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John Kerry's report on the BCCI scandal found that Robert Mueller's DOJ lied that matters were under investigation when in fact they were not being looked into at all. info.publicintelligence.net/The-BCCI-Affai…
Even though BCCI, a shady-as-fuck bank used for money laundering by drug traffickers, terrorists, and the CIA, could have been hauled in on RICO charges, Mueller's DOJ refused to do so.
Mueller's refusal to pursue RICO charges meant that BCCI's "literally hundreds of millions of dollars of drug proceeds" went untouched.
William Von Raab, the customs officer who first uncovered BCCI's corruption and had recommended Mueller pursue RICO charges against the bank, was subsequently cut out of the investigation entirely just when it was starting to heat up. deseretnews.com/article/175579…
Throughout the Senate's investigation of BCCI, DOJ treated them with contempt, focusing particular hostility on the sub-committee's lead investigator Jack Blum.
In 1990, Mueller's DOJ entered a plea deal with BCCI for the paltry sum of $14 million. More importantly, the deal allowed BCCI—a company with a known history of laundering $ for international drug traffickers—to completely avoid trial.
While Kerry tried to keep the Senate's investigation of BCCI going, Mueller's DOJ took steps to obstruct it by withholding witnesses, which resulted in the probe being postponed.
Keep in mind, BCCI was an organization of mind-boggling criminality. Mueller's DOJ was essentially protecting a bank involved in everything from gun running to nuclear weapons. On top of which, it was also essentially a Ponzi scheme!
Quite belatedly, in 1992, Mueller's DOJ had to do something, and so it started securing indictments, which, the Kerry Report notes, "remained narrower, less detailed" and largely responsive to other efforts.
Throughout the investigation, DOJ consistently allowed leads against BCCI to languish while claiming they were doing the opposite. Here, Mueller promised assistance to any USAO pursuing a case against BCCI and then wouldn't even enforce one USA's subpoenas.
In another instance, a DOJ official pressured Florida regulators to keep BCCI running in the state, despite the fact that by that point it had pled guilty to felony drug money laundering charges.
When asked about this baffling move by DOJ, Mueller couldn't provide an explanation at all.
In the subpoena case mentioned above, things actually got worse. Mueller encouraged USA Lehtinen to work hard on his tax fraud indictment against BCCI, but when the indictments were nearly ready, Lehtinen was suddenly told by Mueller's top aide not to issue them.
The explanation for pulling back on the indictments made no sense. Lehtinen was told, by non-tax DOJ people, that it was not an "authorized" tax case. This despite the fact that Lehtinen had told DOJ this was a tax case "of the greatest national urgency."
The CIA had known about BCCI's criminality since at least 1985, but their reports were never shared with DOJ. Despite this, Mueller claimed that, of course the CIA never tried to obstruct justice!
The real submerged issue here, of course, is that CIA was clearly deeply implicated in the BCCI scandal. When one of the USAs who prosecuting BCCI was asked whether he'd found any Agency involvement, he responded at various points, "No comment" and "I read a lot of spy novels."
Despite Mueller's claim that CIA had never obstructed the BCCI case, Von Raab testified that he had discovered accounts controlled by the CIA and was instructed to cease looking into them.
Not sure how best to correct this tweet, but as @outsh1ned pointed out, Mueller was not yet at DOJ in 1988. He re-joined DOJ in 1989 to head the Noriega case (which is closely tied in with BCCI) and became head of the BCCI investigation in 1990.
CORRECTION: Mueller was not yet at DOJ in 1988. He re-joined DOJ in 1989 to head the Noriega case (which is closely tied in with BCCI) and became head of the BCCI investigation in 1990.
CORRECTION: Mueller was not yet at DOJ in 1988. He re-joined DOJ in 1989 to head the Noriega case (which is closely tied in with BCCI) and became head of the BCCI investigation in 1990.
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