LONDON -- A senior official of the collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce International pleaded guilty yesterday to 16 charges of false accounting involving about $765 million.
The man, Sved Ziauddin Ali Akbar, is the former head of the bank's treasury division.
He will be sentenced later after the judge, Sir Scott Baker, has heard evidence on his lawyers.
Prosecutor Timothy Langdale told London's Central Criminal Court, "Mr. Akbar was not at the highest level of the bank, but he was at the heart of the dishonesty and deception."
Regulators at the Bank of England and in other countries ordered the closing BCCI in July 1991. Authorities said the bank was a criminal enterprise involved in massive fraud and used by dealers in drugs and arms, and by Third World dictators.
The briefs were compiled from staff and wire reports.
