Clifford, Altman Named In $55 Million Lawsuit; BCCI Liquidators Target 17 D.C. Lawyers
The lawyers and accountants who are trying to collect money for the depositors of BCCI, the failed international bank, yesterday filed a $55 million lawsuit against Clark M. Clifford, Robert A. Altman and 15 other Washington lawyers.</br></br>The civil lawsuit alleges that Clifford and Altman, as lawyers for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and for First American Bankshares Inc., had "an irreconcilable conflict of interest" because of their simultaneous representation of the two institutions.</br></br>BCCI was closed down by regulators around the world in 1991 following revelations of widespread fraud, causing billions of dollars in losses to depositors abroad. The bank illegally owned four U.S. banks, including First American, which was run by former defense secretary Clifford and his protege Altman for a decade before regulators ordered it sold.</br></br>The lawsuit, filed by BCCI liquidators in federal court in the District, seeks to recoup allegedly "illicit benefits" that went to Clifford and Altman, including $6 million BCCI paid them in legal fees and $9 million the two made from "lucrative insider stock transactions and other beneficial financial arrangements," according to court papers.</br></br>While acting as lawyers for the BCCI group, Clifford and Altman borrowed $15 million from BCCI at favorable interest rates in 1986 to purchase stock in BCCI's parent company. That money was a non-recourse loan, one backed only by the stock itself.