Word: noriega
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...invisible as possible. His tangle of offshore corporations, banks, trusts and foundations is one of the most complex and secretive banking networks ever developed. As a result, his market includes tax avoiders, intelligence agencies, political bribers, arms dealers, narcotics traffickers and national leaders bent on looting their countries (Manuel Noriega was a customer). Former B.C.C.I. bankers estimate that 15% to 20% of B.C.C.I.'s multibillion-dollar cash flow involved flight capital -- "unofficial money," as they prefer to call...
BUSINESS: Deceit pervaded an audacious global bank that touched Jimmy Carter and Manuel Noriega, among others...
First American's alleged parent is one that few people would be proud to claim: the Bank of Credit & Commerce International, convicted of violations in three countries and well known in global finance circles as a banker to Manuel Noriega and Colombian drug lords. The question that won't go away: How could an outfit like B.C.C.I. control a large U.S. bank without regulators knowing or doing anything about...
...forging into uncharted waters, most notably laundering drug money. In 1983 B.C.C.I. acquired a Colombian bank with 30 branches that included several in Medellin and Cali, homes to the world's most powerful cocaine cartels. Among those laundering drug profits through B.C.C.I., say investigators, was former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, who was collared by U.S. authorities in early 1990. Prosecutors who tracked his finances said Noriega had funneled $500,000 of cocaine funds through First American's flagship bank in Washington. First American officials denied any knowledge of the transaction...
Other evidence would have proved equally explosive. An executive named Amjad Awan, who managed the bank's Panama office and was Noriega's personal banker, described the extent of B.C.C.I.'s empire in a recorded conversation with an undercover agent. "We own a bank in Washington," Awan told the agent. "It's called the First American Bank. There are six banks bought out by B.C.C.I. about eight years ago. B.C.C.I. was acting as adviser to them, but the truth of the matter is that the bank belongs to B.C.C.I. Those guys are just nominee shareholders...