‘No Credible Evidence’ Is Found in Hatch-BCCI Probe

An ethics investigation concluded Saturday that there was “no credible evidence” that Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) violated Senate rules or federal law in contacts between his office and representatives of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

There was no “reason to believe that the senator engaged in any improper conduct,” the Senate Ethics Committee said in a one-page statement.

Hatch had requested in writing on Aug. 12, 1992, that the committee investigate his office’s contact with representatives of BCCI--the bank that was closed down after accusations of money laundering, racketeering and other criminal activities. The panel’s inquiry began in April.

The committee, which deliberated Friday, said it subpoenaed documents of eight individuals and entities, and conducted 10 depositions--including that of Hatch.

“The committee finds on the basis of available evidence that there is no credible evidence which provides reason to believe” that Hatch violated Senate rules or federal law, the statement said.

Hatch said after the decision that he was the victim of a “smear campaign,” but commented that he “would never let these kinds of gutter tactics deter me from doing my honest best. . . . “

Hatch strongly defended BCCI in a speech on the Senate floor in 1990 and has said he once asked the bank for a loan to a friend.

In 1991, Hatch acknowledged that he once called BCCI’s chief executive in London to ask him to consider lending money to a Houston developer who is a friend of the three-term senator.

The developer, Monzer Hourani, has contributed money to Hatch’s campaigns and was involved in a real estate deal with him. BCCI never made the requested loan, Hatch has said.

Hatch also has said he met several times with Mohammed Hammoud, a Lebanese businessman who prosecutors say was a front man for BCCI. But Hatch has insisted he did not know Hammoud was linked to the bank.

A report released last fall by the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on terrorism outlined meetings former Hatch aide Michael Pillsbury had with government officials and BCCI lawyers. It made no mention of Hatch.

Pillsbury met with government officials “to find ways to help BCCI achieve a more favorable outcome” in its 1989 money-laundering indictment in Florida, according to the Senate subcommittee report.