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14
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/William von Raab.md
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@ -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