The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of Bcci

by Jonathan Beaty, S C Gwynne

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587981463
Publisher:	Beard Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/09/2004
Pages:	428
Sales rank:	451,422
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.95(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Cast of Characters	xv
	Chronology	xix
	Introduction: The Devil's Paymaster	xxiii
Part 1	The Chase
1	Back Channels	3
2	Curiouser and Curiouser	15
3	Into the Looking Glass	31
4	Piercing the Scam's Heart	48
5	To Abu Dhabi and Beyond	65
6	End of Empire	93
Part 2	The Rise of the Outlaw Bank
7	Out of the Blue	125
8	Gilt by Association	147
9	The Black RAJ	190
Part 3	Bankers, Guns, and Money
10	Rock and Roll	221
11	The Bank That Can Get You Anything	257
12	The Hidden Alliance	278
13	Mr. Casey's Bank	298
Part 4	The Cover-Up
14	The Big Sleep	323
15	Beyond Zero	345
	Epilogue	359
	Notes	363
	Index	373

Editorial Reviews

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.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The 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

Library Journal