Pakistan

Pakistan slams ‘scandalous’ article linking it with BCCI scam

Embassy spokesperson says it depicts complete lack of knowledge of facts surrounding the rise and fall of the bank

APP May 30, 2015

From left to right: BCCI officials Aftab Hussain, Amjad Awan and Akbar Ali Bilgrami are seen in this picture. PHOTO: The Infiltrator/Robert Mazur.

NEW YORK: A spokesman of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington Friday rejected as "misconceived and scandalous" an article in Foreign Policy magazine that linked Pakistan to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal in 1980s.

Read: 24 years on, BCCI saga still haunts

"The Op-ed piece speaks of a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the facts surrounding the rise and fall of BCCI," Nadeem Hotiana, the embassy press attache, wrote in response to the article by Michael Kugelman, a senior programme associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington-based think-tank.

The article is titled 'Remembering Pakistan's Biggest and Baddest Fraud Scandal'. "Regrettably, the title of the article is misconceived and scandalous as it attempts to establish unsubstantiated links between Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scam and Pakistan," Hotiana said in a letter to the magazine.

Read: The man behind the downfall of a Pakistani's greatest commercial achievement

"We simply fail to understand why the blame for the scam by a Bank, incorporated in Luxembourg with Headquarters in London, is placed at Pakistan's door, where only a few of worldwide 400 branches of the erstwhile bank existed."

Read: Pakistan govt not complicit in fake degree scam, says embassy spokesperson

He maintained, "Moreover, the author has not explained how one individual, Agha Hassan Abedi, was responsible for every malfeasance of the bank, which being incorporated was a separate entity in the eye of the law. Very conveniently, the article has not mentioned that Abedi was also a British national."

COMMENTS (13)

Bibi | 9 years ago | Reply @SChopra: Read the admission of Robert Mazur instead of giving your own twist.

SChopra | 9 years ago | Reply BCCI was unabashedly global. It had offices around the world, including a headquarters in London. It was incorporated in Luxembourg, and many of its shareholders were in the Arab Gulf. Still, according to the Time investigation: “BCCI was always a Pakistani bank, with its heart in Karachi.” Abedi, its founder and long-time director, was Pakistani, as were many of its middle managers and top officials. The bank was close to Pakistan’s political leadership, providing financial assistance to military leader Gen. Zia al-Haq and finding a job for his brother. According to Kerry’s report, BCCI also helped finance Pakistan’s nuclear weapons procurement. Much of the bank’s start-up capital came from wealthy Pakistan-based depositors. Overseas Pakistanis used the bank to send money home. Bank accounting ledgers were in the Urdu language. BCCI contraband shipments often passed through Karachi. And when investigators began honing in on the bank’s activities, BCCI officials from around the world fled to Pakistan.

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SChopra | 9 years ago | Reply A Time magazine exposé in July 1991 alleged that BCCI featured a clandestine division, based in Karachi and described internally as a “black network,” that served as a “global intelligence operation and a Mafia-like enforcement squad.” It allegedly engaged in spying, bribery, extortion, and kidnapping.

Imran | 9 years ago | Reply Why does the government has to respond to every other article written in any part of the world.

LawaTimes | 9 years ago | Reply Why not just sue straight away instead of issuing news report?

Sun Tzu | 9 years ago | Reply Frauds, Terrorists and N-Proliferation -- are the famous exports of Pakistan

sehr.siddiqui | 9 years ago | Reply we do not have to be apologetic at all. Citibank, HSBC and Chase Manhatton bank have been involved in much bigger violations than BCCI. They were all involved in much bigger violations bt BCCI was targeted for being the child of a lesser god.

Fiz | 9 years ago | Reply Just a few weeks ago, a retired US Custom officer Robert Mazur admitted of carrying out a sting operation on BCCI which led to the closure of the bank. Read the article 'the man behind the downfall of the Pakistani's greatest commercial bank' above. He admitted that the bank was not doing anything which the other banks like HSBC ware not doing at that time however they all got off lightly whereas the axe fell upon Pakistani bank. World is an unfair place and certainly no place for small and underdeveloped nations. These developed countries have a tacit understanding that no one should earn more than them. Otherwise.... sting operation.

Concerned Citizen | 9 years ago | Reply Very happy to see a pro active press attache in Washington.

ALi | 9 years ago | Reply When a BANK starts threatening to Jewish Banks then this was expected.

Jibran | 9 years ago | Reply Today I defeated everyone. They kept on claiming, and I kept on denying.

Jibran | 9 years ago | Reply All bad things are traced back to Pakistan. It's not a conspiracyby Yahood-o-Hanood-o-Nasara. It is the policy adopted by our establishment.

pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply why to trust NYT not Forgien Policy ?

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