Outlaw Bank
A deatiled and spellbinding account of the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, one of the greatest financial scandals of all time.
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The 1991 collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was one of the biggest financial scandals of all time. Based upon an 18-month-long series of articles in Time magazine, this text describes the international corruption that allowed this criminal enterprise to flourish for two decades with effective immunity from the law. The investigation reveals how governments around the world utilized the bank's services to finance terrorist organizations, hide drug money, and conduct illegal arms sales. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Publishers Weekly As reporters for Time magazine, Beaty and Gwynne were at the forefront of uncovering the scandals surrounding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1991. Here they authoritatively examine that global institution and the $20-billion-plus fraud its agents committed in 73 countries over a nearly 20-year period. They begin by describing their own ``wild ride'' as investigative journalists; their dramatic story includes highly placed pseudonymous sources a la Deep Throat and veiled threats from various BCCI power brokers, among them Clark Clifford. A second section flashes back to trace the rise of BCCI in Pakistan, where it was nourished by petrodeposits; BCCI's manipulations of such Americans as former President Jimmy Carter; and its depredations in such places as Panama and Nigeria. Returning to their personal tale, the authors go on to probe the cover-up of BCCI crimes and the negligence of ``governments all over the world.'' The implications are chilling: BCCI was protected by U.S. intelligence agencies--``certainly'' by William Casey's CIA and ``probably'' by the National Security Council. Moreover, international banking rules remain unchanged. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Apr.)
AcknowledgmentsCast of CharactersChronologyIntroduction: The Devil's PaymasterPt. 1The Chase1Back Channels32Curiouser and Curiouser153Into the Looking Glass314Piercing the Scam's Heart485To Abu Dhabi and Beyond656End of Empire93Pt. 2The Rise of the Outlaw Bank7Out of the Blue1258Gilt by Association1479The Black Raj190Pt. 3Bankers, Guns, and Money10Rock and Roll22111The Bank That Can Get You Anything25712The Hidden Alliance27813Mr. Casey's Bank298Pt. 4The Cover-Up14The Big Sleep32315Beyond Zero345Epilogue359Notes363Index373
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ As reporters for Time magazine, Beaty and Gwynne were at the forefront of uncovering the scandals surrounding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1991. Here they authoritatively examine that global institution and the $20-billion-plus fraud its agents committed in 73 countries over a nearly 20-year period. They begin by describing their own ``wild ride'' as investigative journalists; their dramatic story includes highly placed pseudonymous sources a la Deep Throat and veiled threats from various BCCI power brokers, among them Clark Clifford. A second section flashes back to trace the rise of BCCI in Pakistan, where it was nourished by petrodeposits; BCCI's manipulations of such Americans as former President Jimmy Carter; and its depredations in such places as Panama and Nigeria. Returning to their personal tale, the authors go on to probe the cover-up of BCCI crimes and the negligence of ``governments all over the world.'' The implications are chilling: BCCI was protected by U.S. intelligence agencies--``certainly'' by William Casey's CIA and ``probably'' by the National Security Council. Moreover, international banking rules remain unchanged. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Apr.)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalThe latest chronicle of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) is ``about the biggest bank fraud in the history of the world,'' write the authors, reporters for Time magazine. They have tracked the story much as Woodward and Bernstein sniffed out Watergate. While there is some overlap between this and two previous BCCI books (James Adams's A Full Service Bank , LJ 3/1/92, and Mark Potts's Dirty Money , LJ 5/1/92), this one gives a far-ranging overview of BCCI's origins, how it became a financial powerhouse, and how it fell apart. Some of the new revelations indicate a major cover-up involving the U.S. government; there is a great deal of cloak-and-dagger activity involving late-night meetings and anonymous high-level government sources (one named Condor, who is reminiscent of Deep Throat during Watergate). Given the scope of this scandal and the ongoing investigations, more books on BCCI are sure to be written, but this is probably the best now available for general readers on the subject. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/92.-- Richard Drezen, Merrill Lynch Lib., New York\ \
