http://zeitgeistmovie.com/index.html
"They must find it difficult . . . Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority." -Gerald Massey
Enjoy.
More for our "conspiracy" theorists
Moderators: lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako
More for our "conspiracy" theorists
My new friend sent me the link to this movie, which brings a number of so-called "conspiracy theories" into one place, covering religion, the international bank system and 9/11. It is a full length film, and very much worth watching.
http://zeitgeistmovie.com/index.html
Enjoy.
http://zeitgeistmovie.com/index.html
Enjoy.
Last edited by Widow on Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Former Advocate for Floatplane Safety
Interesting passage by JFK. Funny thing everyone forgets to mention and appears to be the largest motivator for his murder was Executive order 11110
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11110
The implications of that order are phenomenal. Giving power to the US government to create money interest free without the (private) Federal Reserve; yet not one peep about it being a possible motivation for his murder. It would have cost the banks of the Federal Reserve trilions of dollars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11110
The implications of that order are phenomenal. Giving power to the US government to create money interest free without the (private) Federal Reserve; yet not one peep about it being a possible motivation for his murder. It would have cost the banks of the Federal Reserve trilions of dollars.
Well worth the time investment to watch.
Thanks for posting Widow.
Very much the same theory as Aaron Russo's Freedom to Fascism. I found the part about the reasons for the great depression very interesting as well. Makes me wonder is the same holds true for the Canada.
Isn't our money printed by the Bank of Canada? Are they a private bank or Government?
Thanks for posting Widow.
Very much the same theory as Aaron Russo's Freedom to Fascism. I found the part about the reasons for the great depression very interesting as well. Makes me wonder is the same holds true for the Canada.
Isn't our money printed by the Bank of Canada? Are they a private bank or Government?
Here is the Canadian Action Party's tutorial on the Bank of Canada:
http://www.canadianactionparty.ca/cgi/p ... &zine=show
http://www.canadianactionparty.ca/cgi/p ... &zine=show
Former Advocate for Floatplane Safety
Zeitgeist was created as a non-profit filmiac expression to inspire people to start looking at the worldfrom a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on this site lists the basic sources used / referenced. Soon, an Interactive Transcript will be online with detailed footnotes and links so exact sources and further research cam be relayed.
Now, it's important to point out that there is a tendency to simply disbelieve things that are counter to our understanding, without the necessary research performed. For example, some information contained in Part 1 and Part 3, specifically, is not obtained by simple keyword searches on the Internet. You have to dig deeper. For instance,
very often people who look up "Horus" or "The Federal Reserve" on the Internet draw their conclusions from very general or biased sources. Online encyclopedias or text book Encyclopedias often do not contain the information contained in Zeitgeist. However, if one takes the time to read the sources provided, they will find that what is being presented is
based on documented evidence. Any corrections, clarifications & further points regarding the film are found on the Clarifications page.
That being said, It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth, but find out for themselves, for truth is not told, it is realized.
Former Advocate for Floatplane Safety
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• Ten things you didn't know about Wikipedia • Bank of Credit and Commerce International
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
It has been suggested that Clark_Clifford#Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a major international bank founded in Pakistan[citation needed] in 1972. At its peak, it operated in 78 countries, had over 400 branches, and claimed assets of $25 billion.
BCCI became the focus in 1991 of the world's worst financial scandal and what was called a "$20-billion-plus heist" (Beaty & Gwynne 1993). It was found by regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom to be involved in money laundering, bribery, support of terrorism,[1] arms trafficking, the sale of nuclear technologies, the commission and facilitation of tax evasion, smuggling, illegal immigration, and the illicit purchases of banks and real estate. The bank was found to have at least $13 billion unaccounted for.
Investigators in the U.S. and the UK revealed that BCCI had been "set up deliberately to avoid centralized regulatory review, and operated extensively in bank secrecy jurisdictions. Its affairs are extraordinarily complex. Its officers were sophisticated international bankers whose apparent objective was to keep their affairs secret, to commit fraud on a massive scale, and to avoid detection";[2] BCCI organized its own intelligence network, diplomatic corps, and shipping & trading companies.
The liquidators, Deloitte & Touche, filed a lawsuit against Price Waterhouse and Ernst & Young, the bank's auditors, which was settled for $175 million in 1998. A further lawsuit against the emir of Abu Dhabi, a major shareholder, was launched in 1999 for around $400 million. BCCI creditors also instituted a $1 billion suit against the Bank of England as a regulatory body. After a nine-year struggle due to the Bank's statutory immunity, the case went to trial in January 2004. However in November 2005 liquidators Deloitte dropped any action against the Bank of England as it was no longer considered in the best interests of the creditors after a High Court ruling.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Philanthropic contributions
3 Sandstorm report
3.1 Support of terrorism
4 Closure of the bank?
5 Former directors
6 See also
7 Further reading
8 References
9 External links
[edit] History
Sheikh Zayed
This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted after seven days from the date of nomination.BCCI's founder, Agha Hasan Abedi, started the bank in Pakistan in 1972. Abedi had previously set up the United Bank of Pakistan in 1959. Following the nationalization of United Bank in 1971 he sought to create a new supranational banking entity. BCCI was created with capital from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, emir of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Bank of America (25%) and, allegedly, the CIA[citation needed]. It is claimed that the CIA were seeking a funding route for the Afghan Mujahideen, similar to the Investors Overseas Service and the Nugan Hand Bank in the 1970s[citation needed]. However, the vast majority of BCCI's assets were initially from Abu Dhabi.
BCCI expanded rapidly in the 1970s, pursuing asset growth over profits, seeking high net-worth individuals and regular large deposits. The company itself divided into BCCI Holdings with the bank under that split into BCCI S.A (Luxembourg) and BCCI Overseas (Grand Cayman). BCCI also acquired parallel banks through acquisitions: buying the Banque de Commerce et Placements (BCP) of Geneva in 1976, and creating KIFCO (Kuwait International Finance Company), Credit & Finance Corporation Ltd, and a series of Cayman-based companies held together as ICIC (International Credit and Investment Company Overseas, International Credit and Commerce [Overseas], etc.). Overall, BCCI expanded from 19 branches in five countries in 1973 to 27 branches in 1974, to 108 branches in 1976, with assets growing from $200 million to $1.6 billion. This growth caused extensive underlying capital problems. By 1977, BCCI was in sufficiently dire financial straits that the Guardian later wrote that at this time "BCCI, founded in 1975, was almost certainly insolvent by 1977"[3] - it was using cash from deposits to fund operating expenses, rather than making investments, taking on the attributes of a Ponzi scheme. Nevertheless BCCI continued to expand, moving into the African markets in 1979, and Asia in the early 1980s. They were among the first foreign banks awarded a license to operate in the Chinese Special Economic Zone Shenzhen. Some of China's largest state banks were depositors in BCCI's Shenzhen branch.
By 1980, BCCI was reported to have assets of over $4 billion with over 150 branches in 46 countries. Bank of America was "bewildered"[4] with BCCI and reduced its holding in 1980, and the company came to be held by a number of groups, with ICIC owning 70%. By 1989, ICIC's shareholding was reduced to 11% with Abu Dhabi groups holding almost 40%, however large numbers of shares were held by BCCI nominees. The internal structure of the bank was unusual. There was rigid compartmentalization and there were 248 managers and general managers and only two people above them, Abedi and the CEO Swaleh Naqvi. F Lee Bailey and Florida state prosecutor Richard Gerstein were the directors of CenTrust Federal Savings Bank, a failed satellite of the BCCI.
BCCI had an uncommon annual auditing system: Price Waterhouse were the accountants for BCCI Overseas while Ernst & Young audited BCCI and BCCI Holdings (London and Luxembourg). Other companies such as KIFCO and ICIC were audited by neither. In October 1985, the Bank of England and the Central Bank of Luxembourg ordered BCCI to change to a single accountant, alarmed at reported BCCI losses on the commodity and financial markets. Price Waterhouse became the sole accountants in 1987.
In 1988, BCCI was implicated in a drug money laundering scheme based in Tampa, Florida, the C-Chase case. The BCCI was called the CIA’s money laundering facility. BCCI pleaded guilty in 1990 but only on the grounds of respondeat superior.
In 1990, a Price Waterhouse audit of BCCI revealed an unaccountable loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. The bank approached Sheikh Zayed, who made good the loss in exchange for an increased shareholding of 78%. Much of BCCI's documentation was then also transferred to Abu Dhabi.
[edit] Philanthropic contributions
The bank established the Third World Foundation in London, which published the widely circulated Third World Quarterly and paid special attention to the promotion of the Urdu language and literature through the Urdu Markaz located in London.
[edit] Sandstorm report
In March 1991, the Bank of England asked Price Waterhouse to carry out an inquiry. On June 24, 1991, using the codename "Sandstorm" for BCCI, Price Waterhouse submitted the Sandstorm report showing that BCCI had engaged in "widespread fraud and manipulation".
[edit] Support of terrorism
Abu Nidal held accounts at BCCI's Sloane Street branch in London.
Lord Justice Bingham's report showed that MI5 had known as early as 1987 that Abu Nidal was banking with BCCI in London.The Sandstorm report, parts of which were leaked to The Sunday Times, included details of how the Abu Nidal terrorist group had held accounts at BCCI's Sloane Street branch, near Harrods in London. Britain's internal security service, MI5, had signed up two sources inside the branch to hand over copies of all documents relating to Abu Nidal's accounts. One source was the Syrian-born branch manager, Ghassan Qassem, the second a young British employee.
The Abu Nidal link man for the BCCI accounts was an Arab based in Iraq named Samir Najmeddin or Najmedeen. Throughout the 80s, BCCI had set up millions of dollars worth of letters of credit for Najmeddin, largely for arms deals with Iraq. Qassem later swore in an affidavit that Najmeddin was often accompanied by an American, whom Qassem subsequently identified as the financier Marc Rich. Rich was later indicted in the U.S. for tax evasion and racketeering in an apparently unrelated case, fled the country, and received a controversial pardon from Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001.
Qassem also told reporters that he had once escorted Abu Nidal, who was allegedly using the name Shakir Farhan, around town to buy a tie, without realizing who he was. This revelation led in 1991 to one of the London Evening Standard's best-known front-page headlines: "I Took Abu Nidal Shopping."
[edit] Closure of the bank?
On July 5, 1991, the Bank of England closed down BCCI. Around a million investors were affected. Amongst the customers of the bank at this time was Garrards and Mappin & Webb, the jewellers responsible for maintaining the crown jewels and makers of the trophy for the America's Cup.
In 1992, United States Senators John Kerry and Hank Brown co-authored a report on BCCI which was delivered to the Committee on Foreign Relations. The BCCI scandal was one of a number of crimes and disasters that influenced thinking leading to the Public Interest Disclosure Act of 1998. The report found that former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford and his business partner Robert A. Altman had been closely involved with the bank from 1978, when they were introduced to BCCI by Bert Lance, to 1991. Clifford and Altman testified to the committee that they had never observed any suspicious activity. The federal government brought indictments against Clifford and Altman and proposed barring them from banking for life, but did not pursue Clifford due to his age and deteriorating health. Altman, however, was indicted and ultimately tried in New York by the office of District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Despite a failure to convict in the New York trial, Altman nevertheless agreed to be banned from banking under threat of prosecution by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The British government also set up an independent inquiry, chaired by Lord Justice Bingham, in 1992. Its House of Commons Paper, Inquiry into the Supervision of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International was published in October of that year. Following the report, the bank's liquidators launched the Three Rivers vs. Bank of England case, on behalf of thousands of BCCI creditors who are suing the Bank of England for its failure to properly oversee the bank. The BCCI creditors sought £850m in damages, claiming that the Bank of England was guilty of misfeasance in public office. The case collapsed in November 2005, with the Bank of England seeking to re-claim legal bills. The cost of the case to the creditors could be as high as £100m. (BBC News Article)
However, in 2002, Denis Robert and Ernest Backes, former number three of Clearstream, described as a "bank of banks" which practices "financial clearing", discovered that the BCCI had continued to maintain its activities after its official closure, with "microfiches" of Clearstream's illegal unpublished accounts (Google transl. available)
Further information: Clearstream
[edit] Former directors
Alfred Hartman
James R. Bath
[edit] See also
Bert Lance
List of notable business failures
[edit] Further reading
J. Beaty, S.C. Gwynne: The Outlaw Bank : A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. Random House, 1993, ISBN 0-679-41384-7
Nick Kochan, Bob Whittington: Bankrupt: The BCCI Fraud. London 1991
James Ring Adams, Douglas Frantz: A Full Service Bank. London 1991
Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: Révélations Arènes Editions, 2001, ISBN-10 2912485282
Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquié, Ben Laden: La Vérité interdite. Gallimard, 2002, ISBN 2070423778, S.166-168.
"The BCCI Affair", Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Senator John Kerry und Senator Hank Brown, 1992, 102nd Congress 2nd Session Senate Print 102-140 (Rapport Kerry).
Time Magazine, 29.July 1991, The world's sleaziest bank, online unter Cover Story: The Dirtiest Bank of All
Rachel Ehrenfeld, Evil Money. Encounters along the Money Trail, 1992, Harper Business, ISBN 0-88730-560-1).
Peter Truell, Larry Gurwin, False Profits. The Inside Story of BCCI, the world’s most corrupt financial Empire, 1992, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, ISBN 0-395-62339-1
James Ring Adams and Douglas Frantz, A Full Service Bank. How BCCI stole billions around the world, Simon & Schuster Inc., New York ISBN 0-671-72911-X
Jonathan Beaty & S. C. Gwynne, The Outlaw Bank. A wild ride into the secret heart of BCCI, 1993, Random House, New York, ISBN 0-679-41384-7
Nick Kochan & Bob Whittington, Bankrupt. The BCCI Fraud, 1991, Victor Gollancz Ltd., Londres, ISBN 0-575-05279-1
John K. Cooley, Unholy Wars. Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, 1999, Pluto Press, Londres, Sterling (Virginie), ISBN 0-7453-1328-0
[edit] References
^ "Regardless of what might be shown in the missing material, the remainder is more than adequate to document BCCI's criminality, including fraud by BCCI and BCCI customers involving billions of dollars; money laundering in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the America; BCCI's bribery of officials in most of those locations; its support of terrorism, arms trafficking, and the sale of nuclear technologies; its management of prostitution; its commission and facilitation of income tax evasion, smuggling, and illegal immigration; its illicit purchases of banks and real estate; and a panoply of financial crimes limited only by the imagination of its officers and customers." Chapter 4 of Kerry 1992
^ "BCCI was not an ordinary bank. It was set up deliberately to avoid centralized regulatory review, and operated extensively in bank secrecy jurisdictions. Its affairs are extraordinarily complex. Its offers were sophisticated international bankers whose apparent objective was to keep their affairs secret, to commit fraud on a massive scale, and to avoid detection." Chapter 4 of Kerry 1992
^ "Accountants in BCCI net" by Dan Atkinson; the Guardian, Friday January 8, 1999
^ "Unfortunately, the relationship with Bank of America had become an obstacle to such a move for BCCI. Rather than see BCCI expand into its home base, Bank of America was increasingly uncomfortable with its partner. Despite its initial agreement to let BCCI be BCCI, Abedi's original U.S. partner, Bank of America, had found itself bewildered by many BCCI practices from the beginning." Chapter 3 of Kerry 1992
[edit] External links
BCCI (in liquidation) homepage
The BCCI Affair, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations States Senate; held at FAS -(A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown; December 1992; 102d Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102-140)
Report in the Washington Monthly
Erisk, Juni 2001, "Case study: Bank of Credit and Commerce International"
(French) "Bank of Colombian Cocaine Industry":l'affaire BCCI, online confidentiel.net
From BCCI to ISI: The Saga of Entrapment Continues
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Cr ... ernational"
Categories: Articles to be merged since April 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since June 2007
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
It has been suggested that Clark_Clifford#Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a major international bank founded in Pakistan[citation needed] in 1972. At its peak, it operated in 78 countries, had over 400 branches, and claimed assets of $25 billion.
BCCI became the focus in 1991 of the world's worst financial scandal and what was called a "$20-billion-plus heist" (Beaty & Gwynne 1993). It was found by regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom to be involved in money laundering, bribery, support of terrorism,[1] arms trafficking, the sale of nuclear technologies, the commission and facilitation of tax evasion, smuggling, illegal immigration, and the illicit purchases of banks and real estate. The bank was found to have at least $13 billion unaccounted for.
Investigators in the U.S. and the UK revealed that BCCI had been "set up deliberately to avoid centralized regulatory review, and operated extensively in bank secrecy jurisdictions. Its affairs are extraordinarily complex. Its officers were sophisticated international bankers whose apparent objective was to keep their affairs secret, to commit fraud on a massive scale, and to avoid detection";[2] BCCI organized its own intelligence network, diplomatic corps, and shipping & trading companies.
The liquidators, Deloitte & Touche, filed a lawsuit against Price Waterhouse and Ernst & Young, the bank's auditors, which was settled for $175 million in 1998. A further lawsuit against the emir of Abu Dhabi, a major shareholder, was launched in 1999 for around $400 million. BCCI creditors also instituted a $1 billion suit against the Bank of England as a regulatory body. After a nine-year struggle due to the Bank's statutory immunity, the case went to trial in January 2004. However in November 2005 liquidators Deloitte dropped any action against the Bank of England as it was no longer considered in the best interests of the creditors after a High Court ruling.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Philanthropic contributions
3 Sandstorm report
3.1 Support of terrorism
4 Closure of the bank?
5 Former directors
6 See also
7 Further reading
8 References
9 External links
[edit] History
Sheikh Zayed
This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted after seven days from the date of nomination.BCCI's founder, Agha Hasan Abedi, started the bank in Pakistan in 1972. Abedi had previously set up the United Bank of Pakistan in 1959. Following the nationalization of United Bank in 1971 he sought to create a new supranational banking entity. BCCI was created with capital from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, emir of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Bank of America (25%) and, allegedly, the CIA[citation needed]. It is claimed that the CIA were seeking a funding route for the Afghan Mujahideen, similar to the Investors Overseas Service and the Nugan Hand Bank in the 1970s[citation needed]. However, the vast majority of BCCI's assets were initially from Abu Dhabi.
BCCI expanded rapidly in the 1970s, pursuing asset growth over profits, seeking high net-worth individuals and regular large deposits. The company itself divided into BCCI Holdings with the bank under that split into BCCI S.A (Luxembourg) and BCCI Overseas (Grand Cayman). BCCI also acquired parallel banks through acquisitions: buying the Banque de Commerce et Placements (BCP) of Geneva in 1976, and creating KIFCO (Kuwait International Finance Company), Credit & Finance Corporation Ltd, and a series of Cayman-based companies held together as ICIC (International Credit and Investment Company Overseas, International Credit and Commerce [Overseas], etc.). Overall, BCCI expanded from 19 branches in five countries in 1973 to 27 branches in 1974, to 108 branches in 1976, with assets growing from $200 million to $1.6 billion. This growth caused extensive underlying capital problems. By 1977, BCCI was in sufficiently dire financial straits that the Guardian later wrote that at this time "BCCI, founded in 1975, was almost certainly insolvent by 1977"[3] - it was using cash from deposits to fund operating expenses, rather than making investments, taking on the attributes of a Ponzi scheme. Nevertheless BCCI continued to expand, moving into the African markets in 1979, and Asia in the early 1980s. They were among the first foreign banks awarded a license to operate in the Chinese Special Economic Zone Shenzhen. Some of China's largest state banks were depositors in BCCI's Shenzhen branch.
By 1980, BCCI was reported to have assets of over $4 billion with over 150 branches in 46 countries. Bank of America was "bewildered"[4] with BCCI and reduced its holding in 1980, and the company came to be held by a number of groups, with ICIC owning 70%. By 1989, ICIC's shareholding was reduced to 11% with Abu Dhabi groups holding almost 40%, however large numbers of shares were held by BCCI nominees. The internal structure of the bank was unusual. There was rigid compartmentalization and there were 248 managers and general managers and only two people above them, Abedi and the CEO Swaleh Naqvi. F Lee Bailey and Florida state prosecutor Richard Gerstein were the directors of CenTrust Federal Savings Bank, a failed satellite of the BCCI.
BCCI had an uncommon annual auditing system: Price Waterhouse were the accountants for BCCI Overseas while Ernst & Young audited BCCI and BCCI Holdings (London and Luxembourg). Other companies such as KIFCO and ICIC were audited by neither. In October 1985, the Bank of England and the Central Bank of Luxembourg ordered BCCI to change to a single accountant, alarmed at reported BCCI losses on the commodity and financial markets. Price Waterhouse became the sole accountants in 1987.
In 1988, BCCI was implicated in a drug money laundering scheme based in Tampa, Florida, the C-Chase case. The BCCI was called the CIA’s money laundering facility. BCCI pleaded guilty in 1990 but only on the grounds of respondeat superior.
In 1990, a Price Waterhouse audit of BCCI revealed an unaccountable loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. The bank approached Sheikh Zayed, who made good the loss in exchange for an increased shareholding of 78%. Much of BCCI's documentation was then also transferred to Abu Dhabi.
[edit] Philanthropic contributions
The bank established the Third World Foundation in London, which published the widely circulated Third World Quarterly and paid special attention to the promotion of the Urdu language and literature through the Urdu Markaz located in London.
[edit] Sandstorm report
In March 1991, the Bank of England asked Price Waterhouse to carry out an inquiry. On June 24, 1991, using the codename "Sandstorm" for BCCI, Price Waterhouse submitted the Sandstorm report showing that BCCI had engaged in "widespread fraud and manipulation".
[edit] Support of terrorism
Abu Nidal held accounts at BCCI's Sloane Street branch in London.
Lord Justice Bingham's report showed that MI5 had known as early as 1987 that Abu Nidal was banking with BCCI in London.The Sandstorm report, parts of which were leaked to The Sunday Times, included details of how the Abu Nidal terrorist group had held accounts at BCCI's Sloane Street branch, near Harrods in London. Britain's internal security service, MI5, had signed up two sources inside the branch to hand over copies of all documents relating to Abu Nidal's accounts. One source was the Syrian-born branch manager, Ghassan Qassem, the second a young British employee.
The Abu Nidal link man for the BCCI accounts was an Arab based in Iraq named Samir Najmeddin or Najmedeen. Throughout the 80s, BCCI had set up millions of dollars worth of letters of credit for Najmeddin, largely for arms deals with Iraq. Qassem later swore in an affidavit that Najmeddin was often accompanied by an American, whom Qassem subsequently identified as the financier Marc Rich. Rich was later indicted in the U.S. for tax evasion and racketeering in an apparently unrelated case, fled the country, and received a controversial pardon from Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001.
Qassem also told reporters that he had once escorted Abu Nidal, who was allegedly using the name Shakir Farhan, around town to buy a tie, without realizing who he was. This revelation led in 1991 to one of the London Evening Standard's best-known front-page headlines: "I Took Abu Nidal Shopping."
[edit] Closure of the bank?
On July 5, 1991, the Bank of England closed down BCCI. Around a million investors were affected. Amongst the customers of the bank at this time was Garrards and Mappin & Webb, the jewellers responsible for maintaining the crown jewels and makers of the trophy for the America's Cup.
In 1992, United States Senators John Kerry and Hank Brown co-authored a report on BCCI which was delivered to the Committee on Foreign Relations. The BCCI scandal was one of a number of crimes and disasters that influenced thinking leading to the Public Interest Disclosure Act of 1998. The report found that former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford and his business partner Robert A. Altman had been closely involved with the bank from 1978, when they were introduced to BCCI by Bert Lance, to 1991. Clifford and Altman testified to the committee that they had never observed any suspicious activity. The federal government brought indictments against Clifford and Altman and proposed barring them from banking for life, but did not pursue Clifford due to his age and deteriorating health. Altman, however, was indicted and ultimately tried in New York by the office of District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Despite a failure to convict in the New York trial, Altman nevertheless agreed to be banned from banking under threat of prosecution by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The British government also set up an independent inquiry, chaired by Lord Justice Bingham, in 1992. Its House of Commons Paper, Inquiry into the Supervision of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International was published in October of that year. Following the report, the bank's liquidators launched the Three Rivers vs. Bank of England case, on behalf of thousands of BCCI creditors who are suing the Bank of England for its failure to properly oversee the bank. The BCCI creditors sought £850m in damages, claiming that the Bank of England was guilty of misfeasance in public office. The case collapsed in November 2005, with the Bank of England seeking to re-claim legal bills. The cost of the case to the creditors could be as high as £100m. (BBC News Article)
However, in 2002, Denis Robert and Ernest Backes, former number three of Clearstream, described as a "bank of banks" which practices "financial clearing", discovered that the BCCI had continued to maintain its activities after its official closure, with "microfiches" of Clearstream's illegal unpublished accounts (Google transl. available)
Further information: Clearstream
[edit] Former directors
Alfred Hartman
James R. Bath
[edit] See also
Bert Lance
List of notable business failures
[edit] Further reading
J. Beaty, S.C. Gwynne: The Outlaw Bank : A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI. Random House, 1993, ISBN 0-679-41384-7
Nick Kochan, Bob Whittington: Bankrupt: The BCCI Fraud. London 1991
James Ring Adams, Douglas Frantz: A Full Service Bank. London 1991
Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: Révélations Arènes Editions, 2001, ISBN-10 2912485282
Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquié, Ben Laden: La Vérité interdite. Gallimard, 2002, ISBN 2070423778, S.166-168.
"The BCCI Affair", Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Senator John Kerry und Senator Hank Brown, 1992, 102nd Congress 2nd Session Senate Print 102-140 (Rapport Kerry).
Time Magazine, 29.July 1991, The world's sleaziest bank, online unter Cover Story: The Dirtiest Bank of All
Rachel Ehrenfeld, Evil Money. Encounters along the Money Trail, 1992, Harper Business, ISBN 0-88730-560-1).
Peter Truell, Larry Gurwin, False Profits. The Inside Story of BCCI, the world’s most corrupt financial Empire, 1992, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, ISBN 0-395-62339-1
James Ring Adams and Douglas Frantz, A Full Service Bank. How BCCI stole billions around the world, Simon & Schuster Inc., New York ISBN 0-671-72911-X
Jonathan Beaty & S. C. Gwynne, The Outlaw Bank. A wild ride into the secret heart of BCCI, 1993, Random House, New York, ISBN 0-679-41384-7
Nick Kochan & Bob Whittington, Bankrupt. The BCCI Fraud, 1991, Victor Gollancz Ltd., Londres, ISBN 0-575-05279-1
John K. Cooley, Unholy Wars. Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, 1999, Pluto Press, Londres, Sterling (Virginie), ISBN 0-7453-1328-0
[edit] References
^ "Regardless of what might be shown in the missing material, the remainder is more than adequate to document BCCI's criminality, including fraud by BCCI and BCCI customers involving billions of dollars; money laundering in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the America; BCCI's bribery of officials in most of those locations; its support of terrorism, arms trafficking, and the sale of nuclear technologies; its management of prostitution; its commission and facilitation of income tax evasion, smuggling, and illegal immigration; its illicit purchases of banks and real estate; and a panoply of financial crimes limited only by the imagination of its officers and customers." Chapter 4 of Kerry 1992
^ "BCCI was not an ordinary bank. It was set up deliberately to avoid centralized regulatory review, and operated extensively in bank secrecy jurisdictions. Its affairs are extraordinarily complex. Its offers were sophisticated international bankers whose apparent objective was to keep their affairs secret, to commit fraud on a massive scale, and to avoid detection." Chapter 4 of Kerry 1992
^ "Accountants in BCCI net" by Dan Atkinson; the Guardian, Friday January 8, 1999
^ "Unfortunately, the relationship with Bank of America had become an obstacle to such a move for BCCI. Rather than see BCCI expand into its home base, Bank of America was increasingly uncomfortable with its partner. Despite its initial agreement to let BCCI be BCCI, Abedi's original U.S. partner, Bank of America, had found itself bewildered by many BCCI practices from the beginning." Chapter 3 of Kerry 1992
[edit] External links
BCCI (in liquidation) homepage
The BCCI Affair, Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations States Senate; held at FAS -(A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown; December 1992; 102d Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102-140)
Report in the Washington Monthly
Erisk, Juni 2001, "Case study: Bank of Credit and Commerce International"
(French) "Bank of Colombian Cocaine Industry":l'affaire BCCI, online confidentiel.net
From BCCI to ISI: The Saga of Entrapment Continues
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Cr ... ernational"
Categories: Articles to be merged since April 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since June 2007
"Six Degrees of Adnan Khashoggi," Part 4
The 9/11 edition.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001, at 6:31 PM ET
As Chatterbox previously noted (here, here, and here), Adnan Khashoggi is connected to every shocking event that has occurred since 1960, usually by no more than one or two degrees. A partial list would include Iran-Contra, Wedtech, BCCI, the Marcos Philippine kleptocracy, the Synfuels fiasco, and the discovery of buried mustard gas in the pricy Spring Valley neighborhood of Washington, D.C. To these we must now add the tragic events of Sept. 11.
As always, Chatterbox emphasizes that Khashoggi's proximity to these events does not demonstrate criminality on his part. But it does illustrate Khashoggi's "Where's Waldo?"-like ubiquity in the noir environment where shocking events tend to take place. Khashoggi is what the journalist Malcolm Gladwell has termed a "connector," that is, a person who stands at the intersection of many social networks. (For more on Gladwellian connectors, click here.) At the moment, Khashoggi appears to be preoccupied with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and pending class action concerning some alleged financial improprieties on the part of a Khashoggi-controlled telemarketing and infotainment company called GenesisIntermedia. This story has been bird-dogged by David Evans, the small-caps columnist for Bloomberg News. Hence our first connection to 9/11: Bloomberg News' founder, Michael Bloomberg, just got himself elected mayor of New York City in the confusing aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse.
Khashoggi's second connection to 9/11 is more direct but also more difficult to verify: An Oct. 7 article by Frank Connolly in Ireland's Sunday Business Post quotes unnamed U.S. intelligence officials alleging that Khashoggi has made "protection payments" to Osama Bin Laden.
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The other connections mostly fall into the category, "If You're a Rich Guy From Saudi Arabia, It's a Small World." We begin with this passage from Peter Bergen's new book, Holy War, Inc.:
During this period Mohammed bin Laden [a.k.a. Osama's rich dad, now deceased] would also jump-start the career of another Saudi billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi, known in the West for his flamboyant spending, his walk-on part in the Iran-contra scandal, and his nephew, Dodi Fayed, who died along with Princess Diana in the Paris car crash. In the early 1950s Mohammed needed some trucks for his construction business in a hurry. Khashoggi was able to make a $500,000 purchase of trucks in the United States, for which Mohammed paid him a commission of $50,000. It was Khashoggi's first business deal.
Also, drawing from a Sept. 23 article by Greg Burton in the Salt Lake Tribune:
Adnan Khashoggi's father, Mohammed Khashoggi, was Mohammed Bin Laden's family physician;
Adnan Khashoggi attended college in Alexandria, Egypt, with some of Mohammed Bin Laden's children (though not Osama, who's a good 20 years younger).
Soon after Sept. 11, it was alleged, apparently inaccurately, that the CIA had once funded Bin Laden. Khashoggi has almost certainly received financial assistance over the years from the CIA.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani once tried (unsuccessfully) to prosecute Adnan Khashoggi for fraud in connection with a real estate venture. Khashoggi accused Giuliani of grandstanding in order to get elected mayor of New York. Giuliani was New York City mayor on Sept. 11.
Bonus Non-9/11-Related Khashoggi Sighting: Reader Jon Lasser sent in the following snippet from "The Curse of the Sevso Silver," a long yarn by Peter Landesman in the November Atlantic about intrigue surrounding some ancient Roman treasure:
In late September, Van Rijn met with Yard detectives at the British embassy in Madrid. He had with him an old friend, a man he and the detectives had been referring to in telephone conversations as "our friend in Spain." The friend was Felice Cultrera, an amateur art-and-antiquities collector; the owner of casinos in Paris, Belgrade, and Prague; someone who was allegedly linked to the Sicilian drug-running Santapaola Mafia; and a money man for the weapons merchant Adnan Khashoggi [italics Chatterbox's].
Why was his nephew Dodi al Fayed in Paris was he involved in the family business of Drugs Weapons or people smuggling ?????
Was the Princess just an innocent bystander of the Hit on Dodi .Perhaps Dodi's father is correct in his son was murdered .But his father lacks any evidence as to who done it . Although if you live in the paranoid world of a drug dealing weapons and people smuggling family it would make sense to you that Murder was afoot. The Arms business is a very dangerous one and alot of people get very hurt in it and those around them as well.
It is the stuff cheap novels are made of
The nephew of the bigest arms dealer killed by assasins .
His father was incredibly paranoid about his movements for good reason it would seem .The Business that his 'family 'is involved in can mean life or death for millions of people .
So sad that it cost the future Kings mother her life .
The 9/11 edition.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001, at 6:31 PM ET
As Chatterbox previously noted (here, here, and here), Adnan Khashoggi is connected to every shocking event that has occurred since 1960, usually by no more than one or two degrees. A partial list would include Iran-Contra, Wedtech, BCCI, the Marcos Philippine kleptocracy, the Synfuels fiasco, and the discovery of buried mustard gas in the pricy Spring Valley neighborhood of Washington, D.C. To these we must now add the tragic events of Sept. 11.
As always, Chatterbox emphasizes that Khashoggi's proximity to these events does not demonstrate criminality on his part. But it does illustrate Khashoggi's "Where's Waldo?"-like ubiquity in the noir environment where shocking events tend to take place. Khashoggi is what the journalist Malcolm Gladwell has termed a "connector," that is, a person who stands at the intersection of many social networks. (For more on Gladwellian connectors, click here.) At the moment, Khashoggi appears to be preoccupied with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and pending class action concerning some alleged financial improprieties on the part of a Khashoggi-controlled telemarketing and infotainment company called GenesisIntermedia. This story has been bird-dogged by David Evans, the small-caps columnist for Bloomberg News. Hence our first connection to 9/11: Bloomberg News' founder, Michael Bloomberg, just got himself elected mayor of New York City in the confusing aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse.
Khashoggi's second connection to 9/11 is more direct but also more difficult to verify: An Oct. 7 article by Frank Connolly in Ireland's Sunday Business Post quotes unnamed U.S. intelligence officials alleging that Khashoggi has made "protection payments" to Osama Bin Laden.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other connections mostly fall into the category, "If You're a Rich Guy From Saudi Arabia, It's a Small World." We begin with this passage from Peter Bergen's new book, Holy War, Inc.:
During this period Mohammed bin Laden [a.k.a. Osama's rich dad, now deceased] would also jump-start the career of another Saudi billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi, known in the West for his flamboyant spending, his walk-on part in the Iran-contra scandal, and his nephew, Dodi Fayed, who died along with Princess Diana in the Paris car crash. In the early 1950s Mohammed needed some trucks for his construction business in a hurry. Khashoggi was able to make a $500,000 purchase of trucks in the United States, for which Mohammed paid him a commission of $50,000. It was Khashoggi's first business deal.
Also, drawing from a Sept. 23 article by Greg Burton in the Salt Lake Tribune:
Adnan Khashoggi's father, Mohammed Khashoggi, was Mohammed Bin Laden's family physician;
Adnan Khashoggi attended college in Alexandria, Egypt, with some of Mohammed Bin Laden's children (though not Osama, who's a good 20 years younger).
Soon after Sept. 11, it was alleged, apparently inaccurately, that the CIA had once funded Bin Laden. Khashoggi has almost certainly received financial assistance over the years from the CIA.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani once tried (unsuccessfully) to prosecute Adnan Khashoggi for fraud in connection with a real estate venture. Khashoggi accused Giuliani of grandstanding in order to get elected mayor of New York. Giuliani was New York City mayor on Sept. 11.
Bonus Non-9/11-Related Khashoggi Sighting: Reader Jon Lasser sent in the following snippet from "The Curse of the Sevso Silver," a long yarn by Peter Landesman in the November Atlantic about intrigue surrounding some ancient Roman treasure:
In late September, Van Rijn met with Yard detectives at the British embassy in Madrid. He had with him an old friend, a man he and the detectives had been referring to in telephone conversations as "our friend in Spain." The friend was Felice Cultrera, an amateur art-and-antiquities collector; the owner of casinos in Paris, Belgrade, and Prague; someone who was allegedly linked to the Sicilian drug-running Santapaola Mafia; and a money man for the weapons merchant Adnan Khashoggi [italics Chatterbox's].
Why was his nephew Dodi al Fayed in Paris was he involved in the family business of Drugs Weapons or people smuggling ?????
Was the Princess just an innocent bystander of the Hit on Dodi .Perhaps Dodi's father is correct in his son was murdered .But his father lacks any evidence as to who done it . Although if you live in the paranoid world of a drug dealing weapons and people smuggling family it would make sense to you that Murder was afoot. The Arms business is a very dangerous one and alot of people get very hurt in it and those around them as well.
It is the stuff cheap novels are made of
The nephew of the bigest arms dealer killed by assasins .
His father was incredibly paranoid about his movements for good reason it would seem .The Business that his 'family 'is involved in can mean life or death for millions of people .
So sad that it cost the future Kings mother her life .
Interesting movie clip, worth a look if you're interested, but much more research is required before one can start spewing this stuff to everyone.
For all the good points made in the movie, it is undercut most glaringly by what it leaves out. The narrator spends the first half hour bashing Christianity, going so far as to say Jesus never existed- only to quote the same Jesus extensivley a few minutes later in support of his new age theorums pertaining to the Age of Aquarious. Never let editorial inconsistancies get in the way of maintaining your narrative I guess...
Later, the movie goes on to compare the various events that led to US participation in global conflict, such as; 9-11, Pearl Harbour, the sinking of the Lusitania, etc... While these are salient points, much discussed by history buffs, the producers display an amazing aptitude for selective amnesia in their use here. Each instance is treated as though it was the cause of a massive war for profit, instead of a trigger to ensure that an ambivalent public came down on the right side of a great conflict already in progress. Without a great wake up call like Pearl Harbour the US may not have entered WWII, at least not before it was too late, and we'd all be speaking German right now. (those of us alive) Was FDR wrong to allow the Japanese to bomb Pearl? History warns otherwise.
Amazingly, after starting with utter contempt for organized religion (which apparently extends only to Christianity) the authors reach the same conclusion of a dystopic one-world government, with power to contol information, buying and selling, predicted by the Bible some 2000 years earlier!
Despite enjoying, and agreeing with much of the movie, I can only suggest it would be much more effective if it avoided the usual leftist tropes of anti-Chrisitanity and America bashing. The problems are real, and the rest of the world is in no better shape.
For all the good points made in the movie, it is undercut most glaringly by what it leaves out. The narrator spends the first half hour bashing Christianity, going so far as to say Jesus never existed- only to quote the same Jesus extensivley a few minutes later in support of his new age theorums pertaining to the Age of Aquarious. Never let editorial inconsistancies get in the way of maintaining your narrative I guess...
Later, the movie goes on to compare the various events that led to US participation in global conflict, such as; 9-11, Pearl Harbour, the sinking of the Lusitania, etc... While these are salient points, much discussed by history buffs, the producers display an amazing aptitude for selective amnesia in their use here. Each instance is treated as though it was the cause of a massive war for profit, instead of a trigger to ensure that an ambivalent public came down on the right side of a great conflict already in progress. Without a great wake up call like Pearl Harbour the US may not have entered WWII, at least not before it was too late, and we'd all be speaking German right now. (those of us alive) Was FDR wrong to allow the Japanese to bomb Pearl? History warns otherwise.
Amazingly, after starting with utter contempt for organized religion (which apparently extends only to Christianity) the authors reach the same conclusion of a dystopic one-world government, with power to contol information, buying and selling, predicted by the Bible some 2000 years earlier!
Despite enjoying, and agreeing with much of the movie, I can only suggest it would be much more effective if it avoided the usual leftist tropes of anti-Chrisitanity and America bashing. The problems are real, and the rest of the world is in no better shape.
Oh. Your. God.
- Bender
- Bender
