Justice Dept. Said to ‘Stonewall’ on BCCI : Inquiry: Spokesman for Sen. Kerry accuses the agency of refusing to allow key witnesses to testify over the conduct of a probe of the bank.

A spokesman for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Tuesday accused the Justice Department of hampering a Senate inquiry into the handling of its investigation of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

According to a Kerry staff member, the department has refused to allow Senate testimony from Robert Mazur, the former Customs Service agent whose undercover work led to the first criminal charges against BCCI, and from Mark Jackowski, the original prosecutor on the case.

“The Justice Department has put up all sorts of roadblocks to having these two guys testify and Kerry feels he is being stonewalled,” said the staff member, who asked that his name not be used.

The staff member said that Kerry believes the department was dragging its feet because it feared that Mazur’s testimony could embarrass the Justice Department. He said that Mazur and Jackowski had been expected to testify at a hearing a few days ago, but it was canceled because the department refused to permit Mazur to appear.

BCCI, which once operated in 73 countries, was shut down by regulators around the world in July after audits uncovered evidence of widespread fraud. Since then, three congressional committees have been examining the handling of the BCCI case by the Justice Department and the Federal Reserve System, which regulates banks.

Critics, led by Kerry, have charged that the Justice Department was too slow in following up on key evidence about widespread criminal activity at the bank. Mazur, who quit Customs in anger over what he believed was the failure of the Justice Department to pursue BCCI evidence, may be a key witness, congressional investigators believe.

Top Justice officials have denied dropping the ball on BCCI and defended their investigation of the bank. They have said that grand juries in Tampa, Washington, Atlanta and Miami are investigating BCCI-related matters. Last month, a Tampa grand jury indicted six former top BCCI officials on new charges of money laundering.

Attempts to reach Justice officials Tuesday night were unsuccessful. But in a letter to Kerry, W. Lee Rawls, an assistant attorney general, contended that allowing Mazur to testify at a public hearing could endanger the former Customs agent, who is completing training now with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Rawls also said that the testimony of both Mazur and Jackowski could “compromise important law enforcement interests.”

After working undercover on the BCCI case for two years, Mazur filed memos detailing dozens of leads that he thought should be followed up by a major interagency task force, according to Senate investigators. He quit Customs last April and moved to the Drug Enforcement Administration, frustrated over the handling of the BCCI case and other problems arising from the investigation.

Kerry’s staff has obtained copies of Mazur’s memos and wanted to question the agent and Jackowski in a public session about what the staff members believe was a lack of follow-up on important evidence. The department even refused to allow Mazur to meet privately with Kerry without a top Justice official present, according to Rawls’ letter.

The conflict is the latest and most public in a series of confrontations between the Massachusetts Democrat and the Justice Department over the department’s handling of the BCCI case.

At several points in Kerry’s inquiry, the senator has expressed frustration with what he has described in interviews as the Justice Department’s refusal to provide information and follow-up on evidence uncovered by Senate investigators.

In a Senate hearing last May, Kerry accused the department of stonewalling his investigation. At the same hearing, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau complained that the Justice Department had impeded his criminal investigation into BCCI and its top-ranking officers.