BCCI: Bank of Credit and Commerce International (1972–1991)

A bank founded by Agha Hasan Abedi (1972; Luxembourg-registered, run from Karachi and London), with 400+ branches in 78 countries. It was deliberately structured to avoid consolidated supervision (split auditors, secrecy jurisdictions). It laundered for Noriega, Saddam, the Medellín Cartel and Abu Nidal ('Bank of Crooks and Criminals International'), and secretly controlled Washington's First American Bankshares, chaired by Clark Clifford. The CIA held accounts there (von Raab to the Kerry Committee), the NSC used it for Iran-Contra transfers, and the CIA admitted in 1991 it knew of the drug laundering. It unraveled via Customs' Operation C-Chase (Mazur, Tampa, 1986–88) and PwC's 'Sandstorm' report (Jun 1991), which found fraud making its history nearly impossible to reconstruct and noted MI5 had sources inside. Seven countries shut it on 5 Jul 1991; Morgenthau indicted it; Kerry–Brown report (1992); UK Bingham inquiry (1992). Losses $10–17B.