All Drug-Related Charges Against Southland Banker Dismissed

TAMPA, Fla. —  Shortly after 10 o’clock one Saturday night 14 months ago, shotgun-toting federal agents burst into Aqbal Ashraf’s home in Agoura Hills, Calif., and arrested him in the presence of his wife and two small children.

Ashraf, who manages the Los Angeles branch of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, was told he had been charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.

He was one of eight people arrested nationwide that night in what the U.S. Customs Service described as a major scheme to launder profits from Colombian cocaine sales in the United States. The laundering allegedly took place through the offices of the Luxembourg-based bank.

As he was taken from his home, Ashraf recalls turning to his stricken wife and saying, “Look, you don’t have to worry about me. I have done nothing wrong.”

In U.S. District Court here this week, the federal government finally agreed with that assertion of innocence and dismissed all charges against the California banker.

“The effect on my family has been shattering,” Ashraf said in an interview Wednesday. “These charges should never have happened.”

According to Morris Weinberg, his attorney, Ashraf was a victim of the government’s overzealous pursuit of a money-laundering case with ties to the Colombian drug cartels and now-deposed Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega.

“There was never any evidence against him,” Weinberg, a former federal prosecutor, said.

Ashraf’s only connection with the alleged conspiracy was a brief meeting Oct. 5, 1988, at Los Angeles International Airport with Robert Mazur, a Customs Service agent who posed as a financial consultant for two years to gain access to the drug cartels and bankers. Prosecutors acknowledged in court papers that the meeting in Los Angeles was arranged to obtain additional evidence against Ashraf.

But the meeting came the day after Ashraf and the others were charged in a secret federal indictment. Federal law prohibits an agent from meeting with a defendant after an indictment unless the defendant has a lawyer present.

Mazur said he was unaware of the indictment. But Weinberg challenged that assertion in court documents, saying that it was very likely Mazur was aware of the indictment because many other agents and the prosecutors with whom he was in contact were aware of it. Rather than test the credibility of its chief witness in the case, the government on Tuesday asked the judge to dismiss the charges against Ashraf.

The dismissal of the charges was overshadowed when the bank pleaded guilty to participating in the money-laundering scheme and agreed to cooperate in the further investigation of Noriega. Noriega maintained a secret account containing up to $25 million at the bank’s office in Panama City. The bank employee who managed the account is one of the remaining defendants in the Tampa case.

Mark Jackowski, one of the prosecutors in the case, said in court Wednesday that the case will involve evidence against Noriega, although the latter has not been charged and his name did not appear in the indictment.

Meanwhile, one of two Colombians charged in the case pleaded guilty Wednesday. Gonzalo Mora, 34, admitted that he served as the link between Colombian cocaine kingpins and Mazur in the money-laundering scheme.

The trial for the remaining six defendants is expected to begin next week after jury selection.