The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI (Hardcover)

by Jonathan Beaty (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
The latest chronicle of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) is "about the biggest bank fraud in the history of the world," write the authors, reporters for Time magazine. They have tracked the story much as Woodward and Bernstein sniffed out Watergate. While there is some overlap between this and two previous BCCI books (James Adams's A Full Service Bank , LJ 3/1/92, and Mark Potts's Dirty Money , LJ 5/1/92), this one gives a far-ranging overview of BCCI's origins, how it became a financial powerhouse, and how it fell apart. Some of the new revelations indicate a major cover-up involving the U.S. government; there is a great deal of cloak-and-dagger activity involving late-night meetings and anonymous high-level government sources (one named Condor, who is reminiscent of Deep Throat during Watergate). Given the scope of this scandal and the ongoing investigations, more books on BCCI are sure to be written, but this is probably the best now available for general readers on the subject. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/92.
- Richard Drezen, Merrill Lynch Lib., New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An unconventional but thorough audit of the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International, by a pair of Time correspondents whose coverage of the stateless institution's scandalous collapse earned them a slew of journalism awards. Beaty and Gwynne (Selling Money, 1986) offer a four-part rundown on BCCI, the financial establishment of choice for arms dealers, drug traffickers, intelligence operatives, terrorists, Third World strongmen, and other scofflaws. The authors first recount how confidential sources tipped them on the biggest story of their professional lives. They then provide a concise, third- person briefing on the Arab-owned, Pakistani-run bank's origins and off-the-books operating procedures. Chartered in backwater venues like the Cayman Islands to evade oversight by regulatory authorities, BCCI (founded in 1972) resorted to money laundering, Ponzi schemes, secret ledgers, tax evasion, and allied misdeeds in catering to its criminal clientele. An accounting commissioned by the Bank of England finally exposed the extent of BCCI's deficits and offenses, impelling the bank's closing. Resuming the narrative as it unfolded from their points of view, the authors cover how they learned that BCCI was something larger and more sinister than a transnational depository institution. In conclusion, they address the failure of governments everywhere to clamp down on BCCI despite abundant evidence of its corruption. Throughout, Beaty and Gwynne make clear that the bank's capacity to suborn or use pillars of the political community played a crucial role in its success. The ranks of those tarnished include the prominent likes of Lord Callaghan, Jimmy Carter, Clark Clifford, and Bert Lance, while the much shorter list of good guys features Jack Blum (a former Senate investigator) and Gotham's D.A., Robert Morgenthau. The ringside format takes some getting used to, but it ultimately affords as vividly clear an explanation of the BCCI conspiracy as we're apt to get anytime soon. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 399 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (April 6, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679413847
• ISBN-13: 978-0679413844
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #879,561 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is the mother-lode, September 8, 2002

By	Roger Trilling (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

While most analyses of BCCI saw it as a banking scandal, Beaty and Gwynne correctly understood and colorfully present its true nature: as the deepest and most detailed glimpse anyone has so far had into the real workings of the underground economy. Their findings, which have never been challenged or refuted, have only grown more urgent with time. This book will not only tell you where Osama-types come from, it will tell you how and why they can thrive -- or not. That it was written before anyone knew who bin Laden was makes it all that more extraordinary.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, disturbing read, February 21, 2007

By	P. Willson (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of Bcci (Paperback)

The events that inspired this book occurred over 15 years ago, but if you want to understand what is going on now in the world politically and economically, especially in terms of US-European-Middle Eastern-Third World relations, this is still very timely.

Outlaw Bank is an excellent and far-reaching piece of well-documented investigative reporting that carefully uncovers the BCCI scandal and the ensuing US cover-up attempts. The sheer scope of the corruption, the deception, the narcotics and clandestine weapons trade involving US government agencies, personnel, and very well-known politicians is stunning. Not only is it as bad as you imagined in your wildest dreams, but many of the same people are still exerting influence (James Baker, Jimmy Carter). BCCI may be gone, but after reading this book and then looking around, you will conclude that not a thing has really changed.

The book for the most part stays away from hyperbole, and while I found it a little difficult going in some of the explanations of financial transactions, I realized often that's because I just couldn't believe what I was reading!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of a widely misunderstood phenomenon, September 24, 2004

By	Andy Salocaro - See all my reviews

Beaty and Gwynne do an excellent job tackling the Leviathan that was BCCI. With so many labrynthine angles to pursue, this book does a terrific job of presenting them to the reader in clear and lucid terms. With a keen eye for crafting a good story, they keep your interest throughout by adding a bit of detective story flavor. Indeed, just investigating this story has always been dangerous for journalists and public servants--many deaths are associated with BCCI.
This book would be a timely read right now, as many of the players involved in BCCI still exercise huge influence on world affairs. Though published in 1993, the book details very accurately our current president's involvement with figures closely connected to the drug and arms dealing that was a huge part of the BCCI network, not to mention the funding of international terrorists, including the bin-Ladens.
Long before Michael Moore, and much more academic, these writers had no idea that they were doing the world a great service by helping to uncover the massive corruption of our own government and its decades of business dealings with terrorists and criminals throughout the Middle East and the world, despite their overt lying to the contrary. Read it before the election.