The Bank of Credit and Commerce International forgave a $150,000 loan to former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young's consulting firm, a newspaper reported Monday.
Young, also a former congressman and ex-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told The New York Times that BCCI's action last year freed him from a personal obligation to make $32,000 in annual payments on interest and principal. Young said he suspended the firm's operations in 1986.Financial regulators seized the Luxembourg-based bank in July, shutting down its operations in 70 countries, amid evidence of fraud, drug trafficking and money laundering.
Young, who was mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1990, said he looked upon the bank's forgiveness of the debt as payment of $50,000 in annual retainer fees BCCI had promised but never paid.
The oral agreement for the fees was made by BCCI founder Aga Hassan Abedi, a Pakistani financier with whom Young had a long business relationship. Under the agreement, Young, through his consulting firm, was to introduce Abedi to Third World leaders.
The circumstances of the debt forgiveness are under investigation as part of the government inquiry into BCCI's Georgia links.
Investigators say they have no evidence Young did anything illegal.
In another development, the Los Angeles Times reported that a billionaire Saudi sheik used his influence at BCCI in a bungled attempt to finance the film "Brenda Starr" with actress Brooke Shields in the lead role.
BCCI lent one of its officials to personally assist the handling of the film production attempt by the sheik, 43-year-old Abdul Aziz al Ibrahim, the Times said.