Senate Told of Noriega-BCCI Cover-Up

A former executive of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International told Senate investigators Thursday that indicted Washington lawyer Robert A. Altman directed a cover-up of former Panama strongman Manuel A. Noriega’s secret $20-million bank account.

Amjad Awan, who was Noriega’s banker in Panama from 1982 to 1988 and is now serving a federal prison term for money laundering, said Altman told him to label Noriega’s bank records “attorney work product” in an apparent effort to prevent them from being subpoenaed by a Senate inquiry.

U.S. courts have ruled that working papers of lawyers are covered by the attorney-client privilege and are therefore protected from subpoenas.

Neither Altman nor his attorneys were available for comment on the allegation. But he and his mentor, 85-year-old Clark M. Clifford, held a news conference Thursday to expand on their denial of federal and state charges that they took bribes from owners of the scandal-scarred BCCI to hide their acquisition of First American Bank here in 1982.

Awan, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations, said Noriega deposited enormous amounts of cash, up to $3 million at a time in $100 bills, into a special numbered account and demanded strict confidentiality. As a result, records of the transactions were kept in London to avoid disclosure.

At times, Awan added, he made payments of $20,000 to Panamanian politicians at Noriega’s request and also paid for travel to Europe and credit card expenses for him.

Also Thursday, subcommittee chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said the panel plans to subpoena testimony from a Senate aide who flew to London at BCCI expense to advise bank officials on how to handle the panel’s wide-ranging investigation.

The aide--whose name was not disclosed--has refused to talk to Senate investigators about the overseas trip.

Kerry said his subcommittee has conducted 13 public hearings on the BCCI investigation and is preparing a final report that will be published in a few months.

At their press conference, Altman and Clifford said they were victims of BCCI’s fraud. They said they were not, as the indictments charge, co-conspirators. They called the accusations “cruel and unjust” in a statement.

Clifford, a pillar of the Washington Establishment who has advised presidents ever since Harry S. Truman occupied the White House, said he would fight the charges at every step of the judicial process.

“I am spending the rest of my life to get my good name restored,” Clifford told reporters.

Kerry said the indictment of Clifford was “a moment of sadness, not jubilation . . . when any person is seen to fall from grace.”