A Full Service Bank: How Bcci Stole Billions Around the World

Posing as a Third World people's bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, founded by Pakistanis and financed by Arabs, swallowed the money of depositors in 73 countries while engaging in money laundering, fraud and insider lending for arms merchants, dictators, the CIA, drug traffickers, terrorists and other lawbreakers, among them Abu Nidal and Manuel Noriega. BCCI was shut down globally in July 1991. Adams ( The Big Fix: Inside the S&L Scandal ) and Frantz, a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times , unreel an incredible tale of intrigue, deception and scandal in this unflinching, first-rate probe. They track the shell game BCCI played with regulators and scrutinize the involvement of Bert Lance and former defense secretary Clark Clifford. They also underscore the vulnerability of international banking regulations and predict that a future scandal of comparable scope is quite possible. (Apr.)