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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Wafai Dajani.md

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+---
+category: "Other"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - WafaiDajani
+  - Jordan
+  - BNLScandal
+  - CommodityCreditCorporation
+  - Iraq
+  - KingHussein
+  - StateDepartment
+summary: "Jordanian grain trader close to King Hussein whom Atlanta prosecutors planned to indict in the BNL case in 1991 and who was named instead as an unindicted co-conspirator after the State Department noted his connections."
+location: "Amman, Jordan"
+created: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-09-21
+---
+
+Wafai Dajani is a businessman of [[Amman]], owner of Amman Resources, Wafai Dajani and Sons, Arab Holdings, and Aqaba Packing. His brother was [[Jordan]]'s minister of the interior, his family had been the Jordanian agent of [[Mobil|Mobil Oil]] since 1921, he had formerly worked for [[Ghaith Pharaon]], and he had a joint venture with [[Comet Rice]] of [[Houston]]. Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] described him as central to the smooth running of the [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program|Commodity Credit Corporation's guarantees]] for [[Iraq]], which the [[Atlanta]] branch of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] financed.[^1]
+
+The Atlanta prosecutors' draft of the indictment in the [[BNL Scandal|BNL case]] named him as a defendant. On February 28, 1991, the day the indictment was returned, a [[Department of State|State Department]] memorandum said the department had "no objections" to the indictment of anyone on the list and recorded "reservations about proceeding against him in light of his connections." He and [[Hussein Kamel]], the son-in-law of [[Saddam Hussein]], appeared in the indictment as unindicted co-conspirators. Gonzalez told the House on March 30, 1992, that the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] had discouraged the indictment of the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] and of "a prominent Jordanian with close ties to the King of Jordan" on grounds of foreign policy. The branch manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], testified that a "Mr. Dejani" had told him of [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]]: "Kissinger, of course, he said, is the architect of foreign policy in the [[United States]]. You know that."[^1][^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. Floor statements on the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, *Congressional Record,* House, March 30 and August 10, 1992.
+[^2]: "Bush's embarrassing Lavoro scandal," *The Baltimore Sun,* April 28, 1992; House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, hearing, Serial No. 103-95, testimony of Christopher Drogoul.