BCCI was bursted for unprecedented international financial crimes in 1991, and many governments shut down the bank’s operations in their domains. Not in Nigeria, under General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. The corrupt military administration run by him worked out a deal where the bank, controlled by one of his close friends, the deposed Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki, changed its name to Africa International Bank. In the scandal that ensued, newspapers that dared to write about the crime were threatened with closure. His friend, whom he later betrayed, M.K.O. Abiola, tried to extract an apology from his employees at the Concord newspapers group, who had written about the “army arrangement.” The journalists declined, and had to resign their positions. Today, Abiola’s Concord group is dead, but those journalists have been running a thriving THE NEWS group since. Here is the scale of the financial crime that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida swept under the rug. BCCI’s activities in Nigeria were so profoundly, overwhelmingly corrupt as to suggest a very significant level of corruption in Nigerian officialdom generally. Whereas BCCI’s activities in most countries merely involved corrupting a few, key people, in Nigeria the corruption was systemic and endemic, and touched nearly every operation of the bank in Nigeria.

According to BCCI officers, this was not the consequence of BCCI applying its practices to Nigeria, but rather, BCCI adapting itself to the conditions already present in Nigeria. According to BCCI officers interviewed by the Subcommittee, few European or American businesses active in Nigeria would have been able to do business without making one or another form of pay-off to Nigerian officials during the 1980s. During the Subcommittee’s original investigation of BCCI in 1988, corruption involving Nigerian officials was one of the earliest allegations of BCCI criminality made to staff. As former Subcommittee investigator Jack Blum testified: There are extraordinarily close relationships at all levels of the Nigerian Government with BCCI. [During my intial investigation] I had been called . . . by the Nigerian Ambassador who had been asked to call by the President [of Nigeria] to say, what’s happening here? What are you guys doing with respect to BCCI? Several BCCI officials described BCCI having made cash payments to officials of the Nigerian central bank. As Abdur Sakhia testified: During a meeting of the World Bank in Seoul, Korea — I think it was in 1985 — I saw one of the BCCI officers with a lot of cash, handing it out to the staff of the central bank of Nigeria. The most detailed account of BCCI’s activities in Nigeria came from Nazir Chinoy, convicted in the Tampa case of money laundering during the time he was BCCI’s Francophone regional manager. Prior to moving to BCCI-Paris, Chinoy had been stationed by BCCI in Nigeria for the first half of the 1980’s, where he saw first hand the pervasive corruption of the Nigerian banking system, and BCCI’s solutions for dealing with it profitably.

In addition to the skimming that was taking place of government funds, BCCI found itself in the position of being able to earn enormous fees from ordinary commercial transactions in Nigeria, because Nigerian officials insured that financial transactions undertaken by BCCI for its customers would be handled much more efficiently than similar transactions undertaken by any other foreign bank doing business in Nigeria. While other banks would have to wait days or weeks for their transactions to be processed by the relevant government ministries, BCCI, would have their transactions handled promptly. BCCI got big profits because early release of foreign exchange was the crux of any deal. BCCI was two to three times faster than Chase Manhattan or the Bank of America or any other joint venture. BCCI was faster than any Nigerian bank in getting foreign exchange out of the Central Bank. It had very good relations with Central Bank of Nigeria. Unless you were friendly with receptionist, it would lie in the tray and wouldn’t go anywhere for days. BCCI used to look after the girl at the foreign exchange desk. When the BCCI clerk would hand in the foreign exchange she would do that first for processing its release. Release of foreign exchange was important. Clerks at every level were looked after by presents. We had an officer, Mr. Saddiqui, who used to go and spend at least 10 days a month in Nigeria. His specific job was to look after people at all levels. In addition, he had appointed one to two expatriates who did nothing but spend their time at Central Bank. I do not think that cash was actually paid, but presents were bought in large amounts, as much as 20-40 dresses, shirts, ties at a time brought in from London and given. Everybody was kept happy. so that there is no objection raised by a clerk that a document isn’t filled in exactly correctly. Because BCCI was so good and there was a BCCI application where someone had forgot to cross a “t” or dot an “i” and they would get it rectified quickly. This is Nigeria. The result was that BCCI began to develop almost a monopoly on handling import-export financing in Nigeria.

For banks other than BCCI, sometimes it could take 90 days for your letter of credit to take. If some clerk is unhappy he says your documents are not in order and he throws it back and doesn’t give a reason. In Nigeria it is very important to have contacts because it takes 14 days for a letter to reach you. BCCI would get its letters of credit three times faster than anyone else. They will get it through the Central Bank faster than other banks. Business increases due to this reputation. Another extremely prominent Nigerian political figure who was being paid bribes by BCCI was Al Haji Ibrahim Dasuki, chairman of BCC Nigeria up until 1990-1991, when he became the Sultan of Sokoto. BCCI audit records show a $1 million loan from BCCI to Dasuki which BCCI provided him to pay for his shares of BCCI-Nigeria. Dasuki repaid this favor — although not this loan — to BCCI in many ways. According to Chinoy: Dasuki had fantastic contacts with the government. He was a politician and religious leader of great eminence, and in line then to be Sultan of Sokoto. He could help the bank and used to be paid. He was paid from Caymans as well as from Nigeria. He was paid in London by one of Mr. Naqvi’s special assistants, Asad Matualah, now in custody in Abu Dhabi.

Chinoy explained that Dasuki was the one who would fix problems with other government officials for BCCI if anyone noticed that exchange laws were being broken or other problems arose. Dasuki was able to perform this role because of his position as a religious leader, making his support indispensable to other key Nigerian officials. Dasuki also acted as a local representative for BCCI, obtaining the right to import goods for Nigeria, and providing that right to a business associate affiliated with BCCI. The BCCI associate would then arrange for import of the commodity involved, such as rice. Dasuki had so much business activity, he was able to establish his nephew, Ibrahim Katuni, to a level where by the mid-1980’s, every foreign country did business with him because he had access to every ministry and had cut deals with each of them.

Katuni would tell a foreign businessman, this is how you’ll make $100,000, and I’ll take 20 percent. He kept Dasuki happy and was hoping to become President of BCCI.

BCCI was shut down globally in 1991 while Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida was president of Nigeria but corruption and financial malpractices continued in Nigeria.

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