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Adnan Khashoggi

Adnan Khashoggi (1935-2017) was a Saudi billionaire arms dealer and key Iran-Contra middleman who bridged financing for the Reagan administration's arms sales to Iran through BCCI, and was named alongside Manucher Ghorbanifar and Richard Armitage in the May 1985 Reynolds letter as a broker for the covert distribution of PROMIS software.

Mentions 17 Tags PersonIranContraPROMISArmsDealerBCCI

Adnan Khashoggi (25 July 1935 – 6 June 2017) was an international arms merchant and a factotum for the House of Saud. He was considered the richest man in the world in the 1980s. Khashoggi covered his financial tracks by establishing front companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to handle his commissions. He also developed contacts with notable figures such as CIA officers James H. Critchfield and Kim Roosevelt, and U.S. businessman Bebe Rebozo, a close associate of former U.S. President Richard Nixon.1

Khashoggi's sister, Samira Khashoggi Fayed, was the mother of Dodi Fayed, who was romantically involved with Diana, Princess of Wales. Khashoggi's yacht, Nabila, was the largest in the world at the time and was featured in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again.1

Involvement in Iran-Contra Affair and PROMIS Scandal

Khashoggi was implicated in the Iran-Contra Affair as a key middleman in the arms-for-hostages exchange, working alongside Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar. He was found to have borrowed money for these arms purchases from the now-bankrupt financial institution, the BCCI, with Saudi and U.S. backing.1 BCCI helped Adnan Khashoggi finance the sale of arms to Iran as a part of the Reagan Administration's Iran-Contra effort.2 Khashoggi participated in five of the deals for the United States, and BCCI provided the bridge financing through Israel to Iran.3

He was also involved in brokering the transaction of PROMIS software to an Arab Sheik for resale and general distribution. He was mentioned in a document dated May 16, 1985, along with Manucher Ghorbanifar and Richard Armitage, as individuals who would broker this transaction. William Bradford Reynolds independently remembered Armitage, Khashoggi, and Ghorbanifar working together on PROMIS.1

In 1988, Khashoggi was arrested in Switzerland, accused of concealing funds. He was held for three months and then extradited to the United States, where he was released on bail and subsequently acquitted. In 1990, a U.S. federal jury in Manhattan acquitted Khashoggi and Imelda Marcos, widow of the exiled Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, of racketeering and fraud.1

Connections

His cousin, Hassan Yassin, was described as a close business associate of Kamal Adham.4

Sources

  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, p. 12. ↩
  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. 387. ↩
  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. 352. ↩

Connected to

Person
Manucher Ghorbanifar
Manucher Ghorbanifar was a former SAVAK officer and Iranian exile arms dealer whom the CIA formally burned as a 'fabricator' in 1984, yet who became the primary Iranian intermediary in the 1985-1986 Iran-Contra arms deals brokered through the NSC, and who was named in the May 1985 Reynolds-Weld letter as a broker for the covert distribution of PROMIS software.
9 shared pages
viaBob Bickel · Manucher Ghorbanifar · Richard Armitage · Richard Brenneke · Khalid bin Mahfouz
Person
Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1983 to 1989 and as Deputy Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, was named in the May 1985 Reynolds-Weld letter as a broker for the covert PROMIS software distribution, and was later identified as the source who inadvertently disclosed Valerie Plame's CIA identity to Robert Novak in 2003.
7 shared pages
viaManucher Ghorbanifar · Richard Armitage · Khalid bin Mahfouz · Bill Hamilton · Edwin Meese
Person
William Bradford Reynolds
William Bradford Reynolds served as Reagan's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights from 1981 to 1988 and in 2005 authenticated a May 16, 1985 letter he had signed directing U.S. Attorney William F. Weld that PROMIS software equipped with a surveillance back door was to be distributed to a Saudi sheikh via arms dealers Manucher Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, and Richard Armitage, with funds routed through Credit Suisse and the National Commercial Bank.
7 shared pages
viaManucher Ghorbanifar · Richard Armitage · Khalid bin Mahfouz · Bill Hamilton · Edwin Meese
Organization
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
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.
5 shared pages
viaBob Bickel · Richard Brenneke · Khalid bin Mahfouz · Bill Hamilton

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