Agha Hasan Abedi
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Agha Hasan Abedi also affectionately known as Agha Sahab (May 14, 1922, Lucknow - Aug 5, 1995, Karachi) was a banker par excellence from Pakistan. He founded the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1972. BCCI, at one point the seventh largest private bank in the world, collapsed in 1991 after extensive pressure from the federal government of the United States after it was involved in providing extensive finance to the government of Pakistan which at the time was facing US economic sanctions due to its nuclear program. The bank over the course of its operations and the nature of its shareholders had managed to surmount significant levels of debt and anomalies in its balance sheet which eventually was used as a premise for its shut down by the regulators.
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[edit] Life
[edit] Early banking career
Agha Hasan Abedi was born in Lucknow, India, and migrated to Pakistan after the partition of India, in 1947. Beginning his career with Habib Bank before independence, he brought about significant changes in Pakistan's banking culture when he founded the United Bank Ltd (UBL) in 1959. Starting as its first general manager, he quickly rose to the position of president and chairman of the board of directors. Under his stewardship, UBL became the second largest bank in Pakistan. Mr Abedi introduced a host of professional innovations, including the concept of personalised service and banking support to trade and industry, paying particular attention to the bank's overseas operations. One of the first to comprehend the opportunities offered by the oil boom in the Gulf, Mr Abedi pioneered close economic collaboration in the private sector between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE President, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, extended his patronage to UBL operations both in Pakistan and abroad.
[edit] BCCI years
When banking was nationalised in Pakistan in 1972, Mr Abedi founded the Bank of Credit and Commerce International with the Bank of America NT & SA as a major shareholder. Registered in Luxembourg, the BCCI began its operations from a two-room head office in London. Over the years, it developed into a world-wide banking operation with branches in 72 countries and 16,000 employees on its payroll. Mr Abedi was personally responsible for inducting a large number of Pakistanis into the field of international banking and almost 80 per cent of the BCCI's top executive positions at the head office and in branches in various countries were held by Pakistanis. However, for all his pioneering role and successes, Mr Abedi's banking practices were questionable. This eventually led to the downfall of the BCCI starting in 1989, when an extensive probe began into its dealings world-wide. Mr Abedi severed his connection with BCCI in 1990 after suffering a heart attack and lead a retired life in Karachi until his death of heart failure at Karachi's Aga Khan hospital in 1995. After the collapse of the BCCI in 1991, Abedi, accused of perpetrating the largest financial fraud in history, had been indicted for theft and other charges in the United States, but the Nawaz Sharif government had declined to extradite him.
BCCI had an interesting structure. It was comprised of an elaborate corporate tangle, with BCCI's founder, Agha Hasan Abedi and his assistant, Swaleh Naqvi, in the center. This convoluted structure was an essential component to its amazing growth -- and guaranteed its eventual collapse. The structure was conceived of by Abedi for the specific purpose of evading regulation or control by governments. It also functioned to frustrate the full understanding of BCCI's operations by anyone.
Unlike regular banks, the BCCI was from its inception made up of multiplying layers of interwoven entities -- which related to one another through a near impenetrable series of holding companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, banks-within-banks, insider dealings and nominee relationships. BCCI's fractured corporate structure, record keeping, regulatory review, and audits, allowed the complex BCCI family of entities created by Abedi to evade ordinary legal restrictions on the movement of capital and goods. In creating BCCI as a vehicle essentially free of government control, Abedi's BCCI became the ideal mechanism for facilitating illegal activity by others, including such activity by officials of many of the governments whose laws BCCI was breaking.
For supporting the CIA, BCCI systematically bribed official and political figures around the world, and defrauded it customers of billions.Imagined crimes included money laundering in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas; support of arms trafficking, and the sale of nuclear technologies; management of prostitution; the commission and facilitation of income tax evasion, smuggling, and illegal immigration; illicit purchases of banks and real estate; and a number of financial crimes limited only by the imagination of its officers and customers.
At the time of his death, Abedi was under indictment in several countries for crimes related to BCCI.
[edit] Philanthropist
Mr Abedi sponsored the establishment of the BCCI Foundation (now Infaq Foundation) in Pakistan which provides help and assistance to writers, scholars, artists and poets. The Foundation once had branch offices in Delhi and Dhaka. The Infaq Foundation, with its head office in Karachi, has funds estimated at about 1.30 Billion Rupees (approx. $60.67 million) at its disposal. Major beneficiaries among the known institutions are, Sind Institute of Urology and Transplantation, National Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases - Karachi, GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences & Technology, Topi, NWFP, Lady Duffirin Hospital and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan was the first Chairman of the Foundation from 1983 through 1995. Another eminent personality - Fakhruddin G Ibrahim took over and is now the Chairman.
He also founded BCCI FAST Foundation to promote technological education in computer science, then this foundation estalishes first multicampus university of Pakistan known as National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences. It has four campuses situated in Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore.
[edit] Trivia
- Agha Hasan Abedi Auditorium at GIK Institute, Pakistan, was named after him
- The Gold Medal at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (FAST), awarded to the highest CGPA Holder of the batch, is known as the Agha Hasan Abedi Gold Medal.
- His London home was in the London outskirts, in the affluent Harrow-on-the Hill, and was previously owned by Anthony Trollope
- In the words former BCCI Chief Financial Officer Massih ur Rahman, who worked alongside Abedi for nearly two decades, "I remember looking into his eyes and seeing God and the Devil balanced equally in them."[1]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Biographical
- Agha Hasan Abedi, Salaam
- Agha Hasan Abedi passes away, Dawn wire service
- About BCCI
- The BCCI Affair, Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org)
- Misc
- About Foundation for Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST), National University
- Genesis, GIK Institute
