Word: cliffords
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...this bank's nationality? From its name to its flag-waving ads to its slogan -- "The Bank for All Americans" -- First American Bank of Washington, seems practically like a branch of government. Its chairman and public face is one of America's most respected attorneys and political advisers, Clark Clifford. But what's behind that carefully cultivated image looks decidedly different...
Investigations in Washington, New York City and Florida are probing deeper into the bizarre affair and uncovering evidence of startling regulatory inaction, if not political chicanery. Clifford, 84, says he and his law partner Robert Altman, president of the bank, "have run First American for long years at the highest ethical level, and we are proud of our stewardship." But he acknowledged to TIME that he has retained a criminal- defense attorney to represent him in connection with the matter...
Enter Clark Clifford. The Washington eminence grise represented B.C.C.I. in the case and persuaded nervous Federal Reserve officials that the buyers were ! acting as individuals on their own behalf. When questioned about B.C.C.I.'s financial role in the acquisition, Clifford flatly told the officials that there wasn't any. Clifford became chairman of the bank, renamed First American, and his law partner, Robert Altman, became president. Clifford regularly briefed Abedi on the U.S. firm's operations. When queried on the briefings, Clifford explained that B.C.C.I. as adviser to the Arab owners of First American needed to know about the banking...
Armed with virtually ironclad evidence, a Florida grand jury indicted B.C.C.I. for money laundering in 1988. Clifford hired a high-powered criminal lawyer to defend the bank. Despite overwhelming evidence, the government offered B.C.C.I. a plea bargain. The bank thus avoided a trial in which prosecutors planned to present evidence that laundering drug money was an approved policy of the global titan...
...interrogated by Kerry's chief counsel. One provided details of B.C.C.I.'s money-laundering operations in the U.S. and Latin America. The B.C.C.I. executive described a B.C.C.I. management conference in Vienna at which Abedi openly displayed charts of B.C.C.I. holdings that included First American. This senior-level manager said Clifford and Altman were at the meeting...