Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 30, 1990 TAG: 9007300017
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TAMPA, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Prosecutors hailed it as a precedent-setting case, the first in which international bankers have been convicted under U.S. money-laundering laws, and as a key victory in the war on drugs.
The verdicts came after seven days of jury deliberations and a 6-month-long trial of five international bankers and a Colombian businessman associated with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
Convicted of conspiracy and various money-laundering counts were Amjad Awan, Miami-based assistant director of BCCI's Latin American division and onetime banker to Noriega; four other ex-employees of BCCI; and a Colombian businessman.
Defense attorneys had little comment, but one vowed appeals.
An 11-member panel decided the case after one original juror was kicked off last week for independently phoning a reputed member of the Medellin cocaine cartel while the jury was deliberating.
Jurors, ordered sequestered following the incident, reached their decision late Saturday, but U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges delayed announcing it to give out-of-town attorneys time to get to court.
Awan and the other defendants were arrested Oct. 6, 1988, at a bachelor party and wedding staged by the U.S. Customs Service to lure them to Tampa.
The suspects were accused of conspiring with an undercover Customs agent to launder $14 million in proceeds from the sale of cocaine in six U.S. cities. During the two-year investigation, the government processed $32 million in partnership with a Medellin cash launderer.
Before the trial began in January, two subsidiaries of the Luxembourg-based bank pleaded guilty to the money-laundering charges and forfeited $15 million to the government, more than triple the previous largest penalty ever assessed against a bank.
In addition to the hefty fine, BCCI, one of the world's largest private financial institutions, was put on five years probation under the Federal Reserve System and agreed to open the books to prosecutors investigating Noriega, a BCCI customer.
Hodges did not set a date for sentencing. The six each face up to five years on the main conspiracy charge. They also individually face sentencing on specific money-laundering counts that each have a 20-year maximum.
by CNB