Frankfurt

Frankfurt is a city in Germany. On July 18, 1994, Abbas Gokal, the principal of the Geneva-based Gulf Group and the main target of the Serious Fraud Office's investigation of the Gulf Group's loans from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), was arrested aboard an aircraft at Frankfurt during a refuelling stop on a flight from Pakistan to New York.¹

Arrest of Abbas Gokal

The Serious Fraud Office had opened its inquiry into BCCI's loans to the Gulf Group in September 1992. During the early part of the investigation only one or two of the potential defendants occasionally visited countries that had extradition treaties with Britain, and the investigating team prepared papers detailing the conspiracy to be used if any of them did. On July 14, 1994, the City of London Police received information that Gokal was about to fly to New York; according to the account published in Accountancy Age, he "hoped to cut a deal there to gain immunity from prosecution in exchange for information about US nationals." Over the next day the police confirmed the flight details and planned to intercept the aircraft when it landed at Frankfurt to refuel, and the SFO asked the German police to arrest him.¹

When the aircraft landed on Monday, July 18, passengers were asked to disembark, but no one matching Gokal's description appeared. Detective Sergeant Doug Reeman, who had flown to Germany for the arrest, went aboard and found Gokal sitting in first class with his wife. He was arrested and held in a German prison pending extradition. After his extradition he was remanded to Brixton prison, and in February 1995 he was charged with conspiracy to account falsely and conspiracy to defraud. His trial at the Old Bailey began in September 1996 and lasted 122 days; on May 8, 1997, he was sentenced to fourteen years for his part in a 1.2 billion dollar fraud, then the heaviest sentence obtained by the Serious Fraud Office.¹