SAUDI ARMS DEALER TIED TO CASEY'S INFORMANT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504210004-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 11, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504210004-9
W/
WASHINGTON POST
11 December 1986
Saudi Tied to Casey's Informant
Arms Dealer
Longtime Friend of CIA Chief Said to Have Entered Venture to Supply Iran
By David ay.
an Ruth Marc
Waslun?taa (o t Staff Wntere
k
Roy M. Furmark the New York
businessman who CIA Director Wil-
liam 1.C gX said first alerted him
to the diversion of funds _ from U.S.
arms sale to Iran, once joined with
Saudi billionaire Adnan Kha_shoggi
in a venture to supply arms and oth-
er goods__t_o Iran,accgrding__lo
sources.
The disclosure of Furmark's con-
nection with Casey and his knowl-
edge of the secret shipment of arms
to-'I ehran aZ s a new strand to the
complicated network of _ govern-
ment, business and foreign -arms
dealers involved in the Iran affair.
Sources yesterday said that
Casey, in his testimony before the
House Foreign Affairs Committee,
told the panel that on Oct. 7 Fur-
mark "described the whole opera-
tion" of how U.S. arms shipments to
Iran had worked and mentioned to
him that "some of the money may
have been diverted for other pur-
poses."
Little is known about Furmark's
connection to the CIA director or to
the Iran arms deal, although more
information may become available
today when Furmark is expected to
appear before one of the congres-
sional committees looking into the
Iran affair.---__
Several sources said Casey and:
Furmark had been friends for manyi
years. Casey is reported to have
told the committee that he had done
legal wor or Furmark while in
private pracftce in New York in the
mid- 1970s. Little is also known about Fur
mark's personal history. In early,
1985, according to sources, he tried,
to put together a company express
ly to sell various goods in high de-
mand in Iran.
According to two sources, one of
Furmark's partners was Saudi bil-
lionaire Khashoggi, who has been
identified in some reports as being
linked to the U.S. arms deals with
Iran.
The third partner in the 1985
venture was the late Cyrus Ha-
shemi, the Iranian arms dealer who
later became an informer in the
FBI's "sting" operation in New York
last spring in which 17 individuals
have been charged with conspiring
to sell more than $2 billion in arms
to Iran.
One of those charged in that case
is London-based American lawyer
Samuel Evans, who for years
worked as Khashoggi's lawyer.
Furmark was instrumental in in-
troducing Khashoggi to Hashemi
initially, according to several
sources.
Furmark did not return several
telephone calls to his New York
office yesterday.
The joint venture was designed
to sell tractors and arms to Iran but
was dissolved by mid-1985 because
of a lack of funds, according to one
person familiar with the failed en-
terprise.
In an affidavif filed in the New
York sting case, Evans said Ha-
shemi had retained him as legal
counsel in the venture. However,
Evans did not mention Furmark's
participation.
Furmark has been a business as-
sociate of Khashoggi's off and on for
some years, according to Ronald
Kessler, a former staff writer for
The Washington Post, whose book
about the Saudi billionaire has just
been published. However, Furmark
and Khashoggi are not presently
connected in any enterprise, Kess-
ler said.
Kessler said Furmark has mostly
been involved in oil trading and bar-
ter deals in the Middle East.
Furmark is an energy consultant
who heads a company called Fur-
mark Corp. based in New York
City. It is listed as a management
consulting and public relations ser-
vice.
He was identified in a 1980 New
York Times article as an American
adviser on energy investments to
Roger E. Tamraz, a Lebanese finan-
cier who headed a group of Arab
investors interested in taking over
the then-financially troubled Com-
monweath Oil Refining Co. of Puer-
to Rico.
Furmark is also an associate of
the late oil company executive John
Shaheen, who headed a firm called
Shaheen Natural Resources and
worked in the World War II Office
of Strategic Services with Casey.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504210004-9