Adnan Khashoggi, the flamboyant Saudi arms trader who rose to spectacular wealth in the 1970s and 1980s while treating the world to displays of decadence breathtaking even by the standards of that era, died on Tuesday in London. He was 81.
His family announced his death in a statement. He had been undergoing treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
When Saudi Arabia and other Arab states decided to embark on a vast armament program after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, backed by billions of dollars in oil money, Mr. Khashoggi became their principal link to the American arms industry. For years, he was the middleman in most of Saudi Arabia’s arms purchases.
Mr. Khashoggi had several brushes with the law but was never convicted of a crime. He was involved in many of his era’s highest-profile scandals, including Iran-contra and the Marcos family’s effort to spirit money out of the Philippines.
One biography of him was titled “The Richest Man in the World,” and he was often described that way. It was not strictly accurate, but during the early 1980s, his wealth, estimated at $40 billion, placed him in a tiny elite.
His appetites were gargantuan, beyond the limits of vulgarity. At the peak of his wealth, he presided over 12 estates, including some in Europe and the Middle East; a 180,000-acre ranch in Kenya; and a two-floor Manhattan residence at Olympic Towers, next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, that was made from 16 existing apartments.
He owned a 282-foot yacht, Nabila — used in a James Bond film and later sold to Donald J. Trump — and three lavishly refitted commercial-size jets. His parties were known for rivers of champagne, bevies of women, international celebrities and endless personal attention from the host, known to his many friends as A. K.
“For A. K., there were no laws, no skies, no limits,” said one of his frequent guests, Prince Alfonso Hohenlohe-Langenburg of Spain.
Over-the-top parties were part of Mr. Khashoggi’s business strategy, which he believed required flaunting his wealth and powerful connections. “It’s all part of the mechanism for impressing people,” he once said.
In a 1987 cover article about Mr. Khashoggi, Time magazine said his “unrivaled profligacy gilds his self-image as a grand merchant-statesman.” It said he spent $250,000 a day to support his lifestyle, operating in “a dazzling and ostentatious realm of luxury beyond the dreams of Croesus, a shadowy sphere of deals, arms brokering and billion-dollar investments.”
Soon after that article appeared, Mr. Khashoggi’s fortune began slipping away. His holding company in the United States, Triad America, filed for bankruptcy. Its biggest project, a hotel and shopping complex in Salt Lake City, fell victim to what he called “cash flow problems.”
In his later years, Mr. Khashoggi lived well but in much-reduced circumstances. He flew on commercial jets, fended off creditors and dismissed his bodyguard, a Korean martial arts expert known as Mr. Kill.
Mr. Khashoggi was born in the holy city of Mecca on July 25, 1935, one of six children. His father, the court doctor to King Ibn Saud, was of Turkish descent, leaving the family outside the web of connections, obligations and suspicions in the Saudi court.
Mr. Khashoggi attended Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt, a traditional training ground for the Middle Eastern elite, where pupils were caned for using any language other than English. Afterward, he enrolled at what was then Chico State College in California.
Barely a year after arriving at Chico State, at 21, he brokered his first major deal, the sale of $3 million worth of trucks to Egypt. His commission was $150,000. He never returned for his college degree.
In 1961, Mr. Khashoggi married a 20-year-old Englishwoman, Sandra Daly, who took the name Soraya. They had four sons and a daughter, Nabila, for whom he named his storied yacht. They divorced in 1974. Five years later, a judge ordered Mr. Khashoggi to pay Soraya $875 million, the largest-ever divorce settlement at the time.
Mr. Khashoggi began traveling with his second wife, an Italian named Laura Biancolini, when she was 17. Like Soraya, she converted to Islam after their marriage and took a new name, Lamia. They had a son, Ali. Later Mr. Khashoggi took an Iranian-born wife, Shahpari Azam Zanganeh.
Although Mr. Khashoggi emerged as a personification of dazzling wealth and behind-the-scenes international power, he never built a sustainable business. Instead, he flitted from one deal to another. He called it “merchantry.”
His clients were a who’s who of the global arms bazaar: Northrop, Lockheed, Grumman, Chrysler, Fiat, the Westland helicopter company, Rolls-Royce and Raytheon.
“He can persuade you with his charm to change your mind after you have made it up,” said Alain Cavro, an architect who worked for Mr. Khashoggi. “Afterward, people say, ‘You see how nice he was to me?’ People feel flattered, almost in love with him.”
Mr. Khashoggi held legendary parties at his 5,000-acre seaside estate in Marbella, Spain. The 400 guests who helped him celebrate his 50th birthday — one writer called it “the most coveted invitation since the coronation of Louis XIV” — passed under an archway of crossed swords held aloft by 50 liveried pages, dined on a 50-item buffet at midnight and watched “A. K,” seated between Brooke Shields and Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, beam as Shirley Bassey sang “Happy Birthday.” The festivities continued for five days.
Many reports of Mr. Khashoggi’s life and career, including his first wife’s divorce suit, refer to his use of procuresses to assure a steady flow of young women for himself and his guests, clients and influential friends like Saudi princes and the shah of Iran. One of his biographers, Ronald Kessler, concluded that he “craved the women for companionship” because he was “a profoundly lonely man.”
Mr. Khashoggi was an important middleman in the arms deals behind the Iran-contra scandal, the Reagan administration’s clandestine scheme to sell arms to Iran in exchange for the release of Iranian hostages and then to divert the proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels. And he was accused several times of paying bribes or illegal commissions. In 1988, he was arrested in Switzerland and accused of concealing funds in the bankruptcy of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. After three months in jail, he was extradited to the United States, tried and acquitted.
Two years later, a federal grand jury in New York indicted Mr. Khashoggi and Imelda Marcos, for whom he had sheltered assets including four commercial buildings in Manhattan and paintings by Rubens and El Greco, on charges of fraud and racketeering. Both were acquitted.
These and other troubles led clients to distance themselves from Mr. Khashoggi. Saudi royals began finding his ostentation embarrassing. His deep contacts in Washington faded with the Reagan era. Major patrons, including the shah of Iran and President Gaafar al-Nimeiry of Sudan, fell from power.
“He has trouble walking these days, and a tough time lifting himself out of a chair,” wrote a reporter who met him at the Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo in 2009. “A man seated by his side referred to him as ‘Your Excellency,’ took his calls and arranged his appointments. Mr. Khashoggi was wearing a pink button-down shirt, the top few buttons open enough to expose a still-shiny scar from open-heart surgery five years ago.”
A high-living Middle East power broker with once-limitless wealth, Mr. Khashoggi was among the last of his breed. He thrived in an era of gaudy excess and came to epitomize it.
“What did I do wrong? Nothing,” he said toward the end of his life. “I behaved unethically, for ethical reasons.”
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Adnan Khashoggi (Arabic: عدنان خاشقجي, Turkish: Adnan Kaşıkçı; b. July 25, 1935, Mecca, Saudi Arabia – d. June 6, 2017, London, England) was a Saudi Arabian billionaire international businessman, best known for his involvement in arms dealing. He is estimated to have had a peak net worth of around US$4 billion in the early 1980s.
Khashoggi was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the son of Muhammad Khashoggi, who was King Abdul Aziz Al Saud's personal doctor. His family is of Turkish origin. Adnan Khashoggi's sister was author Samira Khashoggi Fayed who married businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed and was the mother of Dodi Fayed. Another sister, Soheir Khashoggi, is a well-known Arab writer (Mirage, Nadia's Song, Mosaic).
Khashoggi was educated at Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt, and the American university, California State University, Chico; Ohio State University; and Stanford University. Barely a year after arriving at Chico State, at 21, he brokered his first major deal, the sale of $3 million worth of trucks to Egypt. His commission was $150,000. He never returned for his college degree.
Khashoggi headed a company called Triad Holding Company, which among other things built the Triad Center in Salt Lake City, which later went bankrupt. He was famed as an arms dealer, brokering deals between United States firms and the Saudi government, most actively in the 1960s and 1970s. One of Adnan's first weapons deals was providing David Stirling with weapons for a covert mission in Yemen during the Aden Emergency in 1963. Among his overseas clients were defense contractors Lockheed Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Corporation), Raytheon, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation and Northrop Corporation (which have now merged into Northrop Grumman).
Between 1970 and 1975, Lockheed paid Khashoggi $106 million in commissions. His commissions started at 2.5% and eventually rose to as much as 15%. Khashoggi became for all practical purposes a marketing arm of Lockheed.
A shrewd businessman, Khashoggi established companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to handle his commissions as well as developing contacts with notables such as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers James H. Critchfield and Kim Roosevelt and United States businessman Bebe Rebozo, a close associate of United States President Richard Nixon. His yacht, the Nabila (named after his daughter), was the largest in the world at the time and was used in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. After Khashoggi ran into financial problems he sold the yacht to the Sultan of Brunei, who in turn sold it to Donald Trump for $29 million, who later sold it for $20 million to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal as part of a deal to keep his Taj Mahal casino out of bankruptcy.
Khashoggi was implicated in the Iran-Contra affair as a key middleman in the arms-for-hostages exchange along with Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and, in a complex series of events, was found to have borrowed money for these arms purchases from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) with Saudi and United States backing. His role in the affair created a related controversy when Khashoggi donated millions to American University in Washington, D. C. to build a sports arena which would bear his name. Khashoggi was a member of the university's board of trustees from 1983 until his indictment on fraud and other charges in May, 1989.
In 1988, Khashoggi was arrested in Switzerland, accused of concealing funds, and held for three months. Khashoggi stopped fighting extradition when the United States prosecutors reduced the charges to obstruction of justice and mail fraud and dropped the more serious charges of racketeering and conspiracy. In 1990, a United States federal jury in Manhattan acquitted Khashoggi and Imelda Marcos, widow of the exiled Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, of racketeering and fraud.
Khashoggi, along with Ramy El-Batrawi, was the principal financier behind Genesis Intermedia, Inc., a publicly traded Internet company based in the United States. In 2006, El-Batrawi and Kashoggi were sued by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for securities fraud. The case was settled in 2008; both men did not admit or deny the allegations.
In the 1960s, Khashoggi married 20-year-old Englishwoman Sandra Daly (Sandra Patricia Jarvis-Daly) who converted to Islam and took the name Soraya Khashoggi. They raised one daughter (Nabila, who attended Millfield School in England and whose son is the pianist and composer Thorvald Spartan von Daggenhurst) and four sons together (Mohammed, Khalid, Hussein, and Omar). Soraya and Khashoggi divorced in 1974. Five years later, a judge ordered Khashoggi to pay Soraya $875 million, the largest-ever divorce settlement at the time.
Khashoggi's second wife, the Italian Laura Biancolini, also converted to Islam and changed her name to Lamia Khashoggi. She was seventeen when she met Adnan and gave him another son, Ali, in 1980.
In the 1980s, the Khashoggi family occupied one of the largest villa estates in Marbella, Spain, called Baraka, hosting lavish parties usually arranged by Robert Young, a local club owner. Guests at these parties included film stars, pop celebrities and politicians including Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 1985, celebrity reporter Robin Leach reported Khashoggi threw a five-day birthday party in Vienna for his eldest son, and in his heyday, Khashoggi spent $250,000 a day to maintain his lifestyle.
Khashoggi also owned Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya. His house has since been converted into a hotel which is run by Serena Hotels.
Khashoggi died peacefully on June 6, 2017 while being treated for Parkinson's disease at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, England. He was 81 years old.
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Adnan Khashoggi (Arabic: عدنان خاشقجي, Turkish: Adnan Kaşıkçı; 25 July 1935 – 6 June 2017) was a Saudi Arabian billionaire international businessman, best known for his involvement in arms dealing. He is estimated to have had a peak net worth of around US$4 billion in the early 1980s.[1]
Contents
[hide]Family and education[edit]
Khashoggi was born in Mecca, the son of Muhammad Khashoggi, who was King Abdul Aziz Al Saud's personal doctor.[2] His family is of Turkish origin.[3] Adnan Khashoggi's sister was author Samira Khashoggi Fayed who married businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed and was the mother of Dodi Fayed.[4] Another sister, Soheir Khashoggi, is a well-known Arab writer (Mirage, Nadia's Song, Mosaic).[4]
Khashoggi was educated at Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt,[2] and the American universities California State University, Chico, Ohio State, and Stanford. Khashoggi left his studies in order to seek his fortune in business.[5]
Business career[edit]
Khashoggi headed a company called Triad Holding Company, which among other things built the Triad Center in Salt Lake City, which later went bankrupt.[6] He was famed as an arms dealer, brokering deals between US firms and the Saudi government, most actively in the 1960s and 1970s. In the documentary series The Mayfair Set, Saudi author Said Aburish states that one of Adnan's first weapons deals was providing David Stirling with weapons for a covert mission in Yemen during the Aden Emergency in 1963. Among his overseas clients were defense contractors Lockheed Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Corporation), Raytheon, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation and Northrop Corporation (which have now merged into Northrop Grumman).[7]
Between 1970 and 1975, Lockheed paid Khashoggi $106 million in commissions. His commissions started at 2.5% and eventually rose to as much as 15%. Khashoggi "became for all practical purposes a marketing arm of Lockheed. Adnan would provide not only an entrée but strategy, constant advice, and analysis", according to Max Helzel, then vice president of Lockheed's international marketing.[8]
A shrewd businessman, he established companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to handle his commissions as well as developing contacts with notables such as CIA officers James H. Critchfield and Kim Roosevelt and United States businessman Bebe Rebozo, a close associate of U.S. President Richard Nixon. His yacht, the Nabila, was the largest in the world at the time and was used in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. After Khashoggi ran into financial problems he sold the yacht to the Sultan of Brunei, who in turn sold it to Donald Trump for $29 million, who sold it for $20 million[9] to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal as part of a deal to keep his Taj Mahal casino out of bankruptcy.[10]
Iran–Contra affair[edit]
Khashoggi was implicated in the Iran–Contra affair as a key middleman in the arms-for-hostages exchange along with Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and, in a complex series of events, was found to have borrowed money for these arms purchases from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) with Saudi and United States backing.[7] His role in the affair created a related controversy when Khashoggi donated millions to the American University in Washington, DC to build a sports arena which would bear his name. Khashoggi was a member of the university's board of trustees from 1983 until his indictment on fraud and other charges in May, 1989.[11]
Imelda Marcos affair[edit]
In 1988, Khashoggi was arrested in Switzerland, accused of concealing funds, and held for three months. Khashoggi stopped fighting extradition when the U.S. prosecutors reduced the charges to obstruction of justice and mail fraud and dropped the more serious charges of racketeering and conspiracy. In 1990, a United States federal jury in Manhattan acquitted Khashoggi and Imelda Marcos, widow of the exiled Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, of racketeering and fraud.[12][13]
After Dark[edit]
In 1991 Khashoggi appeared on the Channel 4 live discussion programme After Dark, alongside among others Edward Heath and Lord Weidenfeld.[14]
Genesis Intermedia[edit]
Khashoggi, along with Ramy El-Batrawi, was the principal financier behind Genesis Intermedia, Inc. (formerly NASDAQ: GENI), a publicly traded Internet company based in the US. In 2006, El-Batrawi and Kashoggi were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for securities fraud.[15] The case was settled in 2008; both men did not admit or deny the allegations.[16]
Seymour Hersh report[edit]
In January 2003, Seymour Hersh reported in The New Yorker magazine that former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle had a meeting with Khashoggi in Marseille in order to use him as a conduit between Trireme Partners, a private venture capital company of which he was one of three principals, and the Saudi government.[17] At the time, Perle was chair of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, a Defense Department advisory group, which provided him with access to classified information and a position to influence defense policy.[17]
Khashoggi told Hersh that Perle talked to him about the economic costs regarding a proposed invasion of Iraq. "'If there is no war,' he told me, 'why is there a need for security? If there is a war, of course, billions of dollars will have to be spent.'"[18]
Personal life[edit]
In the 1960s, Khashoggi married 20-year-old Englishwoman Sandra Daly (Sandra Patricia Jarvis-Daly) who converted to Islam and took the name Soraya Khashoggi.[19] They raised one daughter (Nabila, who attended Millfield School in England and whose son is the pianist and composer Thorvald Spartan von Daggenhurst) [20] and four sons together (Mohammed, Khalid, Hussein, and Omar).[21] Soraya gave birth to another daughter, Petrina Khashoggi, a daughter born seven years after her divorce from Khashoggi, who is no relation to him.[22]
His second wife, the Italian Laura Biancolini, also converted to Islam and changed her name to Lamia Khashoggi. She was seventeen when she met Adnan and gave him another son, Ali, in 1980.[21]
In the 1980s, the Khashoggi family occupied one of the largest villa estates in Marbella, Spain, called Baraka, hosting lavish parties.[citation needed] Guests at these parties included film stars, pop celebrities and politicians including Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.[23] In 1985, celebrity reporter Robin Leach reported Khashoggi threw a five-day birthday party in Vienna for his eldest son,[24] and in his heyday, Khashoggi spent $250,000 a day to maintain his lifestyle.[25]
Khashoggi also owned Ol Pejeta Conservancy, in Laikipia County, Kenya. His house has since been converted into a hotel which is run by Serena Hotels.[26]
Khashoggi died peacefully on 6 June 2017[27][28] while being treated for Parkinson's disease at St Thomas' Hospital in London. He was 81.[29]
In popular culture[edit]
Films[edit]
Books[edit]
- The Richest Man in the World: The Story of Adnan Khashoggi[32]
- The One-Page Proposal: How to Get Your Business Pitch onto One Persuasive Page ISBN 9780062084125
- The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade[33]
- The author Harold Robbins wrote the fictional novel The Pirate (1974) based on Adnan Khashoggi.
Music[edit]
- "Khashoggi's Ship", a song by Queen from the album The Miracle (1989)[34]
- "I am", a song by Army of Lovers (1993)
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