Kamal Adham

Kamal Adham was the former head of Saudi Arabian intelligence and brother-in-law of the late King Faisal. He was a significant shareholder in BCCI and First American Bank. Adham was a shrewd and jovial figure who straddled the worlds of Middle Eastern business and politics for decades. He was considered one of the true inside power players of the Middle East.¹

Adham's influence stemmed from his royal connections, which he leveraged to facilitate business deals. He was the principal liaison between the Central Intelligence Agency and European intelligence agencies, operating under the code name "Tumbleweed."² His role in Saudi intelligence involved assisting the royalists in Yemen's civil war and later wielding wider influence through surveillance of Saudi citizens and political enemies of the king.³

He played a crucial role as a front man for Agha Hasan Abedi in BCCI's secret acquisitions, including the National Bank of Georgia and Financial General Bankshares.⁴ Adham was instrumental in funneling money from Sheikh Zayed and the CIA to Anwar Sadat and is credited with pressuring Sadat to engage in the Camp David Accords.⁵

Adham was indicted in the United States for his involvement in BCCI's frauds and bribery, eventually pleading guilty in New York and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. He paid a $105 million fine.⁶

Early Life and Career

Born in 1929, Kamal Adham was the son of Dr. Rashad Pharaon, physician to King Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. His father's position within the royal inner circle provided Adham with significant access and influence from a young age.⁷ He received a good education, attending the best French schools.⁸

Adham launched his business career in 1951, at the age of twenty-two, by controlling the franchise for Carrier Corp air conditioners. He expanded his ventures to include a TUP bottling plant, and companies that built roads, airports, and imported elevators and computers. By the mid-1960s, his influence grew to the point where he represented multiple defense firms and became a principal broker for weapons purchased by Saudi Arabia on behalf of Egypt.⁹

Relationship with Abedi and BCCI

Abedi met Adham in the early 1970s through Sheikh Zayed. Adham became a key figure in Abedi's strategy to expand BCCI's influence in the United States. He was a nominal lead shareholder in First American Bank and was responsible for hiring Clark Clifford and Robert Altman to lead the bank.¹⁰ Adham's role was to provide a veneer of legitimacy and access for BCCI's clandestine operations.

Involvement in Nuclear Programs

Adham publicly asserted that Pakistan possessed an atomic bomb and that Abedi and BCCI had financially supported its development. He viewed this as an achievement for the Third World, challenging Western powers' control over nuclear technology.¹¹

The Federal Reserve Hearing

Adham was one of four original investors, with Faisal Saud al-Fulaij, Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Abdullah Darwaish, named as holders of Financial General shares in 1978; the memo of the BCCI officer Abdus Sami to Agha Hasan Abedi of January 30, 1978, reported: "We have already given the names of Sheikh Kamal Adham and Mr. Fulaig [sic]. We want two other names immediately."¹²¹³ At the Federal Reserve hearing of April 23, 1981, he testified that "whatever relationships are developed between Financial General and BCCI in the future, if any, are matters to be decided by the new management of Financial General based upon that institution's best interests." Asked whether it was a coincidence that BCCI had analyzed Financial General for him and then advised other clients to invest, he said: "That is very possible. Such things happen in our parts of the world." He told the regulators, falsely according to the Kerry-Brown Senate Report, that he had not met Fulaij for ten years; the two had acted together as BCCI nominees in dealings in the shares of BCCI's Attock Oil. "I would like to assure you," he said, "that each one on his own rights will not accept in any way to be a cover for somebody else."¹² Clark Clifford described him to the regulators not as the former head of Saudi intelligence or the late king's brother-in-law, "but merely as a prominent Saudi businessman," and said he had the "deepest respect for his [Adham's] character, for his reputation, for his honor and for his integrity."¹² In early drafts of the arrangement by which Clifford and Robert Altman acquired CCAH shares, Adham, with BCCI as back-up, was to be bound to repurchase their shares at any time at their discretion; the requirement was never discussed with him, which the Senate report took as showing that Clifford, Altman and BCCI regarded him "as no more than a nominee for BCCI."¹⁴

In a letter to the Federal Reserve of April 10, 1991, Adham gave another account of the investment's origin: a friend, Hasan Yassin, had told him Financial General would be a good investment, and he had brought it to BCCI "as his business agent." The Senate report called this "completely inconsistent" with the accounts of Bert Lance, the Washington Post and Robert Altman, and noted that Lance had never heard of Yassin.¹²

Intelligence Background

The Senate report recorded that the CIA, asked about the CCAH shareholders, told the Federal Reserve it had no derogatory information on them, without telling it that Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil were "the past and then-current Saudi intelligence liaisons to the United States," or that Adham and Fulaij had been the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act into arms sales to Saudi Arabia by Boeing and Lockheed. Paul Volcker, who as chairman of the Federal Reserve signed the 1981 approval, testified in 1991 that he "wasn't aware" of Adham's intelligence background and that it "might send an eyebrow or two up." The Virginia bank regulator Sidney Bailey asked the State Department and the CIA for information on the shareholders and received none; "at the time," the report found, "the CIA knew precisely who Adham was."¹²¹⁵

Plea

On July 29, 1992, the Justice Department announced that Adham and his accountant, Sayed Jawhary, had pleaded guilty to charges arising from the BCCI case, and that Adham had agreed to cooperate with investigators and to pay 105 million dollars in reparations and fines.¹⁶