From the archive: BCCI: the biggest bank fraud the world had ever witnessed

Kathleen Barrington tells the story of the rise and fall of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International or, as it is more often known, the great BCCI scam

BCCI, which was closed by regulators from several countries in July 1991. The bank’s executives were accused of defrauding depositors of $20 billion, while founder Agha Hasan Abedi was accused of stealing over $2 billion from the personal account of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, a man he called his friend Pic: PA

December 29, 1991

The events unfolding at Robert Maxwell’s companies since his mysterious death last November have tended to eclipse the Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal in recent weeks. But make no mistake about it, the fraud of which the deceased media magnate has been accused is mere pilfering when compared with the fraud allegedly perpetrated by Agha Hasan Abedi, founder and former president of BCCI. The bank was closed by ...