Witness: First American Seen as Part of BCCI; Information Was Shared With Washington Bank, Ex-Official Says
The former head of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International's American operations testified yesterday that bank officials considered First American Bankshares Inc. an integral part of BCCI's U.S. operations and regularly shared strategic, operational and marketing information with the Washington bank and its former president, Robert A. Altman.</br></br>"As far as we were concerned, inside BCC Group, this was one entity," the former executive, Abdur R. Sakhia, said of BCCI and First American at a hearing of the Senate subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations. "It was one and the same thing, because First American was owned by BCCI."</br></br>Among other things, he said, Altman participated in meetings in which BCCI proposed to secretly buy a bank in Florida through First American in 1986 using the same plans and "model agreements" it had earlier used to allegedly secretly purchase Independence Bank of Encino, Calif. The Florida transaction never took place, however.</br></br>Altman and Clifford's attorney, Robert S. Bennett, denied that a secret takeover of a Florida bank was contemplated and said Sakhia must have misunderstood the situation.</br></br>Sakhia also testified that BCCI made payoffs to foreign leaders around the world in exchange for influence, although he offered few specifics beyond a payment to officials of Zimbabwe in which he indirectly participated. He did not, however, dispute the subcommittee chairman, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), when Kerry asserted that Sakhia had told the subcommittee staff that former Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Hag and the family of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received money from BCCI.