BCCI: the opera

Common Cause Magazine, Jan-March, 1992 by Peter Montgomery

WELCOME TO THE WORLD PREMIERE OF LA FARCE DEL DESTINO, AN OPERA OF OUR TIMES AND FOR OUR TIMES. IN THE ALMOST-TRUE-TO-LIFE TRADITION OF THE OPERA NIXON GOES TO CHINA, LA FARCE BRINGS TO STAGE THE RISE AND FALL OF BCCI, THE BANK OF CREDIT AND COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL. IN THIS AMBITIOUS WORK, CHARACTERS APPEAR AND DISAPPEAR INTO A SHADOWY WORLD OF INTRIGUE THAT SPANS THE GLOBE FROM WASHINGTON, D.C., TO TINY GULF SHEIKDOMS, FROM PANAMA TO PAKISTAN, FROM LIMA TO LONDON.

ITS VILLAINS ARE MODERN-DAY ANTI-HEROES--DRUG DEALERS AND THE BANKERS WHO LAUNDER THEIR MONEY, DICTATORS, ARMS DEALERS, TERRORISTS, AND POLITICAL LEADERS AND INSIDERS WHO EMBRACE WEALTH AND POWER WITHOUT ASKING QUESTIONS. THE SETTING IS MODERN, BUT THE TRAGIC FALL OF THE ONCE-MIGHTY TRANSCENDS TIME AND PLACE.

ACT I. AN EMPIRE RISES.

After the haunting strains of a Middle Eastern overture, the opera opens with a burst of hope. Sheik Aghan Hassan Abedi sings with vision of a new bank, a Third World bank, where the resources of developing countries and their citizens will be free from control by Western financial elites.

Abedi and a chorus of bank officials celebrate the bank's rise to prominence in the international financial world. In the driving "Banks Within Banks Within Banks," deputy Swaleh Naqvi delights in BCCI's impenetrable web of subsidiaries and related companies in exotic, secrecy-loving settings like Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.

A discordant note slows the triumphant march when a U.S. banking regulator, raising a host of questions regarding the ability of any country to oversee BCCI, forbids it from purchasing an American bank.

The gloom is dispelled by the swaggering Ghaith Pharaon, who regales BCCI officers with the brisk and boastful "More Than One Way to Buy a Bank." Like a hero returned from battle, Pharaon recounts his purchases -- for BCCI -- of banks in Georgia, California and Florida, and BCCI's secret ownership of First American.

Then, in a sentimental vein, Pharaon admits he has relied on friends for his good fortune. "Friends in High Places" is his tribute to those the bank has befriended along the way, including Bert Lance, Jimmy Carter and Andrew Young, S&L kingpin David Paul, and most notably, elite Washington lawyers Clark Clifford and Robert Altman.

Clifford and Altman appear to sing "God Bless First American," a celebration of the U.S. financial industry and their own success at leading a group of BCCI-connected investors in a takeover of a Washington bank company.

Clifford and Altman describe their banking acumen in the exuberant "A Borrower and Lender, Be," which tells how BCCI loaned the two men money to buy stock, then loaned someone else money to buy the stock from them, generating a $10 million profit.

Pharaon joins Clifford and Altman in a brief reprise of "Banks Within Banks," as First American (secretly owned by BCCI) buys National Bank of Georgia (also secretly controlled by BCCI).

The act closes with an omen of the danger that lies ahead. "We are the Underworld" reveals BCCI's reliance on non-traditional business ventures: laundering money for the Medellin Cartel, bribing Peruvian officials to deposit government money in BCCI accounts, funneling money from Iranian arms sales to Oliver North's foreign policy "enterprise" in Central America, and taking care of unusual banking needs for everyone from arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and terrorist Abu Nidal to the CIA.

ACT II. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

The act opens with a defiant aria, as a BCCI official sought by U.S. officials on smuggling charges asks reporters visiting his villa in Jordan, "What Can They Do to Me?" But while he sings we hear another BCCI official offstage, spilling company secrets to U.S. government agents.

As BCCI's dealings attract investigators' attention, bank buyer Pharaon is caught up in the collapse of the U.S. savings & loan industry. He sings with remorse of his ties to David Paul, who oversaw the ruination of Miami's CenTrust and was a link to Washington's power people. Singing "Twice Unlucky," the once-proud Pharaon goes into hiding.

In an aria heavy with pathos, Paul mourns his loss of high station as he watches CenTrust's art collection being removed from his home. In the background, a chorus of Senate Democrats chants its appreciation for his political fundraising assistance.

Cranston: "You are tremendous." Biden: "You have been great." Breaux: "You are a great American."

The scene reaches its emotional high point as Paul and his wife Sandra sing tenderly to each other the tribute from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's finance director: "You are two of the best God has put on earth and I am sure after you, God declared victory and retired."

Watching from the wings has been Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch. Sensing Democratic blood is to be spilled, Hatch sings loudly of the close ties between Paul and Washington insiders, especially Sen. John Kerry, who is leading the congressional investigation of BCCI.