BCCI PLEADS GUILTY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992                   TAG: 9201100106
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
BCCI PLEADS GUILTY
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International offered a guilty plea to racketeering charges Thursday, but a federal judge delayed a decision on whether to accept the plea and on forfeiture of the failed bank's U.S. assets.
"We want to permanently incapacitate BCCI in this country," government attorney Ira Raphaelson told U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green at a hearing.
If approved, BCCI's forfeiture of $550 million in assets would be the largest criminal forfeiture in U.S. history.
Green said she will announce Jan. 24 whether she will accept the plea agreement. She said she would consider objections filed by other BCCI creditors who contend they are being denied a chance to recoup their losses.
Raphaelson said the plea agreement reflects the "satisfaction of a societal need for justice."
He contended that the other creditors - who failed to win a court order in New York to halt the BCCI forfeiture - were trying to circumvent the international liquidation process.
The government still is pursuing criminal charges against BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB