CIA GAVE 'SEVERAL HUNDRED REPORTS' ABOUT BCCI TO OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401700006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 28, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401700006-1
CIA Gave `Several Hundred Reports'
About BC CI to other Federal Agencies
By PETER TRUELL
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON - The Central Intelli.
gence Agency provided other federal agen-
cies with "several hundred reports" re-
lated to Bank of Credit and Commerce In-
ternational, adding a new dimension to the
regulatory failure surrounding the rogue
bank.
The CIA reports-distributed broadly
through t regulatory a aratus-mainly
'
c me BC I
s sus c tea vemen
in drugs, terrorism an arms ea in
RichatfJ-Kerr. theacting CIA director, told
a -e panel. He added that a few of the
reports, beginning in early 1985, stated that
BCCI in 1981 had secretly and unlawfully
acquired control of First American Bank-
shares Inc., Washington's largest bank
holding company.
Such intelligence on BCCI Holdings
(Luxembourg) S.A. was met with "a stony
silence and lack of action on the part of
regulators, said Sen. John Kerry (D.,
Mass. ), chairman of the Senate Foreign re-
lations subcommittee on terrorism, nar-
cotics and international operations, which
is conducting hearings on BCCI.
The revelations came as President Bush
moved to distance himself from a former
high-ranking White House aide who re-
cently went to work for Sheik Kamel Ad-
ham, a principal figure in the BCCI scan-
dal. The former official, Ed Rogers, senior
aide to Chief of Staff John Sununu, is a
lawyer who signed up to receive 5600,000
from Mr. Adham in a two-year engage-
ment.
At a news conference Friday, President
Bush expressed concern about the "per-
ception of impropriety." When a reporter
suggested Mr. Rogers might be selling his
access to the White House, the president
snapped, "Ask him what he's selling."
President Bush said he himself wouldn't
like such work: "Would I like to go out
there, leave my job and go to work for this
sheik when I get through being president?
No, I wouldn't like to do that."
Mr. Rogers said in a statement that this
representation was lawful under the Ethics
in Government Act and that it didn't in-
volve any "lobbying, politics or public re-
lations." He added that he and his law
firm have had no contact with "anyone at
the White House about this matter." As re-
ported, Mr. Rogers was in Egypt last week
when a top federal prosecutor in the BCCI
case opened talks with Mr. Adham, sug-
gesting that a plea agreement might be in
the works.
In his testimony, ?'Mr_ Kerr said that the
CIA's focus on BCCI _began in ie-Mld
1980s because of the Luxembourg_-based
bank's sus cted involvement in narco-
n1onev lawn eii whicl-i fvoTess elp-
ing_drug traffickers conceal the origins of
their profit. That effort widened in the late
1980s, resulting in the collection of intelli-
gence on "the manipulation of financial
markets, weapons proliferation, and ter-
rorism."
departments, including Treasury, Cus-
toms, Commerce, the Drug Enforcement
Agency, National Security Agency, De-
fense Intelligence Agency, the Federal Re-
serve Board, the Department of Energy,
the U.S. Trade Representative, the State
Department, and the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation.
Specific information relating to BCCI's
hidden ownership of First American was
sent to the Treasury Department's head of
intelligence, Mr. Kerr said. That Treasury
official has told colleagues that he passed
the information along to Robert Bench,
who was then deputy comptroller of the
currency. Mr. Bench is now partner in
charge of government relations at Price
Waterhouse, the accounting firm that au-
dited BCCI for years. Mr. Bench said re-
cently he doesn't recall seeing such a re-
port.
Mr. Kerr sought to refute widespread
rumors and reports of CIA involvment with
BCCI, asserting that the agency "didn't as-
sist or encourage any wrongdoing on the
part of BCCI or its employees." The
agency, he said, also hadn't taken any ac-
tion "to influence or impede" any investi-
gation or prosecution of BCCI.
The CIA official also said that the
agency wasn't involved in, nor did it have
knowledge of, any use of BCCI for the sale
of arms to Iran or the diversion of funds
for the Nicaraguan Contras in connection
with the Iran-Contra affair. The Senate
subcommittee released documents indicat-
ing that BCCI provided banking services to
Saudi Arabian businessman Adnan Kha-
shoggi in connection with the Iran-Contra
affair. Mr. Kerr said the CIA wasn't aware
of BCCI's Iran-Contra links or of its associ-
ation with Mr. Khashoggi.
The State Department, meantime, also
had substantial information on BCCI, Alan
Kresczko, the department's deputy legal
adviser, told the Senate panel. As early as
1978 the State Department noted that BCCI
engaged in, "questionable if not illegal ac-
tivities."
U.S. relations with the United Arab
Emirates, where BCCI's principal owners'
reside, "remain very good," Mr. Kresczko
said. The government of Abu Dhabi and its
absolute ruler Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-
Nahyan own 77% of BCCI.
BCCI's seizure of a group of Western
regulators last July "may create some
cash flow problems for the UAE," Mr.
Kresczko said. But, he maintained, there is
"no evidence the scandal has eroded the
hold on power of the rulers of Abu Dhabi
or their popular base of support."
The Washington Post
Th. Now York Time, The Washington Timy _
The well Strom Journal ! . j
TM Christian Seism Monitor
Now York OaHy Nawa
USA Today
TM CMeaOo Tribun.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401700006-1