BRAZIL
By early 1986, BCCI had identified Brazil as a prime target for BCCI expansion. Latin American banker Brian Jensen, then an Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, had been working closely with BCCI, on an unofficial basis in this period, to help BCCI obtain its relationship with Peru through payments to Peruvian central bankers. In addition to his work on BCCI's Peruvian activities, Jensen studied the Brazilian economy and Brazilian banking system for BCCI, and wrote Abedi a memorandum which Jensen faxed to BCCI from offices at the IMF in early 1986 describing his approach to Brazil:
The establishment of a banking concern in Brazil can become a priority. I feel I can be useful in identifying and putting together a concrete and well-balanced possibility for BCCI while at the same time protecting for a positive attitude from the local authorities to such initiative. . .
A US $230 billion economy with an external trade component that exceeds 25 percent of GNP, Brazil offers the advantages of a large internal market of 135 million people and a rapidly growing export sector . . . Brazilian legislation . . . and long standing traditions or practices . . . exclude foreign banks from establishing branches or investing in domestic commercial banks at present. However, foreign equity participations of up to one-third of the common stock or half of non-voting shares are allowed in investment banks. These are specialized financial intermediaries authorized to issue certificates of deposits and other savings investments, as well as to extend loans to the private sector. . .(38)
Abedi told Jensen to talk with Brazilian bank officials to find a way to get around the regulations. The following month, Jensen sent a second memorandum from his IMF offices in Washington to BCCI:
Conscious of BCCI's interest in Brasil and according to our recent conversations in London. . . I have held discrete conversations (on a no-name basis) with central Bank authorities and existing banking groups (well know to me) as to the better possibilities and strategies. . .
The route followed by most new investors in Brasilian banking in recent years has been to buy equity into existing groups, assuring in his manner an important presence in the market. All foreign investment has been in this fashion. The rationale has been to find a solid and reputable local group (ongoing concern) and acquire up to 30 percent. . .(39)
BCCI well-understood the concept. It did not mind holding a public minority interest in a Brazilian bank, so long as it had sufficient additional secret interests through nominees to insure that in reality the local bank was BCCI anyway. BCCI directed its acquisitions officer, Abol Helmy, who was already handling the Argentine FinAmerica purchase, to locate possible nominees for BCCI in Brazil.(40) Eventually, two were found — Sergio da Costa and Carlos Leoni Siqueira, to be BCCI's nominees, each to hold on BCCI's behalf one-third of the bank, with the remaining investor, Jacque Eluf, to hold an additional one-third, which he himself would pay for, but which BCCI would guarantee against loss.
The nominees chosen by BCCI were extremely prominent members of BCCI's elite. Jacque Eluf, who it was guaranteeing against loss, was one of the wealthiest men in Brazil, owner of IAT Co., Brazil's largest exporter of industrial alcohol, with a net worth in 1986 of about $100 million. BCCI nominee Carlos Leoni Siqueria was one of Brazil's leading attorneys, on the board of directors of companies such as IBM Brazil and Grupo Gerda, Brazil's largest privately owned steel manufacturing company. BCCI Nominee Sergio da Costa was at the time the most senior member of the Brazilian diplomatic corps and a close associate of then Brazilian president Jose Sarney.(41)
Da Costa was available to BCCI because at the age of 67 after four decades of serving Brazil as its Ambassador to such significant postings as England, Canada, the United Nations, and the United States, he was retiring and anxious to make money. Da Costa had been brought to BCCI by BCCI shareholder and front-man Ghaith Pharaon, who in late April, 1986 had met with Da Costa in Miami to seek Da Costa's help in responding to the problems posed for BCCI in circumventing the Brazilian bank laws. A telex from Miami branch manager Abdur Sakhia to BCCI-London on May 6, 1986 described the meeting having ended positively for BCCI:
Ambassador Da Costa has promised Dr. Pharaon to assist the Bank in any way he can and he also had asked Mr. Ferreira [a prominent Brazilian businessman close to President Sarney] to use his association with the President of the Republic to assist BCC.(42)
By September of 1986, da Costa had agreed to himself become a front-man for BCCI in Brazil. In return, BCCI agreed to pay him $150,000 a year, with no further responsibilities beyond being a front-man and using his influence to help BCCI with Brazilian authorities in Brasilia, the capital city.
Under the terms of the arrangement, da Costa agreed to be a director and shareholder, secretly acting as BCCI's nominee, of the bank BCCI was purchasing in Brazil, in a transaction structured by BCCI officer Abol Helmy.
Helmy drafted a memorandum, "Strictly Private and Confidential," regarding "Brazil," on September 2, 1986, under which da Costa and a second prominent Brazilian would each own 50 percent of a Brazilian company that would buy 12,622,500 voting ordinary shares in BCCI Brazil, pledge those shares to BCCI, give BCCI the right to vote its shares, and give BCCI the right to buy those shares. Da Costa would agree to serve on the three man board of directors as BCCI's front-man, to guarantee BCCI control of the bank. He would 'pay' $1,233,580 for his 'share' of BCCI Brazil's stock, and BCCI would reimburse him that amount in New York. The internal BCCI memorandum drafted by Helmy makes explicit the fact that these arrangements were designed to deceive Brazilian authorities:
It must be emphasized that the Brazilian economy and bureaucracy are highly sophisticated. As such any payments made by Brazilians must have the appropriate ORIGINATION OF FUNDS. That is, the Brazilian 'investors' must have the necessary net worth for Brazilian taxation authorities' purposes to support any investments made. . .
Messrs. Da Costa and Leoni to ensure that the transaction is fully acceptable to the Central Bank and to ensure that there are no adverse public consequences will be purchasing their shares in cash. . .
Both Ambassador Da Costa and Mr. Leoni are reluctant to take loans from any bank to finance the transaction for Central Bank and public image purposes . . . I have negotiated, subject to BCC management approval, an interest free loan to the individuals concerned . . . to enable them to complete the transaction.(43) (emphasis in original)
The memorandum demonstrated that BCCI would provide da Costa and Leoni with $2,467,160 for the purchase of his stock in BCCI Brazil, every penny the stock would cost. In a staff interview, Helmy acknowledged that da Costa and Leoni were not at risk and that the transaction was a standard nominee arrangement by which BCCI circumvented local laws and that this approach had been used a numerous of times previously by BCCI. Helmy also said it was BCCI's understanding that da Costa and Leoni would take care of arrangements with Brazil's central bank and other Brazilian officials to make sure that they acquiesced in the transaction as structured.(44) Thus, in essence, Helmy at BCCI and da Costa, while still Brazil's Ambassador to the United States, had with other BCCI officials and other prominent Brazilians, created a plan by which they would together make possible BCCI's purchase of a bank in Brazil to circumvent Brazilian law.
BCCI officials were ecstatic at da Costa's participation in their plan for Brazil, and his agreement to be a Senior Advisor to BCCI. On October 28, 1986, while da Costa was still Brazil's Ambassador to the United States, the head of BCCI's Miami office, S. M. Shafi, sent him a congratulatory telex at the Embassy:
congratulations from myself and my colleagues on your joing [sic] our Brazilian project. We welcome you to the fold BCC family. I am very certain your experience, qualifications and contacts not only in Brazil but also internationally will go a long way in turning our subsidiary in Brazil into one of the most successful units of BCCI.(45)
Da Costa signed a three-year consultancy agreement with BCCI on November 3, 1986, under which he committed to acting as "Director of [BCCI’s] investment bank in Brazil," and a front-man for BCCI there.(46) Da Costa then followed through in participating in the plan developed by Helmy under which BCCI would secretly purchase a majority interest in BCCI Brazil through nominees. He received his 'loans,' from BCCI, and purchased his 'stock' in the Brazilian bank. BCCI duly reported its loans to him on its books in Panama, characterized as "International Loans," as if they were normal loans that BCCI anticipated would be repaid. By April 30, 1988, da Costa's 'loans,' from BCCI amounted to $1,563,723.85. In fact, da Costa did not pay interest or principal on the loans, which were shams to mask BCCI's ownership of the 'da Costa' shares of the bank.
Among themselves, BCCI officials were also pleased about another aspect of being connected to da Costa. As he entered his agreement with BCCI to circumvent Brazilian banking laws, he had told them that he was also joining Kissinger Associates. A full account of da Costa's and BCCI's relationship with Kissinger Associates is set forth separately.(47)
To penetrate the Brazilian market, BCCI had once again made pay-offs to some of the most prominent people in Brazil — this time among others to the country's most senior and prestigious diplomats — in order for them to participate with BCCI in circumventing the laws of their country.
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