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---
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/

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---
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/

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bank of Credit and Commerce International.md
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@ -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.
[^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

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---
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.

67
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Capcom.md
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@ -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

11
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Chemical Technology Limited.md
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@ -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

64
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit and Commerce American Holdings.md Normal file
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@ -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/

2
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Dassault Company.md
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@ -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]

26
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Femme Productions.md Normal file
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@ -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

31
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Financial General Bankshares.md
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@ -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.
[^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

23
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/First American Bank.md
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@ -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

32
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Garzone Funeral Home.md
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@ -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.

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gulf Group.md Normal file
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@ -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/

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@ -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

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---
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

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---
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

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---
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.

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@ -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

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---
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

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---
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

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---
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

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---
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

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---
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

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---
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