Clifford in Stable Condition After Heart Bypass Surgery

Former Defense Secretary Clark M. Clifford underwent successful bypass surgery Monday for heart problems that have delayed his court trials in an international bank scandal.

A Washington Hospital Center spokeswoman said surgery to bypass four arteries lasted more than three hours, and she reported immediately after the operation that “he’s doing fine.”

Clifford’s cardiac surgeon, Dr. Jorge Garcia, later said: “It went very smoothly. We did not have any complications. He is in stable, satisfactory condition in our intensive care unit.”

Four arteries leading to the heart muscle were “severely obstructed, and because of that we did the bypass to prevent a heart attack and to relieve his symptoms,” Garcia added.

Clifford, 86, and his partner, Robert Altman, were indicted last year by federal and New York state juries on charges arising from the collapse of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

They have been accused of bribery and other charges of trying to hide from federal regulators BCCI’s alleged control of a Washington bank chain, First American Bankshares Inc., where Clifford was chairman and Altman president.

The two attorneys have denied any wrongdoing and said they were duped by BCCI’s top Pakistani executives. BCCI pleaded guilty in January, 1992, to federal racketeering charges and agreed to forfeit $550 million in U.S. assets.

As months passed, both trials were delayed, and Clifford’s health deteriorated. Clifford decided early this year to undergo bypass surgery. He asked U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green to dismiss the federal charges against him or postpone his federal trial until March, 1994.

Jury selection in Altman’s New York trial began last week, but Clifford’s trial has been postponed indefinitely.

The silver-haired, mellow-voiced Clifford is a legend in Washington, a Democratic adviser to presidents ranging back to Harry S. Truman.