In addition to cash payments, which were kept secret, BCCI routinely gave presents to government officials around the world, a fact disclosed to auditors. As BCCI officer Nazir Chinoy explained:
The auditors will not object if the manager certifies that $50,000 was spent on entertainment on a particular day. They will accept it without bills. It is understood that Christmas presents, giving and taking are common. We tell them we are looking after our people, I have 50 people I want 50 shirts from Harrads for Christmas for my staff, or a Senator from some country telling you I want my people to be looked after. Then he says, when I come to power you take a favor from me. It is an accepted form of operation.(6)
According to Chinoy, these presents would routinely involve gifts worth $5,000 or more if the official was sufficiently important. In the case of Manuel Noriega, for example, the antique oriental rug selected by BCCI and provided to him one year in his honor was worth substantially more.
In other cases, BCCI would make a form of payments to high ranking officials through one of its Foundations, which would create an annual "prize," and bestow it upon a person either whom BCCI wished to influence, or whose receipt the prize would provide BCCI needed legitimacy. For example, from 1980 to 1988, a BCCI foundation called The Third World Foundation bestowed an annial Third World Prize of $100,000 as follows:
1980. Dr. Paul Prebish, international development economist from Argentina. At the time, BCCI was seeking to enter Argentina through nominees.
1981. Dr. Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania. The Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, presented the prize. At the time, BCCI had alleged financial relationships with various persons associated with Gandhi and was seeking to expand in Tanzania.
1982. Zhao Ziyang, the Chinese premier. Again, BCCI was looking to, and soon thereafter was able to, become one of the first foreign banks to open offices in China.
1983. Professor Arvid Pardo, a UN diplomatic from Malta, whose prize was presented by Belisario Betancur, President of Colombia. In 1983, BCCI purchased a bank in Colombia through nominees.
1984. Willy Brandt, former German chancellor, with UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar giving his approval.
1985. Nelson and Winnie Mandela.
1986. Musician Bob Geldorf, for his work in raising funds for the hungry in Ethiopia.
1987. The International Planned Parenthood Federation of India, presented by Jose Sarney, President of Brazil. In this very period, BCCI was seeking to strengthen its ties to President Sarney, and had just purchased a bank in Brazil through nominees which included close associates of Sarney.
1988. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Norweigian Prime Minister, presented by Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Mugabe had according to many BCCI officials received cash payments from BCCI in previous years.(7)
The Subcommittee has not obtained internal BCCI documents describing its global strategy for bribery, or any list of payments made to officials. However, the Subcommittee does have a collection of documents and testimony which outline individual cases of bribery, payoffs, or financial benefits provided by BCCI to officials in particular countries. Thus, the case histories set forth below are illustrative, rather than comprehensive, and do not necessarily represent the worst examples of the practice, but merely the ones the Subcommittee has been best able to document.
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