Mysteries in Marina del Rey

The tentacles of the huge BCCI scandal may have extended to Los Angeles. Leaseholders of some extremely valuable public lands have been linked by auditors to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors once benignly accepted the secrecy surrounding those leaseholders. Now it must be extraordinarily vigilant in demanding answers.

In a $21.8-million purchase from Abraham M. Lurie, a group led by Saudi billionaire businessman Abdul Aziz al Ibrahim secretly acquired a 49.9% stake in the largest leaseholds of public land in Marina del Rey two years ago. The supervisors approved the sale to anonymous buyers, ignoring private and public advice to learn the purchasers’ identities. The board relied on assurances from the group’s attorney that his clients were successful foreign business persons, not involved in any criminal activities.

The Times disclosed Ibrahim’s identity two months later after tracing the complex deal, which to conceal the investors was threaded through a dozen shell corporations stretching from Luxembourg to the Cayman Islands to California. Those offshore sites were also favorite operating grounds of BCCI, the multinational bank seized by government authorities earlier this month because of evidence of widespread fraud. Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin reported Saturday that a 1990 audit of BCCI described Ibrahim’s family as having significant loans--as much as $130 million--and deposits with the bank for a number of years. A spokesman for Ibrahim confirmed the family has done business with BCCI but flatly denied it has any improper loans with the bank.

The spotlight on Ibrahim brings into focus a messy feud between the Saudi investors and Lurie. The Saudis have sued to dissolve their partnership and assume Lurie’s 50.1% interest.

Meanwhile, Lurie has filed for personal bankruptcy and the partnership has done the same. That shields each of them from creditors, including the county, during reorganizations. The County Board of Supervisors will be required to approve the Ibrahim group should it succeed in winning majority control in the courts. But before it comes to that, county supervisors had better do their homework on BCCI.