Abdur Sakhia

Abdur Sakhia was the senior officer of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in the United States, its regional general manager and the head of its Miami office, and earlier its officer for Latin America and the Caribbean. He left the bank in April 1990 and, with Masihur Rahman, was one of the two former BCCI officials who testified before Senator John Kerry's subcommittee in 1991.¹²

BCCI

Sakhia recalled to Senate staff that when he tried to leave BCCI with two offers from other banks, one from Citicorp, Agha Hasan Abedi refused to let him go: "He started crying. It was absolutely heartbreaking. We used to sit in 15,000 square feet of open space. Mr. Abedi is at the head of the room and he started crying." He described Abedi's cultivation of Sheikh Zayed: "Abedi created the UAE. He planted the idea of the UAE as a federation to Sheikh Zayed. These people had no standing anywhere in the world. They were smugglers and tribesmen," and said that the first embassies of the United Arab Emirates, in Pakistan and London, were staffed by Abedi's appointees. Of the bank's methods he said: "Abedi's philosophy was to appeal to every sector. President Carter's main thing was charity, so he gave Carter charity. [Pakistani President] Zia's brother in law needed a job, he got a job," and that "there was a world wide list of people who were in the payoff of BCCI."¹³

He testified that it had been obvious within the bank by 1983, when it decided to buy a bank in Colombia, that BCCI was soliciting drug money: "We knew that the money that we would be getting in Colombia would be drug money. We knew that all the dollar deposits we would be getting would be drug money." He said his opposition to the purchase cost him the post of regional manager for all of Latin America. Other BCCI officers who remained at the bank scoffed at his professions of innocence.² He told the subcommittee that in the autumn of 1984 he had met Justice Department officials in the office of Senator Paula Hawkins about allegations against BCCI, and was told the bank was not under investigation.⁴

First American

Sakhia testified that in BCCI's management discussions BCCI, the National Bank of Georgia and First American were thought of "in the same breath," and that when Clark Clifford and Robert Altman visited BCCI's offices in New York and Miami from 1982, Abedi met them alone and then briefed the staff. He described BCCI's choice and approval of office space for First American in New York, and served as coordinator of joint marketing meetings among the three banks. He arranged at Abedi's request the meeting in Miami in November 1985 at which Abedi, Swaleh Naqvi, Clifford, Altman and officials of the National Bank of Georgia met privately, after which Abedi told Sakhia and others that the Georgia bank would be merged with First American; in February 1986 he wrote to Abedi on "Future Plans in the United States." He recalled that the formal opening of BCCI's Miami office in August 1982 was attended by Governor Bob Graham, Jeb Bush and the Mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young.⁵ He also testified that the arms transactions of Adnan Khashoggi through BCCI's Monte Carlo branch had been approved by Abedi from the beginning.⁶

Threats

Describing his departure, Sakhia testified that "when I left the bank in April 1990, we left as a group, about 12 of us," and that each was told: "you go quietly, if you make any noise, they are going to fix you. I got the word from Naqvi's secretary that if I made any noise, Altman's firm will get me involved in a drug case."² He was first interviewed by investigators of the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, and the Senate report credited him with testimony "in detail about the ties between BCCI and First American, Clifford and Altman's alleged knowledge of these ties, and Clifford and Altman's alleged actions at First American at the direction of BCCI."⁷