CASE STUDIES
ARGENTINA
In Argentina, BCCI targeted and ultimately successfully purchased, the Finamerica Bank, a small Argentina financial institution that was at the time owned by FIAT and by the Banco de Italia. In December, 1984, through a local middle-man, Ricardo Gotelli, Fiat authorized the sale to BCCI.(17) Internal BCCI memoranda show that in the original structuring of the transaction, BCCI was intending to lend money to the current shareholders of the bank and have them pledge their shares back to BCCI in order to avoid having to notify the Central Bank, and receive its authorization for the purchase. Ultimately, however, this plan was found not to be necessary as a result of BCCI securing the Central Bank's permission for the transaction.(18)
The New York indictment of Abedi, Naqvi, Faisal al Fulaij and Ghaith Pharaon on July 29, 1992 succinctly sets forth why BCCI was able to abandon the nominee structure and directly, publicly purchase the Argentine bank:
The BCCI Group made corrupt payments to the President of the Central Bank of Argentina and a member of its Board of Directors. In or about 1983 and 1984, the BCC Group made and caused to be made a five hundred thousand dollar "political" contribution to the President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Argentina upon an agreement and understanding that it would influence the conduct of said President and Director in relation to the establishment of a bank of the BCC group in Argentina and in relation to the business of the BCC Group.(19)
At the same time BCCI decided to move into Argentina, so did its front-man, Ghaith Pharaon. According to published reports, Pharaon came to Argentina by way of Paraguay, where he had established a personal friendship with military strongman Alfredo Stroessner. Argentine press accounts quote Pharaon as stating he had visited Paraguay to assist in developing BCCI's relationships there, which culminated in the Central Bank of Paraguay placing some of its central bank deposits with BCCI.
The new BCCI bank quickly made one enormous set of loans to Pharaon — for the construction of a luxury five-star hotel in downtown Buenos Aires — the first such hotel in the city, including an 18-story tower, convention center, and shopping gallery, built on the grounds of a historic mansion.
According to a letter submitted to Argentine economic authorities by the Hotel Corporation of Argentina, most of the financing for Pharaon's hotel project — $26.3 million in all — was to come through selling Argentina Debt under the government's debt equity conversion program. In the letter, Pharaon was described as "a prominent international businessman who has investments in banks, insurance companies, real state [sic] development projects, and numerous other businesses worldwide."(20) During an application for Argentinean citizenship Pharaon made on June 16, 1988, he listed BCCI, CenTrust Bank in Florida, and Independence Bank in California as among his principal investments, and declared he had helped arrange BCCI's acquisition of FinAmerica — renamed BCCI Argentina.(21)
BCCI's direct involvement in the debt-for-equity project was suspected by some Argentinean press at the time, given the lavishness of the project and questions about whether a hotel could possibly be profitable. However, BCCI's actual involvement was not proven until after BCCI's global closure on July 5, 1991. A week later, investigators in Buenos Aires reported that BCCI Argentina had been heavily involved in the construction of the Pharaon hotel, but that all accounts at the bank had been "cleared out a week before the central bank's move to revoke the license," leaving no depositors in the bank and no deposits. BCCI had financed the Buenos Aires hotel through buying Argentinean foreign debt at a huge discount and cashing it with the central bank, with the result that the Argentine central bank, in essence, financed the bulk of the hotel.(22)
In addition, the hotel project required legislative and regulatory action by various Argentine political figures. In mid-1989, Pharaon reached out to new-elected Argentine President Carlos Menem himself, through ties Pharaon had developed to Menem's former chief of staff, Alberto Kohan. A few months later, Pharaon was introduced to President Menem, and following a meeting with Pharaon, President Menem personally telephoned local officials in Buenos Aires to eliminate the red tape that had been delaying the construction of the BCCI-Pharaon hotel. The delays ended the following day.(23)
The intimate nature of the relationship between top Argentine officials, BCCI, and Pharaon was further demonstrated when Pharaon hired Argentine economist Gonzalez Fraga. On Pharoan's behalf, Fraga arranged the debt-equity swap to help finance the hotel, and then became the new president of the Central Bank under Menem. Fraga told journalists, "it's a pretty story that President Menem made me head of the Central Bank as a favor to Pharaon. But it wasn't that way."(24)
In practice, BCCI's Buenos Aires bank never developed much of the business anticipated for it. Ultimately, its principal activities were mainly to manage the financing of Pharaon's hotel venture and a jojoba planation also financed through an Argentine debt-equity swap involving BCCI.
In the meantime, Pharaon had unwittingly brought about official action against BCCI Argentina in April, 1991 as a result of testifying in a court case, unrelated to BCCI, that:
As much as BCCI, the First National Bank of Boston, the Credit Suisse and the National Bank of Greece — all are equally lawbreakers.(25)
In response to this suggestion that all banks were laundering money, Argentina ordered BCCI to begin winding up its affairs in Argentina as of the end of 1991, and began a formal investigation of BCCI in Argentina. Little further happened until BCCI's global closure on July 5, 1991, which soon resulted in BCCI Argentina's closure as well. Argentine Federal Judge Maria Servini then combined the investigation into BCCI with another ongoing case implicating the former appointment's secretary of Argentine President Carlos Menem, and his sister-in-law, Amira Yoma, in an alleged international drug and money laundering network. However, little has been made public about the investigation since that time, and many of the key questions about BCCI's and Pharaon's relationships in Argentina remain unanswered.
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