Final_Judgment

150 Israel’s Godfather [89]
more, BCI held the bulk of funds for the World Jewish Congress and the
Jewish Agency, no minor deposits by any means.
BCI was to become Meyer Lansky's primary overseas money
laundering bank—sharing those money laundering services that the bank
provided to Israel's Mossad. In fact, during its heyday, BCI included among
its board of directors two longtime Lansky associates, Edward Levinson and
John Pullman. 245
As we noted in Chapter 6, Levinson was one of the operators of the
Fremont Casino in Las Vegas, a front man for Lansky's close friend, Joseph
"Doc" Stacher, and a frequent business partner of Bobby Baker, reputed
"bagman" for Lyndon Johnson. John Pullman, about whom we shall learn
more later in this chapter and in Chapter 12 and Chapter 15, was Lansky's
key international money handler.
The extent of Lansky's Israeli connection—through Rosenbaum's BCI—
first became part of the public record in 1970 during the criminal trial of
Alvin Malnik, one of Lansky's lieutenants.
Testimony in the trial revealed that one of the main money laundering
channels for the illegal proceeds of the Lansky Crime Syndicate's narcotics,
vice and gambling rackets in the United States was Tibor Rosenbaum's
BCI. Rosenbaum's bank received its Lansky Crime Syndicate cash flow
mainly through the Lansky-dominated Bank of World Commerce in Nassau,
Bahamas.
The middleman was a Swiss national, Sylvain Ferdmann, a courier for
Lansky. Ferdmann was an official of Rosenbaum's bank, an associate of
the Bank of World Commerce (controlled by Lansky's longtime crony, John
Pullman) and a legman for Investors Overseas Services (IOS), the fiefdom of
financier Bernard Cornfeld.
Cornfeld, in fact, was sponsored by Rosenbaum, and had emerged as a
major money launderer for Lansky's global drug trafficking. Millions in
small bills were transferred from Lansky's casinos, often masked as Israeli
Bond sales and contributions to Jewish philanthropies. 246 This, of course,
an outrageous betrayal of honest supporters of the Zionist cause.
(In Chapter 12 we shall examine in detail how as a result of active U.S.
involvement in the region, the Lansky Syndicate used the cover of CIA
covert activities in Southeast Asia to carry out multi-billion dollar drug
smuggling operations.)
Investigative reporter Jim Hougan focused on the Lansky-Rosenbaum
connection and its central link to Israel's international
operations—particularly those of the Mossad:
"During the Second World War [Rosenbaum had become] a hero of the
resistance through his underground activities on behalf of the Jews.
"After the war he became a delegate to the World Zionist Congress in
Basel, where plans were made for the creation of Israel, and worked in
various European capitals for the Palestine Liberation office (forerunner of
the Jewish Agency). This was at the height of Zionist terrorist attacks in
Palestine. A superb clandestine operator, Rosenbaum is said to have been
instrumental in providing weapons to the Haganah and Stern Gang. That