Noriega Sought $10 Million to Pay Attorneys

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega has sought to pay his defense attorneys more than $10 million in funds allegedly stolen from his country’s military and laundered through the Bank of Credit & Commerce International, according to federal court records.

But his effort may not have succeeded because a secret London account that he tried to use was among those frozen by European banking authorities at the request of the U.S. government 23 months ago.

Noriega’s lawyers are not talking about these legal-fee maneuvers, which were disclosed in a civil lawsuit that the government of Panama has filed against BCCI. The suit is aimed at recovering millions of dollars in Panamanian funds that Noriega allegedly stole over a period of years and concealed through BCCI accounts.

New documents placed in the court file of this lawsuit include a letter from Noriega to the London branch of the Middle East Bank, a small institution with links to BCCI, on the stationery of Frank A. Rubino, his chief criminal defense attorney. The letter, dated July 15, asks the bank to transfer $4.3 million from the account of Finley International Ltd. to the Miami law firm of May & Cohen, which is helping Rubino defend Noriega in his current racketeering and drug-smuggling trial.

Noriega made a similar request last year for $6 million for his lawyers from two other Finley accounts controlled by a BCCI executive, according to the court file. It is not clear whether either request was acted on or if all three accounts remained frozen.

The Panamanian government said that it has traced money in the Finley account as originating from the National Guard of Panama, which Noriega renamed the Panama Defense Forces when he took full control in the mid-1980s.

The court file contains also an affidavit from Daniel Gonzalez, former deputy manager of BCCI’s Panama City branch, which states that in January, 1982, “Manuel A. Noriega authorized BCCI to open a series of secret accounts in his name but by letter he clearly informed BCCI that the funds in this account relationship were National Guard funds.”