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Sami Masri

Sami Masri was a BCCI operative.

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Sami Masri was a BCCI operative.1 He was a Palestinian with a Jordanian passport, raised in Abu Dhabi, and had connections to Sheikh Zayed's Private Department.2

Role in BCCI's Black Network

Masri was recruited into BCCI's "Black Network" in 1984 while in college in Pittsburgh.3 This network was a clandestine division of BCCI that functioned as a global intelligence operation and a mafia-like enforcement squad.4 Masri described the network's involvement in drug shipments, smuggled gold, stolen military secrets, assassinations, bribery, extortion, covert intelligence operations, and weapons deals.5

He claimed the Black Network did a lot of intelligence operations with the CIA, including picking up and assassinating people for the agency.6 Masri stated that the organization was bankrolled by BCCI and aimed for complete domination of key countries.7 He also revealed that the Black Network was involved in financing both sides in Nicaragua, handling money from Saudi Arabia for the Contras and from Kuwait for the Sandinistas.8

Masri was a source for Jonathan Beaty and S. C. Gwynne during their investigation into BCCI. He provided detailed information about the bank's criminal activities and its connections to intelligence agencies, though he was often evasive and exaggerated his own importance.9 He was secretly tape-recorded by federal law enforcement figures as he described BCCI's criminal activities.10

Masri was arrested by American Customs agents in Tampa, Florida, as part of a sting operation targeting money laundering.11 He was later indicted on charges of tax evasion stemming from a coffee-smuggling scheme financed by BCCI.12

His personal life was tumultuous; he was disinherited by his family after marrying an Australian airline stewardess named Pamela. He later sought to divorce Pamela, claiming she knew too much about his work with the Black Network.13

Sources

  1. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 10. ↩
  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. 94. ↩
  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. 103. ↩
  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. 147. ↩
  5. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 90. ↩
  6. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 108. ↩
  7. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 105. ↩
  8. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 105. ↩
  9. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 122. ↩
  10. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 29. ↩
  11. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 13. ↩
  12. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 14. ↩
  13. Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 94. ↩

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