Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui

Ghanim Faris al-Mazrui (given in some sources as Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui) was the head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department and a BCCI board member.¹ He was also the director general of His Highness's Private Department and a longtime director of BCCI, effectively running Abu Dhabi alongside Sheikh Zayed.²

Role in BCCI Operations

Al-Mazrui's involvement with BCCI was significant, particularly in the bank's relationship with the Abu Dhabi government. He was a key figure in the discussions surrounding the restructuring of BCCI, especially after the bank faced financial difficulties.³

He was also connected to William J. Casey, the former CIA Director, through the Bank of Oman, which was a major affiliate of BCCI and channeled funds for the Afghan freedom fighters.⁴

Al-Mazrui's involvement in the BCCI scandal was a matter of public knowledge, and his actions were closely scrutinized during the investigations into the bank's illicit activities.⁵

Offices

The Kerry-Brown Senate Report gives his name as Ghanim Faris Al Mazrui, rendered in Price Waterhouse's reports as "H.E.G.F. Mazrui." It records that he had served Sheikh Zayed as financial adviser and manager "for more than fifteen years": as secretary general of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) from 1976, as chairman or acting chairman of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department from 1982, and from July 1991 as chairman of a "Shareholders Working Group," described by Abu Dhabi as "an informal committee appointed to oversee and coordinate the Majority Shareholders' response to the closure of BCCI." From 1981 he sat on BCCI's board as ADIA's representative, ADIA then holding 10 percent of BCCI's shares, and he ultimately became its chairman. He replaced Abdullah Darweish as head of the ruling family's investments after Darweish's arrest on December 8, 1981. At the same time he joined the boards of two Hong Kong institutions, the Hong Kong Deposit and Guaranty Bank and Tetra Finance, together with Yassin Hassan, Kamal Adham's original contact for the Financial General Bankshares takeover; both collapsed about two years later with losses to depositors of several hundred million dollars.⁶

What He Knew

Abu Dhabi's witness, Ahmed Al Sayegh, told Senator John Kerry that al-Mazrui "first learned of BCCI's problems, and its involvement in false or deceitful accounting practices, in April, 1990, from Price Waterhouse, along with other members of BCCI's board of directors." Price Waterhouse's report under section 41 of the Banking Act 1987 stated:⁶

The extent to which the major shareholders and in particular their board representative H.E.G.F. Mazrui was aware of the matters discussed in this report cannot be established. We are, however, informed that H.E.G.F. Mazrui and the government were briefed fully on all the problems in April, 1990, notwithstanding that they allowed the 1989 accounts to be finalised in discussions with ourselves and the Regulators without disclosing this information.

The auditors added that until October 1990 he had contended that loans later "proven to be totally fictitious" were recoverable. Price Waterhouse told the Bank of England that his own accounts at ICIC showed that he had received funds in 1986 and earlier from no-risk transactions in BCCI shares guaranteed against loss, which he confirmed in April 1990, and that he had confirmed a fictitious BCCI loan to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa; he told the auditors that "his signature must have been forged," a contention they rejected. The Senate report concluded that "Al Mazrui has neither been fired, nor resigned," and remained in charge of Abu Dhabi's working group on BCCI.⁶