Bank of Commerce and Credit International

International bank, founded in 1972. By 1990 BCCI had offices in 69 countries, US$15 billion in deposits, and US$20 billion in assets. In July 1991 evidence of widespread systematic fraud at BCCI led regulators in seven countries to seize the bank's assets, and its operations in the remaining 62 countries were gradually also shut down. A subsequent investigation resulted in a New York criminal indictment of the institution and four of its units, and the arrest of some 20 BCCI officials in Abu Dhabi for alleged fraud.

BCCI was founded by Pakistani banker Agha Hasan Abedi, who remained its chairman until 1989. From March 1990, it was under the control of Sheikh Sultan Zayed bin al-Nahayan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi.

In July 1990 five former officials of BCCI were convicted in Tampa, Florida, for laundering $32 million in cocaine profits for Colombia's Medellín drug cartel. Despite these convictions and later evidence of BCCI's fraudulent conduct, regulatory control was hampered by the fact that the bank had no central office under the jurisdiction of an individual government. Its two central offices were located in Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands, both tax havens with secretive banking rules.

In October 1994 a US federal court sentenced Swaleh Naqvi, former chief executive of BCCI, to an eight-year prison term for his role in defrauding investors, adding to a 14-year sentence he had already been awarded in Abu Dhabi. In addition, Naqvi was ordered to pay more than $250 million to US investors.

The government of Abu Dhabi, which held a 77% share in the collapsed bank, reached an agreement with the bank's liquidators March 1994, when it agreed to reduce its claims against BCCI and contribute $1.8 billion to creditors, a move approved by the High Court in London December 1994.