Noriega Banker, 5 Others Guilty in Cash-Laundering
Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega’s longtime personal banker was convicted Sunday, along with five co-defendants, of conspiracy to launder $32 million in cocaine profits for Colombia’s Medellin cartel.
Prosecutors hailed it as the first case in which international bankers have been convicted under U.S. money-laundering laws.
After seven days of deliberations and a trial that lasted six months, the jury found guilty on conspiracy and various money-laundering counts Amjad Awan, Miami-based assistant director of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International’s Latin American division and onetime banker to Noriega, four other ex-employees of BCCI and a Colombian businessman.
Awan and the other defendants were arrested Oct. 6, 1988, at a bachelor party and wedding that was staged by U.S. Customs Service agents in order to lure them to Tampa.
They were charged with conspiring (with an undercover customs agent) to launder the proceeds from sales of cocaine in six U.S. cities.
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