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#BCCI

66 entries tagged BCCI.

People (45)

  • A. R. (Abdul Raouf) Khalil Khalil was one of the nominees used by Abedi to secretly purchase shares in CCAH, the holding company that owned First American Bank.
  • Abbas Gokal Abbas Gokal was the senior partner of the Gulf Shipping Group, which became BCCI's largest single debtor at $831 million through fictitious trade transactions and circular credit, before fleeing Germany after BCCI's 1991 collapse and being convicted of fraud in German courts.
  • Adnan Khashoggi Adnan Khashoggi (1935-2017) was a Saudi billionaire arms dealer and key Iran-Contra middleman who bridged financing for the Reagan administration's arms sales to Iran through BCCI, and was named alongside Manucher Ghorbanifar and Richard Armitage in the May 1985 Reynolds letter as a broker for the covert distribution of PROMIS software.
  • Agha Hasan Abedi Agha Hasan Abedi was a Pakistani financier who founded the BCCI in 1972, with the intention of creating the Third World's first multinational bank.
  • Amjad Awan Amjad Awan was a manager of BCCI Panama and later the bank's marketing manager for Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Arif Durrani Arif Durrani was a Pakistani arms dealer convicted of illegally providing HAWK antiaircraft missile parts to Iran.
  • Asaf Ali Asaf Ali is a Pakistani multimillionaire and arms dealer, closely associated with Agha Hasan Abedi and the BCCI.
  • Bert Lance T. Bertram 'Bert' Lance was Jimmy Carter's first Director of the Office of Management and Budget, who resigned in 1977 amid a congressional investigation into banking improprieties, and subsequently became the crucial intermediary who introduced Agha Hasan Abedi to Clark Clifford and facilitated BCCI's covert entry into the U.S. banking market.
  • Charles Saphos Charles Saphos was the Chief of the Criminal Division Narcotics section of the Justice Department.
  • Clark Clifford Clark Clifford (1906-1997) was a Washington attorney who served as Special Counsel to President Truman, co-authored the National Security Act of 1947, served as Secretary of Defense under Lyndon Johnson, and became the central American figure in the BCCI scandal after he and his partner Robert Altman personally vouched to banking regulators that BCCI would not secretly own First American Bank -- a representation that proved false.
  • Danny Casolaro Joseph Daniel Casolaro (1947-1991) was a freelance journalist whose investigation into the PROMIS software scandal expanded into a unified theory of an intelligence-criminal network he called 'The Octopus,' found dead in a Martinsburg, West Virginia hotel room on August 10, 1991, with both wrists slashed twelve times in a death officially ruled suicide.
  • David L. Paul Paul put CenTrust on a significant growth curve using brokered deposits, which he funneled into high-risk real estate loans, junk bonds, and offbeat investments.
  • Donald Regan Donald Regan served as the Treasury Secretary during the Reagan Administration.
  • Douglas Mulholland Douglas Mulholland was the intelligence liaison at the Treasury Department.
  • Eddie George Eddie George was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England.
  • Eugene Holley Eugene Holley was a former Georgia state senator who introduced Bert Lance to Agha Hasan Abedi.
  • Gerald Lewis Gerald Lewis was the Florida state comptroller who refused to renew BCCI's license to operate in the state after the 1990 Tampa money-laundering conviction.
  • Ghaith R. Pharaon Pharaon launched himself into the construction business in Saudi Arabia in 1965, founding Saudi Arabian Research and Development Corporation (REDEC).
  • Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui Ghanim Fan's al-Mazrui was the Head of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department and a BCCI board member.
  • Gokal brothers The Gokal brothers, Abbas Gokal, Murtaza Gokal, and Mustafa Gokal, were Pakistani businessmen who ran the Gulf Group, a London-based shipping company.
  • Jack Blum Former Senate investigator and chief counsel to Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, widely recognized for exposing the BCCI scandal and investigating Contra-connected drug trafficking.
  • James Callaghan James Callaghan, also known as Lord Callaghan, was a former British prime minister who served as a paid economic adviser to the BCCI.
  • James Dougherty James Dougherty was a Florida lawyer for Lloyd's of London who investigated Munther Ismael Bilheisi and the BCCI.
  • John Kerry Senator from Massachusetts who chaired the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, investigating both BCCI and links between the Contras and cocaine trafficking with findings that were systematically suppressed.
  • Joseph E. Vaez In February 1978, Vaez submitted a report on the BCCI that characterized it as a bank dangerously out of control.
  • Kamal Adham Kamal Adham was the former head of Saudi Arabian intelligence and brother-in-law of the late King Faisal.
  • Khalfan al-Mazrui Khalfan al-Mazrui was the Head of the Karachi office of Sheikh Zayed's Private Department.
  • Khalid bin Mahfouz Khalid bin Mahfouz (1949-2009) was a Saudi billionaire banker who owned approximately 20% of BCCI, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in July 1992 on charges of defrauding BCCI depositors of $300 million, settled all charges for $225 million in December 1993, and was named in a May 1985 Department of Justice document as the intended recipient of espionage-modified PROMIS software brokered by Manucher Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, and Richard Armitage.
  • Masihur Rahman Masihur Rahman was the former chief financial officer of BCCI.
  • Munther Ismael Bilheisi Munther Ismael Bilheisi was an expatriate Jordanian involved in coffee smuggling, arms dealing, customs violations, money laundering, and paying bribes and kickbacks.
  • Richard Brenneke Portland-based arms dealer and self-described CIA contract agent who claimed to have attended the October 1980 October Surprise Paris meetings, was indicted for perjury in 1989 and acquitted in 1990, and served as a document source for Danny Casolaro’s Octopus investigation.
  • Richard J. Kerr Kerr appeared before Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations on October 25, 1992, to discuss the CIA's knowledge of BCCI's activities.
  • Robert Altman Robert Altman was a Washington attorney and partner to Clark Clifford who served as president of First American Bankshares and was indicted by Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau in July 1992 on charges of bribery and fraud related to BCCI's secret ownership of the bank; he was acquitted by a Manhattan jury in September 1993.
  • Robert Morgenthau Robert Morgenthau (1919-2019) was the longest-serving Manhattan District Attorney in history, serving from 1975 to 2009, and initiated the prosecution of BCCI, Clark Clifford, and Robert Altman after Senate investigator Jack Blum brought him evidence in March 1989.
  • Robert Mueller Robert Mueller was the head of the Justice Department's criminal division.
  • Roberto Calvi Roberto Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's largest private bank, and a member of Propaganda Due whose bank collapsed in June 1982 with a $1.3 billion deficit after his offshore shell company network - backed by guarantees from the Vatican Bank - was exposed; he was found hanging from scaffolding under London's Blackfriars Bridge on June 18, 1982, eight days after fleeing Italy on a forged passport.
  • Robin Leigh-Pemberton Robin Leigh-Pemberton served as the Governor of the Bank of England.
  • Roy P. M. Carlson Carlson was a key figure in the early relationship between Bank of America and BCCI.
  • Sami Masri Sami Masri was a BCCI operative.
  • Sani Ahmed Sani Ahmed was a key figure in the BCCI, serving as the head of its protocol department in Pakistan before moving to Washington, D.C.
  • Swaleh Naqvi Swaleh Naqvi was the chief operating officer of BCCI, taking over after Agha Hasan Abedi's 1988 heart attack.
  • William Ryback William Ryback was the Deputy Director of Banking Supervision at the Federal Reserve.
  • William von Raab William von Raab was the U.S.
  • Zafar Iqbal Zafar Iqbal took over as head of BCCI in late 1990, after the firing of Agha Hasan Abedi and Swaleh Naqvi.
  • Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan was the Head of Abu Dhabi's ruling family and president of the United Arab Emirates.

Organizations (10)

  • Banco Ambrosiano Banco Ambrosiano was Italy's largest private bank, founded in Milan in 1896, whose chairman Roberto Calvi used a network of Vatican Bank-guaranteed offshore shell companies to export $1.3 billion from the bank before its June 1982 collapse - the largest bank failure in Italian history - which coincided with Calvi's death under London's Blackfriars Bridge.
  • Bank of Credit and Commerce International The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a Pakistani-founded offshore bank that operated across 78 countries before its 1991 collapse exposed a decade-long conspiracy involving money laundering for drug cartels and intelligence agencies, illegal acquisition of U.S. banks, bribery, fraud, and arms trafficking, in what regulators called the largest bank fraud in history.
  • Bank of England The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and was the primary regulator of BCCI's British operations; its failure to act on clear warning signs about BCCI's fraud was documented in the 1992 Bingham Report, making it central to any account of how BCCI operated for so long under regulatory cover.
  • Capcom Capcom was a trading subsidiary of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1]
  • Federal Reserve Board The Federal Reserve Board (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) is the governing body of the U.S. central banking system, established 1913; it appears in this vault primarily in connection with the BCCI scandal, in which the Federal Reserve approved Clark Clifford and Robert Altman's First American Bankshares acquisition without knowing of BCCI's secret beneficial ownership, and later investigated and fined BCCI's principals for the regulatory deception.
  • First American Bank First American Bank was a bank based in Washington, D.C., which became secretly owned and controlled by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1]
  • ICIC ICIC (International Credit and Investment Company Holdings) was a Cayman Islands subsidiary of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1] It served as BCCI's repository for loans to privileged insiders.[^1]
  • Independence Bank of Encino Independence Bank of Encino was a financial institution illegally acquired by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.[^1]
  • Propaganda Due Propaganda Due (P2) was a clandestine Italian Masonic lodge headed by Licio Gelli from 1967 whose 962-member list discovered in March 1981 included the heads of all three Italian intelligence services, senior military officers, magistrates, politicians, and financiers including Roberto Calvi and Silvio Berlusconi, and which Italian parliamentary investigators linked to Operation Gladio and the strategy of tension terrorist bombings.
  • Vatican Bank The Vatican Bank (Instituto per le Opere di Religione, IOR) is the Holy See's financial institution, whose sovereign immunity from Italian banking regulation made it a vehicle for the P2-connected financial operations of Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi, resulting in the Banco Ambrosiano collapse and a $244 million settlement with international creditors in 1984.

Events (1)

  • BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations was a December 1992 Senate report by John Kerry and Hank Brown documenting BCCI's systematic criminal enterprise - money laundering, terrorist financing, arms dealing, drug trafficking, and CIA relationships - and finding that the Department of Justice had obstructed investigation of the bank.

Concepts (1)

  • The Octopus The Octopus is a term used by investigative journalist Danny Casolaro to describe a sprawling alleged criminal network linking the PROMIS software theft, Iran-Contra, the October Surprise, BCCI, and intelligence-connected drug trafficking under a single self-perpetuating criminal enterprise.

Places (9)

  • Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the home emirate of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahayan, the primary shareholder and ultimate backer of BCCI; Abu Dhabi's financial resources and sovereign immunity effectively shielded BCCI's fraudulent operations from regulatory action for years.
  • Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean that served as the nominal registration point for BCCI and dozens of other offshore entities used in Iran-Contra financial flows, CIA front company structures, and the money-laundering infrastructure documented throughout this vault.
  • India India appears in this vault primarily in connection with CIA covert operations during the Cold War, arms sales through brokers connected to vault subjects (including Mirage jet sales brokered by Asaf Ali), BCCI's significant Indian operations, and India's nuclear weapons program which intersected with Pakistani proliferator A.Q. Khan's network.
  • Italy Italy appears throughout this vault as the location of CIA-backed Stay-Behind network Gladio, the center of the P2 Masonic lodge scandal connecting intelligence services to organized crime and far-right terrorism, and a hub for Vatican Bank (IOR) financial flows connected to the BCCI network and money laundering.
  • London London is the capital of the United Kingdom and a recurring location throughout this vault: the headquarters of MI6 and GCHQ oversight, the site of BCCI's global headquarters in the 1980s, the base of operation for Robert Maxwell's media and intelligence empire, and the location of key arms-to-Iraq commercial networks.
  • Poland Poland appears in this vault in connection with the CIA-Vatican-BCCI funding pipeline to the Solidarity trade union movement (1980-1989), which helped bring down the communist government, and as a Soviet bloc country that was a target of Western intelligence operations throughout the Cold War.
  • Rome Rome is the capital of Italy and home to the Vatican; it appears in this vault as the location of P2 Masonic lodge operations, the Vatican Bank (IOR) financial flows connected to BCCI and CIA-backed anti-communist programs, and the base of Italian intelligence services whose Cold War activities intersected with Gladio and the strategy of tension.
  • Rotterdam Rotterdam is the Netherlands' second-largest city and the largest port in Europe, serving as a major hub for international commerce; it appears in this vault as a transit node for arms shipments documented in the Iran-Contra affair, as a location in Dutch pedophile network investigations connected to the Dutroux inquiry, and as the site of BCCI banking operations in the Netherlands.
  • United Kingdom The United Kingdom is a Five Eyes intelligence partner of the United States whose security services (MI5, MI6, GCHQ) are extensively cross-referenced in this vault; the UK hosted BCCI's global headquarters, was the base of Robert Maxwell's operations, was implicated in the Arms-to-Iraq affair, and was the home of the Paedophile Information Exchange.