01exec.htm +[^2]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 2, "Introduction and Summary of Investigation." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/02intro.htm +[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* chapter index. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/ +[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the US Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm +[^5]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^6]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 21, "Capcom: A Case Study of Money Laundering." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/21capcom.htm +[^7]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 13, "Clark Clifford and Robert Altman." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/13clifford.htm +[^8]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 24, "Appendix: Matters for Further Investigation." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/24appendic.htm +[^9]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 9, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: District Attorney of New York." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/09ny.htm +[^10]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, The CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm +[^11]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^12]: House of Commons, "BCCI (Bingham Report)," *Hansard,* October 22, 1992. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/oct/22/bcci-bingham-report diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Bingham Report.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Bingham Report.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ac5d4d3a --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Bingham Report.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Report + - BCCI + - BankOfEngland + - BankingSupervision + - 1990s +alias: + - Bingham Inquiry + - Inquiry into the Supervision of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International +summary: "Lord Justice Bingham's 1992 inquiry into British supervision of BCCI, which cleared the Treasury, criticized the Bank of England as slow and overreliant on Luxembourg, and upheld its closure of the bank." +date: 1992-10-22 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of England]]" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Norman Lamont]]" + reverse: true + role: "commissioned the inquiry with the Governor of the Bank of England" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Bingham Report, formally the "Inquiry into the Supervision of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International," was the report of Lord Justice [[Thomas Bingham]] into the regulation of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) by British authorities. It was commissioned after the bank's closure in July 1991 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, [[Norman Lamont]], jointly with the Governor of the [[Bank of England]], [[Robin Leigh-Pemberton]], and published on October 22, 1992, "unamended and in full but without the supporting appendices."[^1] + +### Terms of Reference + +Bingham's terms of reference were: "To enquire into the supervision of BCCI under the Banking Acts: to consider whether the action taken by all the [[United Kingdom]] authorities was appropriate and timely; and to make recommendations." The report therefore did not attempt to describe the full history of BCCI, nor to judge how overseas authorities, the bank's directors or its auditors had carried out their duties; its bulk dealt with the Bank of England's supervision from 1972, when BCCI opened its first London branch, to its closure. Lamont told the House of Commons that Bingham "had access to all the material that he needed from the Government and the Bank. Nothing was withheld," and that the inquiry had been held in private "to avoid any prejudice to criminal proceedings and to encourage witnesses to give evidence."[^1] + +### Findings + +Bingham concluded that the conduct of [[HM Treasury|Treasury]] ministers and officials was "not, in his view, open to criticism in any respect." He found that the Bank of England "was slow to impose on BCCI an appropriate supervisory regime" and "continued for too long to rely on the Luxembourg authorities to play the leading role"; that communication between supervisors, auditors and shareholders "was not as good as it should have been"; and that the Bank "should have been more alive to the significance of those messages it did receive and that it should have pursued more vigorously the leads it was given." The Bank did not grasp the scale of the fraud until it received the [[Price Waterhouse]] report of June 1991, the [[Sandstorm Report]]; that report came as a surprise to the Bank, but Bingham argued that it should not have, concluding that "it would not have come as a surprise had Price Waterhouse more plainly and comprehensively brought the various elements of the fraud to the notice of the Bank as they emerged, or had the majority shareholders made a full and timely disclosure of all the facts known to them." He found the Bank's decision to close BCCI "an appropriate course of action," as was its decision "not to give effective advance notice to the majority shareholders" in [[Abu Dhabi]], since "all the options were unattractive." He also accepted that a bank established under the rules of 1992 "could scarcely hope to assume the form it did or last so long."[^1] + +In debate, [[Gordon Brown]] quoted paragraph 2.513 of the report, rejecting the Treasury's position that it had no need to be informed: "I would find this view more persuasive if the Bank had chosen to tell the Treasury nothing about BCCI... But it was not the line which the Bank took," and noted Bingham's finding that "particularly after the Tampa arrest" BCCI had been "a fairly regular subject of report to the Treasury."[^1] + +### Government Response + +Lamont announced that the government accepted all of Bingham's recommendations, and that the Governor was setting up a special investigations unit and a legal unit within the Bank, strengthening its capacity for on-site examination, and making greater use of the Board of Banking Supervision. He said the report showed "no duplicity or bad faith" and that the Bank "was party to no conspiracy or cover-up"; the Labour member [[Bob Cryer]] called it "a whitewash and a cover-up." Asked whether the Governor should resign, Lamont said he had "every confidence in him." Of the American inquiry led by Senator [[John Kerry]], Lamont said: "I do not accept the findings of Senator Kerry's report. He did not have access to the documents to which Lord Justice Bingham had access and he did not take evidence from the Bank of England. I believe that some wild and incorrect allegations were made in that report."[^1] See [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report]]. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House of Commons, "BCCI (Bingham Report)," statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, and debate, *Hansard,* October 22, 1992. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/oct/22/bcci-bingham-report diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Operation C-Chase.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Operation C-Chase.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e5ecdfe5 --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Operation C-Chase.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Event + - BCCI + - Sting + - MoneyLaundering + - USCustoms + - 1980s +alias: + - C-Chase +summary: "United States Customs undercover money laundering operation of 1986 to 1988, run by agent Robert Mazur as 'Robert Musella,' that ended in the arrest of BCCI officers and the bank's 1990 Tampa conviction." +start: 1986 +end: 1988-10-08 +location: "Tampa, Florida" +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + start: 1987-02 + end: 1988-10-08 + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Amjad Awan]]" + end: 1988-10-08 + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[U.S. Customs]]" + reverse: true + role: "lead agency" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Operation C-Chase was an undercover money laundering investigation run from [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] by the [[U.S. Customs|United States Customs Service]] with the [[Internal Revenue Service]], which from 1987 drew in officers of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI). Its principal undercover operative, Customs Special Agent [[Robert Mazur]], posed as "Robert Musella," a businessman laundering money for Colombian traffickers. The operation ended on October 8, 1988, with arrests at a staged wedding in [[Tarpon Springs, Florida|Tarpon Springs]], and produced the first prosecution of an international bank and its employees under the [[Money Laundering Control Act of 1986]].[^1][^2] + +### Origin + +In May 1986 a government informant, Alvaro Uribe, met Gonzalo Mora Jr., the head of a [[Medellín Cartel|Medellín]] money laundering ring, and reported the contact to Customs Special Agent Emil Abreu of Tampa. On July 14, 1986, in [[Miami]], Abreu, working undercover as "Emilio Dominguez," met Mora's brother Gabriel Jaime "Jimmy" Mora, and opened accounts in Uribe's name at the Florida National Bank in [[St. Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]] and the Barnett Bank of Tampa, into which deposits were structured below the 10,000 dollar reporting threshold. In August 1986 Abreu gave Jimmy Mora a business card reading "Robert Musella," the cover identity of Agent Mazur, "who would become the principal clandestine operative in the case."[^1] According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], Mazur proposed the operation to his superiors in 1986 after almost two and a half years of undercover work on money laundering in Florida, and the Customs Service notified the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]], which gave "strategic and tactical assistance."[^2] One launderer caught in the operation had gross receipts in the [[United States]] of "roughly $200 million per month in currency."[^2] + +### BCCI + +In February 1987 Mazur opened an account at BCCI's Tampa branch "strictly for its convenience, having seen a sign advertising BCCI's international services," and told the Senate subcommittee that he had not been "armed with any particular information that BCCI was involved in that type of activity."[^1][^2] A BCCI officer, Ricardo Argudo, recommended that Musella's clients open accounts at BCCI's [[Panama]] branch because no treaty allowed American agencies to obtain Panamanian bank records. Syed Aftab Hussain, an operations officer at BCCI Panama, advised him to use false names and loans collateralized by certificates of deposit, and told him not to repeat the mistakes made by the targets of Operation Pisces, a [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] sting concluded in May 1987 in which the DEA had seized BCCI Panama accounts that Hussain himself had monitored.[^1][^2] + +On January 11, 1988, Hussain introduced Mazur to Amjad Awan and Akbar Bilgrami of BCCI's Latin American and Caribbean regional office in Miami. Told that Musella's clients were major Colombian drug dealers, [[Amjad Awan|Awan]] said on January 26: "I'm not concerned... it's not my business about who your customers are... we will provide you all security, all sorts of security and anonymity... I don't want to know." Bilgrami opened an account for Mazur's shelf company, Lamont Maxwell S.A., at the Banque de Commerce et de Placements in [[Geneva]], through which more than 4 million dollars in drug proceeds passed by way of loans at BCCI Panama. On May 20, 1988, Mazur and Abreu, with two agents posing as their fiancées, opened three corporate accounts at BCCI's [[Paris]] office, where Mazur told the regional manager, [[Nazir Chinoy]], that his clients were "drug dealers in Colombia." On September 19, 1988, he met [[Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar]], the president of [[Capcom]], in [[London]].[^1] In all, the operation moved about 14 million dollars through BCCI, on which the bank earned more than 250,000 dollars in fees.[^2] + +### The Awan Recording + +At the Grand Bay Hotel in Miami on September 9, 1988, Mazur recorded Awan saying that he had been subpoenaed by the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] over the accounts of [[Manuel Noriega]], that [[Robert Altman]] had advised the bank to transfer him to Paris, and that BCCI secretly owned [[First American Bank]]: "We own a bank, uh based in Washington, it's called the First American Bank... the bank belongs to BCCI. Those guys are just nominee shareholders." He called [[Clark Clifford]] "the Godfather of the Democratic party." An IRS special agent on the case, David Burris, concluded that seven federal statutes had apparently been violated, including obstruction of a Senate inquiry, and wrote in an affidavit that "Awan said that BCCI has bought and controls First American Bank and [[National Bank of Georgia]] through private individuals." The Senate report found that the prosecutors made "no effort to broaden the case against BCCI, or to investigate any of the new allegations raised by the Awan wiretap," with no attempt to interview Clifford or Altman and no subpoenas to First American.[^2] + +### Takedown + +On October 4, 1988, a federal grand jury in Tampa returned a sealed indictment of ten individuals and four corporations. On the night of October 8 Customs Special Agent Kathleen Ertz, posing as Mazur's fiancée "Kathleen Erickson," held a staged wedding at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Tarpon Springs, and at the bachelor party agents arrested Awan, Bilgrami, Hussain, Mora, and two officers of BCCI Paris, Ian Howard and Sibte Hassan. Arrests and searches in Britain and France were made at the same time.[^1][^2] The timing, a month before the presidential election, was questioned before the Senate subcommittee. Mazur, asked by Senator [[John Kerry]] whether it was meant to hand the administration "a sort of present on a platter," said that "there certainly was mere speculation that that played a part by people at low levels like mine," and "I was at a loss for understanding why October"; Assistant United States Attorney [[Mark Jackowski]] testified that the date had been set in February 1988 for reasons of case management.[^2] + +### Prosecution + +Customs officials told Commissioner [[William von Raab]] by March 1988 that several BCCI officers were indictable under [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act|RICO]], and memoranda of April 6 and May 10, 1988, recorded the Tampa prosecutors' plan to indict BCCI as an institution under the statute, which would have allowed forfeiture of its American assets. In the fall of 1988 the Justice Department did not approve a RICO prosecution, "for reasons that were never explained to the Customs agents." The United States Attorney in Tampa, [[Robert Genzman]], told the subcommittee: "we believed that RICO charges would have added nothing, and would have greatly complicated the case."[^2] Mazur testified that his agents were left with some 1,200 tapes to transcribe, and asked by Senator [[Harris Wofford]] whether he had felt outgunned by the bank's defense, answered "tremendously." At one pretrial hearing Jackowski appeared alone against 23 lawyers for BCCI; he told the subcommittee that "it was a fair fight." The Senate report described the government team as "grossly outnumbered by the defense team retained by BCCI, and selected and coordinated by Clark Clifford and Robert Altman."[^2] + +A second superseding indictment of May 4, 1989, added five defendants. In January 1990, after negotiations with BCCI's lawyers, the former federal prosecutors [[Lawrence Wechsler]] and [[E. Lawrence Barcella Jr.]], the bank pleaded guilty to money laundering and forfeited 14 million dollars; Genzman said, "We made that determination in the district... As a courtesy, we advised the Department of Justice of what we were about to do, and received no opposition." Mazur said he had been "of the opinion that we may as well go to trial," and the Senate report concluded that the individual defendants "felt betrayed and abandoned."[^2] The officers were tried from January 26 to July 29, 1990. A juror, Robert "Skip" Spanczak, was excused during deliberations after admitting that he had telephoned [[Colombia]] using a number from a defendant's address book. On November 30, 1990, Awan and Bilgrami were sentenced to 144 months, Hussain to 87, Howard to 57, and Hassan to 37. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] affirmed on July 27, 1992, except as to Hassan, whose conviction it reversed for insufficient evidence.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: United States v. Awan, 966 F.2d 1415 (11th Cir. 1992), opinion of Circuit Judge Fay, July 27, 1992. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/966/966.F2d.1415.90-4114.html +[^2]: 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 US Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Sandstorm Report.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Sandstorm Report.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b27a8e70 --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Sandstorm Report.md @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Report + - BCCI + - Audit + - BankOfEngland + - 1990s +alias: + - Sandstorm + - Section 41 report +summary: "Price Waterhouse's draft Section 41 report to the Bank of England of June 22, 1991, code-named Sandstorm, which found widespread fraud at BCCI and preceded the bank's closure on July 5, 1991." +date: 1991-06-22 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Price Waterhouse]]" + reverse: true + role: "author" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Bank of England]]" + reverse: true + role: "commissioned the report under Section 41, March 1991" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Sandstorm Report was the draft report of [[Price Waterhouse]], the auditors of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), delivered to the [[Bank of England]] on June 22, 1991, under Section 41 of the Banking Act. In the report's own code, BCCI was "Sandstorm" and its Cayman affiliate [[ICIC]] was "Fork." The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] called it "the final evidence that lead to the shutdown of BCCI globally on July 5, 1991."[^1] + +### Commission + +Through late 1990 and the spring of 1991, according to the Senate report, BCCI, the government of [[Abu Dhabi]], the Bank of England and Price Waterhouse "worked together to keep what they knew about BCCI secret," while planning to reopen the bank as three institutions based in London, Abu Dhabi and [[Hong Kong]], and each tried to keep the Price Waterhouse audit reports from the Manhattan District Attorney, [[Robert Morgenthau]]. As information reached the Bank of England from Price Waterhouse and from former BCCI officials such as [[Masihur Rahman]], it concluded that the restructuring might not be possible, and in March 1991 formally commissioned Price Waterhouse to investigate BCCI under Section 41.[^2] + +### Findings + +The draft, based on banking records from several countries and interviews through the spring of 1991, found "widespread fraud and manipulation," reflecting "the general scale and complexity of the deceptions which have undoubtedly taken place over many years," and concluded that "fraud on a significant scale had been committed and that it had involved a significant number of people both inside and outside the bank." It arose from an investigation of some 600 million dollars in BCCI deposits not recorded in its books, with further losses in ICIC, BCCI's Swiss subsidiary the Banque de Commerce et de Placements, and the Kuwaiti Investment Finance Company (KIFCO), which the Senate report described as "a secret BCCI subsidiary ostensibly owned by a BCCI nominee."[^1][^2] Among the techniques it described were "account manipulation of non-performing loans, fictitious profits and concealed losses, fictitious loans set up in connection with repurchases of shares, misappropriation of deposits," unrecorded deposit liabilities, nominee arrangements "to create false capitalization," the "parking" of loans to avoid recognizing losses, off-book transactions, "falsified audit confirmations, and the drafting of fraudulent agreements." It described the misappropriation of "external funds deposited under trust with Sandstorm [BCCI] and Fork [ICIC] to be managed on behalf of a few prominent people who are also shareholders of [BCCI] Holdings," and the creation of loans "in the names of people without their knowledge."[^1] + +The report attributed the fraud to BCCI's lack of a lender of last resort and the hostility of the international banking community, which led [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] and [[Swaleh Naqvi]] to believe "it was essential to declare profitability every year" and to guarantee rates of return to principal Middle Eastern shareholders, falsifying the accounts to pay them. The Senate report remarked that it described the fraud "rather kindly," having been prepared for BCCI's final management, which was brought in to find a way for the bank to survive as a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi. Revisiting the treasury losses it had found in 1986 and then attributed to incompetence, Price Waterhouse wrote that "with the benefit of hindsight, it appears more sinister in that it now seems to have been a deliberate way to fictitiously inflate income."[^1] + +### Closure + +"One week later," the Senate report recorded, "the Bank of England alerted the UK's [[Serious Fraud Office]] to begin an investigation of BCCI. Four days later, on July 5, 1991, BCCI was closed internationally in an action initiated by the Bank of England." The report added that the Bank "had reason to know that the New York District Attorney was only a few weeks away from indicting BCCI for massive fraud," and concluded that "but for Morgenthau's investigation, the Bank of England might well have proceeded with BCCI's restructuring regardless of the new revelations about fraud, and simply hoped for the best."[^2] + +### Censorship + +The Senate subcommittee received the report only "in a heavily censured form by the Federal Reserve at the insistence of the Bank of England, which forbid the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] from providing a clean copy of the report to the Congress on the ostensible ground that to do so would violate British bank secrecy and confidentiality laws," with "hundreds of items and almost every identifiable name" removed.[^1] The UK inquiry into the Bank's supervision of BCCI, the [[Bingham Report]], found that the report "came as a surprise to the Bank" but that it should not have.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 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," section "The Sandstorm Report." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm +[^2]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 12, "The Regulators." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/12reg.htm +[^3]: House of Commons, "BCCI (Bingham Report)," statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, *Hansard,* October 22, 1992. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/oct/22/bcci-bingham-report diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a8aff00f --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Event + - LegalCase + - BCCI + - BankOfEngland + - Misfeasance + - 1990s + - 2000s +alias: + - Three Rivers + - Three Rivers v Bank of England +summary: "Twelve-year English lawsuit by BCCI's liquidators and depositors accusing the Bank of England of misfeasance in public office over its supervision of BCCI, abandoned on the 256th day of trial in November 2005." +start: 1993 +end: 2006-04-12 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bank of England]]" + role: "defendant, accused of misfeasance in public office" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Touche Ross]]" + reverse: true + role: "BCCI's English liquidators (later Deloitte & Touche), claimants" + fn: 2 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]" + reverse: true + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Three Rivers District Council and Others v Governor and Company of the Bank of England was a civil action in the English High Court, filed in 1993 (Case No. 1993 Folio 1309), in which the English liquidators of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), the accountants Deloitte & Touche (formerly [[Touche Ross]]), together with depositors led by Three Rivers District Council, alleged that the [[Bank of England]] had committed the tort of misfeasance in public office in licensing and supervising BCCI between 1980 and 1991. It produced three [[House of Lords]] judgments on preliminary questions and became a leading English authority on the tort, before the liquidators abandoned it on November 2, 2005, the 256th day of trial.[^1][^2] + +### The House of Lords + +The claim was not one of negligence but, as Tomlinson later put it, of "bad faith and dishonesty": the claimants pleaded that the Bank had licensed BCCI and failed to revoke its licence knowingly, or with reckless indifference, contrary to the statutory scheme and to the interests of depositors. In a judgment of May 18, 2000, the Lords set out the ingredients of the tort and held that the Bank could not be liable in damages under the First Banking Co-ordination Directive of the [[European Economic Community]].[^1] On March 22, 2001, they allowed the claimants' appeal against the striking out of the action by Mr Justice Clarke, which had been upheld by the Court of Appeal, with Lord Steyn, Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Hutton in the majority. Lord Steyn noted that the Bank had deployed "a written case of no less than 737 pages" and said that it was "hardly a simple and obvious case for a striking out"; he emphasized that "it is indisputably the case that the Bank knew from April 1990 onwards that BCCI was in imminent danger of collapse with inevitable loss to depositors unless there was a real prospect of an effective rescue package."[^1] A further House of Lords judgment on legal professional privilege in the case followed in November 2004.[^3] + +### Trial and Abandonment + +At trial before Mr Justice [[Stephen Tomlinson|Tomlinson]], the liquidators' counsel, Gordon Pollock QC and then Lord Neill of Bladen QC, alleged that staff of the Bank's Banking Supervision Division had acted dishonestly from about 1978 until 1991; by the close of their case "at least 42 of the Bank's officials stood accused of dishonesty, a substantial uplift on the 22 identified in the liquidators' statements of case." The Bank's counsel, Nicholas Stadlen QC, observed that keeping a tally of the accused had become "something of a parlour game."[^2] + +On September 23, 2005, according to *The Times*, BCCI's English Liquidation Committee, representing its largest creditors, passed "a strongly worded resolution calling on Deloittes (the liquidators) to discontinue [the action] forthwith." The liquidators instead applied to the Chancellor of the High Court, Sir [[Andrew Morritt]], who after three days of argument held "that it was no longer in the best interests of the creditors for the litigation to continue" and directed that the action be discontinued. On November 2, 2005, Pollock told the court that his side had "no more instructions" and asked the judge to rise "so that we may clear our stuff away and leave." Tomlinson later called it "extraordinary litigation which came to an abrupt albeit long overdue conclusion in unusual circumstances."[^2] + +### Costs + +On April 12, 2006, Tomlinson ordered the liquidators to pay the Bank's costs on the indemnity basis, finding that the Bank's entitlement "could not be more clearly made out." He found that an allegation that the Bank's commissioning of the Section 41 report in March 1991, the [[Sandstorm Report]], was a dishonest cover-up had been "unsupported by any evidence," and criticized the liquidators for failing, after the discontinuance, to apologize or withdraw their allegations of dishonesty. The judgment records that the liquidators had earlier brought other major actions, "notably against the auditors and Bank of America."[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Three Rivers District Council v. Governor and Company of the Bank of England [2001] UKHL 16, House of Lords, March 22, 2001, opinions of Lord Steyn and Lord Hope of Craighead. https://web.archive.org/web/20251014045643/https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200001/ldjudgmt/jd010322/three-1.htm +[^2]: Three Rivers District Council and Others v. The Governor and Company of the Bank of England [2006] EWHC 816 (Comm), judgment of Mr Justice Tomlinson, April 12, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20260203100053/https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Comm/2006/816.html +[^3]: Three Rivers District Council v. Governor and Company of the Bank of England [2004] UKHL 48, House of Lords, November 11, 2004. https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/2004/48.html diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Abu Dhabi.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Abu Dhabi.md index 9f688347..9a469cc8 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Abu Dhabi.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Abu Dhabi.md @@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ tags: - BCCI - Intelligence - Arms -summary: "Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the home emirate of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahayan, the primary shareholder and ultimate backer of BCCI; Abu Dhabi's financial resources and sovereign immunity effectively shielded BCCI's fraudulent operations from regulatory action for years." +summary: "Capital of the United Arab Emirates and home emirate of Sheikh Zayed, whose government and ruling family owned 77 percent of BCCI when regulators closed it in July 1991." created: 2026-05-14 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-23 location: "Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates" --- @@ -16,17 +16,28 @@ Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the most populous ### BCCI and Sheikh Zayed -[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] was founded by Pakistani banker [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] in 1972 with Abu Dhabi financial backing as a key component of its capital base from the outset. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahayan and Abu Dhabi government entities became increasingly significant shareholders through the 1970s and 1980s as BCCI's nominal assets expanded and its actual fraud deepened. Abu Dhabi entities ultimately held approximately 77 percent of BCCI's nominal shares at the time of its collapse in 1991. +BCCI was founded by Pakistani banker [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] in 1972 with Abu Dhabi financial backing as a key component of its capital base from the outset. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahayan and Abu Dhabi government entities became increasingly significant shareholders through the 1970s and 1980s as BCCI's nominal assets expanded and its actual fraud deepened. Abu Dhabi entities ultimately held approximately 77 percent of BCCI's nominal shares at the time of its collapse in 1991. -Abu Dhabi's [[Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui|Ghanim al-Mazrui]], head of the Private Department of Sheikh Zayed's court and a longtime BCCI director, was among the Abu Dhabi officials most directly connected to the bank's management. Abu Dhabi's investment provided BCCI with a veneer of sovereign backing that complicated regulatory action; no Western regulator wanted to confront a gulf oil state directly over its bank.[^2] +Abu Dhabi's [[Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui|Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui]], head of the Private Department of Sheikh Zayed's court and a longtime BCCI director, was among the Abu Dhabi officials most directly connected to the bank's management. Abu Dhabi's investment provided BCCI with a veneer of sovereign backing that complicated regulatory action; no Western regulator wanted to confront a gulf oil state directly over its bank.[^2] In spring 1990, the [[Bank of England]] agreed to a plan under which [[Abu Dhabi]]'s Sheikh Zayed would take over BCCI formally and move its headquarters to Abu Dhabi, ostensibly to reorganize the bank and address its problems. This plan was coordinated with the Bank of England and effectively delayed BCCI's closure while concealing its problems from depositors. When BCCI was finally closed in July 1991, Abu Dhabi negotiated a settlement with liquidators and regulators over its liability as the bank's principal shareholder.[^1] ### Arms and Intelligence Context -Abu Dhabi and the UAE more broadly served as financial transit points for arms deals and intelligence-related financial flows during the Cold War and Iran-Contra era. The UAE's position outside Western regulatory frameworks but inside the dollar clearing system made it useful for transactions that required distance from American or European oversight. UAE-based banks and entities appear in the financial networks associated with Iranian arms procurement, Pakistani nuclear financing (the [[A.Q. Khan]] network), and post-Cold War arms flows.[^2] +Abu Dhabi and the UAE more broadly served as financial transit points for arms deals and intelligence-related financial flows during the [[Cold War]] and Iran-Contra era. The UAE's position outside Western regulatory frameworks but inside the dollar clearing system made it useful for transactions that required distance from American or European oversight. UAE-based banks and entities appear in the financial networks associated with Iranian arms procurement, Pakistani nuclear financing (the [[A.Q. Khan]] network), and post-Cold War arms flows.[^2] + +### The Kerry-Brown Findings and Settlement + +The [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]] found that Abu Dhabi "was present at BCCI's creation as one of two providers of BCCI's capital," and that it was the bank's largest depositor, its largest borrower, and for most of its existence its largest shareholder. By July 5, 1991, the government, the ruling family and their investment company owned 77 percent of BCCI, and because the remainder was held by nominees and [[ICIC]], the report concluded that "Abu Dhabi was in fact BCCI's sole owner." The [[Abu Dhabi Investment Authority]] had held 10 percent from 1980. The report rejected Abu Dhabi's account of itself as a passive victim and found that its officials had engaged "in a cover-up of fraudulent activity involving BCCI, which continues, in substantial part, to this day," holding "at least eighteen" BCCI officers incommunicado and breaking repeated commitments to supply witnesses and documents.[^3] + +On June 14, 1994, Judge Shehab Abdul-Rehman of the Abu Dhabi Court of the First Instance sentenced twelve former BCCI executives to a total of 56 years and awarded 9.13 billion dollars in damages: 6.56 billion to the Private Department of the UAE president, 1.347 billion to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and 1.223 billion to the Finance Department; one defendant, Iqbal Ahmed Rizvi, was acquitted. A later dispatch of the same agency described thirteen executives sentenced to 61 years.[^4][^5] Abu Dhabi's shareholders agreed in November 1994 to a 1.8 billion dollar compensation package for creditors, which a Luxembourg court approved on January 31, 1995; the first payment was cleared in December 1995 and May 1996, and in May 1996 Abu Dhabi bought back BCCI's 40 percent stake in Union National Bank, formerly the Bank of Credit and Commerce Emirates, for 27.4 million dollars. The liquidators later put Abu Dhabi's total contribution at 2.2 billion dollars, and the liquidation of BCCI's UAE branches was completed in June 2013.[^5][^6][^7] ### Footnotes [^1]: "Abu Dhabi," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/place/Abu-Dhabi-emirate [^2]: Kerry, John, and Brown, Hank. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations.* United States Senate, 1992. +[^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. 14, "Abu Dhabi: BCCI's Founding and Majority Stockholders." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/14abudhabi.htm +[^4]: Hussain, Thomas. "UAE jails and fines BCCI executives," United Press International, June 14, 1994. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/06/14/UAE-jails-and-fines-BCCI-executives/7650771566400/ +[^5]: "Abu Dhabi to buy BCCI share in UAE bank," United Press International, January 31, 1995. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/01/31/Abu-Dhabi-to-buy-BCCI-share-in-UAE-bank/6991791528400/ +[^6]: "BCCI small depositors paid in UAE," United Press International, October 11, 1997. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/10/11/BCCI-small-depositors-paid-in-UAE/2814876542400/ +[^7]: Hunter, Gregor Stuart. "After 22 years, UAE branches of defunct BCCI finally liquidated," *The National,* July 5, 2013. https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/after-22-years-uae-branches-of-defunct-bcci-finally-liquidated-1.606808 diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Hadlow, New Zealand.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Hadlow, New Zealand.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..667fa656 --- /dev/null +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Hadlow, New Zealand.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +category: "City" +tags: + - Place + - NewZealand + - SouthCanterbury + - RCHorsch +aliases: + - Hadlow +summary: "Rural settlement just west of Timaru in South Canterbury, New Zealand, where the fugitive R.C. Horsch lived as Dr Stanley Stokowski until March 1984." +location: "Hadlow, Canterbury, New Zealand" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Hadlow is a rural settlement near [[Timaru]] in South Canterbury, [[New Zealand]]. + +### The Stokowski Affair + +The American known as Dr Stanley Stokowski, a director of the ethanol plant of [[Chemical Technology Limited]] at Clandeboye, lived at Hadlow until mid-March 1984, when he left the country on a stolen passport.[^1] In the weeks that followed, police searched properties at Clandeboye and Hadlow.[^2] The man was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 +[^2]: "Police seek wife, child," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 13, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840613.2.7 diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Temuka.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Temuka.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..eb996282 --- /dev/null +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Temuka.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +category: "City" +tags: + - Place + - NewZealand + - SouthCanterbury + - RCHorsch +summary: "South Canterbury town north of Timaru, site of the ethanol distillery of Chemical Technology Limited licensed in 1981 and of the 1984 burglary in which a passport was stolen." +location: "Temuka, Canterbury, New Zealand" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Temuka is a town in South Canterbury, [[New Zealand]], 19 kilometres north of [[Timaru]] and the second largest centre in the region, with 4,047 inhabitants in 2013. Situated near the Arowhenua forest and early crossings of the Ōpihi and Temuka rivers, it was gazetted as a town in 1858 and surveyed in 1863, originally under the name Wallingford. It developed as a secondary industrial centre with early boiling-down and tannery works, a flour mill, a cheese factory and potteries; its pottery factory produced the New Zealand Railways cup and saucer from the 1930s.[^1] + +### The Distillery + +On July 14, 1981, the Minister of Customs, [[Hugh Templeton]], and the Minister of Energy, [[Bill Birch]], announced that a licence had been approved for "the commercial distillation of ethyl alcohol in a plant to be built at Temuka," the first such venture in the South Island, operated by [[Chemical Technology Limited]] and fed mainly by whey from the neighbouring dairy factory.[^2] The Minister of Science and Technology, [[Ian Shearer]], opened the plant in April 1982.[^3] Its American director, Dr Stanley Stokowski, was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +### The Passport + +After Stokowski left New Zealand on March 17, 1984, police said they wanted to interview him about "a burglary at Temuka, in which a passport was stolen," and believed he had used the stolen passport to leave the country.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Wilson, John. "South Canterbury places: Temuka," *Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand,* February 28, 2007, updated August 17, 2015. http://web.archive.org/web/20241211004231/https://teara.govt.nz/en/south-canterbury-places/page-5 +[^2]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31 +[^3]: "Dr Shearer wants extra effort in biotechnology," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 23, 1982. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820423.2.96.9 +[^4]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9 diff --git a/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Washdyke.md b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Washdyke.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..24d30b15 --- /dev/null +++ b/60 - PLACES/CITIES/Washdyke.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +category: "City" +tags: + - Place + - NewZealand + - SouthCanterbury + - RCHorsch +summary: "Industrial suburb five kilometres north of central Timaru, where the fugitive R.C. Horsch ran a mail-order computer software exchange as Dr Stanley Stokowski." +location: "Washdyke, Timaru, New Zealand" +created: 2026-09-23 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Washdyke is an "industrial suburb 5 km north of Timaru's city centre" in South Canterbury, [[New Zealand]]. "Its first industry was a boiling-down works, opened in 1869. Its industries today include a substantial brewery." The Washdyke Lagoon lies to the east; because the coastline changed after [[Timaru]]'s port was built, it is much smaller than it once was.[^1] + +### The Stokowski Affair + +The American known as Dr Stanley Stokowski, a director of [[Chemical Technology Limited]], "also ran a computer software exchange at Washdyke," *[[The Press]]* reported in June 1984.[^2] He sold the mail-order business to a Timaru man before he left, and mail was forwarded to a Christchurch box number that proved to be bogus.[^3] He was the fugitive [[R.C. Horsch]]. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Wilson, John. "South Canterbury places: Timaru," *Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand,* February 28, 2007, updated August 17, 2015. http://web.archive.org/web/20260208224555/https://teara.govt.nz/en/south-canterbury-places/page-6 +[^2]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 +[^3]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9