Editing Clark Clifford (section)

===Bank of Credit and Commerce International: the BCCI Scandal===
{{Main|Bank of Credit and Commerce International}}
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?19811-1/counsel-president-memoir ''Booknotes'' interview with Clifford on ''Counsel to the President: A Memoir'', July 28, 1991], [[C-SPAN]]}}

The [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI) scandal focused on the criminal conduct of the international bank and its control of financial institutions nationwide. The bank was found by regulators in the U.S. and the United Kingdom to be involved in [[money laundering]], bribery, support of terrorism, [[arms trafficking]], the sale of nuclear technologies, the commission and facilitation of [[Tax avoidance and tax evasion|tax evasion]], [[smuggling]], illegal immigration, and the illicit purchases of banks and real estate. The bank was found to have at least $10 billion in unaccounted funds.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Effros |first=Robert |url=https://www.elibrary.imf.org/display/book/9781557755032/ch032.xml |title=Current Legal Issues Affecting Central Banks |publisher=International Monetary Fund |year=1997 |isbn=9781557755032 |edition=Vol. IV |pages=371 |language=en}}</ref>

From 1982 to 1991, Clifford served as chairman of First American Bankshares, which grew to become the largest bank in Washington, D.C.  The bank was nominally owned by a group of Arab investors, but in order to assuage fears from the [[Federal Reserve]], Clifford had assembled a board of distinguished American citizens to exercise day-to-day control.  In 1991, [[Robert M. Morgenthau]], the District Attorney for [[New York County]] (coterminous with the [[borough (New York City)|borough]] of [[Manhattan]]), disclosed that his office had found evidence that BCCI secretly owned First American. Morgenthau convened a [[grand jury]] to determine whether Clifford and his partner, [[Robert A. Altman]], had deliberately misled federal regulators when the two men assured them that BCCI would have no outside control.<ref name="FalseProfits">Peter Truell, Larry Gurwin (1992) ''False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire''. Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, New York. {{ISBN|0-395-62339-1}}.</ref>

An audit by [[Price Waterhouse]] revealed that contrary to agreements between First American's nominal investors and the Federal Reserve, many of the investors had borrowed heavily from BCCI. Even more seriously, they had pledged their First American stock as collateral.  When they missed interest payments, BCCI took control of the shares. It was later estimated that in this manner, BCCI had ended up with 60 percent or more of First American's stock.  There had long been suspicions that First American's investors were actually nominees for BCCI.  However, the audit was solid confirmation that BCCI secretly—and illegally—owned First American.<ref name="FalseProfits"/>

Clifford's predicament worsened when it was disclosed he had made about $6 million in [[Profit (accounting)|profits]] from bank stock that he had bought with an [[unsecured loan]] from BCCI. The grand jury handed up indictments, and the [[United States Department of Justice|U.S. Justice Department]] opened its own investigation. Clifford's assets in New York City, where he kept most of his investments, were frozen.<ref name=ac/>

Clifford insisted that he had no knowledge of illegal activity at First American, and insisted that he himself had been deceived about the extent of BCCI's involvement.<ref name=ac/> Using the support of [[Kamal Adham]], both former president Robert A. Altman and former chairman Clifford were indicted on largely circumstantial evidence.<ref>{{cite news |last=Baquet |first=Dean |author-link=Dean Baquet |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/30/business/the-bcci-scandal-after-plea-bargain-by-sheik-question-is-what-he-knows.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=After Plea Bargain by Sheik, Question Is What He Knows |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 30, 1992 |access-date=October 22, 2021 |archive-date=June 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615154235/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/30/business/the-bcci-scandal-after-plea-bargain-by-sheik-question-is-what-he-knows.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm}}</ref>

A "Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate", prepared by U.S. Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]], noted that a key strategy of "BCCI's successful secret acquisitions of U.S. banks in the face of regulatory suspicion was its aggressive use of a series of prominent Americans", Clifford among them.<ref>[https://fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/ The BCCI Affair] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227024524/https://fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/ |date=December 27, 2017 }}. A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, by
Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown. December 1992. 102d Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102–140</ref> Clifford, who prided himself on decades of meticulously ethical conduct, summed his predicament up when he sadly told a reporter from ''[[The New York Times]]'', "I have a choice of either seeming stupid or [[Venality|venal]]."<ref name=ac/>

While Clifford maintained his innocence, he did face criminal charges of fraud, conspiracy, and taking bribes. These charges were dropped in 1993 because of Clifford’s ill health. In 1998, the year of his death, he and Altman reached a $5 million settlement with the Federal Reserve and settled the last of several civil lawsuits against them.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/11/us/clark-clifford-a-major-adviser-to-four-presidents-is-dead-at-91.html |title=Clark Clifford, a Major Adviser to Four Presidents, is Dead at 91 |website=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 11, 1998 |access-date=September 27, 2019 |archive-date=November 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110053234/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/11/us/clark-clifford-a-major-adviser-to-four-presidents-is-dead-at-91.html |url-status=live|last1=Berger |first1=Marilyn }}</ref>