BCCI Link to Altman Is Alleged : Banking: Abdur Sakhia, who ran BCCI operations in the United States, contends that the former president of First American Bank in Washington sat in on secret strategy meetings.

A Washington banker who has insisted that he was unaware that his institution was controlled by the Bank of Credit & Commerce International participated in high-level strategy sessions in which BCCI plotted the secret acquisition of other banks, a former BCCI operative told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

Abdur Sakhia, who ran BCCI’s U.S. operations from offices in Miami before resigning last year, said the high-level meetings were attended by Robert Altman, a prominent attorney and former president of First American Bank in Washington.

Altman and his mentor, former presidential adviser and Democratic Party elder Clark M. Clifford, resigned in August as First American’s top executives in response to disclosures that scandal-ridden BCCI had been exercising secret control of the bank. Both men have denied any knowledge of such ties.

“For me, it’s very, very hard to believe--it’s impossible to believe--that (Altman and Clifford) did not know” BCCI controlled First American, testified Sakhia, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen who was a confidant of BCCI leaders in London and the Middle East.

Sakhia offered little firsthand knowledge of Altman’s operations as president of First American and as a legal adviser to Agha Hasan Abedi, the Pakistani-born founder of BCCI, relying instead on information that he said was passed to him by Abedi and other top BCCI operatives.

Sakhia conceded that he had almost no direct contact with Clifford, except for one incident in 1988 in which a BCCI representative, Musrat Rizvi, was presented to Clifford in his Washington law office. He said Clifford greeted Rizvi with the bizarre statement: “Mr. Rizvi, welcome aboard. We’ll tell more lies now.”

Sakhia appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations, which has been investigating BCCI. The panel is to hear testimony later this week from Clifford and Altman.

Sakhia insisted that BCCI, First American and National Bank of Georgia, which First American moved to acquire in early 1986, “were all one entity.” Indeed, he said, the acquisition of the Georgia bank, which had been partly owned by Saudi millionaire Ghaith Pharaon acting as a “front” for BCCI, was merely a “merger” of the two subsidiaries, undertaken at the express order of Abedi.

Abedi and his closest associates, including General Manager Swaleh Naqvi, controlled most of First American’s operations, Sakhia said, including staffing, marketing and even decisions on renting office space. They arranged for foreign ministers of BCCI client countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia to authorize embassies to deposit Washington accounts with First American, he said.

In one operation, he said, BCCI headquarters arranged for the central bank of Sri Lanka to deal with First American for a credit line under a U.S. “food for peace” grant in 1987. “BCCI was doing it for themselves,” Sakhia testified.

In February, 1986, Sakhia said, Altman attended a meeting in London with Abedi, Naqvi and others at which the principals decided to merge First American and National Bank of Georgia and to acquire a Florida bank. “The decision to merge First American and NBG was made by Mr. Abedi--not by Altman and Clifford,” Sakhia said.

He said it was decided at the meeting that BCCI could not afford to seek approval from U.S. bank regulators for an outright acquisition of Miami National Bank because “BCCI had suffered serious losses in 1985.” Instead, he said, it was decided to use a “nominee” and follow the “model” of BCCI’s April, 1985, acquisition of Independence Bank of Encino using Pharaon as a front. The Federal Reserve recently assessed Pharaon a $37-million civil penalty and moved to seize his assets in connection with that transaction.