Abbas Gokal

Abbas Gokal
Born 1936 (age 81–82)
British India
Residence West London
Nationality Pakistani
Occupation Shipping magnate
Organization The Gulf Group
Known for BCCI Scandal
Home town Karachi
Net worth $1.2 billion
Criminal charge Financial fraud
Criminal penalty 14 years
Criminal status Released
Relatives Mustafa Gokal
Murtaza Gokal
Hussein Gokal
Details
Country United Kingdom
Date apprehended
 July 1994
Imprisoned at May 1997,
Whitemoor Prison

Abbas Kasimili Gokal[1] (Urdu: عباس ‎گوکل‎; born in 1936) is a Pakistani businessman and fraudster, who was chairman of a once-prosperous shipping empire, the Gulf Shipping Lines.[2][3] Gokal was convicted of fraud in May 1997 and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was charged with defrauding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) of US$1.2 billion and was the world's biggest single fraudster at the time. His company, the Gulf Group, was the BCCI's single largest borrower.

Early life

Abbas Gokal was born in 1936, in the erstwhile British India. He was born into a Shia family. During the Partition of India, the Gokal family moved to Iraq. When the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown, the Gokal family moved to Karachi, Pakistan. Gokal had three brothers; Hussein,[4] Mustafa and Murtaza Gokal.[5]

Gulf Group

The three brothers: Abbas, Mustafa and Murtaza Gokal, had set up the Gulf Group in Karachi. In 1969, they started the Gulf Shipping Lines, the flagship company of the Gulf business group. Gulf Shipping Lines was registered and headquartered in Geneva. In the beginning, the company used to transport cargo through the Arabian Sea from Karachi. Gulf Shipping Lines was well known for shipping to ports in which other companies were hesitant to ship to.[5] A notable example was Iran. The Gulf Shipping Lines was the prime shipping company that shipped cargo to and from Iran during the decade long Iran–Iraq War.[6] The Gokal brothers envisioned the Gulf Shipping Lines as an international shipping empire, and the company soon expanded all over the Third World.[5] But in the 1980s, the Gulf Shipping Lines was having financial trouble due to the international shipping crisis. In 1984, the company had reached a crisis-point when its creditors sought their money back. That is when the BCCI came to their aid.[7] The Gokal family's relationship with BCCI founder and chairman, Hasan Abedi, dated back to the 1960s. Due to the financial backing, the Gulf Shipping Lines controlled more than 150 vessels.[8] By the early 1980s, the Gulf Group had diversified into many different sectors. These sectors included commodities trading[9], retailing, hotels, mining and real-estate. Thanks to this business diversification, Gokal's personal fortune was estimated to be over £20 million, while his business group was worth billions. His credit card bills amounted to over £250,000.[10]

BCCI Scandal

In 1991, the Luxembourg-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International was shutdown by its regulators. It was discovered that the bank was running on loss for many years. It used to give out phony loans, concealed deposits and hid their huge losses, which ran into billions of dollars. The bank was alleged to hide and launder the money of dictators, drugs-lords, and even terrorists.[11][12] One of the main men behind the collapse was Abbas Gokal. The Gulf Group had an almost US$1.2 billion loan from the BCCI. He was the single largest borrower, and the loans were used to fund his own lifestyle instead of his company. The bank's auditors, Price Waterhouse, discovered that the bank had given them US$1.2 billion via 700 offshore companies.[13] This money used to be funneled into the Gulf Group like a 'giant washing machine'.[10] When the bank collapsed, the Gulf Group collapsed with it. As the scandal was discovered, Swiss Police raided the Gulf Group head office in Geneva. The Sheikh of Abu Dhabi (one of the main investors in the BCCI) himself lost £312 million to the Gulf Group's collapse.[10] Gokal and his two brothers had escaped to Karachi. Bank of England officials and the Serious Fraud Office wanted Gokal on trial. However he could not be extradited to Britain as it had no extradition treaty with Pakistan. Gokal had agreed to travel to the United States for an interview with an attorney. He was said to have information on corrupt American officials. On 18 July 1994, he left for the United States. When his plane had stopped for re-fueling at Frankfurt, German police arrested him and had him extradited to the United Kingdom.[7][14]

Trial and Imprisonment

Gokal was tried in May 1997 and found guilty of conspiring to funnel money out of the BCCI, which later contributed to the bank's collapse. He was sentenced to fourteen years in jail and confiscation of all his assets. His two brothers, Mustafa and Murtaza, were safe in Pakistan.[15] His sentence was the longest sentence that a British court handed out for fraud.[1] Gokal served his sentence at the high-security Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire.[16]

Release

Gokal was released from imprisonment in the UK in 2003. He served only 9 years of his 14-year sentence. He was reported to be living in West London as of 2003.[17]

Personal life

Abbas Gokal is married to Rukaiya Gokal. They both have a daughter, Sukaiyna. Sukaiyna works in the shipmanagement sector of Univan Ship Management.[17] Gokal was noted to be a family-oriented man. The judge that sentenced him even noted and appreciated the fact that Gokal always put his family above everything.[18] Gokal's affluence extended to having a house on New York's Fifth Avenue, multiple houses in London and Connecticut,[19] private jets and Rolls-Royces.[20] One of his brothers, Mustafa Gokal, served as the financial advisor to President Zia-ul-Haq and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini.[6]

Coming from a Shia Muslim background, the Gokals were fiercely loyal to Iran. Abbas Gokal's eldest brother, Hussein Gokal, was hanged in Iraq. He was falsely accused of being an Iranian spy. Thus, the family was forced to leave Iraq. The Gokals were amongst the first Muslim families in the Indian subcontinent to rally behind Ayatollah Khomeini's banner, after the Islamic Revolution. But even though the Gokal family were of Shia origin, they were practitioners of Sufi mysticism. The Gokal family trace their roots back to the same community as Ayatollah Khomeini's.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "BCCI fraudster jailed for record 14 years and fined pounds 3m". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  2. ↑ https://www.irishtimes.com/business/gokal-sentenced-to-14-years-for-bcci-fraud-1.70650
  3. ↑ https://books.google.com.bd/books?id=Fe7683ZSKygC&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=abbas+gokal&source=bl&ots=bjBS-oQsRn&sig=qr1S7N38Ma3yNTUaWW8nr1RozIg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjc7cbSxOTdAhUFS48KHcRVCtoQ6AEwG3oECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=abbas%20gokal&f=false
  4. 1 2 https://books.google.com.bd/books?id=65Gbj2CQWl4C&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=murtaza+gokal&source=bl&ots=qOFZ-v3l-n&sig=ZgOEGxJLUfTCzo-jBn1vqj9f-hI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLhsO7vN7cAhUCWX0KHXEoDak4ChDoATASegQIAhAB#v=onepage&q=murtaza%20gokal&f=false
  5. 1 2 3 "The Go-Go Years". www.geocities.ws. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  6. 1 2 Block, Alan A.; Weaver, Constance A.; Weaver, Constance (2004). All is Clouded by Desire: Global Banking, Money Laundering, and International Organized Crime. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275983307.
  7. 1 2 "Behind the collapse of a behemoth". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  8. ↑ and, Philip Shenon. "B.C.C.I.'s Best Customer Is Also Its Worst Customer". Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  9. ↑ Jetley, Neerja. "Back With A Bang: Harry Banga is Billionaire Again As Commodities Recover from A Tsunami". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  10. 1 2 3 Silver-Lasky, Pat; Betts, Peter (2012-09-10). Scams Schemes Scumbags: A Light-Hearted Look At Con Artists Through The Ages. BookBaby. ISBN 9781623098827.
  11. ↑ Mufson, Steven; McGee, Jim (1991-07-28). "BCCI SCANDAL: BEHIND THE 'BANK OF CROOKS AND CRIMINALS'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  12. ↑ and, Steve Lohr. "World-Class Fraud: How B.C.C.I. Pulled It Off -- A special report.; At the End of a Twisted Trail, Piggy Bank for a Favored Few". Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  13. ↑ "On the trail of Gokal - Accountancy Age". Accountancy Age. 1997-05-23. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  14. ↑ "Gokal sentenced to 14 years for BCCI fraud". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  15. ↑ "Pakistani shipping tycoon convicted in BCCI fraud". AP News. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  16. ↑ Atkinson, Dan (1999-03-12). "Key player in BCCI fraud loses appeal". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  17. 1 2 http://www.tradewindsnews.com/weekly/184021/bcci-fraudster-abbas-gokal-goes-free
  18. ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/bcci-fraudster-jailed-for-record-14-years-and-fined-pounds-3m-1260499.html
  19. ↑ https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/soc.culture.pakistan/j9MPSHgoqdE
  20. ↑ https://www.apnews.com/56e22467b09201abe3adb2257f10c296
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