IV ch 5

[Joseph Tracy]

Saudi money transfers

A Saudi named Omar al-Bayoumi housed and opened bank accounts for two  
of the 9/11 hijackers. About two weeks after the assistance began, al- 
Bayoumi's wife began receiving monthly payments totaling tens of  
thousands of dollars from Princess Haifa bint Faisal, the wife of  
Saudi ambassador and Bush family confidant, Prince Bandar bin Sultan,  
through a Riggs bank account.[2] (Jonathan Bush, uncle of President  
George W. Bush, was an executive at Riggs Bank during this period.)

Upon discovery of these transactions, the FBI began investigating the  
bank for possible money-laundering and terrorist financing. Although  
the FBI and later the 9/11 Commission ultimately stated that the  
money was not intentionally being routed to fund terrorists,  
investigators were surprised to see how lax the safeguards at Riggs  
Bank were. Several Saudi accounts were discovered to have financial  
improprieties, including a lack of required background checks and a  
consistent failure to alert regulators to large transactions, in  
violation of federal banking laws.

Many of these transactions involved Prince Bandar personally, often  
transferring over $1 million at a time. According to British  
investigations on the Al Yamamah deal, reported by The Guardian,  
Bandar would have received over $ 1.5 billion in bribery from BAE  
Systems, laundered through the Riggs Bank.



[edit]
Pinochet's frozen funds

Further information: Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial
Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, has been widely  
accused since 1973 of corruption, illegal arms sales, and torture. In  
1994, Riggs officials invited Pinochet to open an account at Riggs  
Bank. Arrested in 1998 in Britain for possible extradition to Spain,  
his accounts were ordered frozen by court orders. A recent U.S.  
Senate report has revealed that Riggs executives helped Pinochet  
disguise millions of dollars. By using shell companies and hiding  
accounts from federal regulators, Riggs illegally allowed Pinochet to  
retain access to much of his fortune[1].

The Senate report also indicated that regulators were negligent in  
holding the bank accountable. Although Pinochet's accounts at Riggs  
had been reported in U.S. and British newspapers, and although these  
accounts were largely unreported to regulators, those same regulators  
never made a serious effort to investigate. The comptroller tasked  
with investigating Riggs in 2002, R. Ashley Lee, was later given an  
executive position at Riggs.

The disclosure of the Riggs accounts reignited the case against  
General Pinochet, and a ruling that he was not mentally competent to  
stand trial was overturned when it was proven that the general  
himself had orchestrated some of the huge transactions. In 2004, he  
was ordered to stand trial for crimes against humanity, and  
additional claims of mental and physical incompetence have been  
overruled. Pinochet died however in December 2006 before being  
judged. However, in September 2007, Pinochet's widow and five  
children were indicted by a Chilean court on charges including  
embezzlement.[2]