Word: bcci
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Besides the alleged laundering services described in the indictments, BCCI has been accused of handling secret accounts for such clients as Panama's allegedly drug-dealing dictator General Manuel Noriega and Saudi financier Adnan Khashoggi. According to congressional testimony made public last week, Amjad Awan, a former BCCI officer arrested at the phony stag party, told a Senate subcommittee last month that he had made political payoffs for Noriega out of a BCCI account. In 1986 Khashoggi transferred $12 million from a BCCI account in Monte Carlo to an arms dealer to help purchase weapons used in the Iran-contra...
Founded in 1973 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a native of Pakistan, BCCI operates 400 branches in 73 countries. The bank is owned by just 51 shareholders, including members of the Saudi royal family. Among the BCCI officers arrested last week were top managers of the bank's Panamanian, Latin American and French divisions...
Customs officials say the initial C-Chase probe of narcotics "greenwashing" in Florida, which started in 1986, led them to BCCI's drug-money network. Posing as money launderers, "Musella," "Erickson" and other agents gradually infiltrated drug-trafficking circles. In May 1986 Gonzalo Moro Jr., reputed to be the chief launderer for the Medellin cartel, approached one of the agents with a proposition. If the agent were to open some Florida bank accounts and help Moro launder cash, Moro would pay a commission on each transaction...
...late 1987 Moro had introduced the agents to a Panamanian branch of BCCI for their laundering operation. The agents collected cash from Medellin dealers in the U.S. and deposited it at domestic banks, then wired the money to the account of a newly created shell corporation in the BCCI branch in Panama. The agents then provided the Colombian traffickers with signed blank checks that could be cashed at most banks...
Soon a more complex laundering method was introduced. BCCI allegedly began to wire drug money deposited in its branches to accounts in foreign banks, using major New York City institutions as unwitting intermediaries. Once the funds were overseas, BCCI allegedly used them to buy certificates of deposit at banks in France, Britain, Luxembourg, Uruguay, Panama and the Bahamas. Using the CDs as collateral, BCCI then issued phony loans for slightly smaller amounts to the agents' Panamanian account. Once again, the agents gave the Colombians signed blank checks drawn against the account. BCCI collected the CDs as "payment" for the loans...