Mohammed Hammoud

Mohammed M. Hammoud (died, reportedly, May 3, 1990) was a Lebanese businessman who acted during the 1980s as a front man and nominee for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). He became a shareholder of BCCI and of Credit and Commerce American Holdings (CCAH), the holding company of First American Bankshares; borrowed more than 110 million dollars from BCCI, much of it without paying interest; and bought the CCAH shares held by Clark Clifford and Robert Altman. The Kerry-Brown Senate Report devoted a chapter to him, "BCCI's Flexible Front-Man," and concluded that "much about Mohammed Hammoud's life, business with BCCI, and alleged death remains a mystery to the Subcommittee."¹

Beirut

Abdur Sakhia, BCCI's former general manager in New York, told the subcommittee that he had first known Hammoud in Beirut as "a small time money changer" with "a storefront the size of this sofa. His store was three feet deep and eight feet wide." Nazir Chinoy, BCCI's general manager in Paris, described "a short man, not a very impressive personality," "a slimey sort of a chap," and said: "Would Hammoud understand foreign policy? I do not think so. He was not a worldly man." Masihur Rahman, BCCI's former chief financial officer, called him "a medium sized businessman."¹

Hammoud's recorded wealth grew during the 1980s "exponentially, and inexplicably," at almost 5 million dollars a year, and by 1989 he was listed as owning assets of more than 35 million dollars, although Chinoy said he did not give "the impression of being an extremely rich man from his clothes and general behavior." A BCCI memorandum of 1983 described him as "a very good customer of the BCC Group" who "possesses large means." A Price Waterhouse report of February 1990 recorded him as the holder of 2,646,184 BCCI shares.¹

First American Shares

Rahman testified that Hammoud used two front companies, Mid-Gulf and Rubstone, to buy CCAH shares on BCCI's behalf while appearing to act independently. In 1988 Hammoud bought the CCAH stock of Clifford and Altman, First American's chairman and president and BCCI's American lawyers, for about three times what Altman had paid for it; Altman testified that he had never met Hammoud. Shown by Senator John Kerry a power of attorney that allowed Altman to sell Hammoud's CCAH shares as his agent, Altman said: "this gives an authority to sell shares, and that is something that to the best of my recollection, I'd never seen before. I do not know how to explain it. I don't know where it came from, but I don't believe it was ever in our files."¹

Washington Contacts

Hammoud's American real estate was managed by Charles W. Hostler, later the United States ambassador to Bahrain, whom he had met in Beirut in the 1960s when Hostler was a young Air Force officer and Hammoud's wife taught him Arabic. Hostler went on to manage the Lebanese operations of Douglas Aircraft from 1965 to 1967 and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Commerce from 1974 to 1976. He advised Hammoud on three properties: vacant land in Sherman, Connecticut, an old building in Boston, and a building to be demolished in New York. The broker who handled the purchases, Curtis Hagen, recalled a meeting at the Pierre Hotel on July 16, 1982, at which Hammoud told Hostler, "there will be a Cadillac in your driveway, tomorrow morning"; Hostler denied receiving any "salary, gifts or other gratuities" beyond reimbursement of expenses.¹

Hammoud had contact with State Department officials over the release of American hostages in Beirut and other Lebanese questions, and developed a personal and business relationship with Michael Pillsbury, a former assistant under secretary of defense and Senate staff member. After BCCI's indictment in Tampa in October 1988 he worked with the bank's criminal defense team in Washington on whether it would be possible to "reverse Tampa," and in the fall of 1989 he met senior officials of the Treasury and the Justice Department about the BCCI case.¹

Death

Hammoud died on May 3, 1990, "at the very time that investigations of BCCI were intensifying." He was said to have died in Geneva while visiting his doctor, and was buried in Beirut. Insurers reportedly refused to pay his life policy because the corpse was several inches shorter than the height recorded at his last medical examination, and several former BCCI officials told the subcommittee that they did not believe he was dead. His family supplied his London lawyers with a video of the funeral which allegedly showed senior Syrian intelligence officials in attendance.¹ Newsweek reported in August 1992 that "intelligence officials now say" Hammoud had been taped saying on the telephone, "If anybody knew how dirty the Americans are in this BCCI business, they'd be surprised" and "they're dirtier than the Pakistanis," that he then said he was about to tell someone about the American role, and that "eight hours later he was found dead."¹ The New York County indictment of Agha Hasan Abedi and others of July 29, 1992, described assets bought in the name of "Mohammed M. Hammoud, a Lebanese businessman who reportedly died in 1990."¹