---
category: BCCI Scandal
relations:
- fn: 6
  role: commissioner
  type: head_of
  with: '[[U.S. Customs]]'
summary: Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service during the C-Chase investigation
  of BCCI, whose agents recommended a RICO case against the bank that the Justice
  Department did not approve.
tags:
- Person
- BCCI
- Banker
- CIA
---

William von Raab was the [U.S. Customs](/organizations/us-customs/) Commissioner.[^1]

He was involved in the [Hashemi sting](/events/hashemi-sting/) operation, which was designed to entrap individuals connected with [Israeli](/places/israel/) intelligence arms sales to [Iran](/places/iran/).[^2]

Von Raab, along with [Rudolph Giuliani](/people/rudolph-giuliani/), gave joint TV interviews on April 22, 1986, announcing the arrest of a "huge ring of terrorists" and "Merchants of Death" who were supposedly about to sell arms worth a billion dollars to Iran. [Ari Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) claims that von Raab and his associates had created the crime themselves.[^2]

### Role in BCCI Scandal

Von Raab headed the agency during the Tampa money-laundering investigations involving the [BCCI](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/).[^1] He stated that the C-Chase sting operation, which led to the arrest of several BCCI bankers, was the most important money-laundering case in history.[^3]

After BCCI's Tampa conviction, von Raab thought the case was "enormously meaningful" and announced it publicly. He was told by his superiors to dampen his public enthusiasm.[^4] He later testified before the [Kerry](/people/john-kerry/) subcommittee that the [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/) had denied knowledge of the Ali Mirza tapes, which contained crucial information about BCCI's activities.[^5]

### RICO

The [Kerry-Brown Senate Report](/events/bcci-kerry-brown-senate-report/) recorded that "by March, 1988, high level Customs officials were reporting to Commissioner Von Raab that several BCCI officials were indictable under RICO." A Customs memorandum of April 6, 1988, stated the view of the [United States](/places/united-states/) Attorney's office in [Tampa](/places/tampa-florida/) that "probative evidence exists to establish corporate criminality against BCCI as an institution," a recommendation repeated on May 10, 1988. In the fall of 1988, "for reasons that were never explained to the Customs agents," the Justice Department did not approve a RICO prosecution, and the case was brought on narrower money-laundering charges. The report named von Raab among the critics of the department's handling of BCCI.[^6]

[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 11.
[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
[^3]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 25.
[^4]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 389.
[^5]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 54.
[^6]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 8, "BCCI and Law Enforcement: The Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm