Indian Springs State Bank

Indian Springs State Bank   (Bank)
Extinction	1984
Headquarters	Kansas City, Kansas, USA
Interests	Savings and loan fraud
Kansas bank which went bankrupt after being looted by CIA-connected airline owner Farhad Azima

The connections with Global International Airways (GIA)as traced by Mark Lombardi

Indian Springs State Bank was an American Savings and Loan in Kansas City, Kansas. After extending hundreds of thousands of dollars in unsecured loans to the CIA-connected Global International Airways, Indian Springs failed in 1984.

CIA

Farhad Azima, a native Iranian and owner of Global International Airways, was the fourth-largest shareholder in Indian Springs State Bank.

Federal authorities backed away from investigating an airline owner accused of contributing to the financial failure of a Kansas City bank because he had ties to the CIA. The Washington Post said it was told by federal law enforcement sources, which it did not identify, that the FBI did not investigate Azima’s and Global’s links to Indian Springs because the CIA said Zaima was ″off limits.″

The bank’s records indicate Global was overdrawn at the bank by an average of $150,000 a day, The Post said. Indian Springs, with about $27 million in deposits, failed in January, 1984.

Organized crime

It was also noticeable as a bank of choice for many mobsters. In 1981 the board, unhappy with the bank’s lackluster performance, hired William Everett Lemaster as bank director because he had “impeccable credentials”.

One of Lemaster’s first moves was to hire former local attorney Anthony Russo, a convicted felon whose record included conspiracy, bribery and prostitution charges. Bank records showed that Lemaster’s plan to make Russo a bank officer was met with dismay by bank regulators in Kansas City, who knew about Russo’s reputation and his 16 months in prison. The Kansas City regulators passed the application along to Washington with a strong recommendation to deny approval. Inexplicably their warning was overruled by Washington and on August 19, 1981, the FDIC’s board of review authorized Russo to be an Indian Springs officer but restricted his activities to “new business development.”

Russo’s job at Indian Springs was to locate new depositors from among his wide-ranging business and personal contacts, and he had plenty to offer in that capacity. A former Indian Springs board member later told a reporter that Russo was well suited to his new job: “He could walk up to someone and say that they were to move their account to Indian Springs State Bank, and people would do it with no questions asked.”

In 1981, GIA made a payment to organized crime Russo. Russo later explained that the money had been used to escort Liberian dictator Samuel Doe on a "goodwill trip" to the U.S.

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