From: Nigel.Allen@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Nigel Allen)
Subject: former bank officials indicted
Organization: Echo Beach
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 00:26:54 GMT

Press release from U.S. Justice Department
 Former First American Bank Officials Clark M. Clifford, Robert A. 
Altman Indicted in BCCI Case 
 To: National Desk 
 Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, Public Affairs, 202-514-2007 
   WASHINGTON, July 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Department of Justice 
announced today that a federal grand jury has indicted Clark M. 
Clifford and Robert A. Altman, former top officials of the First 
American Bank, on charges of conspiring to defraud the board of 
governors of the Federal Reserve System (FED) and concealing 
material facts in connection with the FED's investigation of the 
Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). 
   The three-count indictment, returned in U.S. District Court in 
Washington, alleged among other things that Clifford and Altman 
enriched themselves through loans and other agreements with BCCI, 
performed a number of acts to curry favor with BCCI, concealed 
their BCCI loan arrangements from the board of governors of the 
Federal Reserve System, and breached their duty of loyalty to the 
First American banks. 
   Clifford, 85, is a former chairman of the board of the holding 
companies over the First American Corp.  Altman, 45, is a 
former president of First-American Corp.  Both are attorneys in 
Washington, D.C. 
   Attorney General William P. Barr said: "Today's indictment 
represents another significant step in the Department of Justice 
investigation of the complex BCCI case.  The federal investigation 
is continuing on a number of fronts." 
   Barr added that "The Justice Department has worked in close 
coordination with the Office of District Attorney Robert M. 
Morgenthau of the County of New York and the Federal Reserve Board, 
and we are grateful for their assistance in this investigation." 
   At the same time, the Justice Department and the District 
Attorney's Office said that Sheik Kamal Adham, a businessman in 
Saudi Arabia, and Sayed Jawhary, Adham's accountant, pleaded guilty 
on Monday in New York State Supreme Court to charges arising out of 
the BCCI case and Adham agreed to pay $105 million in reparations 
and fines. 
   Adham and Jawhary were accused of playing a significant role in 
the secret ownership of First American Bankshares by an enterprise 
called the BCC Group. 
   Both the Justice Department and the District Attorney's office 
agreed to the state court sentence, which imposed the $105 million 
penalty and requires Adham and Jawhary to fully cooperate with the 
continuing federal and state investigations of BCCI. 
   The federal indictment said Clifford and Altman concealed and 
covered up facts material to the board of governors of the Federal 
Reserve System. 
   The indictment also said Clifford and Altman received loans from 
BCCI for the purchase of shares in Credit and Commerce American 
Holdings N.V., the top-tier bank holding company that owned the 
First American banks. 
   "Aware that the loan and related agreements would be important 
to the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System and might 
trigger FED regulatory action," Clifford and Altman deliberately 
concealed those agreements from the regulators, the 
indictment said. 
   The indictment alleged that Clifford and Altman, while serving 
as attorneys for BCCI and as officers and directors of First 
American Bank, enriched themselves through secret financial 
arrangements with BCCI, which resulted in millions of dollars of 
profits to them, and then conspired to keep those arrangements 
from the federal regulators. 
   The department said that two other legal actions were brought 
against Clifford and Altman at the same time.  In one, both were 
indicted on criminal charges in New York City today by District 
Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan.  In the other, the FED 
brought an administrative action against Clifford 
and Altman. 
   Attorney General Barr stressed on Dec. 19, 1991, that a 
global settlement against BCCI at that time -- requiring the bank 
to forfeit all of its assets in the United States, valued at 
approximately $550 million, and plead guilty to racketeering 
charges -- was the result of intensive cooperation between the 
Justice Department, Morgenthau's office, and the FED. 
   The legal actions being announced today are the results of the 
continuing cooperation among all of the agencies. 
   Today's federal indictment was developed by a Justice 
Department Task Force that included prosecutors from the Fraud 
Section of the Criminal Division and the Office of the United 
States Attorney for the District of Columbia and agents of the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation. 
   The charges and maximum penalties upon conviction are: 
   -- Title 18, U.S. Code Section 371 (conspiracy): five years 
in prison and a $250,000 fine (one count). 
   -- Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 1001 (Concealing Material 
Facts by Trick and Device): five years in prison and a $250,000 
fine (two counts). 
   The Justice Department said a number of agencies and officials 
made major contributions to development of today's indictment. 
They include: 
   -- District Attorney's staff: John W. Moscow, deputy chief of 
the Investigation Division; James M. Kindler, executive assistant 
district attorney; Michael G. Cherkasky, chief of the 
Investigation Division. 
   -- Justice Department: G. Allen Carver and Anthony L. Leffert, 
prosecutors in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division; and Mark 
Dubester and Larry Parkinson, prosecutors in 
the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. 
   -- Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and the board of 
governors of the Federal Reserve: J. Virgil Mattingly, Richard A. 
Small, Katherine Wheatley and Thomas C. Baxter. 
   -- Overseas: The United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office, George 
Staples and Christopher Dickson; the Court Appointed Fiduciaries of 
BCCI and Commissaire of Bank of Credit and Commerce Brian Smouha. 
    ------ 
   Copies of the indictment are available in the Public Affairs 
office of the Department of Justice, 10th and Constitution Ave., 
N.W., Room 1216. 
 -30- 

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