Ex-Sununu Aide Quits Job With Sheik Linked to BCCI : Administration: Edward Rogers’ $600,000 contract for legal services was an embarrassment to President.

Edward M. Rogers Jr., former chief personal deputy to White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, Tuesday gave up a $600,000 contract to provide legal advice to a Saudi sheik who was a major shareholder in scandal-plagued Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

Rogers, 33, landed the contract soon after leaving the White House last summer in what has proved to be an embarrassment to President Bush because of the appearance that Rogers might be trading on his White House influence. But Rogers said in a statement that his two-month representation of Sheik Kamal Adham “has been legal, ethical and proper.”

He acknowledged, however, that he had “made a mistake in believing I could represent Mr. Adham without its being so controversial.” Adham, a former chief of intelligence for the government of Saudi Arabia, is a subject of the Justice Department’s accelerating investigation of BCCI.

Rogers said that his role “could prove harmful to my client’s interests due to the unfair inferences being made with respect to this representation.”

It was not clear how Rogers’ decision to withdraw as Adham’s lawyer would affect a Justice Department decision on whether to conduct a preliminary inquiry that could lead to appointment of an independent counsel to look into Rogers’ actions.

Paul J. McNulty, chief spokesman for Acting Atty. Gen. William P. Barr, said that no preliminary inquiry had been initiated. “We are not aware of any information that would be the basis for a criminal investigation,” McNulty said. “But we will continue to take appropriate steps to follow up on any new information.”

Last week, the President sought to distance himself from Rogers’ representation of Adham, ordering White House counsel C. Boyden Gray to conduct an internal inquiry into the matter.

In registering on Sept. 20 as a foreign agent for Adham, Rogers made clear that his principal duties related to Justice Department and congressional investigations into BCCI’s alleged secret control of First American Bankshares of Washington, D.C.

“Because of the nature of the legal investigations within the executive branch and in Congress related to Sheik Kamal’s interests associated with the BCCI affair, it may be necessary for me to perform duties that could ‘border on political,’ ” Rogers said in his Justice Department registration. “I am taking this step to register as a foreign agent in the event that I engage in such activity.”

Rogers, who refused to discuss the matter with a reporter, did not explain in his written statement Tuesday how activities that could “border on political” would relate to the Justice Department’s investigations or to congressional inquiries.

Rogers has not spelled out the nature of the work he was to perform for the Saudi sheik over a two-year period, although he said Tuesday that it did not involve lobbying. “My agreement to represent Mr. Adham expressly provides that, as part of the legal team, my law firm and I will not do any lobbying, public relations or political work,” Rogers said in his statement.

Last week, Barr, whose nomination as attorney general is awaiting hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement, “The notion that anyone at the White House has attempted to influence the BCCI investigation is utter nonsense.”

Rogers, in his statement, said that he had no contact with “and never heard of . . . Adham while I was at the White House. I never knew he existed until late in August.” He said that he had contacted no one at the White House about Adham or the BCCI matters.

Those assertions could be important, because the Ethics in Government Act bars a former government official from contacting his agency--in this case, the White House--about a matter in which he had personally participated when in government.

Last August, the month he entered private law practice, Rogers said that an Adham attorney--identified by another source as Moussa Raphael of Paris--asked if he would consider being part of Adham’s team of legal advisers.

Rogers said he learned through inquiries that Adham “was a man of high reputation and stature” and that his interests now are in opposition to those of BCCI.

He said that he registered as a foreign agent only because “the ethics philosophy of the Bush White House was to go the extra mile to assure no one could ever say any ethics requirement was violated or avoided.”

Rogers was in Cairo last week when a Justice Department prosecutor interviewed Adham, who was accompanied by his Washington criminal defense attorney, Plato Cacheris. Cacheris said that Rogers did not sit in on the interview and was in Cairo to meet separately with Adham.

Cacheris said that the two-day interview centered on Adham’s denial that he was acting as a nominee for BCCI and others in his purchase of stock in First American Bank’s holding company.

Cacheris said he has been notified that Adham is a “subject” of the investigation and not a “target.” That indicates that Adham’s activities fall within the scope of those being examined by a federal grand jury but does not necessarily suggest that prosecutors intend to seek an indictment against him.

However, an extensive investigative report issued by the Federal Reserve last July said that BCCI provided virtually all of the capital that Adham and other “nominees” placed into First American’s parent company through a BCCI subsidiary.

In addition, the Fed asserted that BCCI lent Adham the original $13 million he invested in First American and that BCCI later acquired $27-million worth of First American stock, but kept it registered in Adham’s name.

“None of the loans extended by BCCI or ICIC Overseas (a BCCI subsidiary) . . . in the name of Adham has been repaid or serviced to any substantial extent except through other loans from BCCI or ICIC Overseas,” the Fed said in its July 29 report.

The Fed, which has sought to bar Adham from the U.S. banking industry, has referred its findings on BCCI and First American to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.

Staff writer David Lauter contributed to this story.