Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S.C. The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the
Secret Heart of BCCI. New York: Random House, 1993. 399 pages.
Of the several books in NameBase about the Bank of Credit and
Commerce International, this is the spookiest, and has the most material
about BCCI's connections to shadowy figures in organized crime and the
international intelligence community (these days it's difficult to
distinguish between the two). Surprisingly enough, the authors were Time
magazine's point men on the story -- a magazine that doesn't often support
the sort of journalism that won these authors two awards for persistent
and fearless reporting. To top it off, we almost missed this book, and
spotted it only by chance six years later, in a used bookstore. Most
curious: another vapor-scandal, here today and gone tomorrow.
Author Jonathan Beaty was close to the people working on Robert
Morgenthau's investigation of BCCI, just as the massive dimensions of
BCCI's "Black Network" were beginning to unfold. The book is presented
as something of a day-by-day thriller, with Beaty risking his neck while
meeting sources in Middle Eastern countries, where the long, spooky arm
of BCCI thuggery was strongest. Time magazine's generous expense account
would get him in, but could Time's editors and the local U.S. ambassador
get him out? This book is a fascinating look into the dark side of BCCI
-- a side that doesn't come across in other reporting we've seen.
ISBN 0-679-41384-7
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