disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions

Wave G, CTC/Barcella thread, EA cluster pages, first dispatch

Browse source 
Wave G rewrites (Nautilus, UAP Task Force, Six-Day War, DARPA, Aguado,
Meridian, Deckoff) with spillover deltas; ARPA merged into DARPA; new pages
for Counter Terrorism Consultants, James B. Motley, Francis J. McNeil,
House October Surprise Task Force, Greg Kehoe, Black Diamond Capital
Management, Effective Altruism Foundation, Carla Cremer, Jacob Coxon;
first dispatch in 70 - DISPATCHES.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UCcR8CEutHnduHwhbe4btv
This commit is contained in:
disinfo.zone 2026-10-08 13:43:08 -04:00
parent b51e2a359a
commit 820bb64cde
No known key found for this signature in database
24 changed files with 1113 additions and 186 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

26
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bank of Credit and Commerce International.md
View file

@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ aliases:
- BCCI
- Sandstorm
created: 2024-04-25
updated: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-10-08
tags:
- Organization
- Private
@ -89,9 +89,21 @@ Through late 1990 and the spring of 1991, according to the Senate report, BCCI,
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]
BCCI's Washington defense was coordinated in part by former federal prosecutors. [[Lawrence Wechsler]] recruited [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.]] "to coordinate the bank's defense" shortly after the October 1988 Tampa indictment, and the Senate report stated that "the full extent of Barcella's activities on behalf of BCCI remains unknown."[^15] The Senate subcommittee could not determine what, if any, services [[Paul Laxalt]] performed for the bank, although Barcella had tried in 1988 to persuade Laxalt, his firm's lead partner, to meet BCCI's chief executive in London.[^15]
A 1992 press account gave a different date, stating that BCCI hired Barcella in 1990.[^16] Barcella and Wechsler represented the bank in the meetings at which Tampa prosecutors agreed to a plea in January 1990.[^17] [[Robert Parry]] wrote that Barcella and his firm earned more than $2 million from BCCI, and that the Laxalt and BCCI links were omitted from the public report on the October Surprise investigation.[^18]
### Congressional Inquiries and CIA Accounts
A CIA memorandum, undated and approved for release in August 2003, refers to a [[House October Surprise Task Force|House task force]] "formed to investigate allegations that officials from the Reagan campaign sought to delay release of the hostages in Iran until after the 1980 election," a body the House created on February 5, 1992.[^19][^20] The memorandum states that the [[House Banking Committee]] had subpoenaed First American for all of its records pertaining to CIA accounts in its investigation of BCCI, and that the agency did not then hold any accounts at First American.[^19] The agency had briefed two cleared committee staffers on the First American accounts and had provided the committee with intelligence reports on BCCI, and it had indicated a desire to cooperate "so long as it would not require access to operational information." The committee nonetheless sent a letter to the ADCI asserting its right to review all records and interview CIA officers "regardless of the sensitivity of the information."[^19]
The agency had also tried to obtain the help of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] to act as a surrogate for the Banking Committee in reviewing sensitive operational information, but the Banking Committee had refused to accept any role for it.[^19] The memorandum proposed points to be made to the committee, including that the agency was "prepared to resist demands for access by the Banking Committee to sensitive operational information, and will, as a last resort, seek to protect this type of information from disclosure by requesting that the President invoke Executive Privilege." The agency was also prepared to ask the Department of Justice "to seek a Temporary Restraining Order that would relieve First American Bank from having to comply with the Banking Committee subpoena."[^19]
The memorandum records a request from the October Surprise Task Force for information on official and unofficial arms sales to Iran of U.S. origin or U.S. content from November 1977 through August 1985, including field reporting and operational strategies. It states that a "similar concern could also arise with the October Surprise Task Force investigation," and that the agency would "attempt to work out a compromise that would satisfy the Task Force's desire for information while protecting intelligence sources and methods."[^19]
### 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]
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.[^21] In 2005 the liquidators abandoned their suit against the Bank of England, [[Three Rivers District Council v Bank of England]].[^22]
### Footnotes
@ -109,5 +121,11 @@ The liquidators, [[Touche Ross]], reported a year into the liquidation that the
[^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
[^15]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 17, "BCCI's Lawyers and Lobbyists." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/17law.htm
[^16]: "Head of Iran Hostage Probe Linked to Arms Deal," *Hartford Courant*, May 29, 1992. https://www.courant.com/1992/05/29/head-of-iran-hostage-probe-linked-to-arms-deal/
[^17]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm
[^18]: Parry, Robert. "October Surprise X-Files (Part 8): Lies Spun into History." *Consortium News*, 1996. https://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/xfile8.html Sole source for the fee figure and the omissions as reported by Parry.
[^19]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum, undated, "BCCI and October Surprise Task Force," approved for release August 2003. CIA Reading Room document 0000984226. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0000984226
[^20]: U.S. House of Representatives, October Surprise Task Force, *Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980*, H. Rept. 102-1102, January 3, 1993, Legislative History (task force formed February 5, 1992 under H. Res. 258). https://archive.org/details/6199732-Joint-Report-of-the-October-Surprise-Task-Force
[^21]: "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/
[^22]: 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