Editing Abu Nidal (section)

=== Banking with BCCI ===
In the late 1980s British intelligence learned that the ANO held accounts with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in London.<sup>[90]</sup> BCCI was closed in July 1991 by banking regulators in six countries after evidence emerged of widespread fraud.<sup>[91]</sup> Abu Nidal himself was said to have visited London using the name Shakar Farhan; a BCCI branch manager, who passed information about the ANO accounts to MI5, reportedly drove him around several stores in London without realizing who he was.<sup>[92]</sup> Abu Nidal was using a company called SAS International Trading and Investments in Warsaw as cover for arms deals.<sup>[93]</sup> The company's transactions included the purchase of riot guns, ostensibly for Syria, then when the British refused an export licence to Syria, for an African state; in fact, half the shipment went to the police in East Germany and half to Abu Nidal.<sup>[94]</sup>