howsthat
BCCi - The ISI & CIA Bank
BCCI was created, and then built up as a "world class" bank, primarily to manage the covert funds that poured into the secret war in Afghanistan. Hardly any mention was made of the fact that BCCI was in the middle of the Afghan effort—serving as the de facto central bank for a multibillion-dollar Golden Crescent illegal arms-for-drugs trade that mushroomed during 1979-90.
When the last of the Red Army troops pulled out of Kabul in February 1989, the massive British-devised and American-led covert action program in support of the Afghan mujahideen began to wind down. BCCI lost its raison d'être, and went the way of the 1960s-era Investors Overseas Service (IOS).
During the decade of the Afghan War, BCCI's assets had grown from an initial capitalization in 1972 of $2.5 million, to $4 billion in 1980, to an astounding $23 billion at the point that the Bank of England moved to shut it down. The bulk of the $23 billion disappeared and to this day is still unaccounted for.
BCCi - The ISI & CIA Bank
BCCI was created, and then built up as a "world class" bank, primarily to manage the covert funds that poured into the secret war in Afghanistan. Hardly any mention was made of the fact that BCCI was in the middle of the Afghan effort—serving as the de facto central bank for a multibillion-dollar Golden Crescent illegal arms-for-drugs trade that mushroomed during 1979-90.
When the last of the Red Army troops pulled out of Kabul in February 1989, the massive British-devised and American-led covert action program in support of the Afghan mujahideen began to wind down. BCCI lost its raison d'être, and went the way of the 1960s-era Investors Overseas Service (IOS).
During the decade of the Afghan War, BCCI's assets had grown from an initial capitalization in 1972 of $2.5 million, to $4 billion in 1980, to an astounding $23 billion at the point that the Bank of England moved to shut it down. The bulk of the $23 billion disappeared and to this day is still unaccounted for.