Word: abedi
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Agha Hasan Abedi, founder of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International, ranks as one of the great criminal minds of his time, a man who built a financial web that is unlikely ever to be completely understood. In fact, B.C.C.I. might have endured longer had Abedi not fallen gravely ill in the late 1980s. The frail 68-year-old could only watch from his estate in Karachi when the branches of his bank were seized in 69 countries last July...
...Abedi made connections with power elites worldwide, from corporations like BankAmerica to officials like former President Jimmy Carter, whose charitable foundations received $10 million in donations. On its darker side, B.C.C.I. provided services for Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, the Medellin cocaine cartel and terrorist organizations around the world. The most nefarious aspect of B.C.C.I. was its "black network," which engaged in terrorism, intimidation and paramilitary actions...
...most prominent victim of Abedi's flimflam operation was the man whose wealth helped finance B.C.C.I.: Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan of Abu Dhabi, President of the United Arab Emirates. Investigators say approximately $2 billion of Zayed's own money, along with $7 billion in Abu Dhabi state funds, has disappeared into the bank's black hole. In the U.S., B.C.C.I.'s secret ownership of Washington's largest bank, First American, implicated former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford. As chairman of First American, Clifford had denied that B.C.C.I. controlled the Washington bank; he and his partner, Robert Altman, now face...
...less than dynamic prosecution. But last week the department indicted B.C.C.I. and three bank officials, charging them with illegally taking over Independence Bank of Encino, Calif., and with fraud that contributed to the billion-dollar downfall of Florida's CenTrust thrift. Indicted with the bank were founder Agha Hasan Abedi, former bank president Swaleh Naqvi and B.C.C.I. front man Ghaith Pharaon. Since the U.S. stands little chance of extraditing Abedi from Pakistan and Naqvi faces charges in Abu Dhabi, Pharaon's indictment may be the most productive of the three. The Saudi national is believed to be holed...
...hope of gaining entree to Middle Eastern business, Bank of America backed the founding of B.C.C.I. by providing Abedi with $612,000 in seed money and the prestige of the then largest bank in the world. In exchange, the San Francisco bank got 25% of B.C.C.I.'s stock, seats on the bank's board of directors, and access to Abedi's extraordinary connections in the gulf states. By early 1974, Bank of America had boosted its ownership stake...