Date: February 23rd, 2019 3:23 AM
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https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/13/world/north-s-10-million-mistake-sultan-s-gift-lost-in-a-mixup.html
NORTH'S $10 MILLION MISTAKE: SULTAN'S GIFT LOST IN A MIXUP
By FOX BUTTERFIELD and SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMESMAY 13, 1987
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A Swiss shipping magnate was the unexpected beneficiary of a $10 million donation from the Sultan of Brunei that had been intended for the Nicaraguan rebels.
At hearings today on the Iran-contra affair, Congressional investigators disclosed that the Sultan's money had been wired to the Swiss businessman's account by mistake after Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North accidentally transposed two figures in the number of the secret bank account maintained by his private arms network.
Mark A. Belnick, executive assistant to the chief counsel for the Senate select committee, said the businessman had withdrawn the $10 million within days of receiving it in August 1986 and bought a certificate of deposit in another bank. The money has already accrued $253,000 in interest, but all of it has now been frozen by a Swiss judge. Criminal Proceedings Begin
Credit Suisse, the bank where the money was originally sent, has instituted criminal proceedings against the businessman, Mr. Belnick said.
The Swiss authorities have declined to identify the businessman, except to say he is socially prominent and married to a doctor, Mr. Belnick added. The businessman has asserted in his defense that he believed the $10 million was proceeds from the sale of a ship that he had been expecting, Mr. Belnick said.
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The $10 million misunderstanding was the latest in a series of disclosures of errors in the secret Iran-contra operation. Senator Howell Heflin, Democrat of Alabama, suggested that next time ''I'd hand-carry that $10 million to the bank.'' McFarlane Faces Questioning
The announcement about the Sultan's missing funds was the most unusual development in today's hearing, which was dominated by what amounted to a cross-examination of Robert C. McFarlane, the former national security adviser.
The $10 million contribution by the Sultan of Brunei for the contras was solicited by Elliott Abrams, the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. He is a passionate supporter of the Nicaraguan rebels.
Brunei is a small oil-producing country on the coast of Borneo, and the Sultan is one of the wealthiest men in the world.
The discovery of the whereabouts of the Sultan's missing $10 million donation resolves the last major mystery about the money raised in the Iran-contra affair, said Senator Daniel K. Inouye, the chairman of the Senate select committee. Senator Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, startled spectators at today's hearings in the Rayburn House Office Building by making the announcement just after the gavel was dropped to start the day's proceedings.
He said the money had been traced by Mr. Belnick and John Cronin, an accountant working for the Senate committee. Mr. Cronin was in Switzerland today and relayed further information about the money to Mr. Belnick while the hearings were in session. All Tell the Same Story
''We began to suspect there had been a mistake when all the individuals we talked to told the same story and there was no record anywhere of the $10 million having been received,'' Mr. Belnick said.
In testimony last week, Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, who organized the private network on behalf of Colonel North, said he and his associates had never received the Sultan's money.
The investigators then checked the secret Swiss bank account number of General Secord's company, Lake Resources, against that given to the Sultan by Mr. Abrams. Mr. Abrams had asked Colonel North where the Sultan should send his donation and was given what was supposed to be the number of the Lake Resources account.
But Colonel North told Mr. Abrams that the prefix was 368 when it was 386, Mr. Belnick said.
Mr. Abrams then notified the Sultan, who ordered the $10 million transferred by Citibank's branch in Brunei to the account in Credit Suisse in Geneva.
In making a wire transfer to a numbered Swiss account, there is no need to use a name, Mr. Belnick said. That makes the error easier to commit. Sultan Agrees to Help
But even after discovering what caused the mistake, the Congressional investigators were still unable to find the missing money because neither Citibank, Credit Suisse nor the Swiss banking authorities would cooperate in offering information. This situation changed when the State Department asked the Sultan for help and he agreed to let the Congressional committees be his agent in tracking the money, Mr. Belnick related.
''Then everyone became cooperative,'' he said.
The certificate of deposit bought by the Swiss businessman is due to mature on May 21. The State Department is notifying the Government of Brunei about the money and ''it's up to them what to do with it,'' Mr. Belnick said.
Whether the Swiss businessman is prosecuted may depend on what his intent was when he withdrew the $10 million deposit, said Mr. Belnick, a lawyer.
Referring to the work of the committee's investigators, Senator Inouye said, ''I suppose the question before us is, does the Senate committee get a finder's fee.'' Senator Inouye said.
Reflecting a widespread Congressional view about the ineptitude of the private arms network, Representative Ed Jenkins, Democrat of Georgia, said Colonel North and General Secord ''have never been too careful about their books anyway.''
''I guess they could lose $10 million and not miss it,'' he said.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4207559&forum_id=2#37829979)