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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 3, 1993                   TAG: 9309030049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

EX-BANKER PLEADS GUILTY TO MAKING $5.5 BILLION IN ILLEGAL LOANS TO IRAQ

The surprise plea came 11 months after Christopher Drogoul, 44, withdrew another guilty plea and six days before he was to go on trial in U.S. District Court. He pleaded guilty to three counts in a 70-count indictment and agreed to accept a sentence of between 63 and 78 months in prison, said Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern.

Drogoul's lawyer, however, said he will ask that the banker be sentenced to the 17 months he has already served.

Sentencing by U.S. District Judge G. Ernest Tidwell is scheduled for Nov. 29.

Drogoul was accused of engineering a network of loans and credit agreements to Iraq while managing the Atlanta branch of Italy's state-owned Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.

Though he maintained he was following orders from bank headquarters in Rome, federal prosecutors insisted he acted alone and defrauded the bank and U.S. regulators.

Some of the loans to Iraq, funneled through a U.S. government program designed to encourage agricultural exports, allegedly were used to fortify Saddam Hussein's military before the Persian Gulf War.

Drogoul withdrew last year's plea midway through a sentencing hearing that included allegations of a massive cover-up involving the Bush administration and bank officials in Rome.

But he entered the new guilty plea to end the protracted case, "as a result of the urging of his family to terminate the nightmare," said his lawyer, Robert M. Simels.

Drogoul originally was indicted in 1991 on 347 counts, but prosecutors issued a revised 70-count indictment in July.

Attorney General Janet Reno approved of the plea negotiations and agreement, Stern said.

Stern said Drogoul's attorneys had approached the government about the plea. Simels said, following a hearing earlier this week, "There's always talk before a trial."