BCCI Hearings Set for September
WASHINGTON -- The House Banking Committee will hold a hearing in September on scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International, Chairman Henry Gonzalez, D-Tex., said Wednesday.
Former Defense Secretary Clark M. Clifford and his associate Robert A. Altman will be the first witnesses called.
Mr. Clifford is expected to testify, a spokesman for him said Wednesday.
Mr. Clifford and Mr. Altman, prominent Washington attorneys who once represented BCCI, are top officials of First American Bankshares Inc., which federal banking regulators charge was illegally acquired by BCCI.
A Banking Committee staff member said the hearing would be held Sept. 11.
BCCI was seized July 5 in a worldwide crackdown in which regulators cited "massive fraud." The bank has since been linked to terrorist groups and drug dealers. It is also suspected that the Central Intelligence Agency used it to finance operations.
Attorneys for Mr. Clifford and Mr. Altman could not be reached for comment.
"No stone should be left unturned," said Rep. Chalmers P. Wylie of Ohio, the Banking Committee's ranking Republican.
